by Tasha Black
She made her way to the floating tray on the other side of the pond, feeling heavy and slow in the water.
On the tray sat a steaming mug of something cream colored and a plate of delicate pink spheres frosted with pale paste.
She picked up one of the spheres and reminded herself that she was on an intergalactic vessel and that pink might not mean sweet.
The treat practically melted in her mouth, leaving behind that sugary taste that reminded her of mochi with birthday cake frosting.
She gobbled up all but the last sphere and was sorely tempted to eat it too. Instead she grabbed the mug with both hands and drank down the savory beverage.
On Terra-4 where food was often scarce, it was considered improper for a guest to finish everything on a plate. Her mother had explained that leaving just a little was a way to show that you had all you needed.
As much as she wanted that last sphere, and as few credits as she had in her pockets in the cubby, Juno had her pride. She could not let Vaxyn return for her and find an empty plate.
She placed the mug back on the tray with an inch of the beverage still in it, and then waded to the other side of the pond to begin her bath.
A quick exploration of the various pots and bottles on the bank gave her no more information than she’d started with. The labels were in different languages, some of which seemed to be a kind of texture. She guessed it was meant to be read with fingers, or whatever appendages you happened to have.
Juno worked the nicest smelling concoction liberally into her hair and onto her body and then ducked beneath the surface of the water to rinse it.
When she was satisfied that she was cleaner than she had ever been in her life, which wasn’t a very high bar if she was being honest, she emerged from the pond.
The air, which had seemed warm before, now left her shivering.
She was glad to see a fur robe hanging by the door.
She pulled it on and tied it firmly around her waist. Then she retrieved her clothing, which seemed terribly dusty and sour now that she was so clean.
She held it in one hand and used the other to ease the door open.
“Are you finished already?” Vaxyn asked in that same warbly voice.
“Yes, thank you,” she said.
“What a transformation,” Vaxyn replied. “Quite elegant. Come with me.”
Juno followed to a room with dim lighting and some sort of chair-bed.
Vaxyn held open a cloth tote and indicated that Juno should put her belongings in it.
When she complied, Vaxyn placed the bag beside the reclining chair.
“Lie down,” Vaxyn said. “You will sleep now, while I tend to you.”
“Uh, I’m okay,” Juno said nervously as Vaxyn sat her in the chair and helped her to lie down. “I don’t really need to sleep right now.”
“Relax then,” Vaxyn said, the voice going deeper, as if in amusement.
Juno didn’t know if it was the bath or the snack, but as soon as she rested her head on the cushion behind her, she felt herself begin to drift.
Three of Vaxyn’s appendages began smoothing through her hair appraisingly as she fell asleep.
In what felt like an instant, but somehow also a week, she awoke to a deep crooning song. The harmony of the voices was heavenly.
She opened her eyes to see who had joined them.
The chair-bed had been inclined so that she was now in an upright position. No one else had entered the room. Vaxyn was the one singing in harmony.
Juno wondered how many voice boxes Vaxyn had.
“Complete,” Vaxyn declared. “I’m a genius, but I had good materials to work with.”
They offered her a mirror and she took it.
The woman looking back at her was herself, but accentuated. Her green eyes appeared slightly larger with the addition of subtle make-up. Her hair had been thoughtfully cut so that it fell in waves around her shoulders instead of lank all the way down her back.
“Thank you,” Juno said, feeling relief as well as gratitude.
“One last thing,” Vaxyn said turning away.
The lighting in the room shifted subtly as Vaxyn turned back to her, holding out a sparkling tiara in two appendages.
“Now you are officially a princess,” Vaxyn declared, placing it on Juno’s head.
It was heavy enough that the jewels encrusting it had to be real.
Juno laughed in disbelief and Vaxyn made a growly rumble that must have been a laugh as well.
“Wardrobe left this for you,” Vaxyn said, pointing to a cream-colored gown that hung by the door. “You’ll report there when you’re dressed, and a valet can bring the rest of your trousseau to your suite.”
“Thanks so much,” Juno said.
“Have you ever worn a gown before?” Vaxyn asked politely.
“No,” Juno heard herself admit.
“It will be my pleasure to assist you,” Vaxyn said.
A few minutes of shifting and adjusting later, Juno found herself swirling around in a foamy gown, watching sparkles from her tiara dance along the walls.
“I will walk with you,” Vaxyn said, heading to the door back into the main area of the ship.
Juno looked at the people in the waiting room.
“I remember where it was,” she said.
“A princess is always escorted,” Vaxyn said, inclining their shimmering onyx head.
Juno was surprised again with how far they were willing to go with the princess package.
She and Vaxyn entered the ship proper and she found herself gazing up at the trees again.
“You will enjoy your time here,” Vaxyn said kindly. “The forest is open in the early evenings for our VIP guests to explore.”
