Qarka Girls

Qarka Girls

by

Paul David Robinson

(80,971 words)

Cover Design by Katrina Joyner

Copyright 1962, 2015

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Prologue:

Arri Tolin, Qarka Girl

Arri Tolin was a ten-year-old Qarka girl. She had the gold hair and the beautiful ivory ears with the rounded ear-tips at the top of her ears like all of her humanoid species.

The tip of a Qarka ear wasn’t floppy like an earlobe. It had cartilage in it. It looked like the end of a pinky finger without a fingernail at the top of the ear. It also looked like a smooth nipple on the top of her ear when it should have been on her chest waiting for her breast to enlarge around it. But a Qarka girl’s nipples were pink like the inside of her mouth, not ivory in color, like her ear-tip.

And, like all Qarka, Arri Tolin had the ivory skin that glowed in the sunlight. The Qarka got some of their energy directly from sunlight. They could get by with eating less food that way, but they had to drink more water than a normal human being.

The Qarka could have violet, lavender, or magenta eye colors. Arri had violet eyes like her grandmother.

Arri had a four-year-old sister, Kaya. Kaya had the same gold hair, rounded ear-tips, and ivory skin that glowed in the sunlight. Only Kaya had magenta eyes like her father. Their mother had lavender eyes.

Kaya was sleeping in Arri’s bed again. Kaya was cuddled with her head against Arri’s shoulder. Arri Tolin yawned and stretched in bed. When Arri did that, Kaya’s head fell off of Arri’s shoulder and banged down onto Arri’s chest.

Arri whispered into Kaya’s ear, I have to get up and get ready for school, Kaya. Do you want to shower with me or stay in bed?

Kaya yawned and stretched and got up on her hands and knees on the bed. Kaya answered, Shower with you.

Arri said, Let’s go.

They raced to the bathroom. It was down the hall from their parents’ master bedroom. The sisters shared one of the rooms on each side of their parents’ master bedroom. The bedroom on the other side was a guestroom.

They dropped their nightgowns onto the floor. The valet robot would collect them and wash them and put them on their pillows for tonight.

Kaya danced around in the shower waiting. Arri washed her own body and her own hair. Then Arri washed Kaya’s body and Kaya’s hair. They rinsed under the flowing shower water for a while, pretending they were outside in a rainstorm. Then Arri shut off the water and they held up their hands and brushed their hair with their fingers as the dryer came on.

They stepped naked out of the shower and their mother was there, waiting for them. Kaya stood still while Arri combed Kaya’s hair. And at the same time, Arri stood still while her mother combed Arri’s hair. For the moment they were a stair-step of golden heads, one in front of the other, going down from Arri’s mother, to Arri, and then to Kaya, who was the shortest Qarka girl with golden hair.

Once the tangles were out of their hair and it hung long and straight down their backs, Kaya ran back into the bedroom and began to dress. Arri turned around and hugged her mother and got a kiss and gave a kiss.

Arri’s mother was naked and smelled like sex. A year ago Arri asked her mother about that smell that was on her mother sometimes and not on her mother at other times. And Arri got some sex education that Arri would not have gotten at school. They didn’t talk about the smell of sex at school.

Arri left her mother and went into her bedroom to get dressed for the day. Arri pulled on some panties and then an undershirt. She wasn’t ready for a bra yet. Then Arri pulled on some space tights.

Space tights were body stockings that came in a number of sizes and colors and they stretched to fit. Most of the school-age children wore space tights to school.

At school, when Arri had to go to the bathroom, Arri had to pull the tights down over her shoulders and chest and over her bottom. She had to take her arms out of the sleeves and shove the space tights down to her knees along with her panties in order to use the toilet. And that was one of the reasons Arri always wore an undershirt. Arri didn’t like to sit naked on a toilet at school. She liked having an undershirt covering the top part of her body. It didn’t feel as cold sitting on a toilet with an undershirt on.

Once Arri was dressed in her space tights, she pulled on a pair of boots. And she got a light spring jacket out of the closet for the trip to school.

Then hand-in-hand, Arri and Kaya went down to the kitchen for breakfast. By that time, the whole family was there: Mom and Dad, Grandpa and Grandma, Great Grandpa and Great Grandma, and Great-great Grandpa and Great-great Grandma.

They talked about the day ahead and planned for supper that night. Arri would eat lunch at school. Kaya and her mother and great-great grandmother would eat lunch in the kitchen after doing household chores in the house or farm chores near the house. The rest of the adults would be out on the farm somewhere. They would stop and eat a sack lunch wherever they were when they got hungry. So supper was the next time the family got together to eat and talk.

