by Robin Roseau
“Make peace with me. I do not believe you cannot do this differently.”
“I cannot explain.” I carried other secrets.
I was our astro-navigator, and it was likely I was the only human here who knew Earth wasn’t where everyone else thought it was. I couldn’t let her ask.
“Calypso is becoming owned,” said the voice.
“It won’t be long now,” Mary said.
“No.”
“What would happen if you thrust that through the opening in the landing bay?”
“I would lose my hands.”
“We can regrow them.”
I said nothing. She looked at me with imploring, alien eyes.
“Calypso is owned,” said the voice. “She may not be freed.”
“I accept an equal peace,” Mary told me. “Help me to lead it.”
“I accept an equal peace, but someone else will need to help you. Please leave now, Mary.”
“No. There are other ways.”
“There aren’t.”
“There are. We just discussed one, and I do not believe you cannot change the destruct mechanism. Tell me why you are doing this.”
“This data is false. There is another copy; it is also false. No one else knows this.”
“I do not understand.”
“I could unlock this data and hand it to you. It would lead you astray. If you have the other copy, it will lead you astray.”
“And you know how to correct it.”
“Yes.”
She nodded. “Do nothing.” Then she changed languages and spoke. There was a response from the hall, and then she said, “Give me five more minutes.”
I twisted, and she screamed, “No!”
“Six-minute timer,” I said. “Irreversible. If you pull my hand away, it will destroy both of us. If you wait too long, it will destroy both of us.
“Five minutes was an approximation!”
“Tell them to hurry.”
She spoke rapidly.
* * * *
I heard running, and then Annalise appeared in the doorway. A moment later, Anne entered. She carried a dreamy expression of the devoted.
And a device similar to mine. It was not yet opened.
“It won’t do you any good after I’m gone,” I said.
“Don’t do anything, Selena, or you will kill several of us. You don’t want that.”
She stepped away and walked to Anne. “I want you to go to the landing bay, set a twenty-second timer on that box, then throw it through the force barrier.” She looked over her shoulder at me. “Is that safe?”
“Yes.”
“Do it. Hurry.”
The two of them took off. Mary returned to me. “Will they be in time?”
I checked the timer and twisted. It reset to six minutes.
“You lied to me!”
“Well, I can reset it. You can’t. I can’t, however, stop it. This box is going to self-destruct.”
“You lied to me.”
“I’m about to die. Do you really think you can forgive me?”
“I’ll try, but you don’t have to die. We’re destroying the data. Then you and I can come to a fresh agreement.”
“I don’t think so.”
“They’re at the landing bay,” she said. She cocked her head. “She has released it. Will you trust me?”
“On this, yes?” And then I began counting. At twelve, everyone aboard ship knew Something Had Happened. The ship shuddered.
“The landing bay is the firmest portion of the ship,” I said. “Check with them.”
She cocked her head. “Annalise is returning Anne to her owner’s care. Do you believe the data is destroyed?”
“Yes.”
“Let us do the same with this box.”
“Please leave now, Mary.”
“No one else knows what you have told me. I won’t tell.”
“Mary, please walk away.”
“No.”
“Walk away and make this peace.”
“I’m not leaving you. Come with me. I order you to come with me.”
The compulsion to obey was strong, and I took two steps after her. She caressed my cheek, and my ability to disobey her crumbled. She saw surrender in my eyes and smiled as she led me, walking backwards. “Reset it, Selena.” And I did.
She led me to the landing bay, her hand on my cheek the entire way, walking backwards, looking into my eyes the entire way. She led me near their ship, and then she said, “What do we do for safety?”
“The lines, there.” I gestured with the box.
She led me over. She figured them out, and then she led me to the force shield, the doors still open. “Will the shield protect us?”
“Yes, but it would destroy my hands, probably to my elbows.”
“I will take care of you, Selena,” she said. “Obey me now. Thrust the box through the shield.”
I looked at her. I looked at the box. “I can’t, Mary.” I looked around. “It will destroy your ship. There is an inner shield.” I gestured. “It requires my hand. Take the box, very carefully.”
She did, and then I used my free left hand to activate the inner shield, ten meters inside the outer shield, leaving Mary and me between them. I collected the box. “Walk away now. You can pass though the shield.”
She looked into my eyes. “Tell me why?”
“I know the distances from several very notable stars.”
“No one else knows what you have told me.”
“Probably not.”
She lowered herself to her knees before me. “I surrender to you.”
“Mary is no longer an owner,” the voice said. “Mary is owned.”
I stared down at her head. “Stand up,” I whispered. She did, and I asked, “Why did you do that?”
“It is now your choice,” she said. “We both live, or we both die.”
“I can order you to walk away.”
“If you die, I am no longer owned,” she said.
“But you haven’t my secrets.”
