Not Quite Jane Goodall

I've owned Barbie for three years, and I've never got that dog to do anything other than sit and lay down. Ninth seems to have a real rapport with her though. It might be because the alien is the same size as the border collie, and thus she sees it as a playmate. Or, that his normal speaking voice is at the same pitch as one of those silent dog whistles.

The planetary citizens use signature whistles to refer to themselves. Rendered in a pitch low enough for me to hear, my friend's name sound like the first few note's of "Ode to Joy". Its apparently an honor to have a name rather than a few bars, so he rather likes it. One of the numerous accommodations we need to make.

Another is the whole gender issue. Technically, its wrong for me to refer to him as male. Ninth is a neuter pre-adolescent pre-male that has not displayed any sexual dimorphism yet. Nor will he for another year or two. However, I'm not about to start counting antennae segments, nor is he going to explain puberty to me. I know its a carapace, not an exoskeleton, however, I lack any sort of biology degree, and the Sphere hasn't worked for years.

Then again, it doesn't really matter. Apparently they eat the same sort of stuff we do, just with a bit more calcium, and a few other rearranged nutrients. All of its really spicy though, like bad TV dinner curry. Rather than having kitchens in each home, they prefer to centralize and eat in a main hall.

Its high enough for me to stand up in there, otherwise, you got to have a good set of knees. Most of their buildings only come up to eye level. Just fine for an 80 cm creature, but not adult humans. Before they helped me build my own place, I had to crawl though the doorway and curl up in the main room. Actually its a comfortable temperature, and very soft carpeting, though crimson and magenta decoration doesn't look right to those of us with only two eyes.

Their domes are in small clusters like soap bubbles, each family having its own domicile, and expanding as it grows. As for me, we built a nice log cabin. Its pretty quick when you have help from those demon power-armors. Its even wired to get electricity from their wind farm, though there's nothing in it that needs the power. They like radios, and cartoons on their televisions, but none of it makes sense to me.

Fortunately, I've still got my dog, and there aren't any reanimates around here. Its old Oregon trail life here, but it could be worse. At night the sky is so clear you can see their orbiting space ships with the naked eye.