Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience. Learning Dizyntk (scfi, no sex) Michael slowly regained consciousness. His cockpit was a mess. There were broken displays and pieces of his control panel scattered all over. His head was killing him and he couldn't see out of his left eye. This last worried him quite a bit, until he removed his helmet and realized that his head had been bleeding. The blood had simply gotten into his eye. A quick squirt from his water bottle helped clear things. His head had stopped bleeding on its own already. "Well thank god for small favors", he thought. Then he slowly checked his limbs to make sure that they all functioned. "Ohhh I hurt everywhere" he softly groaned. Both legs were ok as was his right arm. The left arm was a different story. The arm wouldn't respond and he quickly realized he had dislocated his shoulder in the crash. "Well if that's the worst injury I have after all that then I'll count myself lucky" he said to himself. He broke out the med kit and gave himself a strong painkiller before forcefully popping his shoulder back in place. Even through the medication the pain was considerable, he shrieked and almost blacked out again. He quickly, but painfully, set himself about breaking out the ships considerable survival supplies. Considerable because, even if a ship safely crashed on a planet's surface, rescue might be quite some time in coming. If it ever came at all. After Michael had everything he thought he might need set outside the ship, he stopped to look around at his surroundings. He was in foothills not far from some impressive looking mountains. They were probably about 5000 meters in height. He judged that they were about 20km off. "Well if there are mountains nearby then there ought to be water" he thought. About that moment he heard a high pitched sound from high above. Michael looked up and saw a ship plummeting down through the sky trailing fire and smoke. He immediately recognized it as the Dizyntk ship he had seen right before he jumped. "How the hell did they end up here?" he said. He watched as it fell rapidly and slammed into the ground about six kilometers away. Even from that distance the fireball was impressive. He instinctively grabbed his ships primary medical kit, slung it over his shoulder, and took off for the crash sight. He knew that they were Dizyntk. He also knew that enmity sometimes had to give way to compassion. When crashed on a remote and uninhabited planet, you had to pull together. Even if that meant helping a normally enemy race. Michael just hoped that the Dizyntk thought the same way. After two hours Michael finally reached where the Dizyntk ship had crashed and immediately realized there were probably no survivors. The wreckage of the ship was scattered over almost two kilometers in front of him. The wreckage was still burning and the smoke was acrid and sharp in his nostrils. Michael quickly started calling out and searching through the wreckage nearest him. For almost an hour he searched through the remains of the destroyed vessel. He was finding only bits and pieces of smoldering bodies. The smell of burnt flesh was distinctive. He was, however, finding some equipment that seemed as if it might be salvageable. The best being what appeared to be some sort of medical gear. As he continued his futile search for survivors he was gathering this equipment and putting it just past the edge of the crash site. As he was searching through the carnage of twisted and smoldering metal, he heard a soft beeping coming from deeper within a pile of wreckage. He was able to pull away some debris and found what looked like an escape pod that had survived relatively intact. Michael's hopes began to rise. He pushed the blinking blue button on the pod's side and it slid slowly open. Inside was what Michael assumed was a Dizyntk. It was crumpled in a heap on the floor of the pod. His heart began to sink as he realized that it had not survived. However, just as Michael began to turn and leave, he heard a soft moan from the crumpled mass of fur. He immediately spun and knelt to check the alien in the pod. It raised its head a little and stretched it's hand slowly, painfully, towards him. Michael had found a survivor. How long it would survive was another question. Suddenly Michael became obsessed with trying to save the alien. He didn't know if he could, but the idea of being alone for who knew how long was a very distressing thought. He quickly administered a dose of the strongest pain med he had. Then, as gently as he could, he lifted the small alien from the pod. It was too small, Michael thought. Dizyntk were a smaller race than humans, but they should be bigger than this according to his field briefings. As he carried the Dizyntk to the edge of the wreckage field he could feel it's broken bones scraping together. He could not even imagine the extent of the internal damage. Finally he got far enough outside of the wreckage for the smoke to be cleared. Michael lay the small alien down and that was when it dawned upon him that it was a child. That was why it was so small. Just then, the young Dizyntk coughed violently. Blood was frothing at the edges of it's mouth. It opened its eyes slightly and there was even blood trickling from the edges of it's eyelids. Michael's determination to save the alien was now redoubled and he quickly began breaking out the trauma gear from his med kit. Michael knew that the blood vessel sealing device he had would not be able to repair any damage more than a couple of inches below the skin. He also knew that that meant he would have to cut open the child. He administered a full dose of anesthetic, praying that the drugs he was administering didn't kill the Dizyntk before it's injuries did. He