After breakfast, Arri and Kaya walked hand-in-hand down to the bus stop and waited together. Kaya was there to wave goodbye to Arri. Kaya was still too young to go to school. Kaya would go to school next year.

They were waiting for an airbus. They saw it in the distance. The airbus floated over a magnetic field generated by the spin of Qarka and magnified by an electrical cable beneath the center of the road.

The grass and flowers growing over the road liked the magnification of the magnetic field. They thrived on it. They drew energy from the interaction of sunlight on the magnetic field. All the roads on Qarka looked like highways of green and a mix of rainbow colors from the flowers growing among the green grass on green stems.

The airbus came to a stop and continued to hover over the road. The boarding ramp came out of the smooth side of the airbus and floated down.

Arri hugged and kissed her sister, Kaya, goodbye. Then Arri walked up the ramp and into the bus.

Kaya returned to the house to spend the day helping her mother and great-great grandmother with farm and house chores.

Once Arri was aboard, the ramp floated up and sealed the bus closed behind her. The airbus driver would wait until Arri was in her seat and strapped in before moving at four hundred miles an hour to the next stop on the way to school.

Every day that Arri walked down the aisle to her assigned seat, Bip Caru would try to trip her. Sometimes he succeeded. Other times, Arri would be able to jump over his foot and go on to her seat.

If Bip Caru succeeded in tripping her, usually Arri would just get up and sit down. But she was getting tired of his teasing and tripping her all of the time.

Her mother told her that Bip was just jealous. Arri was the smartest child in her class and would do well at the university when she graduated from grammar school. Arri would take the same bus until she graduated from the university and chose a career. The university was adjacent to the grammar school.

Bip was a boy her age. But Bip didn’t live on a farm. He lived in a village two hundred miles from the city where the school was located.

Bip got on the bus thirty minutes before Arri got on the bus. Bip got on the bus with about twenty other children who lived in his neighborhood. Their parents processed food grown on all of the farms surrounding the village. Once it was processed, it was transported to the city on air-trains using the same magnetic road as the airbuses.

Bip sat on the aisle-side of the seat. Bip was always tripping Arri and then pretending he didn’t do it and snickering about it with his four seatmates.

Today, Arri anticipated Bip tripping her. She jumped just at the right time and she would have made it over his foot. But today, Bip brought his foot up higher as Arri jumped over it and Arri landed hard on the floor of the aisle.

Well, that was it! Arri had enough. She was angry. When she got up off of the floor in the aisle, she turned around and smacked Bip on the nose with her fist. She broke his nose.

Bip was crying and his nose was bleeding.

The bus driver locked the bus in neutral and came back to put a cold-pack on Bip’s nose and escort Arri to her seat and make sure that Arri was strapped in for the rest of the trip to school.

Of course Arri’s parents were called. And Bip’s parents were called.

Bip and Arri sat on opposite sides of the waiting room with their parents while their teachers, the airbus driver, and the principal of their school discussed the situation.

Then Arri’s parents and Bip’s parents were called into the office for a discussion.

Bip stuck his tongue out at Arri as soon as the adults were out of the room. Arri just glared at him.

When Bip did it a second time, Arri laughed. Bip looked so funny with that red and swollen nose and his tongue sticking out like that. When Bip did it a third time, Arri laughed again.

Bip got up and went into the bathroom. When he came out, he was crying again. He went into the farthest corner of the room and sat so his face was turned away from Arri.

Bip was a very good-looking boy, except with that big red nose and his tongue sticking out and Bip knew it. He had seen himself in the mirror.

When the parents and the teachers and the airbus driver came out of the office, Bip and Arri were asked to come into the principal’s office alone.

When Arri looked at her parents, they nodded their heads. Arri was to go into the office without them. Bip got the same message from his parents.

Bip and Arri were going to be treated like adults in this situation. They were going to work it out with the principal as a mediator.

Arri and Bip looked at each other across the room and sighed in resignation at the same time. They both noticed that they sighed at the same time and they were surprised that they had the same reaction to their instructions.

Bip went into the office first. Arri came in second. The principal closed the door behind them and had them sit on opposite sides of her office.

Arri expected to be yelled at for hitting Bip.

Bip expected to be yelled at for tripping Arri.

That didn’t happen.

The principal said, Bip, I understand that you would like to get to know Arri better. You see each other in the hall but never get to spend time with each other. You are in different classes all day long. And you hang out with different kids at recess and at lunch.

