Kiza · Part 1

Kiza · Part 1 (1/2)
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It was almost a year and a half ago that Nickolai and Jofuran first appeared in the pages of The Journal Entries. I must admit that the incredible response and the enthusiasm to that series blew my mind. I'm trying (trying!) to write the second half of the series, a second half worthy of all of you who loved the first stories.

In the meantime, there's a gap there between Travellogue and Reunion, a gap that needs filling. These four short stories, and the articles attached to them proved those answers. And raise not a few questions…

I'll admit to a LOT of trepidation in posting these four stories. In a way they define the future path of The Journal Entries. I have a lot of ideas on what to do with the series at this point, a lot of which have been encapsulated into story notes and fragments. It'll be at least a month before I post anything more after these four.

In the meantime…

Jofuran's Letter 277 / 0916

Walking down the long hallway with her first bagfull of clothing, Jofuran busily scanned the numbers on the doors as she passed them by. It seemed to be something of a rule at universities, she thought, that because the laboratories and classrooms were working on the next century's advancement, the residential and student services had to be rooted in the last century's.

Which, she thought grimly as she located room 315, worked great. The technologists lived in their labs anyway, and the archeology, anthropology and humanities students were supposed to live in the past.

She opened the door and looked inside. Seemed comfortable enough. Large forward living room, kitchen to the left, two-meter square hallway with three doors. "Bedroom, bathroom, bedroom?" she said aloud to the empty room.

"Correct," a voice from overhead said. "How do you do, Miss Shigokai? I am Kerry, your AI and resident nag for the next two years."

"Thank you, Kerry. Resident nag?"

"Indeed," the light, androgynous voice replied. "I am here to torture you; to make sure you eat, sleep, and burn the midnight oil until your eyeballs pop out. I shall be inquisitor, mother and teacher's assistant all in one."

"I already have a mother," Jofuran pointed out.

"Yes, and as in all but a smattering of cases, she is but a few footsteps away. However, you did move here because you wanted to be in the center of University life, as we say."

She crossed the room and said, "Which one is mine?"

"The one on the left."

Opening the door, she appraised her new living quarters. Desk, bed, video table. "Very nice."

"I'm so glad you like it," Kerry replied. "By the way, here comes Kiza now."

"Your roommate."

"Oh!" Jofuran ran out into the living room again just in time to see the door open. A red-furred Mustela Martens face poked around the door, looking in, and with a sing-song voice said "Hel- lo?"

"Hi!" the Marten replied, stepping into the apartment. "Kiza Lessap. And you must be Jofuran Shigokai."

"Uh-huh!" Jofuran replied. She assessed her new roommate's appearance. Short, even shorter than she, wearing only a pair of silken shorts and weighed down by a small duffel bag of bright green nylon. "Pleased to meetcha."

"Me, too." She unslung the duffel and tossed it on the sofa that dominated the small apartment. "I decided to wait until you got here to ask you all sorts of questions. Besides, I don't think Kerry would give me straight answers anyway."

"Most certainly not," Kerry replied. "I am not a gossip."

"Ignore him," Kiza said. "He's really a sweet guy." Jofuran found Kiza's smile completely infectious. She talked with her hands as much as her voice; constantly in motion, Jofuran found her delightful to watch and to hear.

"What kind of questions?" Jofuran asked, looking suspicious.

"The usual sort of new roomie questions." Kiza cocked her head and glanced up at the ceiling. "You know, like, what's your major, do you have a nickname, how long until you go field, are you a chem or wirehead, are you a mill, do you have a lover…" She ticked off the answers on her fingers. "Those kinds of questions."

Jofuran laughed. "Let's see. Literative Xenoarcheology, Furry, Two years, no, no, sometimes, yes."

"What's his name?"

It took Jofuran moment to figure out who Kiza meant. "T. H. Nickolai Dittrich." She smiled as she watched Kiza's eyes widen.

"You have a Terran boyfriend? That is so con!" Kiza bounced into the kitchen. "You want a drink? What's he like?"

"He's sweet. He's about this tall," she held her hand above her head, "brown hair. Goes to school in England, I remember."

"Does he have a friend?"