set up his small class one autodoc to monitor the child. Then he shakily used the laser scalpel to cut open the Dizyntk to get at it's internal bleeding. For the next three hours, Michael worked feverishly, trying to save the young alien. He had brought several pints of stabilized blood plasma, and the med kit had blood volume increasing drugs. He didn't even know if they would work on a Dizyntk, but he used them both liberally to try to keep the Dizyntk from bleeding out as he desperately tried to repair the ruptured vessels and damaged internal organs. He was, in fact, doing things he had only the barest of training to try and attempt. The highest level of medical training he had was equivalent to a paramedic. But what choice did he have. Finally, the autodoc reported that the child's blood pressure seemed to be stabilizing. Seemed to be, because the autodoc was guessing as much as Michael was. It had been designed to treat and diagnose humans. He knew he had not repaired all of the damage. But maybe he had done enough to help give the child a chance. He closed up the external incisions and set the bone knitter to work. He knew that this would take a while as well. He gave the child another dose of anesthetic and then noticed that it would be getting dark in a couple of hours. The Dizyntk was a mess. It was completely covered in it's own blood. Luckily, Michael had noticed a small stream nearby. He went to gather some water. While doing this he noticed for the first time that he himself was covered in the child's blood. He stripped off his blood soaked shirt and washed his arms and face as best he could then returned to clean off the little alien. As he slowly, gently, washed the blood off of it's small body he finally noticed something that he had not really had time to look at before. The young Dizyntk was female. It took Michael until just after dark to finally get all the blood washed off. He then activated the self erecting tent and spread out the bedroll. Then he carefully put the Dizyntk inside. He stripped off the rest of his ruined clothing and climbed in with the young girl. He was exhausted. He only hoped that his own body warmth would help keep the girl from going into shock. He gently held the Dizyntk and fell asleep. The next day Michael collapsed the tent and, using it as a sled, pulled the young Dizyntk back to his ship. He then returned with a repulser cart and gathered as much of the useable equipment as he could. He knew he was taking a risk by leaving the child unattended for this long, but he was going to need this gear if he had any hope of keeping her alive. He got back to his ship about five hours after he had left. He said a silent prayer of thanks when he found that his patient was still alive. He then got busy setting up some of the gear he had recovered. What appeared to be a portacomp turned out to be exactly that. Fortunately the Dizyntk seemed to use a similar enough computer language that his own ship's computer was able to interface with it with little problem. It allowed his computer to translate the Dizyntk language, Dizyntilin. The computer's AI, Athena, then was able to identify the largest piece of dizyntk equipment that Michael had brought back as a type of autodoc. Michael placed it next to the Dizyntk and, crossing his fingers, activated it. It immediately powered up and began scanning the girl and then started performing various procedures and administering drugs. The machine's output screen requested that IV fluids and nutrients be applied. Michael did this and sat down and watched the autodoc work. For the next two weeks, Michael proceeded to set up a shelter for a prolonged stay on the planet. He also determined which plants in his survival kit's supply of seeds would grow in the climate of the area he was in and prepared a garden. He then gathered samples of the local flora and fauna so that Athena could determine which were safe to eat. There was no telling how long he would be here, and he only had rations for about four months. Less than that really. If the young Dizyntk survived she would need food as well. For the time being, however, she was having to make do with a nutrient enhanced IV glucose solution. There was little else Michael could do for her now. The Dizyntk autodoc seemed to be handling things as well as he could. The machine's readout, translated initially by Athena, said that the girl's injuries were still significant at first. "Oh, really. Tell me something I don't know." Michael had said out loud to the machine when it had told him this. By the end of five weeks things had changed. Michael had been trying to learn Dizyntilin and was doing well enough. Luckily he had always had a good knack for languages. He had learned enough that he could read most of the autodoc's readout reports without having to ask Athena for a translation. By this time the machine was reporting that the girl's injuries were getting better, as well as her chances of survival. When it had first reported on her condition, these chances had been given as about 25 percent. They had now been raised to 70 percent. If nothing else could be said about this young Dizyntk, she was a fighter. She seemed to refuse to give up. At the end of the second month Michael had everything fairly well set up for a prolonged stay on the planet. He had the emergency shelter set up and even enlarged and re-enforced it with sheets of plating from his ship. The garden was starting to bud. He had even killed a couple of local animals and prepared their meat for storage. He had continued to learn Dizyntilin, and was now fairly proficient with it. At least he was when using it with Athena. He would get his chance to use it for real however. One late afternoon, ten weeks after the crash, he was