adultfiction ... Classics Reloaded ... Inspired by Tarzan of the Apes (1912) but not exactly a re-telling.

The last thing the Sigma Research Team (SRT) expected to find on this small, and relatively unknown bio-engineered planet in the Naj system was a humanoid life-form. But there he was, standing in front of Dr. Nazra, in some sort of lizard hide he'd fashioned into something like body armour. His body language did not appear hostile. However, Sigma Team had their pulse cannons aimed and set to fire at the humanoid if he should, at any moment, become violent.

Dr. Nazra, who headed the team, was quietly and cautiously scanning him with her bio-meter. It was attached to one of her six wrists and could be used easily without bringing attention to her. Her four front facing and two peripheral eyes were lighting up with amazement. She hit the group function command so that everyone on the team, and those monitoring the team from the Class II Research Vessel, could read the same data she was.

According to the bio-meter, he was a healthy 30-year-old male from the Yerg system, which was a long way from the Naj system. Also, it appeared that he was missing several essential vaccinations, which would have typically been administered during his adolescence. This implied that he had been stranded on this planet since he was just a boy. The thought was startling.

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Someone on Sigma Team had the good sense to contact Enna, who worked in the Reactor Room of the ship. She was not part of the research team but part of the crew that was hired to bring the SRT to this part of the quadrant. What was significant about Enna was that she was actually from the Yerg system.

The SRT was hoping that the Yergonian male might warm up to the Engine Reaction Specialist (Enna's job title on the ship) and this might allow them to study him more closely. Whatever other discoveries were waiting to be found on the planet, they all paled in comparison with this humanoid. He was the entire team's top priority and they were hoping the engine specialist could help with their new research.

While Enna did not look exactly like the Yergonian male, the two of them shared more similarities than differences. They certainly resembled each other physically more than anyone else on the eclectic research ship, which drew on talent from all over the neighbouring galaxies. No two faces on the ship, whether part of the research team or the ship's crew, looked alike. The whole of Sigma Team were really hoping that Enna would be able to connect with the Yergonian in a way the researchers gathered around him now could not.

Enna, for her part, was a somewhat reluctant participant. She initially turned the request for assistance down. The trouble was, she had a sixth-sense about danger and she felt that meeting the Yergonian, face-to-face, posed some risks she was not willing to volunteer for.

Luckily, The Institute, which had hired her to help keep the research vessel operational, was quick to enlist her services for research purposes. It did so by offering her 4 times the pay she was already receiving just to participate in this new research agenda. It was an offer she could not refuse.

Sigma Team was overjoyed that she would be participating and they quickly instructed her to exchange her uniform for her workout clothes, which consisted of shorts and a tank. The idea was that if the humanoid could recognize himself in her physical form, then he might be curious enough about Enna to be willing to submit to a battery of tests, which Sigma Team was all too eager to administer.

Enna felt uneasy about the whole thing. She'd much rather be back with the reactor and dressed head to toe in her usual gear. However, The Institute was going to pay her well and hopefully Sigma Team would keep her safe!

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As some of the researchers had predicted, the Yergonian male was instantly interested in Enna. He wasted no time at all approaching her. Enna felt terrified of the tall, sinewy stranger, with wild purple hair and intense black eyes. But, she certainly recognized his look. He was most definitely from the Yerg system, which was somewhat reassuring if only because his looks were familiar.

However, the Yergonian also moved exceptionally fast and his movements were more lizard-like than humanoid. Enna wasn't truly sure if he moved like a lizard or if it was the leathery body armour that made him appear strangely lizard-like when he moved. Still, despite being formally trained in multiple forms of self-defense, Enna was finding it hard to anticipate and calculate his movements, which shared more in common with non-sentient life forms than sentient ones. The realization was unnerving.

Quite suddenly the Yergonian was in Enna's personal space and he seized her by her upper arms. He lifted her right off her feet and brought her up to his face. She was short in stature and he was quite tall. So, either he had to bend down or he had to bring her up to his level. Enna felt a bit like a small child being picked up by an adult. It was awkward for her and just as unsettling. She tried not to squirm in his grip.

The Yergonian brought his face close to hers and unexpectedly rubbed his cheek along her own. Enna stiffened uncomfortably and used her eyes to plead with the research team to get her out of this situation. They had talked about her making friends with the guy but no one said anything about invasions of personal space and transgressing cultural no-no's. Her people took skin-to-skin contact (skinship) very seriously – almost religiously. Enna was ready to punch this guy in the face if he got any friendlier with her.