"Why?"

Kiza returned with a two mugs, one of which she handed to Jofuran. "Here, drink. It's just tea."

Jofuran accepted. "Why are you asking all these questions?"

"I dunno," Kiza shrugged. "I just think having a Terran boyfriend would be super con."

"'Con?'"

"Contrary, Controversial, that kind of con." Kiza bounded into her bedroom. "Come in, come in," she said, her voice reaching out to Jofuran. "I hate holding court in the living room!" After she had entered and taken a seat on the desk chair, Kiza hopped onto her bed and leaned up against the wall. "Where did you get the nickname 'Furry?'"

"I lived on Terra for ten years."

"How old are you?" Kiza asked, surprised.

"Sixteen."

Kiza looked stunned. "Your parents moved you to Terra when you were six? That should count as child abuse!"

"It was okay," Furry replied. "I managed. They had stuff they had to do. I'm living on Pendor now, and I think I'm here to stay."

"Hope so."

Furry looked around. Kiza was inordinately fond of checked patterns; her bed and the drapes over her windows were made of black and red checked squares. The bed had three pillows. Posters of what Furry recognized as famous Pendorian actors lined the walls. The video table had seen better days. "Hey," Kiza said quickly. "Got a picture of him?" Furry kept watching Kiza's hands fly.

"Do you know any somatic languages?"

"No, why?" Kiza asked.

"You keep gesturing with your hands, like you were using them to say something."

"Oh, that. I got that from my mom. Yeah, it's real expressive, and I'm a noisy person anyway, so I don't see any reason to cut it out."

Furry nodded. "I have a picture of him. Kerry, please call Lexander and ask him for my Nickolai Dittrich files. In fact, have copies of them moved into my table, would you?"

"Please?"

"Please," Furry replied, rolling her eyes.

Kiza laughed. "He told you he was a nag. He tells everyone that, and it's true. He is a nag. About everything. Now, about those pictures?"

"Done, Miss Jofuran."

"Thank you." She walked over to Kiza's video table. "May I?"

"Sure, sure!"

Furry punched buttons and called up the flat images she had of him. "That's him."

"Wow, he's cute," Kiza exclaimed. "For a human. Hey, that looks like Shardik Castle."

"It should," Furry replied. "It is."

"How did you get in there?"

"We walked."

"That's really con," Kiza repeated. Furry realized she would be tired of that word rather quickly. Kiza looked up suddenly and said "Hey, Furry, got a serious question for you."

"Another one?"

"Yeah, sort of. I can tell from the way you talk about him that you like him. When you were describing him your eyes got kinda unfocussed." She giggled, somewhat nervously. "Is he on Pendor right now?"

"Not right now," Furry replied. "He's going to be on Terra for another two years, finishing up his schooling."

"So….do you plan on seeing other guys around here while he's gone? And will it be just guys?"

Furry laughed. "That's what you had yourself all worked up over?" Kiza nodded. "Are you making a pass at me?"

"No!" Kiza replied quickly, her hands waving. Too quickly, Jofuran thought. "No, I was just wondering. I…. The Mustela towns down in Outskirt aren't quite as uninhibited as other places, and my last quarter here was a little surprising."

Furry nodded. "It's been a bit of an education for me, too. I've only been on Pendor for about a month now, and I'm trying to learn stuff everybody else knows already." She thought for a second. "Nickolai and I agreed that it would be okay for us to have friends, even sleepaway friends, while we were apart."

"Good!" Kiza replied.

"So, what are your answers to your questions?"

"What were they?"

Kerry answered the question. "What was her major, does she have a nickname, how long until she goes to field, is she a chemical or biocybernetics abuser, does she study, is she currently in an involved relationship…"

"Oh, those," Kiza said. "Let's see. Adaptive Mechanical Engineering is my major. Everybody calls me Kiza. No, I don't do any of that stuff, but my last roommate did. I'm already doing preliminary field work. Yes, I study, but I don't mill." She gave the ceiling a baleful glance. "And I'm currently in a lot of relationships but none of them are really serious."

Furry laughed. "I can understand that feeling."

"Come on," Kiza said. "I'll show you where the SDisk dispensers and the cafeteria are. Believe it or not, the food here is really good.