“The star you call Betelgeuse is 640 of your light years from your home,” she said. “That is too far to be useful. The double-star Sirius is 8.6 of your light years. That is very small, and double stars are uncommon. But quite interesting is Alpha Centauri, a binary star system with a red dwarf a fraction of a light year away, and closer to your home world.”
“You already know,” I whispered. “How?”
“Please, Selena. Thrust that away.”
“Do others know?”
“And if not, you will kill us both?”
“That’s what you offered two minutes ago.”
“I am fighting for you, Selena, not what you know. I would always have accepted an equal peace, but I didn’t know how to make one. You have given me every opportunity to walk away, and I didn’t have to tell you what I know.”
“I release Mary,” I said. “She is free.”
“Mary is free,” said the voice.
“No,” Mary said. “Don’t do this.”
“Promise me.”
“All I want is peace, and you. What do you want?”
“Share me, for now.”
I twisted and threw the box through the barrier. Then I covered Mary with my body.
It exploded, and we were thrown from our feet.
I waited until things settled down, and then I lifted from her. She looked angry. “You lied again!”
“You did notice the large explosion.”
“You could have taken your hand away at any time!”
“Okay, I lied about that part. It would have started a short timer. You’re alive. I’m alive. Are you going to use what you know?”
“We will make an equal peace,” she said. “I don’t know what else you’re talking about.”
“I surrender to Mary, and anyone else she chooses.”
“Selena is owned,” said the voice. “And may not be freed. The peace will be shared evenly, but all now owned will remain
ed owned.”
Mary began kissing me, and then we made love, right there on the deck of the landing bay.
Changes
For some of us, it became a sex fest. Others found their own pleasures in serving or being served. I knew only what I experienced, and so I know more than that from later conversations.
I was utterly devoted to Mary, and to me, she was, indeed, a goddess. We made love, and then I served her, and some of the other khalenzi goddesses as she indicated. And there were more touches, and more devotion, and more love.
And Mary whispered to me, “I love you, Selena.” But I wouldn’t remember immediately.
Our event ended in stages. At three PM Sunday afternoon, those who were owners remembered the truth. I was alone with Mary, and she froze for a moment, then looked around in confusion before turning to me and smiling. “Selena, my pet,” she whispered. “Worship me.”
And I did, however she asked.
Those who were owned remained inside the event for another two hours. Mary must have known it was ending, as she asked me to let her hold me, and we were lying together when the voice said, “Event ending.” It was the last time I heard that voice that weekend. If I am to hear the voice again, I’m not ready to say.
I understood the implications. Mary’s skin turned from delicate scales of the khalenzi to the smooth skin of a beautiful, human woman. I blinked a few times, not moving, and then she asked, “Did you enjoy it?”
I climbed up her a little until I was looking into her eyes. “Did you?”
She nodded. “I’m not sure how much I’m ready to talk about.”
I lay back down. She let me stay there for a minute but then said, “There is a final dinner. Not everyone will attend. I imagine we’re not the only people lying like this.”
“We should attend.”
“Yes, we should, but if you’re in shock, I can just hold you.”
“What about you?”
“They released me two hours ago. It’s about 5 PM. I was in shock, but having you attend to me helped. This is your choice, Selena.”
“Help me do the right thing, Mary.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Then we will cuddle a few more minutes before we help each other dress.”
“All right.”
“How much do you remember?”
“I think everything,” I said. “You?”
“I think everything. Do you know how I knew the distances to the stars?”
“Because you’re a star nut and knew?”
“No. I knew Alpha Centauri was the nearest star, but I didn’t know any of the rest. I didn’t know it was that special a star, and I’d never even heard of Sirius.”
“It’s the brightest star after our own sun.”
“Well, I didn’t know that. To answer your next guess, no, the game didn’t tell me. But if you don’t know the answer, then you don’t remember everything.”
I snorted. “Oh.”
“We had you really, really out of it for a while. I can’t believe you freed yourself from the game.”
“I told you?”
“Yes.”
“God.”
“I don’t want to talk about the rest right now,” she said. “I just wanted to know if you remembered everything. You don’t.”
“You might not, either.”
“There are no gaps,” she said. “And other than the brief period when I surrendered to you, I was never on the negative side of the scale.” She laughed. “I nearly had you on the dance floor.”
“Yeah, you did. God, that was hot. I’d do a night dancing like that.”
“I would, too.” She fanned herself. “And I agree completely. That was totally hot.”
“Did you believe the story?”
“Every word. That’s a different conversation. I nearly had you on the dance floor. We got Joy instead, almost as good. We thought she was actually the best target, behind Calypso herself, but we got the admiral’s daughter. And then we found out you were the most important target. If we’d have known, you would have received more attention than you did, although it might have come from Aurora.”
“I bet I was more susceptible to you, Gail, or Evie than anyone else. Maybe Pandora.”
