“Why do you say the Answer is in my eyes?” asks Kali.

This is not a coy question. There is no cheap desire for compliments. No. She just wants to consider my reasoning.

Kali is right beside me now, sitting on the piano stool. She strokes my dark skin with golden fingers. My skin sings melodies that are from beyond both our planets. Melodies that are threatening to build into some immense and galaxy-bursting crescendo.

“But there is Regulation Number One,” says Kali. Her eyes tell me that she is saddened. I close the piano lid.

The Regulation is clear and uncompromising, agreed to by both the Luthanian commandant and the United Nations – what little of it remains.

No sexual congress between Earthlings and Luthanians.

To my knowledge, this Regulation has not been broken.

Yet.

I understand the logic.

The commander doesn’t want to risk any pregnancies. He doesn’t want any half-caste Earthlings being birthed on their fair planet in nine months’ time. No little half-castes, half-crazed with aggression, polluting their peaceful world with fifty per cent genetic violence.

Fair enough!

My Prof laughed as he pushed the contract across the desk for me to sign.

“Take note, Josh my boy! No sexual congress! That should test you to the limits. I must tell you, I’ve seen their musicologist. And she is a stunner, an absolute beauty. Good luck, my boy.”

‘Don’t you see, Prof?’ This is how I will state my case tomorrow. ‘Don’t you see my point? What Luthanian male would go off to battle and leave such breath-taking eyes behind? What Luthanian male would want to cause pain when his soul has been soothed by starbursts of peace? Haven’t you noticed them for yourself: those unbelievable eyes?’

Surely he has?

But my Prof is a music fanatic. He would like nothing more than for the Answer to be found in the realm of music. It would be the crowning of his forty-five-year career. It would put the other faculties of the campus in their rightful place: a few steps below Humankind’s Greatest Accomplishment – Music.

But even so, surely he has noticed the utter calm, the magnificent confidence that shines golden from the eyes of Luthanian women. From the eyes of Kali.

Yes. That is what I will tell him tomorrow. If I make it through this night without breaking their Regulation.

And that might be difficult.

Kali is kneeling beside me now, her eyes stroking and soothing every nerve of my jangled Earth body.

And I long, beyond all sense and wisdom and compassion, to see her eyes melt into waves of pleasure, there on my bed with her golden hair spread across my amber pillows.

***

Tell us what you think: Should Josh risk it and try to seduce Kali?