Whoo. Time for another wall of text.
Yay! I did not get ninja'ed this time. :)"Yes." Alexander said. There was no denying this anway. All this attention on him as a male... would've been very charming if not for these particular circumstances...
"And what are you?" Brightshield asked.
"I am a Human."
"And why are you here?"
"I am the sole survivor of a mission sent to contact the warfaring parties before the warfaring parties discover us, and force their choice on us. Our mission, and consequently my mission, is to make contact with either the Loroi Union or with the Umiak Hierarchy, so that we can have a view of both sides about this war, and make our own opinion on which side we shall choose. Since we've been told that the Loroi and the Umiak each have a 'no neutrality doctrine' in force, we wanted to make sure we would be able to select the side we want to fight on. Alas, in the Naam system our ship got shot at, and fatally crippled."
She continued to ask a few questions about his mission, which he answered as truthfully as possible. After those questions, Brightshield took a breath.
"Well, since Mizol Parat Sedel here accorded you ambassadorial status, this station has no command over you, but I am grateful for you answering my questions. Of course I have read the reports provided to me so far, but apparently these reports were incomplete." she concluded with a sideglance at Tempo. "But please understand that you have caused quite a commotion, especially after the working force returned from having brought this shuttle a decontamination unit. We are sorry you have been stranded in this system, without a way forward to complete your mission. Please tell me, was the personal access for the Listel here part of your mission?"
"Eh.." Alex stammered shortly, with a short glance at Beryl. "No. No, our mission was to make contact only, and arrange a meeting of your officials with some of our officials in a 'neutral' system, so that our politicians at home could make an informed decision of whom to pledge alliance without risking total destruction of Humanity."
"And, personally, since you had contact with both sides, even if with The Enemy only through listening in on a conversation, which side would you recommend your leaders to choose?"
"The Loroi Union!" Alexander said with conviction.
"And why?" Brightshield asked.
She turned her head to Tempo and with a glare added: "Yes, you've already reported me what he told you. But while aboard this station, I will confirm some elements for myself."
'Apparently Tempo sent a Sanzai message...' Alexander thought, and replied: "Because you are so similar to us. And because the Umiak remind us of a common nightmare, an instinctive fear, among all Humans. We have animals on our world, which we call insects. Some of them have a 'hive-mind', meaning they do not work for themselves, but only and exclusively for a common goal, at the expense of individuality. When I heard Kikitik-27 talk, the harsh sound made my skin crawl very uncomfortably. His looks, and what I've been told about the Umiak made me directly connect the Umiak to be a nightmare. We Humans value our individuality and individual freedom very much, and I cannot fathom that our society would survive being a 'client state' of the Umiak."
"Then why did you seek forbidden contact with Listel Tozet Eilis here?"
"I did not actively seek this intimate contact. It just happened. We Humans are different than you are. We have a male to female ratio of about 1:1, and intimacy with us usually comes with proximity and familiarity.
Furthermore, I cannot deny that all Loroi I have seen so far are visually among the ideals of how a female Human should look like, if you disregard the blue skin and your lengthy, pointed ears. And Beryl's character of being very inquisitive, her smartness and quick understanding are also considered to be wanted character traits for our partners.
And from what I've been told in the last hour or so, I seem to have a very similar effect on many Loroi females."
"It just happened?" an incredulous Brightshield asked. "Well, I have to take your word for it. Please be advised that you and all Loroi entering this shuttle will be on a closer monitoring from now on, to make sure our laws are observed. While these laws do not necessarily apply to you, they do apply to all Loroi. Does Humanity not have such laws?"
"Well, when being on duty such things are usually considered to be not done, and only in security relevant issues there are rules forbidding intimacy at the working place. But once off-duty, these matters are usually considered to be a private affair between persons involved, as long as they are not disruptive to the environment."
Here the station's Mizol smiled. "Tell me, are you as sole representative of Humanity known to the Loroi technically ever 'off-duty'?"
"Eh.. Technically not. No." Alexander answered. "But in circumstances like these, where there is no disruption of duty, the superiors and courts have recognised that a Human is a Human, and that certain amounts of rest and private matters are a necessity."
"A necessity? Like a health necessity?" Brightshield asked. With a glimmer in her eye.
"Not a physical health necessity. But being constantly on duty without the possibility to be something else that on duty, to be a human with all its flaws and errors and needs, has been proven to cause the human to be prone to errors and misjudgements." Alex tried to deflect.
"I see. This has to do with your need for individuality you previously mentioned?"
"Yes." Alex answered slightly relieved that she made this connection, and not directly questioning his mental health. "Yes. It is part of our brain seeking rewarding situations, which we often do not experience when on duty."
"Ah. You're a civilian, then?"
"No. I am part of the military." a perplexed Alexander replied. "Why?"
"Because our civilians often show these kind of flaws. But in the military, these kind of flaws are not permissible.
Anyway, thanks for answering my questions. Since you did come into contact with some crew of ours, I need our Doranzer to check you thoroughly. Can I count on your cooperation with that?"
