I pondered for a while, pencil in mouth, until I decided on the language of my latest journal entry.I pondered for a while, pencil in mouth, until I decided on the language of my latest journal entry. Finally, I wrote: "I have finally learned the sexual differences in the Lati. I learned this because Alli gave birth today, though I had thought her to be male. The Lati are very casual in their garb, and since Alli was one of those with the closest thing to a penis, I had assumed her to be male. That leaves me with an interesting question about their act of procreation. "Lar is coming by today, Lar who I thought to be a male, but is actually Alli's brother. He (I must learn to think of Lar as 'he' not 'she') has promised to help me learn what I wanted to, and now I have a good question." Lar tapped on my door at this time, and I bade him enter. The door opened, and again, I marveled at their human-like appearance. In all the five hundred explored worlds to date, the Lati are the closest to human. Lar looked to be a smooth-skinned human male of youthful appearance. I had learned to tell their years, and Lar was twenty Terran years, though he appeared fifteen, downright boyish. His muscles were also that of a human adolescent, small bulges in his arms, chest and legs. No nipples adorned his chest, and he looked like a blue rendition of a human statue. But Lar was NOT human. I had learned today not to take that resemble to much to heart. "Greetings, Norton." Lar chirped at me. "Greetings, Lar." I responded. We used "greetings" to say hello because it was quite similar to a Lati word that meant about the same thing. "I would like to." Lar grinned, and I sighed as I pondered the exact meaning of "gre tin" in their language. Alien languages have no real connection to human tongues, and for a linguist like myself, it is a long struggle to piece together their language and compare it to our own. My life's work would result in a single book, a Lati-to-Terran dictionary. I gestured to Lar with his grin (which means, thank God, the same thing to Lati as it does to us, humor) to sit down and he did, his groin flap (a solitary rectangle of cloth on his middle that wrapped around to their back) hung wide open, and I frankly stared at his organ. |