The next morning Jason was up and out of bed, before dawn, with the help of Sú. If it wasn’t for her there was no way that he could ever perform such a miracle. She had been kind and gentle at first, but when that didn’t work she showed that her husband wasn’t the only one in the family with inhuman strength when she pulled him out of bed and set him upon his feet without any signs of effort on her face. And for the finishing touches she slapped his behind on her way out with his clothing ARMS, dressing him and shocking him awake in one fell swoop.

Jason grabbed his things and fixed his ARMS before going down the stairs with sleep still in his eyes. He had been expecting a breakfast before he left, but found nothing being prepared. Sú saw him come down the stairs and went to the back of the kitchen. When she returned, she had a small leather bag and threw it Jason. “A bit t’eat fer lunch, fer ye. Won’t be startin’ breakfast for another bit. Best be gettin’ off fer ye late,” she told him. He yawned his agreement plodding out the door and off towards the gate the Insectoid had told him to be at the previous day.

The streets of the town had few people on them this early in the day. There were a number of aliens that could be seen going off to their jobs that started early in the morning. The disturbing thing was that there were still many naked humans wandering the streets or unconscious huddled in dark corners. It seemed like they hadn’t found work or housing nor did they figure out how to operate the terminal in the barracks or they had and made some costly mistake. A number of them were haggard looking, but a good amount of them were also were well groomed. They were past the stage of shock induced catatonia, but a look in their eyes and their body language told you that they were lost. Some were in a daze, but others had regressed to a child’s mentality. Still others were neither, but they couldn’t bring themselves to do anything but shiver in horror on the sides of the road. Jason could do nothing for them. He could only ignore them and keep moving. Keep surviving. To get this out of his mind as quickly as possible he quickened his pace towards the gates.

The gates were surrounded by several insectoids, 2 or 3 gorilla like aliens, and a few sil`phane. As Jason approached, one of the insectoids broke off from the others and came over to him. He thought it might be the same one as yesterday, but was uncertain given how similar the others looked to it. Though, unlike yesterday, the insectoid and its compatriots wore a belt around its waste with 2 axe-like weapons hanging on its hips and some sort of sophisticated looking metal boots and gauntlets.

“Good. You have come on time. Do you have an axe?” it asked.

“I didn’t know I had to,” Jason said, still unsettled by everything about the insectoid.

“I will lend you one of mine. We will see if you are fit to cut trees.” it stated, before reaching to its side to pull out one of the axes. It hand it to Jason, turned and walked off, back towards the gates. Its hand raised up and made an ‘onward’ gesture.

The aliens all acknowledged the motion, grabbed their things, and moved out. Jason didn’t have a place to hold the axe, so he just hung onto it as he began following after the group. He caught up with the insectoid that had borrowed him the axe and continued on past him to attempt to join the group.

“Pupa, you will work with my sisters. We will test your tree cutting ability. If you are lacking you will work with sil`phanes.” the insectoid told Jason.

Jason didn’t think that the insectoids were female from the way they looked, but then again, how would he know what a male and female alien would look like. For all he knew the innkeeper and wife could be reverse of the sexes he thought they were. He judged from appearance and the labels they had used, labels that were translated for him. Those labels could just as easily apply to social positions as they could sex, or any number of other things. The insectoids all looked male to him, but the use of the word sister implied that they were female. If they were, then was the one talking to him female also? He couldn’t say and he wasn’t sure that he wanted an alien biology lesson. Not now. Probably, not ever.

“Pupa, did you hear me?” it asked.

“Yes,” he called back over his shoulder. “What-What do I call you?” he asked.

All the aliens looked at him strangely while the insectoid who seemed to be leading thme cocked its head, “You have not been informed of T’kata culture?”

“I wasn’t told much of anything about this world or the situation…” Jason retorted.

It patted him on the back, “Then you have done a good job surviving thus far. We,” it motioned towards the other insectoids, “... are T’kata. We do not have personal names like many others. You may call us as you please and we will learn what you call us.”

“That’d be rude where I come from. Don’t the other have a name for you at least? I could use that,” he suggested.

“The appellation they use for me Konma, although I do not know what it means in their language or yours. Will this be suitable?”

“Sure, Mrs. K. i can go with that.”

Konma and the other t’kata reacted to Jason calling it Mrs. K. They grew tense and spoke rapidly to each other. “Pupa, I am no Queen. why do you call me this?” Konma asked.

“I-I didn’t.” Jason thought for a moment and then realized what must have happened. “I’m sorry. Konma, the translator must have mistaken the title, ‘Misses,’ as, ‘Queen.’ If the T’kata are similar in their social hierarchy to Earth based social insects then it must have taken our word for married woman and translated it into ‘Queen’ which I am guessing is similar in concept to your language,” he explained.

“I understand,” Konma said. The other t’kata after hearing his explanation quieted down and returned to walking normally.

“Would Kay be alright? We humans do like to give nicknames, so I’d eventually call you that anyways. I’m Jason by the way,” Jason asked, not wanting to cause more of an issue.

