That Which One Begins - Chapter Five On the planet Tetra The day dawned clear as William rose uneasily from his sleeping spot. "I have got to make myself a bed," he groaned, stretching his stiff back. As he had during the last day, Phil had remained with William through the night. Rousing from sleep nearby, Phil slipped just as uneasily from atop an unfamiliar rock. He missed his own rock very much. "Is there someplace I can clean up, Phil?" "Indeed, sir," confirmed Phil. "There is a spring-fed lagoon just a short distance from here." "Is it okay if I bathe in it or do you folks use it for drinking water?" "It is quite acceptable for bathing, sir. I should explain that all of our drinking water comes to us through what you would call artesian wells within our nests. It is indeed the primary reason we nest underground." "Makes sense to me, Phil," William confirmed with a shrug. "You live where there's shelter and water." "Indeed, sir. Will you be bathing soon, sir?" "The sooner the better, I think, Phil," said William, more than aware of his current odoriferous state. "Then I will leave you to your bath, sir. The Mistress requires my presence this morning." "The Mistress?" William looked a bit confused for a moment before understanding. "Oh, yeah. Lillith. Is she near here, Phil?" "Her habitat is nearby, sir, just over that hill where the path curves to the East." Phil's pointing leg directed William's attention to the right hill, but William could see nothing of Lillith's habitat. He made a subconscious decision to explore that path later in the day. "Okay, Phil, and which way to the lagoon?" Without moving or turning, Phil merely lowered the leg he used to point in one direction while simultaneously raising a leg on his opposite side to point in the other direction--one of the benefits of having eight legs. "The lagoon is just a short distance to the West, sir. Would you like me to guide you to it?" "No, no," William demurred with a shake of his head. "You go see Lillith like you're suppose to. I'm sure I can find a waterhole in the desert. I'm betting the trees give it away." William smiled at his joke. "Quite intuitive, sir. There is indeed a great deal of foliage surrounding the lagoon." Phil didn't see the original humor. William's smile faded. "Then I'll see you later, Phil." "The warmest of good mornings to you, sir." Each being took the same path in opposite directions with different tasks.   At Lillith's habitat, later that morning Lillith sat impatiently on the boulder. The foot of her crossed leg wagged constantly as Phil paced just as impatiently back and forth in front of her. Things were not going well. "Mistress, you really must concentrate on the pronunciation. You certainly wish to be understood, do you not?" Lillith nodded rapidly, her hair bouncing slightly. "Then perhaps we shall try again. Please, proceed." Lillith took a deep breath and spoke slowly. "Ah-loor," she forced out. "No, no, no, Mistress. The correct pronunciation is `hell-oh'." Phil thought a moment. "Perhaps it is simply that your accent confounds this communication." "Kai'd'zü cotra'sci," corrected a slightly confused Lillith, her lilting Velorian language flowing from her like music. "Of course not, Mistress, of course you do not have an accent." Phil was nothing if not diplomatic. He already understood that this task would take a great deal of time even without discussing such points. "Perhaps we should try again." He cleared his throat and said the English word again slowly for her, drawing out the syllables for effect. "Helllllloooooooo." Lillith blinked and drew a breath to respond. "Ahhhhlllllllllooooooooo." "Wonderful, Mistress. Again." "Ahhhhlllllllloooooooooo." Her bright blue eyes became wide as she o'd the last part. "Most admirable, Mistress. Now say the same word briefly as `hello'." "Ahllo." "Hello." "Ahllo." "Hell." "Ahll." "Hell." "Ahll." Phil returned to pacing as Lillith watched him trundle back and forth. He finally reached a conclusion. "It will do fine, Mistress. I see no need nor possibility for improvement." "Ahllo." "Yes, Mistress." "Kai'l spra'twe Terran," Lillith announced proudly. "You are speaking one word of Terran English, Mistress. It is not quite valid to say that you now speak Terran. A proper Terran vocabulary has well over one hundred thousand such words that...." "Alloh-alloh-alloh-alloh-alloh!" chimed Lillith, ending her string of hellos with a giggle. "<I LOVE this word! It is so much fun to say!>" Spotting a passing Tetrite, Lillith cheerfully waved and called out, "Ahlloooooo!" The startled Tetrite mistook her greeting as a warning and scampered back in the direction he had come. Lillith shrugged. "<He should learn Terran like me,>" she said with pride. "Indeed, Mistress," agreed Phil, although he rather thought the overly enthusiastic waving of both her hands probably added more to the confusion of the Tetrite than the single word she spoke. "Mistress, are you sure that you wish to greet the Terran in this fashion?" "T'aye," said Lillith resolutely. "<Terrans are so wonderful and this one is...