Bip swallowed and thought: How did she know that? He wondered: The principal must be able to read minds.

Arri scrunched up her nose to say, eeewww. But she didn’t say anything.

The principal looked over at Arri and said, Arri, you are always so busy with your friends and your classes and the extra assignments you always take. You don’t have time to make new friends.

Arri swallowed and frowned. Arri didn’t need new friends. She had too many as it was. She was so busy with her chores on the farm and her clubs and extra work she always did. She didn’t have time for friends.

The principal said, "From now on, Arri, you and Bip will eat lunch together in the quiet room with the other children assigned to eat lunch in there.

And Bip, since you will have time to get acquainted with Arri, you won’t need to trip Arri on the airbus anymore in order to get her attention. And Arri, you won’t have to hit Bip again for tripping you. Does this sound like a reasonable solution?

Arri looked at Bip. Bip looked at Arri.

The principal added, If you become friends, well and good, if you can’t stand the sight of each other at the end of the next grading period, you can petition for a reprieve from your lunch assignment.

Arri looked at Bip. Bip looked at Arri.

The principal said, That’s settled. Bump hands now and go home with your parents. I will see you tomorrow at the quiet room for lunch.

Arri and Bip stood up. They came toward each other and put out both of their hands in front of them. Then they made fists and bumped their fists gently against the fists of the other child at the same time.

The next day on the bus, Arri didn’t look at Bip as she walked down the aisle to her seat and Bip didn’t try to trip her.

At lunch, Arri brought her lunch tray into the quiet room. Bip was already seated at their assigned table for two.

When Arri sat down across from Bip, she saw that Bip had been to the clinic and had his nose repaired. He looked like his old handsome self. He was so good-looking that he always seemed so stuck-up to Arri.

Bip did not say hello and that confirmed it. Bip had not changed. So Arri didn’t say hello either.

They ate in silence for a long time. The lunch hour was half over before Bip said, I’m sorry, Arri. The principal was right. I wanted you to notice me.

Arri confessed, I’ve noticed you since you started coming to my school. But you are always with somebody so I never said hello to you.

Bip smiled. Bip said, Hello, Arri. I’m Bip Caru. I live in the village.

Arri smiled back at him and said, Hi, Bip. I’m Arri Tolin and I live on a farm.

Bip said, I know. Every time the bus stops there I want to get off the bus and look around. What do you do on a farm?

And Arri excitedly told him all about her pet animals and planting flowers and vegetables and the goat herd that came from Earth two thousand years ago when some visiting Qarka decided that they liked goat’s milk and goat cheese.

Bip asked many questions and Arri answered them.

Bip shared that he could have a small pet, but nothing large. There just wasn’t room in the apartment where he lived with his parents for anything large. And, right now he didn’t have a pet. He had a baby sister instead.

Bip was descended from the city Qarka who always lived in apartment buildings and got their food in cafeterias when they were hungry.

Arri was descended from the rural Qarka who had lived on their farms for three thousand years or more and her family cooked in a kitchen and sat down at a table and ate meals together.

Usually the two groups did not mix. But Bip and Arri found a friendship with each other that Bip had hoped for, and Arri had not expected.

Bip started sleeping over on the farm when there was a holiday from school. The night sounds and the animal sounds frightened him so much the first night that he couldn’t sleep.

Arri’s parents noticed how stressed Bip was on his first night at their house. The second time they checked on him to see how well he was sleeping, they made a decision. Right then, they took the time and moved Bip’s bed out of the guestroom and into the bedroom where Arri and Kaya slept. There they tucked him in again.

Bip was still frightened. Arri got out of her bed and came over and got into bed with Bip. In whispered conversation, Bip asked Arri about specific noises that he heard. And Arri told him what animal or insect made those noises. After that, he was able to fall asleep with Arri’s arms around him from the back.

Bip brought Arri home with him sometimes. Before supper, Arri would go with him to the sports arena where they would join in the sports activities of other children, or just watch.

At Bip’s house, Arri had to share Bip’s bed or sleep on the couch. Arri shared Bip’s bed.

At Arri’s house, Arri often had Kaya and Bip in her bed at the same time. They both liked to sleep with Arri.

Bip and Arri got to be such good friends.

When Arri’s great-great grandparents died, Arri’s parents invited Bip’s parents to move to the farm and stay in the empty master bedroom and share in the work on the farm.