Furry shoved the door open, tossing her pack, complete with her third PADD of the semester, across the room.

"Paige? Furry?"

"It's me, Kiza. Jofuran."

"Hey, what's wrong?" Kiza asked, walking out of her bedroom.

"My brain hurts, that's what's wrong." Furry crossed into the kitchen, grabbing an analgesic and a bottle of juice. "Have you ever tried to learn Sinox?"

Kiza shook her head. "Never even thought about it."

"Sinox is one of the ugliest languages in the universe. Vocally, it's a repetitious pattern of short-vowel-terminated consonants. 'My name is Tedefeh,' becomes 'Nefeh pecetatih tedefenah.'" She grimaced. "I can't even talk that fast. The other thing is that the burden of language organization is on the listener. My thoughts are allowed to be as disorganized as possible….if the listener can make some sense of what I say, the Sinox believe my thoughts are regimented enough."

Kiza grimaced. "Sounds like it's no fun."

"It isn't," Furry agreed. "I'm just frustrated."

Kiza nodded and crossed the room to find Furry's pack. "Well, you didn't break your PADD throwing it across the room this time." She pulled it out and examined it closely. "I see finding you the explorer's custom package helped."

Furry laughed. "Oh, Kiza. Thank you for that, it's really been helpful. I don't care if it's twice as heavy as a normal PADD, there's something about being able to throw it across the room that I like."

Laughing in reply, Kiza said, "I'm glad you like it." She tossed the PADD onto the couch with equal carelessness. "Can I get you something?"

"You always make me feel guilty when you do that," Furry sighed. "I never do stuff like that for you."

"Sure you do," Kiza replied. "You've actually been a great roommate."

"Are you sure you're not just comparing me to D'Roon?"

"Positive," Kiza answered. "D'Roon wasn't a bad roommate, she just smelled bad when she refused to shower four days running because it would take time away from her VR. I mean, it was scary the way she would eat with her eyes all glazed over."

Furry nodded, stretching tiredly. "Speaking of showers, I think I'll take one, just to relax."

"Okay," Kiza said, bounding around into the kitchen again. "I'll see you when you get out."

Instead of a shower, however, Furry drew a bath, filling the tub with hot water and slowly settling to the bottom. Made to hold anyone up to a Uncia (separate facilities were usually constructed for 'taurs), the bathtub was, for a Markal, extravagant. Furry stretched out in the warm water and scratched at an itch in her fur, grimacing at the oily feeling it had. She hadn't taken care of herself very much recently, she reflected, burdened with the pressures of classes and examinations.

She was just starting to feel relaxed enough to get out and take a nap when the door to the bathroom flew open, the doorknob striking the wall with a loud bang. "That does it!" Kiza announced, startling her yet again.

"Kiza?" Furry asked.

"I'm telling you, Furry, I'm giving up on mels. That really does it." Furry heard the sound of the medicine cabinet being opened.

"Giving up on Leif, you mean?"

"He's such an idiot!" Kiza ranted, taking the name as a cue. "I don't know what I saw in him. I'm sorry for interrupting your bath."

"That's okay," Furry replied. "I was going to get out anyway."

"Well, I'll let you have some privacy." Kiza closed the door behind her.

Alone again, Furry settled back down into the bathtub. What Kiza had seen in Leif, she reflected, was a bedmate and not much else. They had almost lasted a month, a record as far as Kiza was concerned. In the six months they'd been roommates together, Kiza had gone through eight lovers. Leif would make it eight for eight she'd said 'goodbye' to.

Furry, for her part, had managed to avoid any romantic entanglements over the past months. Letters from Nickolai sustained her, and even though she'd had a few offers from classmates, none of them really stimulated her in quite the way thinking of Nickolai did. She worried that her fantasies were getting out of control, and that when Nickolai returned he wouldn't live up to her cojoined memories and phantasms. But she would deal with that when the moment came.

Still, she reflected, having a friend she could sleep with would be nice. If only to remind her of what lovemaking really felt like. She didn't want to fall in love again the way she had with Nick

Kiza · Part 1 (1/2)
Next