Return Blessing

By Raymund Eich

He just wants to have fun.

Why won't the aliens let him?

Jeffrey just wants to have a good time, drinking and partying in the human zone near the city of the low-tech, insectoid aliens native to the planet Valoduria.

His dad disapproves his lifestyle, but the old man is willing to pay for it. As long as Jeffrey transmits amateur xenology videos home every week.

Jeffrey gets along fine with the Valodurians. Sure, they all look alike to him, but humans all look the same to them, right? They give him gifts. They don't even care he can't tell a religious icon from a sex toy, or a brimless hat from a floppy drinking cup.

Now, if only Jeffrey could tell what one particular Valodurian, with unreadable eyes and sharp mouthparts, wants when it asks him to "return blessing."
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: CV-2 Books
• Release date: Feb 25, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215460566

Raymund Eich

Raymund Eich files patent applications, earned a Ph.D., won a national quiz bowl championship, writes science fiction and fantasy, and affirms Robert Heinlein's dictum that specialization is for insects.In a typical day, he may talk with university biology and science communication faculty, silicon chip designers, patent attorneys, epileptologists, and rocket scientists. Hundreds of papers cite his graduate research on the reactions of nitric oxide with heme proteins.He lives in Houston with his wife, son, and daughter.

Book preview

Return Blessing

RETURN BLESSING

A SCIENCE FICTION SHORT STORY

RAYMUND EICH

CV-2 Books

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The Progress of Mankind (Stone Chalmers #1)

CONTENTS

Return Blessing

About the Author

Other Books by the Author

RETURN BLESSING

The flying insects the size of his fist, swarming around him every time he went outside his tourist flat? Annoying. More annoying? The natives of Valoduria shoving unwanted handicrafts in his face every time he stepped through the Development Assistance scanners lining the gate of the human zone, and into the alien city of thatched roofs and mud bricks.

Jeffrey couldn’t even tell what the things were supposed to be. The handicrafts, not the natives. The aliens resembled the gigantic bugs except for lacking wings. Yellow-green skin, two compound eyes on the sides of their heads, a sinuous neck, and too many joints in their four arms.

All that articulation showed in the fine details they put in their handicrafts. But all the details in the world couldn’t help him figure them out. Was this one a religious icon or a sex toy? That one, a brimless hat or a floppy drinking cup?

Actually, that last one probably was a hat, because when he drank from it, he spilled vodka and orange juice all down his shirt. At least it cooled him off in his flat, sweltering that one day when the repair company’s robots took their sweet time coming to fix his air conditioning. And it made a fun