>" Lillith thought for a moment as she scanned the clear, blue sky for the word, "<Pretty.>" "I believe the word you wish to use is `handsome', Mistress," corrected Phil. "T'aye," she crooned with a smile for the sky before she sighed. "<Did you see his eyes? I love his eyes.>" Lillith was beginning to daydream a bit. "Yes, Mistress, and both quite functional." "Hmm," sighed Lillith. "<I wish he would talk to me more. I just love the sound of his voice.>" Lillith smiled coyly at Phil as if she were about to tell a great secret. "<When he speaks Terran, my arms get all bumpy.>" Lillith giggled behind her hand. "Most interesting, Mistress. How do you propose to allow the Terran to speak to you while you hide from him?" "<I am not hiding,>" replied Lillith indignantly. "<I'm only... Um... I'm....>" "Discreetly observing an alien visitor in your role as Planetary Protector to insure that his intentions are not to destroy the planet and its inhabitants?" Lillith readily accepted Phil's offered explanation with a confident nod and a brusque "T'aye". Within seconds both Phil and Lillith broke into laughter before Lillith self-consciously withdrew a bit within her long hair to explain better. "<Well, okay, so maybe I have been hiding a little bit but...>" Lillith's voice trailed off as her gaze fell to the ground. She began to fidget with her fingers before Phil approached her and tenderly touched her arm with his leg. "You like this Terran, do you not, Mistress?" asked Phil soothingly. Without looking up, Lillith merely nodded, a trace of a nervous smile came and went. Phil used his leg to tuck under Lillith's chin, guiding her head up to look at him in the eye. Phil's serious voice captivated the young woman. "Then listen to me, Mistress. Be wise how you feel for him. You are a Velorian Protector, known for your attractiveness to your own and similar species, but I also have information that your species forms deep attachments to your mates and will take a mate for life or not at all. Emotional devotion among your species can be extremely strong, Mistress. He is an older male, much more sophisticated in such things, perhaps. It would be most wise for you not to accept your perceptions of your feelings readily." "<Okay,>" mumbled Lillith without really being sure of what Phil meant. Phil could see her thoughts in her eyes. "I only hope that you are sure of your feelings, Mistress," Phil comforted. "If your love is unrequited, the only recourse is despair." "<Love?>" laughed Lillith, a bit too nervously at the idea. "<I didn't say anything about love.>" "I am aware of that, Mistress," said Phil, his eyes showing his deep concern. "That is why I did." Lillith's smile vanished. Returning her gaze to the ground before her, her right foot wiggled endlessly, driven by the nervous energy of her youth. "Pheel?" she murmured. "Mistress?" "<How will I know if I'm in love with someone?>" Phil sighed. "Mistress," he began, "I do not have sufficient information to provide the answer you require." Phil thought a moment more. "Yet, we know of the love that is felt among family. It generally binds them together regardless of circumstances. Perhaps the love you will know for another being is just such a deep feeling. Perhaps it is nothing more than a recognition that someone has become an important and central part of your life, like your family." "<I don't have a family,>" she muttered. Lillith, a genetically engineered being, lacked the mother and father parental pair of a normal biologically birthed child. "You have your sister, Mistress. Is she not your family?" "T'aye!" chirped a more cheerful Lillith at the thought. "<Kara is my family.>" "Well, Mistress, perhaps the feelings of love you feel for another being should be as deep as those you feel for your family. Different perhaps, but just as deeply. Does that idea offer some guidance to you on the matter?" Lillith's smile showed her approval. "T'aye, Pheel." She patted Phil appreciatively. "<You are saying that I will know love by the quality of my feelings and how sincerely I feel them. Is that love?>" "I believe that is the start of loving, Mistress. Knowing love comes much later." "<Later?>" asked Lillith. "<How much later?>" "After you have loved someone, Mistress, only then will you truly know love." Lillith sat upright and thought about that for a minute. A quick shake of her head dismissed the idea. "Oh, Pheel," she chuckled, "<you're so silly sometimes.>" She kissed him quickly on top of his head. "Perhaps, Mistress." "<Okay,>" announced Lillith, changing the subject. "<Where is the Terran? I wish to greet him properly.