It went from culturally bad to down-right shocking for Enna after that. She wasn't the least bit prepared mentally when the Yergonian proceeded, without any warning, to lick the skin right under her left ear and then he press his nose into her hair while taking a deep drag of air through his nostrils. Enna turned a brilliant purple, as her people did when highly embarrassed, and she quickly jerked her head back while trying desperately to wiggle out of his grasp.

When he seemed non-pulsed by her panic and her desire to be released, she yelled at him.

"Put me down!" she demanded in Talium, the common language for the people of the Yerg system.

She could hear the Doctor hissing something angrily at her through her ear com but Enna didn't care. Touching skin and licking skin was a clear cultural violation that Enna could not tolerate. Such intimacies were only granted to family members and, even then, there was restraint and decency. No one would ever do such things in public before an audience of mixed people! Enna was horrified by such barbaric treatment. How could he be Yergonian and not know?

Enna was ready to have a total melt down, which would involve a lot of kicking and screaming, if he didn't release her. However, seeing the distress in her face, the Yergonian immediately set her down on her feet. He seemed reluctant to let her go entirely though. However, Enna forcefully wrenched her arms from his hands freeing herself.

She wasted no time putting some distance between the two of them. Her three hearts were pounding erratically in her chest and her instincts were telling her to run back to the ship now! However, the good Doctor was trying to talk sense to her through the ear com. So, in the end, all Enna ended up doing was stepping back several more feet until she felt he couldn't make a move for her without her noticing something this time.

Enna pinned him with a scowl as she rubbed his offending touch off her skin with the back of her hand. Then, in no uncertain terms she commanded him in Talium, "Don't ever do that again!"

He looked wounded but he submitted by kneeling down in front of her and turning his right cheek to her. Enna gasped. She knew just what this was. This was how all temple children were taught to submit to their elders. How was it possible a Child of The Temple, the wealthiest and most revered sector of the entire Yerg system, was stranded here on a bio-engineered planet in the middle of deep space?

'Dust, this was messed up,'  Enna thought with a growing sense of alarm. This Templist was likely heir to planets, moons and stars all a hundred times more important and valuable than the bio-engineered planet they were all standing on right now. It wasn't likely he was here by accident. It was most likely a calculated effort by someone very powerful, who was looking to gain the Templist's inheritance.

Enna approached him again, while he was kneeling, and waved the Doctor over. She came cautiously but eagerly. When at Enna's side the good Doctor asked in a harried whisper to Enna's ear, "What in dust is going on here?"

Enna placed her hand on the Templist's shoulder. It is what the Temple elders would have done to tell him he was forgiven but must remain as he was. She left her hand there and turned her face ever so slightly to Dr. Nazra.

"Go ahead with your tests, Doc," Enna told her quietly and calmly. "He wont make a fuss. He'll remain right here as long as I keep my hand on his shoulder."

"H-h-how do you know?" Dr. Nazra asked in an amazed whisper.

"He's a Child of the Temple," Enna told her. "I recognize his behaviour. He also seems to remember some of the common tongue. So, we'll be able to communicate with him little by little, I think." 

Dr. Nazra set straight to work and as Enna promised, the Templist never moved a muscle or made a fuss. The good doctor was so excited she could hardly contain herself and Sigma Team moved in as close as they dared to examine the Templist with eager eyes, monitors, and scanners of every kind.

The Templist ignored all the new activity. He only had eyes for Enna. She saw he'd half-turned his face so that he could get a better look at her with both his right and left eye while he dutifully kept his right cheek to her in a show of submissiveness.

His expression was warm and his skin tone was turning a light lavender colour, which indicated he was experiencing some slightly elevated feelings of pleasure. Enna's three heart's felt pinched momentarily when she realized, belatedly, that he was probably starved for skinship.

While her people, and the Templist, had very strict rules about skinship, the point was not that they did not want to be touched, but rather that skinship was sacred and central to family relations. Enna wondered when was the last time his mother had caressed his face or his father had hugged him close? Had he gone, since adolescence, without the touch of another Templist?

Enna's hearts filled with compassion for him and her skin turned a deep coral colour. She wiped several tears from her eyes before finally giving in to her softer side and wrapping her arms around his neck. She pressed her cheek to his and sighed in his ear. The journey ahead of him was not going to be easy. The least she could do, was bend a few social norms to bring him some much needed skinship before his life changed drastically in the coming days and weeks.

Sigma Team was not going to let him out of their sights once they understood what they had in their hands. The reward for returning him safe and sound to the Temples of the Yerg system would be astronomical! And, the chances of them getting him there alive, just as high.

(1993)