walking by the ship, carrying preparations for dinner. As he passed the entrance, he heard what sounded like muffled crying coming from inside the ship. Michael slowly entered, not exactly sure how the girl would react to a human. He saw her sitting up on the small bed and holding her knees, her face buried against her legs. It was obvious that she was trying not to make too much noise. Michael very gently asked her in the best Dizyntilin he could muster, "Are you in physical pain? Do you need medicine?" She looked up quickly but she did not scream or even react to the human standing before her. It was all Michael could do not to stare to blatantly at her. Her eyes were beautiful. He had taken note of her appearance, obviously, during the weeks of taking care of her. The fine red/auburn fur covering parts of her body. The long hair on her head of the same color. The ears on top of her head that very definitely resembled those of terran felines. Her slender furry tail that was about two feet long. But her eyes, he had not seen her eyes as she had been unconscious the whole time. They were stunning, almost mesmerizing. A green that was the color of an emerald with what looked like flecks of silver and long vertical pupils. Not to mention that the eyes of the Dizyntk were about twice the size of a humans. "No" she responded quietly as she put her head back down on her legs. "Thank you for your concern over me, human", she said, her voice cracking, "but, please, leave me to myself for a while." Michael understood, she was probably mourning over lost friends and probably family on the ship. He slowly turned and went back to preparing a meal. Michael slowly stirred the stew he was making while he thought about what he had been told about the Dizyntk. They were monsters the Protectorate said, predatory and bloodthirsty. He had been told of their general physical description, but it had obviously been exaggerated. The descriptions of long canines and terrible claws were often emphasized in his field manuals. He had never personally seen one before all of this, but he could definitely tell they were not monsters. He obviously had no idea of their thought processes or emotions. But the girl seemed to be mourning her friends. "Not so different from us", he thought. As for their appearance, if this young girl was a typical example then they were a lovely race. He shook his head as he thought to himself, "maybe I am just being biased, after all I have always been fond of cats." After two hours she came outside, wrapped in the blanket she had been sleeping under, and walked slowly towards the fire he was cooking over. It was obvious that she was still weak and in some pain from the effort. Yet she still managed to be as graceful as any feline from earth. Michael watched as she walked towards him and smiled lightly. She sat down on her knees and asked "Why did you save my life human?" He looked at her for a second and replied, "because you were hurt, and you are the only other sentient on this planet. It would have been lonely by myself. Besides that you are a child, could I really have left you to die without at least trying to save you?" She stared at him curiously for a moment. "Do you really care for children that much human? Dizyntk do, but I thought humans did not." Michael chuckled a little, "I think that what you have heard about my kind is probably exaggerated a little, just as what I have been told about your people is not completely true either." She cocked her head slightly, "Such as?" He looked a her for a second before purposely looking back at the pot he was tending, "Most humans are told that Dizyntk are monsters. If you are a good example then that is a lie." She thought on that for a moment, about what she had been told about humans. They were cruel towards themselves and others, she had been told. How they were to each other she did not know. It was obvious that they were not cruel to others. This one had obviously spent considerable time saving her life. And he had been concerned over her as a child. Not so different from her own people. "I suppose there is truth that both our people would lie about the other to some degree, that is common between warring groups. But still to save an enemy, why human?" He smiled at her, "First, my name is Michael not Human. What is yours?" She looked at him and, with a proud tone, said, "My name is Feyalisa Fretheri Ariarisha Zerleen!" Michael could not help but laugh at that. Anger flash across the girls face, "WHAT is so amusing about that!?" she demanded. Michael held his hands up and still chuckling, "nothing, nothing. It is just,... that is quite a bit to say every time I talk to you. Do you not have a shortened version I may use?" She looked down, slightly embarrassed at her anger toward the one who had saved her, even if he was a human. She then said quietly, "My friends used to call me Feya." Michael saw the she was crying. The thought of her friends, now dead, caused Feya to tear up. She didn't want to cry in front of the human, to appear weak. As she tried to fight back the tears, Michael had slowly come over to her and softly put his hands on her shoulders. She tensed slightly at the contact, but she still tried to hold back from crying and kept her head down. Michael softly spoke to the trembling girl, "You are not an enemy, you are a young girl who needed help." Although Michael could not know it, the Dizyntk were very social creatures, a lot more than humans actually, and Feya had been having a very hard time mourning by herself. However he gently wrapped his arms around Feya's shaking body, pulled her slowly to him, and carefully hugged her. Then he whispered to her, "And it is alright to cry for your friends." It was just what Feya had needed and she