“She practically surrendered.” She nudged me. “Tell me I won.”
I laughed. “You won. I’ve never enjoyed losing more than I did. But I thought we agreed it wasn’t about winning and losing.”
“It was totally about winning and losing!” she said firmly.
“I didn’t have to free you, and I didn’t have to give myself back to you.”
“And yet you did, because you were that enraptured by me.”
“Well, that’s one explanation.”
She levered herself up. “Answer honestly. Why did you do it?”
“Because I was never not yours.”
“That’s horrible English, so horrible even a space alien can tell.”
“The computer declared me as being owned,” I said. “Once it did, it never declared me free. I remained owned. To whom?”
She stared at me. “I don’t know,” she whispered.
“I made sure. That’s all.”
She leaned down and kissed me deeply. “Good choice,” she whispered.
I hugged her. “I know.”
“Okay. We have to get up. You told me to make you do the right thing.”
“I want one more conversation. I don’t think it’s long. If you tell me it is, then we need to go out this week and talk about it. I don’t want to let it wait.”
“Tell me.” She settled back in.
“You told me that if we get to the point of exchanging I-love-yous, that you would also want to discuss an exclusive relationship.”
“I did. That is true.”
“What does that mean about events like this one?”
“It means we attend together. It means I have veto authority over any game or event we decide to join.”
“Because I’d really, really like to do this again.”
“I would, too.”
“And you might not win me next time.”
“That is true.”
“And I love you.”
She stilled then said, her voice husky, “I love you, too. But I think this is leftover from the game.”
“It’s not, and you know it. But if you want, we can table this conversation.”
“We’re not tabling this conversation,” she replied. “Let’s talk about this logically.”
“Gail is the only one I’m worried about,” I said.
“Gail is the only one I’m not worried about,” Mary replied. “I’m worried about Tara.”
“Tara is only doing all this out of fun, and because she’s lonely but is unwilling to really give herself to a relationship. I do not think that is going to change. I love her, but not the way I love you.”
“I love her, too, but not like I love you.”
“We care about her. She is a friend. Not just our boss. And if we do this again, we’ll invite her.”
“Right.”
“She might win. She’s very competitive.”
“If I let you play a game like this, then all is fair.”
“If I let you play a game like this, then all is fair,” I echoed.
“Evie and Joy.”
“They play with everyone and will be the first to congratulate us,” I said.
“What if I want us to play with them? How do you feel about that?”
“Are you really going to share?”
“I might.”
“Let’s agree for now that Evie and Joy are just fine.”
“They’re totally fine,” she agreed. “Pandora.”
“Mom,” I said with a laugh. “That’s an entirely different relationship. Please let me be her daughter from time to time.”
“Agreed. Maybe she’ll want us both.”
“And then I’m in a sexy relationship with my sister. We
talked about that.”
“Hmm. You’re right. Too weird. We’ll figure it out though.”
“We’ll figure it out. What can I tell her?”
“That you can still be her occasional daughter, but she talks to me, and if I agree, I will deliver you to be altered for it.”
I laughed. “Okay.”
“That leaves Nan,” she said. “I am convinced that Nan could have claimed you to herself at any time up until I went to Duluth with you.”
“You’re probably right.”
“I also believe I would have had a harder time getting an I-love-you if you were in bed with her right now.”
“Wouldn't that be awkward.”
She bumped me. “You know what I mean.”
“If she had taken your role, or had won me, or however you put it. I don’t think she’d have won me. I’d have won her.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
“If she had won, then it might be a few more weeks before we had this conversation, unless you insisted on it sooner. I am fairly certain you could have locked me down.”
“I'm glad you recognize that,” she said.
“However, Nan is never going to introduce me to her family. We talked about it, but it’s just not going to happen. I can’t do more for her than I have.”
“You gave her a lot to think about, but I think she’s going to flounder.”
“I can’t fix her. I can’t grow a backbone for her.”
“That’s not fair. It’s a different culture.”
“Yes, well, I can’t change it. Maybe, if she and I had been exclusive, and I had gotten pushy, she’d have chosen me, but frankly, I think it would have driven us apart. The biggest reason she’s wavering as much as she has is probably because of you, knowing that she had a time limit.”
“You might be right.”
“So I’ll talk to her.”
“I want you to revoke your trigger for everyone but me.”
“I will.”
“All right. Now we’re agreed, and we should have gotten moving. Get up.”
We did.
* * * *
Half, perhaps a little more, attended the final dinner. Mary and I appeared, and people turned towards us. Then a few physically shoved Evie and Joy into the center of a circle with us, and they began to applaud, and quite loudly. Joy turned to me and threw her arms around me, hugging me tightly, and then Mary.
And then Tara began the chant. “Speech! Speech! Speech!”