Discovery by T M Roy

your father. Your male parent.” Kent nodded. “ J’asin-let is father. And j’asi-ken must mean female child—daughter.”
    “Yes, is father. But also is Retu —tell words to do. No sci-in-tist like me, like others. Is—” She fell silent, only a small shrug filling in the gap.
    “Where is H’renzek?”
    She pointed up. She turned away from him.
    Too late , thought Kent. Even if she’d turned away sooner, he would have felt how upset she was. Somehow he felt it as if she came right out and announced her thoughts. He wished human women were like that, instead of merely expecting a guy to guess most of the time.
    He moved closer. “I thought that you were left behind. The others…they left, right?”
    ~~
    Povre nodded without turning. She wanted to, wanted to fling her arms around him and burrow close for comfort. She was determined not to let him see her dry, burning eyes, how lonely and scared she really was. At the same time, she realized how silly that was, because she was an empath, he was standing right next to her, and it was very obvious he was receptive to the emotions she broadcasted. One of these days, she would try to study with a Folonar how to control that.
    That was, if she survived this and ever had the chance.
    “Why did they leave you here?” he demanded.
    “No listen to words to do H’renzek tell.”
    “Words to do,” he repeated. “Words told to do.” The crease between his brows deepened as he pondered.
    Povre considered another way she could phrase her words to help him understand, but just then his breath and voice came out with a rush. “Words to do— orders . You disobeyed orders.” Anger blossomed in his tone. “Your own father left you behind. Simply because you disobeyed orders. He deactivated your equipment so you can’t even call for help?”
    His words came hard and fast, too fast. She translated the emotion in his body and voice well enough.
    “Doesn’t he understand what could happen to you?”
    Wishing she had more words, Povre turned to the big human. “No bad of H’renzek,” she said, defending his actions. He couldn’t endanger the entire team, maybe the entire ship, just for her. Nor would she expect him to. All the same, the reality of her situation pressed down on her as if the gravity had suddenly increased, forcing her fear to the surface. She tried to stop more gulping sobs rising in her throat. “Is orders.”
    She stumbled to her feet and moved away. Her upset of being lost on an alien world, combined with her growing fondness for this human male, confused her feelings and muddled her thoughts. K’nt wasn’t like what H’renzek had warned her the native beings of this planet were like. He had a temper, certainly. And he seemed to embarrass easily. But he liked her. And she liked him. She sensed something deeper from him, something more emotional, more animal in nature. She swallowed hard. Could it be desire? What of her feelings toward him, was it possible that she desired him too? What if he were to do something about that? A small hum of pleasure pulsated through her system along with some frustration. Couldn’t he tell she favored him, too?
    A Sirgel and a human. Could it be done? The only way to find out if they could was to try…
    What am I thinking of? It might be possible but it’s not right!
    She covered her mouth with both hands to stifle her sounds and retreated behind the shelter of a large tree. Not a juniper tree, but what K’nt called a ponderosa pine.
    She leaned against the thick reddish bark and reveled in the hard feel against her spine. This planet was so beautiful. Her world was all but lifeless. The close passage of a huge comet had altered the orbit, and as plant life and lower animal forms died on the surface, her people were forced to a quick evolution in the effort to survive. Had the Sirgels not been contacted and aided by others from other systems, her species would’ve been extinct four hundred years earlier, when