Chapter 21

Humans exhibit sexual dimorphism in many characteristics, many of which have no direct link to reproductive ability, however most of these characteristic do have a role in sexual attraction. Most expressions of sexual dimorphism in humans are found in height, weight, and body structure, though there are always examples that do not follow the overall pattern. For example, men tend to be taller than women, but there are many people of both sexes who are in the mid-height range for the species.
- Wikipedia article on Man –

There are many paths but only one way. Unfortunately, false leads and distortions had confused this way. Despite the time-wasting dead ends, the intrepid crew of the X-4001 kept plugging away. They had no other choice. Their Admiral was obsessed with finding Dragon camps and rescuing people from becoming steaks. Was it mercy or hatred that drove her?

"This is a binary system," Karl said. "Star A is a G1.5 V class dwarf with a 0.97 mass and a 1.4 luminosity. Star B is an M V class red dwarf with a 0.29 mass, and 0.13 luminosity. A and B orbit one another at an average of 7.4 AU."

"There is a habitable planet at 1.18 AU from A," George said.

"The bolometric average temperature of that planet is 285 K," Masai said.

"The spectral results indicate that there are both oxygen and water in the planet's atmosphere," Gem-Ado said.

"This is beginning to be a broken record," Marty said. "Almost every system that we investigate has habitable planets."

"That's because we have been given good choices from the alien astronomers that we've encountered," George said. "Believe me when I say that most of the stars in our galaxy have no habitable planets. They're either too large or too luminous to support life or their planets are too large or not at the correct distance. The trick to finding life is to have good data."

"Don't worry, George," Marty said. "They'll never be able to replace you and Karl. It's Angie and I that can be easily replaced."

"We disagree," Uma said. "Without you, we would already be food for the evil aliens."

"Besides," Honey said. "We would have nothing to talk about. You two are the most interesting humans on this ship. Your relationship is much more interesting than any of the people that I've read about in the romantic novels."

Angie and Marty exchanged smiles.

"Take us to the planet around A, Delphi."

"Yes, Angie."

Angie turned to Honey. "Are we the only relationship on this ship?"

"I am unaware of any other relationship. I believe that sex drive inhibitors have been introduced into the food."

Angie turned to Onuki. "Is that true?"

"We have conducted analysis on the food and water and have found interesting chemical agents that could serve that function."

"That sounds like something that Arthur would do to prevent trysts from interfering with the mission," Angie said, frowning. "And, I'll bet that Martin and I are responsible for that."

"I'm not so sure that I would jump to that conclusion," Marty said. "We resolved our problems without jeopardizing the mission."

"I don't think that Arthur believed us," Angie said. "I can easily see him stooping to something as sneaky as this."

"Gee, Angie, I don't think it's working on me," Marty said.

Angie laughed. "They would have to put a major tranquilizer in your food to calm you down."

"You must have a super human sex drive," Honey told Marty.

Everybody laughed.

###

The planet orbiting Star A looked remarkably like Earth, but it had one glaring difference: there was only one large continent, and it floated on a sea that seemed endless.

"There are several cities," George said. "And, they are connected by highways, or at least something that resembles highways."

"Launch atmospheric and oceanic probes, Delphi."

"Yes, Angie."

"Those are fairly large cities," Marty said, studying their images on the main screen. "This species must be well developed socially."

"My guess is that this is another pseudo-human species," Ferris said.

"You're probably right," George said. "I can see the people moving around and they look human."

"Oxygen concentration is 18%," Gem-Ado said. "The troposphere extends up to 12 kilometers. Pressure at the surface is 998 millibars."

"The oceans have a salinity of 10 to 20 grams per liter," Anna said. "The life forms are mostly air breathing, but there are many plant-based species present."

"Launch the Mother, Delphi. Disperse the insect probes at 1000 meters."

"Yes, Angie."

"I wonder why Lia was unable to detect any signals from this planet," Marty said.

