Nice to see an SF story from Jablokov – there’s been far too little from him in recent years! This short story is a good one as well, with a very adult theme. The protagonist is un-named, and their gender isn’t specified, which is a particularly neat trick, as the story revolves around them providing sexual and reproductive services to all manner of visiting non-humans on a space station.
Said services are facilitated by multiple genetic modification, and various aids and adaptations that provide the ultimate flexibility in -ahem- accommodating the visitors male aliens and their varying members, mores and rituals. It’s very much a wham-bam-thankyouma’am procession of visitors, and the sole companionship is a small creature who has a much more sedate approach to reproductivity.
Wryly entertaining, providing you aren’t put off by the at times quite detailed descriptions of interspecies sex!