broke down and cried. She wrapped her arms around Michael, squeezed him tightly and bawled. It lasted for over an hour as all the pain and grief that had built up inside Feya came pouring out. Feya had lost her parents and many of her friends when the ship had crashed. She had been in and out of consciousness since shortly before Michael had taken her from the pod. At first all she could feel was the pain. She had not known it was possible to hurt this much. She knew she was dying and hoped it would hurry. Then, she had seen him as he opened the pod. She was not sure what he was at first. The next thing she knew, she was laying on soft grass and looking up at him kneeling over her. That was when her brain finally registered that this must be a human. At first she had been terrified that she was being taken by a human, but the massive injuries she had suffered prevented her from doing anything about it. Then the anesthetic hit and she slipped out of consciousness. The next time she woke a little, she was inside a ship. She could see one of her people's autohealers working on her. She thought at first that she had been saved. The next time, however, she had seen the human in the ship. As she slipped in and out of consciousness over the weeks, she realized that the human was not going to harm her. He was, in fact, going to some lengths to try and save her. But it was also during these moments that she began to remember. Remember the ship plummeting to the planet. Remember her mother pushing her into the escape pod. She remembered looking at what remained of the ship as the human was carrying her from the wreckage. She had realized some time before that no others had survived the crash. In Dizyntk society if one lost friends, your family held you and cried with you. If you lost family, your friends held you and cried with you. So for almost a week before the human had come into the ship to find her crying, Feya had been trying to mourn on her own. But she simply did not know how to do it, how to let all the pain and emotions completely out without the gentle touch and warmth of another. She had gone outside that night with all the courage she could summon to try to understand the alien who had saved her. She had forced the pain deep inside so as not to show it to this alien who, probably, would not understand. But then the simple act of asking for a shortened version of her name had caused it to come boiling to the surface. She was still trying to hold it back when she felt his arms wrap gently around her. She felt the warmth of his body sinking into hers. Then, when she heard him simply say it was alright to cry, Feya was able to let it all completely out. She did not even realize that she was hugging him in return until almost an hour later. Feya's emotions began to settle a little as she noticed that she was holding tightly onto the human. She let her arms relax a little and slowly looked up to apologize to him for her outburst. "No doubt he thinks I am a weak child", she thought with a little embarrassment. What she saw shocked her. Michael had been holding the crying Dizyntk the entire time. He could not help but start to cry for her and with her. His tears had been falling onto the girls head for some time but, of course, she had not noticed. Feya had been told that humans were uncaring and brutal. Now she saw the tears in his eyes that gave lie to this as well. Michael said, "I am sorry for your loss, even more so because my people helped cause it." Feya would never have guessed that this human would grieve with her, would understand how much she hurt inside. It caused her sadness to well up again. Not in a bad way, for this was how her people shared grief. Even if one Dizyntk did not know the person her friend was mourning, she would still hold her and cry with her. It was just how things were done on her home world. Feya nodded and buried her face against him and began crying again. Michael continued to hold her and, after another half hour of sobbing, he could feel her start to go limp in his arms. He knew that she was still weak, that she had not fully recovered from her injuries. Feya had simply cried herself to sleep. Michael carried her back into the ship and laid her on her bed. He then ate some of the stew that was still simmering on the fire. He brought a bowl of the stew and a cup of water and sat it on a small shelf next to Feya's bed. "It might be a good idea to stay with her tonight", he thought. So he sat on the floor, leaned against the wall, and went to sleep. Feya awoke in the darkness wondering how long she had been asleep this time. The first thing she noticed was the smell of food. It smelled wonderful and she started salivating immediately. She took the covered bowl from the shelf next to the bed. It was cool by this time but that mattered little. She had not eaten solid food in two months and she was starving. She drank it slowly at first but then, as she decided that she did indeed like the flavor, she ate it quickly. She then noticed the smell of water from a container on the shelf. As she reached for the cup of water she noticed that the human, no his name was Michael wasn't it, was sleeping against the wall across from her. She slowly drank the water and looked at the sleeping alien. She decided that she needed to know more about him. She slowly got out of bed and went over to him and began to closely study him, He was taller than she was. No surprise really as humans were larger creatures than dizyntk, and she was not even fully grown quite yet. Smoother than she was used to, although he did have hair on the parts she could see, he did not have the fine layer of fur that covered about half of her own body. Five fingers instead of her four. The eyes that seemed too small to