“That would be fine.”

The party moved quickly into the nearby forest and soon came upon a series of sturdy looking trees. The t’kata took positions around several of the trees and began chopping them. Konma signaled to Jason to watch what they were doing. How they were cutting at the base, the height, and the angle. The sil`phane had disappeared moments after they stopped while the gorilla-like aliens stood watch. It wasn’t long before several trees were half cut through. The t’kata gave signal. That is when the gorilla-like ones started to move. One stood one side while on the opposite side the other crashed into the tree, knocking it down into the waiting arms of the other. This process repeated itself several times for each tree the t’kata cut.

Half the days passed. Jason had only watched what they were doing. Konma called a halt to the work. Everyone stopped what they were doing, put away their gear, and walked away from the current trees they working on over to the stumps that they had fell earlier. They sat and pulled out various types of food. The t’kata pulled out some type of yellowish white semi-gelatinous cubes. He could see that they were sticky to the touch but dry. The gorilla-like aliens meanwhile were eating what looked to be a crepe made of thick leaves and mashed red berries. Jason joined the group pulling out the jerky that Sú gave him and began to eat. It was made of the same meat that he had eaten all of yesterday’s meals, but now dried and tasting off preservative salt.

No one spoke so Jason ate in silence. When they were finished they all went back to work. Konma called Jason over and told him to try what he had watched the other do all day. She then stepped back and motioned for him to proceed. He took out the axe, readied himself to strike the tree, and swung the axe. Before the blade hit the tree, Konma called out to stop him. She then went about adjusting his posture and then motioned for him to try again. He did as he was instructed, but again she stopped him. This time earlier than the last. She again adjusted him and motioned to go again.

Jason readied the axe to attempt another swing. Before he even swung the axe Konma stopped him. Her hands were over him moving his body. This time it wasn’t like before, but many small changes to his stance, down to the millimeter. Before he wasn’t bothered by it. It had been rougher, quicker, and barely enough time to process her touch. This time it felt more sensual. Her touches were long caresses manipulating his body. it was as though she was gaining an intimate knowledge of his body and making it do her bidding. To say the least, Jason’s skin crawled. He had been able to put it out of his mind before, but ultimately, this was a human sized insect touching him. He couldn’t help but picture millions of bugs crawling all over him.

The previous times he’d been told to attempt to chop the tree, but this time, she told him to swing while still holding onto him. He did what he was told, wanting this to end. He could feel as brought the axe up swung it she made minor and major adjustment to his form. She told him again and again he did what he was told. It went on for an eternity in Jason’s mind. In reality, it only took about a half hour. She told him again. He complied and began moving to swing the axe. She let go. He swung. The nightmare was over.

“Perfect,” Konma said. “You will be adequate.” She walked away began working on her own tree.

Jason saw that the tree was at the point that the others called over the gorilla-like aliens so he mimicked the movement that they made. They came over to finish the tree. He backed out of the way. He didn’t move on to another tree though. He felt shaken by what had happened. He felt violated. He felt disturbed. He didn’t know what to do. The touching had felt intimate, but he doubted that she had meant for that to be the case. She was just teaching him how to cut down trees. Nothing more. she would have no idea that touching a human like she had would make them feel anything in particular. The fact that she looked masculine and was a giant insect were his own hang ups, but he couldn’t help but feel violated all the same. What could he do about it? The reality was that he needed this job, she had meant nothing by it, and addressing it might only serve to show his own bigotry.

He decided that she was innocent, but would inform her later to be careful. Other humans may not take what she had done so well. Yes, it was bigoted, but Konma seemed friendly and well intentioned and he did not wish for her to be attacked due to some stupid misunderstanding. He made the decision and put it behind him. By the time he had gone through all of these thoughts the others were well ahead of where they were when he fell that single tree. He caught up to them and began work in earnest, learning that there was a rhythm to the strikes and to the felling of the trees. When he matched them the work suddenly started to become faster. This went on for the rest of the day.

At dusk Konma called a halt to the cutting, each cutter felling the tree that they were working on. Without a word the sil`phane returned with a number of strange dead animals. When all were done and the group together they put away their tools and traveled back to the town. The gorilla-like aliens dragged behind them the logs that they had cut that day. It didn’t take long to get back, even with the burden of logs.

Konma took back her axe and told him that he could borrow it again until he could get his own in the following days. She then motioned him to a terminal and showed him that she was transferring the credits for the day to him. She was pleased with his work for someone that had never done the job before and looked forward to him improving in the future. She also told him that they would be working every day moving forward. If there were days that they would not be working he’d be informed. If he wanted to take time off, he could, but he would not be paid for those days. When they sold the wood, usually within a week, he would be given his share of the money. After relaying this information they said their farewells and left. Jason returned to the inn, ate a late dinner and went to bed exhausted from the day’s work. Tomorrow would be twice as hard and he needed his sleep.