You may also want to have a barf bag handy, I don't know, it may be considered a little gross .....
============
When the *Maru* had cleared the old High Guard destroyer's hangar, Dylan couldn't help but notice all the tension that drained out of Harper in one long breath.
"Problem, Mr. Harper?" Dylan asked, glancing away from the controls.
"What ... ?" Harper said. "No, I'm ok, Boss."
"You seemed to be releaved to have left the *Tal Andrenda.*"
"Well ..... I never seen a ship with a Than avatar before, Dylan."
"That's a given, but ships chose their personas -- and, by extension, their primary avatars -- based on which race was dominant in the crew. I've known ships with Than, Vedran, Nietzschean, even Kalderan personas."
"You'll excuse me if I can't picture Rommie with shades and screeching."
"I know what you mean. Still it was disconcerting to meet a nonhuman persona for the first time, even in my day, so I can understand why it unnerved you."
"Uh ... yeah, right, Boss."
"Something else, Mr. Harper?"
"Well ..... there is the way 'Rennie' kept comin' on to me."
"Ah."
"Y'think maybe Rommie told her to do it? To make a point or somethin'?"
"Maybe, although in fact, it wasn't unusual for Thans to take an interest in humans."
Harper made a face. "Eeeeyyyuuuuhhhhh, gross!"
Dylan just nodded.
"Mind you, I'm not saying anything bad about the Commonwealth," Harper said. "I will admit I am a biggot and will not stick Mr. Happy in anything that looks less human than me. But if some guys wanted to do that in the old days .... well, that's ok by me. really."
"Uhm .... ok, Mr. Harper."
"What are you not telling me, Boss?"
"You don't want to know."
"Yeah, I do."
"You sure?"
"Yes."
"Ok," Dylan said with a sigh. "You know that although Thans are almost always referred to as females, they are, in fact, hermaphrodites -- they have both male and female sex organs."
"Right," Harper said.
Dylan took a deep breath. "Well -- at least in my day -- when a Than took a sexual interest in a human, it treated the human, whether male or female, as female."
Harper stared at Dylan, blinking, for several seconds.
Then, stomach heaving, he turned and raced for the latrine.
"I won't say it," Dylan muttered as he concentrated on his piloting.
THE END