When Bip’s parents had a vacation from their jobs, they came to the farm and stayed for a month. They liked the farm work so much that they made it a permanent move. Now Bip had his own room next to his parents’ master bedroom and his sister had the other room next to his parents’ master bedroom. And Bip finally had a pet.

Bip picked out a goat kid to be his pet. It was an orphan and Bip had to feed it every day before school and after school and twice before bedtime. And when Bip wasn’t in school, he had to feed it three times more during the day. Bip was delighted.

That had always been one of Arri’s chores: To feed the orphan goat kids. But Arri was so busy with her extra-credit school projects in engineering that Arri did not have time to help with that chore like she did before.

It was when they moved to the farm that Bip’s parents told him that he had to sleep in his own room and could no longer sleep in Arri’s bed and Arri must stop sleeping in his bed.

When Bip asked why, they told Bip that they knew that Arri was going to space marine training when she graduated from the university. Arri was always talking about traveling the galaxy and seeing Phaedra and Altaus and Minos and Centauri and, especially, Earth, where the goats came from. Bip needed to learn to get along without Arri in his life.

When a space marine went on a space voyage in a Qarka starship, it was a long-term commitment. Qarka was two years from Phaedra. Phaedra was four years from Altaus. Altaus was four years form Minos. And Minos was eight years from Centauri. Centauri was eleven years from Earth. And Earth was fourteen years from Qarka.

The Qarka had colonized Phaedra. In their exploration, the Qarka had discovered that sentient peoples occupied Altaus, so they had by-passed Altaus. When they came to Minos, they discovered that the people of Altaus had colonized it, so they left Altaus and Minos alone and went on around them in search of more Qarka-like planets.

Altaus had been the home planet for a reptilian people. They had space flight around the same time as the Qarka. But they had not been as adventurous.

When the Qarka discovered Centauri and Earth, Qarka scientists wondered if some humanoid ancestor had colonized Qarka, Earth, and Centauri by sending DNA in life-pods to those planets millions of years ago. Humans, Centauri, and the Qarka all had similar DNA strands. Their differences could be due to their environments, natural selection, or random mutations from the original DNA.

They were fascinated with the fact that Centauri, Qarka, and Earth persons could have children with each other that would be a blend of the characteristics of each humanoid species. It seemed too coincidental to be anything but someone’s planned design.

As Bip and Arri looked at the stars at night, Arri always wondered if there were more planets out there yet to be discovered with people on them. Bip always thought it was Arri dreaming.

Bip hadn’t thought about life without Arri. And now he did. Bip realized that Arri was adventurous and Arri wanted to go out and see the universe. Bip was happy just being outside while he worked. He didn’t need to go anywhere to be happy.

Bip obeyed his parents. And while Arri was at the university, Bip saw her every day at breakfast. On the ride to school, Bip and Arri sat together. Kaya sat with other girls her age. And Bip’s sister was still too young to go to school.

At night, Bip saw Arri at supper with their families. They sat across the table from each other. After supper, Arri and Bip always took a walk outside to look at the stars. Their families came with them most of the time. Other times, Bip and Arri were the only two outside looking at the stars.

The two years that Arri was in space marine training, Arri missed Bip so much that she asked Bip to go with her on her first assignment as her husband. Bip wanted Arri to be his wife, but Bip wasn’t sure he wanted to leave Qarka, ever.

Arri would be gone on her first trip into space for forty-three years. They could get married and have children when she got back. Qarka could live to be three hundred years old or more.

Qarka women were fertile as long as they lived. But it was customary for a Qarka woman to have only two children: One to replace her and one to replace her husband. Of course a couple could have two boys or two girls and not one of each, but on the whole, considering that there were ten billion Qarka living on Qarka, it averaged out to one of each.

After talking about marriage and the length of time Arri would be gone, Bip accepted her proposal. He could not be parted from Arri for forty-three years.

Bip had specialized in agriculture at the university. He would miss being outside in the sun and working the fields and working with the animals. But he would miss Arri more.

The marriage ceremony was held in the garden of ancestors not far from the Tolin house. That was a special garden adjacent to the house where all the ashes of all the deceased Tolins were scattered after their cremation. And it was where marriages took place and other special family ceremonies. All the friends and family from both sides came for the occasion.

They spent their honeymoon on the farm, working side-by-side everyday at the chores that Bip would miss. And every night, they spent the evening with their families at whatever family activities were planned. They would be gone such a long time.

But when they went to bed, all they did was make love. They had other lovers before. And it wasn’t the first time they fucked each other. But it was the first time they fucked each other as husband and