"Not all species use electromagnetic devices to convey information," Lia said. "This species is either not advanced technically or they use some other means."

"Or, they don't want to advertise their existence," George said.

Video feeds from the insect probes began to stream in. Various scenes were transferred to the main screen.

"They are pseudo-human," Marty said. "They all look like females. I wonder where the males are."

"They resemble Gem-Ado's people," Ferris said. "Perhaps, they have eliminated the need for males."

"Boy, that's an ugly thought," Marty said.

"Only for you males," Angie said, teasing him with a grin.

"They dress well," Anna said. "I like the nice bolero jackets and the lacy blouses."

"They seem peaceful," Marty said. "But, the fate of the males of this species is disturbing."

"I'll go down this time and I won't take any of you men," Angie said.

"That's a good idea," Marty said. "You never know what's going on until you get down there."

"I'll take Uma, Lia, Ferris, Gem-Ado and Masai."

"Take a couple of Drak females for protection," Marty suggested.

Angie nodded.

###

Angie plunged the Lander into the atmosphere and dived to 2000 meters before leveling off. The landscape was hilly and heavily vegetated. The trees looked like giant ferns, but she was not a botanist, and at this point it didn't matter what they were. She decided to land near a large city because the land had been cleared there.

When she and her crew emerged from the Lander, they waited before moving away from it. The sky was deep blue and cloudless, but the alien sun blazed hot, adding to a humid day with very little breeze. The two Drak females took up flanking position with their assault rifles at ready. Angie and the rest stood in a line in anticipation of making contact.
They didn't have long to wait; a group of aliens approached. They were all females, and judging by the bulges in their blouses or jackets they had breasts as large as Jet-Lee's. The one difference that set them apart from all of the pseudo- human species was their eyes. They had insectivore eyes like Rosie, but they were much smaller. The rest of their facial features were more human-like.

The first issue was language. Since there were no video or audio signals to study, the language problem could be an impediment. Lia hoped that their language would fit well with the other pseudo-human tongues that she had already translated.

Her theory proved correct.

"Who are you? Where did you come from?"

"We are star travelers," Angie said. "We wish to talk to your leader or leaders about a serious problem."

"Our alpha female is not available to outsiders," one of the aliens said.

"Well, you go tell your alpha female that we don't have time to waste here. We are searching for an evil creature that is capturing and eating species like you. If you want our help in defending your people from this invasion, then she had better talk to us."

The aliens looked at each other before one of them said, "We will give your message to her."

When the aliens walked away, Angie shook her head. "Okay, get back in the Lander. I'll give them an hour. If they don't come back, we're out of here."

Twenty minutes later, a group of aliens came back. Angie and her crew got out to meet them.

"The alpha female has invited you to an audience. Follow us."

Angie and her landing party followed the three alien females to the city gate. Inside, they found a thriving community. People were busy processing food and making goods in many shops and houses. What was surprising was the fact that they were employing sophisticated machines and devices. What was even more surprising was that there were no males in evidence. All of the people that could be seen were females, and all of them had ample breasts. Angie thought of Marty and how he would enjoy this planet full of female pulchritude.

Angie and her crew were ushered into a large building that had a pyramid shape. There were no windows in this building in contrast to all of the other buildings they had seen. The alpha female sat on a throne in a large chamber. Around the periphery of this chamber were many doors. Where did they lead?

"My workers say that you are star travelers," the alpha female said. "Where do you come from?"

The alpha female was arrayed in a gown that reflected light as if it were covered with thousands of sequins. She was bare footed, unlike her so-called workers, who wore fashionable shoes that appeared to be made out of black suede.

"We are from a many different star systems," Angie said. "But our origin is unimportant. What we have come here for is to find out if you know anything about an evil creature that has killed and eaten many of our people."

Uma showed her the photo of a Dragon.

"We have not seen this creature," the alpha female said. "But, we have had many of our people disappear."

"That is the fate of all of our people," Angie said. "This creature abducts and eats us. We are trying to locate its home world so that we may stop it from doing this."