her. But for all these differences the similarities between them was remarkable given the fact that they had evolved on different planets under different stars. As she studied him, Feya began to feel sleepy again as the food worked its way into her system. She, like most dizyntk, disliked sleeping by herself. She had touched Michael's arm while looking at him. His body felt warm, so warm and soft. She thought on it for a moment and decided that it would not hurt to sleep next to him. So she took the blanket off the bed, curled up next to Michael, wrapped the blanket around them both and fell asleep feeling his warmth against her small frame. Michael awoke several hours later and could feel that every muscle in his body was stiff. "That's what I get for sleeping on the floor" he thought. He started to stretch when he finally noticed the warm little body snuggled up next to his. He lifted Feya's small body up and put her on the bed and tried to leave. But, even in her sleep she would not release her arms from him. He sighed and gently woke her. She sleepily looked up at him with those beautiful eyes. "I don't mind having you snuggle with me", he said, "but I really need to go, ummmm, well, relieve myself". He was not exactly sure of the Dizyntilin words for toilet or bathroom. Luckily Feya seemed to understand and released her hold on him. Over the next several months Michael and Feya learned about each others cultures as they did the work that had to be done. They strengthened their shelter. They tended the garden that Michael had planted and which was growing well. They even hunted the animals in the area for meat. Michael was happy to find out that the dizyntk enjoyed meat as much as most humans. Not only that, but Feya was an excellent hunter. No surprise considering the fact that dizyntk were descended from a predatory species on their planet. Although it was not until about four months after she had awakened that she had finally been able to catch something. Her early efforts were frustrating for her. Feya would try and run an animal down, but then her legs would lose strength and she would slow and fall. The first time she managed to stalk and successfully run down an animal she was ecstatic. She had even run to Michael and hugged him. During meals they would talk to each other about their respective cultures and about themselves. He found that Feya was all of 9 Cyankas old. The dizyntk year, cyanka, was about 18 terran months. So that made her a little over thirteen in human terms. He also found out during their conversations why the Protectorate had portrayed them as monsters, and it had nothing to do with their appearance. The Protectorate espoused a very conservative religion as part of its control over humanity. The dizyntk were, however, pretty open as a people about things like sex and family. Sex was treated as a normal and natural thing and dizyntk children were educated about it by their families at a fairly young age. But worst of all, from the view of the Protectorate, was that dizyntk "families" were not what would be considered acceptable in human culture. A dizyntk family was called in their language a "bonded mating group". This group could consist of more than just two members. You could have three or four or more of any combination of genders. Faye's family had had three females and two males all bonded to each other. Michael had asked if she knew which were her biological parents. "Of course" she replied. "we use slightly different terms for ones biological parents and the other adults in a mating group, but really they are all treated as your parents." Also while it was acceptable to call the other adults in the group by their first names, especially when the children got older, you never called your actual parents anything other than mother and father. Feya had never heard her own mother use her grandmothers name. She had still called her mother even though she was grown and had her own child. Add to all this the fact that dizyntk culture was matriarchal and Michael could see why the Protectorate government was trying so hard to keep any information about the dizyntk away from the general populace. He was not a big supporter of the state religion. Oh he paid lip service to it, you really couldn't help but to do that much, but he didn't believe most of it. He could easily leave it behind him for something as pretty as Feya. As the months passed with no signs of anyone coming to save them and no indications of intelligent native life, Feya and Michael became more and more comfortable with each other. By the time six months had passed Feya was regularly sleeping in Michael's bed. He understood why now, what with dizyntk almost never sleeping alone, but it still made him a little uncomfortable at times. He finally made a larger bed so they would have more room. It didn't really matter as Feya would always snuggle right up next to him. His discomfort was not really about space on the bed and he knew it. She was soft and warm next to him in bed. Her fur was fine and silky in texture, and she gave off a faint aroma that was surprisingly similar to nutmeg. He also found her to be quite attractive. But eventually he was able to learn to accept her there, snuggled right up against him. After the end of their first year together even Michael would have to admit that he found it hard to sleep on those rare occasions when Feya was not nestled against him like a little sister with her older brother. It was true that he was aroused by her when she was with him like that. She was young, however, and also the only friend he might ever have if they were stuck here forever. So Michael just kept his feelings to himself and tried to make the best of things. Things were bound to change however........