"Yes, you can." Alexander said.
"Thank you." She turned her head, and said to Tempo: "I can see he is very cooperative. As he is in your charge, and you are the higher ranking Mizol, I will leave him in your charge. If you need help, please inform me. Also, I fear my report might incite Torrai Mazeit Cerulean to visit him too, once she finds a time where the crushables keep quiet." she finished with a longing side-glance at Alexander.
"Thank you, Mizol Losat Lomileilar. Your Doranzer will be forwarded with any data our Doranzer has collected during her scans when we rescued Captain Jardin, but of course she is free to countercheck the findings." Tempo said. "But without bringing Alexander to the station's infirmary, I fear her examinations will not find anything else than what our ship systems did."
Brightshield's eyes tightened slightly at that, but finally she turned around and left the shuttle, signalling the other Loroi of the station to follow her.
Alexander, Beryl, and Tempo were left behind. Tempo made a small keep quiet signal, and left for the Cockpit, where she once again used her codes. And yes, there it was. Some data stream leaving the shuttle. She backtracked it to one specific camera in the passenger cabin. She used one of the other monitors to check what the camera showed. 'Interesting. You dirty little...' she thought with a smile, as she watched the transparent front of the decontamination shower. A quick check confirmed, that the camera was active since only a short time. Likely shortly before that Mizol entered the shuttle.
She found no other signals, and left the cockpit.
Alexander and Beryl were talking to each other, about what happend. And a deep blue face told Tempo, that Beryl was very sorry for what happened, and all the trouble she caused for Alexander.
Making sure they indeed stood outside the shower cabin's camera, she walked over to them, and held out her hands out. Both accepted the unspoken invitation.
"First things first. Do not take a shower together. There's a camera active. Alexander, I am sorry for your privacy, but if I switch off that camera, I signal them that I've found it, and the next one will be harder to find. Let them have a look at your body, maybe it distracts them from being so far from our males. Also it may incite them to fight their best, to protect you.
Second, this is not solely your fault, Beryl. I incited him to get intimate with you. He was unable to hide his attraction to you, as well as your attraction to him was obvious. And since he trusts you most of all of us, I wanted to test his Lotai more.
"You wanted us to get intimate?" an incredulous Beryl asked.
"Girl, you are young. Curious. Desiring. Yes. You were the obvious choice."
"But I thought you wanted..."
"Hey" Alex interrupted. "I am here."
"So?" both Loroi questioned.
"Among Humans it is unusual to talk about someone in his presence like that." Alex explained.
"But we're not Humans." Tempo reminded him. She continued "Of course I wanted too. First of all because he is attractive. Second of all, he needs to learn that Loroi are not exclusive with another. And in the current situation I wanted it to be someone I can always trust. Talon's loyalities lie with Moonglow and Stillstorm, being her superiors, and Fireblade... Well, she's Fireblade.
But still, I wanted him to make the choice who goes first."
They heard the door open, and saw Fireblade coming in.
"Did I miss anything?" Fireblade asked, after the three had let go off each others hands and turned to Fireblade.
"Not much", Tempo answered. "I assume you've been told what happened here?"
"Hell, all the station knows. It was hard to not know." Fireblade answered. To Alex she said: "If you have time, I'd love to claim my wager winning."
Alex looked a bit stunned.
"Ah ah." Tempo interjected. "The wager's on hold right now. Beryl was too early in her triumph. Stillstorm cut her short and nothing happened. She still wore most of her uniform when I pulled them out."
"You! you! You've been betting on me?" an incredulous Alex asked.
"Sure. We're military on front line duty. It is all we have for ourselves." Tempo replied, and then looked curiously at Beryl, who was standing only half a step from Alexander, but not touching him.
"What?" Beryl asked.
"You're gone." Tempo remarked.
"Indeed. I can see you, but not feel you." Fireblade added.
Tempo looked at Alexander, and asked "Do you feel the need to protect her?"
Alexander looked perplexed, and after thinking about it, he replied: "Yes, and no. Not physically. But still, she's in a difficult situation because I couldn't keep my fingers to myself. Why?"
"Your Lotai has extended to Beryl." commented Fireblade.
Tempo looked at Beryl intently. After a short while she asked: "What about you? Can you sense me or Fireblade? Or hear my sending?"
Beryl looked at them both, and said "I cannot receive any sending, but I feel a vague presence of you. As if you both are very far away." She tried sending something.
"I can sense you sending" Tempo said. "But I cannot understand it."
"I didn't receive anything." Fireblade said.
Tempo touched Alexander's hand. "During that exchange with Stillstorm I already had an instable reception of Beryl. Let me test something."
"Now I can sense Beryl clearly again, but Fireblade is somewhat far away...." she said after a moment.
"The Human Lotai can actually extend to us Loroi, if we're very familiar to them. And apparently intimacy and desire to protect is the catalyst here, as trust was to lower the Lotai."