"We may be able to help you. We study the heavens and know of other worlds that harbor life."

"We would appreciate it if we could have one of your people to take on our journeys. This individual should know of these other worlds. As you can see, we have other species that have joined us in our quest."

"I will give you one of our observers of the heavens. Her name is Val. Is this satisfactory?"

"Yes. We appreciate your generosity. We will return to you any of your people that we can rescue from these evil creatures."

"We thank you for your efforts," the alpha female said.

"I have a question," Uma said. "Where are your males?"

The alpha female got alarmed. "I am sorry, but we can not allow our males to be exposed to any danger. They are precious to us. We keep them in protection."

Angie held up a hand. "We understand. We are not here to interfere with your society. However, we may be able to help you with your problem."

"Our problem is serious," the alpha female said. "The ratio of females to males is over 10,000 to 1. This has resulted from a disparity in the birth rate."

"Are you familiar with the genetics of sex determination?" Ferris asked.

The alpha female looked around at her workers and obtained no affirmation. "We are not."

"We may be able to determine why your birth rate has this disparity. You will have to allow us to examine one of your males to do this."

"We can not risk a male. We have so few of them."

"We will not harm him," Ferris said. "If we can determine the cause of your birth rate disparity, we may be able to provide you with a solution to your problem. Is this not worth the risk of a single male?"

"How would you solve our problem? The few males that we have cannot service enough females to provide replacements."

"If we could collect a male's sperm, we may be able to not only repair the genetic imbalance, but also provide you with sperm to do In Vitro fertilizations."

"We will discuss your proposal and contact you with our answer."

"We understand," Angie said. "We will await your answer."

###

Angie busied herself by running around the track that circled the recreational area. She was wearing a white tee and shorts and her best running shoes. She circled the track over and over again, trying to better her time on each circuit. While she did this, she kept an eye on Marty, who was busy lifting weights. He was wearing shorts only, and she loved watching how his muscles rippled and flexed when he struggled against the resistance of the exercise machines, how his leg muscles bulged and rippled when he ran on the running machines and how his solid glutei muscles bulged when he did squats. She became so fascinated with his body that she stopped and came over to watch him close up.

Marty stopped when he saw her. "Hi!"

Angie gave him a coy smile. "Hi."

"Did you want something?" Marty asked.

"No. I just like to watch you."

"I would rather watch you," he said, giving her an ornery smile.

"I'm going to take a few laps around the pool. Why don't you come and watch me."

He stood up. "I accept your generous invitation, ma'am."

"Admiral Sarasota, you are wanted on the command deck."

She gave him an apologetic smile. "I'll have to give you a rain check on that."

He gave her a mock frown. "I guess it will have to do."

When Angie arrived on the command deck, Honey turned to her. "We have an optical signal from the planet. Lia is attempting to translate it."

"I have a translation," Lia said. "The message says that the alpha female is accepting your offer for assistance. The female Val and a male are waiting to be transported up to the ship."

"Where are they?"

"At the landing location."

"Ferris, Lia, join me."

Just then, Marty came on the command deck. "What's up?"

"We're going down to the planet to pick up a new crew person and a male. The alpha female has accepted our offer to solve their shortage of males."

"Why don't you offer my services," he said, grinning.

"Smart ass."

Marty took his place at the navigational station, allowing Honey to remain at the command station.

"My people could use this species' problem. We are too fertile."

"This species has more than one problem," Marty said. "They are ruled by one female, who calls all the shots. We call this system a dictatorship on Earth."

"All dictators on Earth were male," Honey said. "The few female leaders had male advisors."

"That's true, but whether male or female, the system is not very just."

Angie wasn't discussing the good or bad points of the aliens. She was concerned with trying to make sure their precious male was safe. He looked skittish and nervous and Val had to console him as he was taken into the Lander and strapped in. He looked like a typical male, but his true condition was hard to ascertain.