>" "He bathes in the lagoon, Mistress. You will find him there." "<Okay,>" said Lillith as she stood. A quick brush of some dust off her breasts and a fluff of her hair was preparation enough. "<Let's go.>" "Now, Mistress, I must warn you again that this word is a standard greeting among Terrans. It must be said clearly and preferably with feeling." "<I can do that,>" confirmed Lillith with a shrug as they walked down the path toward the lagoon. "Wonderful, Mistress," encouraged Phil as he trundled along at her side into the distance. "I do look forward to your first use of the Terran language. I am sure that it will endear you to the Terran." "Oh, Pheel," crowed Lillith at such a silly thought, dismissing it with a brief wave of her hand before checking herself again. "<Do I look alright?>" The lagoon William leaned back to rest his head against the stone bank as he relaxed in the warm water that came just up to his chin. The sun had raised the temperature of the water quite a bit higher at this end of the small lagoon than at the other. It must be, he reasoned, fed by another of those springs that Phil had mentioned. Curious, he thought, that there is so much water in a dusty desert landscape. Comfortable against the stone, he gradually closed his eyes. The waters circulated over his body and his mind drifted away into a daydream. The sunlight filtered to a bright red through his eyelids and felt good upon his face. It was a beautiful day, he thought, a perfect day to drift away for a nice nap in the bath. The bright red light through his eyelids dimmed. Maybe the shadow of a passing cloud, he thought. He patiently waited for the sunshine to return as he continued to drift pleasantly toward sleep. Minutes seemed to pass as the darkness remained. Now barely awake, a mild curiosity cracked open his eyes. "AHLOOOOO!" bellowed something hovering upside-down mere inches from his face. "HOLY, JEEZ!" he exclaimed with shock as he flailed the water wildly to back away from the unexpected monstrosity. His surprised reaction splashed water everywhere causing Lillith to shriek loudly before shooting straight up and away from the bucking wildman. She landed on the bank, her hair collapsed into a tangled, wet mass. Her angry face dripped water from her nose and chin. "DAMN IT, WOMAN! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR?" hollered William, his jarring shock from near sleep leaving him angry. "IS THAT HOW YOU TERRANS RETURN A PROPER GREETING?" shouted Lillith from the bank, just as angrily. She spoke Velorian, but had already asked Phil to Gateway for them. William heard her speak Terran English. "YOU CALL THAT A PROPER GREETING? SNEAKING UP ON A PERSON AND YELLING AT THEM?" "I DID NOT..." Lillith paused and lowered her voice. "I did not yell at you." "Oh, for pete's sake, my ears are still ringing!" Lillith's anger grew from her embarrassment and her voice took on an edge. "Perhaps I have to raise my voice to get a male like you to hear me." "Perhaps," fired back William with equal indignation, "if you let Phil do his thing instead of being so bull headed, we might be able to talk like real people do. We might even become friends!" "I DOUBT IT!" snapped Lillith before she spun on her heels to leave. She was not going to stay here and be insulted by this alien. "I DOUBT IT, TOO, LADY!" shouted William right back at her. Phil had been studiously examining William's pants during the conversation. He seemed particularly intrigued with the mechanical aspects of the zipper. Without a word, the angry Velorian plucked the pants from Phil's grasp and stormed back to the edge of the lagoon. Glaring an icy look at William, she flung the pants contemptuously into the water. As William froze with disbelief at what he had just witnessed, Lillith jutted out her chin indignantly, raised one eyebrow, and flicked her head once in a perfect 'so-there' display. She quickly spun around to walk away and William became livid with her. "NOW THAT WAS NOT NECESSARY! NOW THAT WAS JUST PLAIN MEAN!" Lillith made a sign to Phil to cease acting as a Gateway. She would no longer listen to the shouting Terran as she stormed angrily up the path and away from the seething male in the water. "OH, SURE. GO AHEAD. DON'T LISTEN TO ME. THAT'S RIGHT," bellowed William. "JUST DO YOUR DAMAGE AND RUN AWAY LIKE NOTHING HAPPENED." William stopped yelling when he saw that Lillith had stomped out of vocal range. He resorted to mumbling his curses to no one in particular as Phil looked first to him, retrieving his half-submerged trousers, then to the retreating figure of Lillith, stomping her feet down the path to her habitat. This was not what Phil had expected at all. "My goodness," he sighed. Next Chapter That Which One Begins, Copyright © 2001 by S.T.MAC