NARRATOR: Oisri Dig Base, Security Wing...
EBBY: Commander, Captain Tagon is still alive. No weird symptoms. Why'd he step out of the command chain?
ELF: It doesn't matter. Acting Captain Andreyasn is in charge now.
EBBY: Your boyfriend.
ELF: Well, yes.
EBBY: And this doesn't make you sick?
ELF: No.
EBBY: Humans are lucky.
EBBY: If I had a mate, and she got promoted to a senior position, I'd turn jun. I'd lose twenty kilos. Sand and grit, I'd become sterile if it weren't for modern medicine.
ELF: Kevyn is not my mate, Ebbirnoth.
EBBY: Like I said, humans are lucky.
The two of you have mated. The requisite biological work has begun. For a unioc couple that would have ramifications.
ELF: Stop saying "mate," Lieutenant.
EBBY: But for humans there are no physiological consequences beyond a mild hormone addiction, and occasional episodes of irrational behavior.
EBBY: It's not until you throw a party and exchange some legalese that your fluid exchange has real significance.
ELF: You're worried that I'm going to get special treatment now that my boyfriend is in command.
EBBY: Mostly I'm amazed by your biology.
EBBY: A unioc female would have succumbed to the Oth-Min hormonal rage and clobbered me for talking about her relationship like this.
ELF: Oh, you nearly got clobbered.