The trip up to the ship was uneventful. Tolle, as the male was called, seemed to be resigned to his fate. Val helped get him out of the Lander and through the corridors to the Medical Station where Onuki awaited his arrival. With Val's help, Ferris undressed him. He didn't object to being stripped in front of females, and Val appeared to enjoy the process of undressing a male. If males were as rare as the alpha female indicated, this was obviously a rare treat for a female of this species.

Angie went up to the command deck to check on ship's status. She found Marty in his usual location.

"Everything is okay," he told her. "How's the male?"

"Onuki and Ferris are examining him. They should have a status report soon."

After a silent hour had gone by, Onuki contacted the command deck. "We have discovered why this species has few males. This male has more than one X-chromosome. This would result in a condition in Earth males know as Klinefelter's syndrome, which would reduce testosterone levels, but in this species that does not happen. However, it does cause a preponderance of female births."

"Is there any way that you can fix this condition?" Angie asked.

"We can try collecting his sperm and removing the extra X-chromosomes. We could then try impregnating some of their females and see if it produces normal males."

"You have my permission to try it. If you're successful in changing the sperm, try impregnating Val."

"Yes, ma'am."

Marty's right eyebrow shot up. "You're going to let them make the new crew person pregnant?"

"She's available. If she delivers a male with normal sperm, we've solved their problem."

"We'll probably be gone by then."

"So what? They've probably had this problem for a long time. The solution doesn't have to come instantaneously."

"Yeah, you're right."

###

Marty watched Angie fall down into an easy chair in the common area between their quarters. She appeared exhausted as evidenced by the fact that she got out of her shoes and loosened up her jacket.

"You look tired," Marty said.

"I just got back from taking the male back. We told the alpha female that we may have a solution to their problem, but that it will take time to verify it."

"How'd the alpha female take that news?"

"She thanked us. What else could she do? She's desperate."

"You look like you could use some amusement," Marty said, smiling.

She smiled back at him. "What did you have in mind?"

"How about I round up the guys for a swim and invite you to watch?"

"I can't do that. They'll think I'm a pervert. I wouldn't want men watching me."

"Not even me?"

"Especially you. You're too eager."

"Admiral Sarasota and Commander Sinclair, please report to the command deck."

Angie frowned. "Now what?"

When they reached the command deck, Angie and Marty found a worried crew.

"I have detected Dragon ships coming out of jump," Ninja said. "There are also Drak ships coming out of jump."

"Sound alert, Delphi. Prepare to go out of orbit."

"Yes, Angie."

"You and Ninja should take a fighter and get Andy and Tiana to take a second fighter. We will be going into battle."

"Let's go, Ninja. We have a job to do."

"Yes, Martin."

Marty gathered Ninja, Andy and Tiana in the main hangar. "Okay, we're going to engage Dragon ships in battle with Draks. We don't want to get in the middle, so we'll stay on the fringes and take out all of the Dragon ships we can."

"Will do, Commander," Andy said. "You lead the way."

They exchanged salutes.

Marty and Ninja boarded the X-402 and powered up while the hangar was being decompressed. They were the first to move out into space, and the X-403 followed. The X-4001 was accelerating into battle and it was the job of the fighters to make sure that none of the Dragon ships jumped it.

The situation at the battle was chaotic. Drak ships were engaging individual Dragon ships in a one-on-one basis. Exploding ships and out-of-control ships made navigating through the melee difficult, but that didn't deter Angie. She flew through the mess, firing weapons at maximum.

The two fighters remained on the fringes, attacking Dragon ships that dared to move out of the melee. Marty spotted a Drak ship in trouble. Several Dragon ships were pouring fire into it in an attempt to finish it off. Marty flew his ship into a barrel roll and came up into the back of the Dragon ships while Ninja poured fire into them. Two blew up, a third broke off and the fourth turned on Marty. He did a roll and Ninja poured fire into his engines, igniting an explosion. The Drak ship limped away intact.

Little did Marty know that this was the Drak command ship.