They took it slow. They had a lot to learn about each other's bodies and they both wanted to get it right. Sana called up some Goldaskian pornography on a screen, which was educational. They had an extensive language lesson. After that, Nick was quite willing to become a cunning linguist, but Sana wanted to wait.

It also turned out some positions were less popular with her people because of the horns—avoiding injury meant some things were slightly different. Just as Nick had to get past feeling weird about Sana's tongue, she had to get herself to trust that she wasn't about to be gored by Nick's nonexistent horns if he bit her shoulder, jerked his head around quickly, or slid his face upward along her body, potentially threatening moves if the roles were reversed. Sana assured him she would never do such to him, from habit if nothing else.

Their two species definitely had a lot in common, though, enough that a lot of nonverbal cues and reactions went as expected. They kissed, made out, and felt each other up for a long, pleasant while. It was...surprisingly tender, to Nick. The need to go so slowly made anticipation build, and both of them were breathing heavily, pausing to whisper, laugh, and explain what they wanted, what felt good.

Towards the end of the evening, when she saw how frustrated he was getting, Sana relieved his tension, and he returned the favor a few times over, which took long enough that they then discussed recovery times for human men and Goldaskian women. Sana was pleased by what she learned, and then they pleased each other some more.

Finally, both of them had gone as far as they wanted to for their first time. As they cleaned up, Sana grabbed a little device Nick didn't recognize and used it for a moment. "What's that for?"

"Sample collection," she told him with a grin. "Of course, I will need more samples for my work."

"For your work," Nick agreed, smirking.

"Yes." They finished dressing. "Now go," she urged, pushing him toward the door. "I do not want to sleep with you tonight."

Nick allowed himself to be pushed. He found that he liked Sana's extremely straightforward approach to sex. He really didn't need to guess at how she was feeling or what she expected—she flat out told him. That was...refreshing.

Nick whistled softly to himself as he returned to his own cabin, and went to bed with a smile. Man, I needed that.

* *

The next morning, Nick woke up with his mouth giving him a lot of pain. One look in the mirror made him grimace at the redness and swelling, and his gut clenched in worry. No need to panic, their medicine is way advanced compared to Earth's, he told himself firmly, and messaged Sana in Sickbay..

"Come," she told him bluntly, and disconnected.

Hm.

As soon as he walked in, she pointed at the examination table. "Sit." He climbed on and faced her. She stared at his mouth a moment. "Open." He did, and she squinted, then pressed something against his lip, swapped for another implement and pressed it against a tender spot. Nick hissed in pain.

"Stop," she told him.

Well, she's pissed. I wonder if she's in pain, too? Should I ask? Nick watched as she put the samples in some device and started stabbing at controls. ...Maybe I better give her a minute.

Something beeped, and she frowned at what she was reading. Another tap. Another beep. And again. Sana's posture grew less rigid as she seemed to get more involved in the puzzle before her. Nick waited quietly.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

She was wearing her regular uniform again, but Nick remembered how she looked underneath it, and how she felt. The thoughts didn't fully manage to distract him, but they helped a bit. He had really enjoyed their evening together, and knew that she had too.

Sana tugged on one horn and glared at the display, then let go. She stared at nothing for a minute, then straightened. She started typing, slowly at first, then faster and faster. She tapped one last control, and stared at the display, waiting. Her expression flickered into a smile briefly, then turned to a frown. She stared. Then, she punched her palm, and nodded. "Good."

Hey, she's only saying one word answers no matter how she feels. Nick thought through her reactions in a different light. Oh.

"Are you in pain too?"

Sana gave him a side-eye, then sighed and started typing rapidly. A text message flashed on his display.

< Yes. Sorry I am not speaking. My tongue is in very big pain. I understand the sickness now. >

Nick was about to ask, but she resumed typing at once.

< I thought this was a Goldaskian sickness, but it is an Earth one. Do you know it? >

Nick was horrified. "Um, humans have several sex sicknesses, but I honestly didn't think I had any, I swear. This seems worse than the ones I know about, though." It had been a long time since sex ed classes, and Nick had always been careful in his sex life, so he really didn't know what to expect.

Sana nodded and switched to another device, worked the controls a minute, then pulled out a tube of blue liquid. She tilted her head back, unstoppered the tube, and drank the contents slowly, moving her head back and forth. After a minute of this, she sighed in relief.

"Thassss better."

Sana wasn't speaking English, and Petra didn't translate it that way, but the doctor was clearly making a lot more "ssss" sounds than normal in her Goldaskian speech, and that's where Nick's brain took it.

"Ssssorry. That really hurtssss. I did not want to take a painkiller before I knew what it wasss."

"Can you fix it?"

"It will take me ssssome time. Fix now is eassssy, fix alwaysss isss harder."

"Okay." Nick fidgeted. "I'm sorry I hurt you."

Sana looked at him. "You did not know you have thisss ssssicknesss, you sssaid."

"Um..." Nick tried again. "I am sad that I hurt you, I mean."

The doctor shook her head. "You did not hurt me. Ssstupid sssicknesss hurt me. And you. How issss your pain?"

"It hurts, but I can talk. Not looking forward to eating, though."

"Do not eat. I will try to have the alwaysss fix by lunchtime."

True to her word, it was only a couple of hours later that Sana gave a little cry of triumph.

"This will do it," she declared, her voice sounding normal again. She glared at an image. "Beep beep little beep," she growled. She looked at him and gave him a smile tinged with sympathy. "The fix maybe will make you sick for a day or two. It has to clean out your beep."

"My what?" Nick asked warily.

Sana drummed her fingers on her leg a moment. "Cells that touch brain and body."

"Nerve cells."

"Yes. Stupid sickness hides inside your nerve cells. Maybe do nothing for years, then turn on when the right...um...right things happen."

"Under the right conditions."

"Under the right conditions," Sana said, teaching Petra the Goldaskian version. "The fix will clean all sicknesses from your nerve cells."

Nick sighed in relief, then a thought struck him. "Can you make this medicine in bulk?" Petra beeped. "Can you make a lot? My people will very much want this."

"Petra knows the pattern now. You can make a printer to print it."

"Fantastic! Thank you very much, Sana!"

Sana smiled at him. "You can thank me very much three nights from now. You can thank me very, very much if you want."

Nick smiled back. "I do and I will."

"You will stay here, though," she warned him. "For two days. Fix is made for Goldaskians. I want to watch the fix work on you. Nerve cells are...difficult. I like your brain. I do not want to break it."

Nick was alarmed. "It might hurt my brain?"

"It might try. If it try, I will stop it. That is why you stay." Sana grinned. "It is definitely not so I can look at your body like art."

Nick raised an eyebrow. "No?"

"No. Well...maybe it is both."

"I can live with that."

Nick went back to his cabin for a few things before moving into Sickbay and getting the injection or whatever for the cure. He had to wonder in amazement at his situation.

Talk about falling in shit and coming up smelling like roses! I get sick for a couple of days and cure one or more diseases for the whole human race? I'll take that deal!

Man, even with car crashes, invasions and getting stabbed, I lead a charmed life these days.

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