The thought of purpose was one that resonated strongly with Azdrei’in. He still didn’t know if he would have been as trusting as she was if their positions had been reversed, but he did understand why she would be so determined to find a new meaning for her life. Most of her species had been wiped out by the virus that his people had released, and it seemed like she hadn’t encountered many others like herself who were somehow immune to its effects. She had spent many of her days just passing the time with no real aim or goal. He didn’t know what it would have been like to go through something similar, and he was uncertain what it would have done to him mentally if he had.

Lunvalgans were hyper-social beings who centered their purpose around the good of their communities. Their social hierarchy was rigidly defined and hive-like, with the Eilix at the top and every other member of the colony trickling down into different jobs that were needed for their survival. Their individual purposes were handed to them when they were assigned to their lifelong roles. His purpose as a warrior was to both defend his people and to provide for them once they descended on the Earth. And later, whenever the Om’phaers determined his compatibility with a female of his race, he would share the secondary purpose that all Lunvalgans did: procreating to escape extinction. He’d never found himself without a purpose because he was part of a cohesive society, and it was beyond his scope of experience to comprehend what it was like for Artemis to lack such an essential part of her being.

“Even among my people, I’ve always been a fast learner,” he mused, a gratified smile pulling at his lip. “I might have been a… an engineer if I hadn’t tested so well during my physical exam. Because we were going to begin colonizing your planet soon, my leaders decided we needed more warriors than engineers though, so that was where I was placed.” He shrugged noncommittally. Either way, he would have enjoyed his placement. Learning new things was exciting to him, and he had plenty of opportunities to do so as an engineer or a warrior. As the latter, he’d been able to visit the Earth before most of his people, to see it and feel it and explore the terrain as it was before the Lunvalgans came down and made it their own. He’d even had the luck of finding a living, miraculously uninfected human who was teaching him more about her kind than he’d ever hoped to learn. It was a satisfying job.

When Artemis showed him different animals on her screen, Azdrei’in decided definitively that he didn’t see her as a dolphin. If she looked different, then it would have been an accurate comparison, but she was too similar to his own species for that. He glanced between the video of the gorilla and her face, seeing a slightly closer resemblance but still unconvinced. Gorillas and humans bore some obvious likeness to one another, but humans and Lunvalgans were so similar, it was uncanny. The biggest differences between them were their diets, mental capabilities, and the color of their hair, skin and eyes.

“I don’t believe you,” he said, studying her amusedly. “Even if most of your people are violent, I don’t sense that trait in you at all. When I tracked you down, you had a chance to kill me but didn’t take it. Even I think you would have been in the right if you had finished me off. I was there to kill you. It would have been natural for you to protect yourself, but you didn’t. You put my health before your own. That is the furthest thing from violence.” It was also what had intrigued him about her, during the first few moments after he’d woken up in her hideout. She hadn’t behaved like he’d been told humans were supposed to.

Turning around to face the wall, he waited for Artemis to change clothes, honoring his word not to look over his shoulder even though it was tempting to find out how similar she was to a Lunvalgan female underneath the outfits she wore. When she was done, he stood up and turned back around, only to pause as his eyes swept almost involuntarily over the new clothes she’d put on. The bold red of her shirt was eye-catching, and he couldn’t help but notice the way her pants clung to her hips. Distracted by the sight, he nearly missed what she said to him as she walked back out and had to wrack his brain to belatedly translate the words before he cleared his throat. “Space?” he echoed, buying himself a little time as he peeled his gaze away from her to walk back to his bed and sit down. “I’m sure we can if the doctors don’t need you all the time. We have breaks for rest and meals built into our days here. If you are given the same freedoms as the rest of my people, we can take my spaceship for another drive later.”

Currently, that was a big ‘if,’ since he had no idea what the Om’phaers were going to do with her, but he knew he would have liked to get off the mothership again for a little while. He liked watching her light up at the sight of the endless expanse of black and stars that surrounded them. To him, the cosmos had become mundane, but her enthusiasm revitalized some of his interest in it.

Reclining on his bed, Azdrei’in watched quietly as Artemis applied a pigmented substance to her face. He’d never seen anything like it, but when she asked him how she looked, he gathered that she wore it to enhance her appearance. “I am dressed,” he replied, unsure what she meant by ‘dress up.’ Pausing, he considered the first half of her question. While his own people didn’t paint their faces, he could see the appeal of it. The red tint on her lips was pretty, and the black lining she’d applied to her eyes made the green color of her irises look even brighter. “I like it,” he said after a moment, deciding it was a positive change. Even more than he admitted, he thought she looked beautiful. However, she still wasn’t a Lunvalgan, so he kept that to himself.

Not long after, the door to their room slid open, and he glanced at the open passageway, where another warrior was standing with his white eyes fixed on Artemis and one hand resting on his gun at his waistband. “The Om’phaers wish to see the Earthling now,” he said in a gruff tone. “I will take it to them.”

“I will accompany you,” Azdrei’in stood up from his bed. “She does not speak our language, so the Om’phaers will need me to translate their conversation.”

The other warrior nodded, “Very well then. Both of you, come with me.” He waved a hand in a beckoning gesture and stepped back out into the hallway.

Azdrei’in turned to Artemis, switching to English, “Our doctors are ready for you now.”