It did not last long. Harrison came to the barn and informed Leigh that she needed to extract dairy from the cows. Since I had reached a stalemate with the electrical systems, I offered to help.
“T’raat, you don’t know the first thing about milking a cow,” she said with a laugh. “I mean, I can teach you if you really want to help, but it’s not super exciting stuff.”
“I need practice in learning without the aid of nanites. This will benefit me, with the added benefit of providing you assistance.” I wiped electrical contact gel from my hands with a spare cloth. “I should clean up, yes?”
“Yeah. I don’t think the heifers will let you near them with the way that stuff smells, and it would probably be good for you to take a shower. Do you have showers on Xalan?”
Shower. Heated water flowing for the purpose of cleaning oneself. “Yes. We have showers.”
“Cool. We’ll go to the house, and after you’ve showered you can meet me in the milking barn. Bring a change of clothes. You’ve been in those for a couple of days now, so they’re pretty gamy.”
“I smell unpleasant?”
Her nose wrinkled. “A little. But everyone who works on a farm smells unpleasant at some point or another. It’s fine.”
I paused at the door to the barn. “Will the twins not see me?”
Leigh waved a dismissive hand. “Oh, they’re off this weekend. We don’t expect them back for a couple of days, so you should be fine. C’mon.”
After explaining the functions of the knobs and spigots and pointing out which containers were for skin cleansing and which were for cleaning hair, Leigh left me to my shower. I enjoyed the warm spray, though it was nothing compared to a Xalanite shower. Our bathing units had multiple spigots for full-coverage spray. I had difficulty rinsing some areas because Leigh’s shower only sprayed downward from above. This was not particularly conducive to rinsing between my legs or beneath mygaak. In the future, I might suggest modifications to Harrison, if he would permit, to make the shower more efficient.
I dried off with the towel Leigh provided, but when I flipped the switch on the device for drying hair, the sheer volume it emitted, combined with the stench of burning hair, was enough to convince me that I could let my hair dry naturally.
Leigh chided me for not using the device when I arrived at the milking barn with wet hair, but I dismissed her concerns.
“Xalanites do not have such devices. Our planet is mostly water, and we are avid swimmers. We go from sea to land without stopping to dry ourselves. I have never become ill from having wet hair. I do not believe I will fall ill now.”
She sighed and took me to one of the boarded-off sections of the barn. A stall. In the stall stood one of the cows.
What I witnessed next haunted my dreams for weeks.
Leigh squatted next to the heifer and began to wipe the beast’s hanging teat with a damp cloth. I did not like seeing Leigh with her hands on another creature’s teat, but she had explained previously that this was necessary in obtaining the dairy product.
Then she hauled out a machine. Connected the various tubes to the teat. Pushed a button.
The cow lowed as the machine began to—to—
I turned and retched, then fled the barn.
Leigh followed me, patting my back as I heaved to empty my stomach. “You okay, T’raat? Was it something I put in the eggs this morning?”
I coughed and spat the last of the bile from my mouth. “That was barbaric!”
She blinked and frowned. “What, the milking machine? That’s just how we get the milk out of them. It’s not painful to them or anything. Think of it like yourn’ril: If their udders don’t have the pressure relieved, it gets uncomfortable for them. Painful, even. So, we help them out, and we get milk out of it.”
A gag choked me, and I coughed again. “And you do this to all the heifers?”
“The ones who still produce milk, yeah. The older girls are all dried up, so they don’t need it.”
“Must you use that torture device?”
Leigh laughed. “Like I said, it doesn’t hurt them. Besides, it’s more efficient than doing it all by hand.”
I sputtered again.“By hand?”
Taking my arm, Leigh guided me away from the milking barn. “Okay, so maybe milking isn’t your strong suit. We’ll steer clear of that for now. How about … I know! You’re mechanically inclined, right? Maybe you can help with some of the farm equipment that needs repairs.”
“Not milking machines, I hope!”