Juno nodded, wondering if she really would be treated as a VIP guest. She’d thought maybe the free passage and a room would be it.
When they reached the wardrobe station, a clockwork android approached.
“My princess,” it said politely.
Juno turned to Vaxyn, wanting to give the beautiful alien a hug, but unsure if it was permitted.
“Until we next meet,” Vaxyn purred with a deep bow.
Juno bowed too and figured by the sound of Vaxyn’s strange rumbling laughter that she wasn’t supposed to have done so.
She had no idea being a princess had so many rules.
She thought to ask where she could learn more, but the clockwork android was already guiding her in the direction of a pair of huge wardrobe carts.
“Princess” Juno followed obediently.
2
Zane
Zane hacked away at the thick undergrowth in the glassed-in forest.
His muscles ached, but the pain felt good. He was doing something meaningful, creating a path that could be enjoyed by passengers for as long as it was maintained.
No one was watching him, kowtowing to him, judging him for who he was or what he was to become.
Among the trees he was only himself, a man at work, giving pleasure to others.
He sensed movement outside the glass, and an instinct he couldn’t quite explain made him lower his machete and take note.
The ship was taking on passengers today. A bustle of activity was expected. It was part of the reason Zane was working in the forest, hoping to avoid interaction with the influx.
He’d planned to lose himself in the work, but something had arrested his labor.
He stepped closer to the glass, feeling drawn like a mynar to an exhaust port, trying to make out what he had seen that affected him so.
Vaxyn, the salon artist, was exiting the first-floor spa with a small human woman.
The woman was lovely - a foregone conclusion for any creature lucky enough to have credits to burn at Vaxyn’s spa.
But there was something else, something in the movement of her dark hair, the set of her shoulders. It made him feel fierce and tender all at once…
Mine.
The feeling tore through him and he felt as i
f he had simultaneously climbed an electric field and sunk to the bottom of the ocean.
He shook his head and blinked a few times.
Maybe Anna was right, he was pushing himself too hard in here.
But when he opened his eyes again, the sight of the woman’s small form affected him even more strongly. A sort of halo shimmered around her, like a target.
“Fuck,” he groaned as the realization hit him.
There was no other excuse.
This was a mating bond.
Since he was a boy, he had been taught that it was like a spider web - light but strong, beautiful but deadly to those who would try to escape its hold.
But the poets had gotten it all wrong. It wasn’t like water in the desert or a rope to a drifting aeronaut.
It wasn’t like anything.
It just… was.
A fully realized force all its own. As real as the one that held the very particles of his being together. And just as undeniable.
He was in trouble here.
And he hadn’t even seen her face.
Metal shivered in his blood again and he felt himself drawn almost magnetically to follow her.
He dropped the machete and jogged for the glass doors that separated him and the trees from the rest of the ship, his thoughts of anonymity among the trees all but forgotten.
But by the time he reached the exterior and sealed the doors again, she had moved out of sight.
His heart pounded in dread.
Think, he told himself. Surely there was a sane way to deal with this.
He spotted Vaxyn walking slowly back to the spa, arms drifting as if underwater.
He should turn back to the forest, lose himself in the work. Maybe the feeling would pass with time.
“Vaxyn,” Zane heard himself shout.
Vaxyn looked up as if startled. “Zane?”
“The woman you were with, who is she?” Zane demanded. He knew his voice was too loud, his posture too aggressive, but he couldn’t stop himself.
“She’s a princess,” Vaxyn replied with quiet dignity. “She’s in the wardrobe station, awaiting a valet.”
Fantastic. A fucking princess. Of course she was.
“Thanks,” Zane yelled over his shoulder as he sprinted towards wardrobe.
Vaxyn shrugged five shoulders and slid gracefully back into the spa.
Zane raised his wrist to his mouth as he ran. “Anna,” he said into his communicator. “Change of plans. I want to valet the princess in the wardrobe station.”
“Juno Adair?” Anna’s tinny voice answered back a moment later.
“Dark hair, white gown,” Zane barked.
“Uh, yes, that’s her,” Anna said. “Are you, um, sure about this?”
“Very sure,” he said.
“I’ll let them know,” she replied.
He tapped the bracelet again, satisfied, and tried to force himself to slow down.
He hadn’t shifted to prime state involuntarily since he was a nestling, but he could feel the buzz in his blood.
He called on his discipline, breathing deep of the ship’s recycled air. Spending time in the forest had almost been enough to convince his senses he was actually outdoors. But traveling only a few meters away brought him back to his reality. He was onboard this luxury cruiser, for better or worse, for as long as he could manage it. It was a simple situation. The last thing he needed was to complicate it by involving a woman.
Especially a princess.
When he reached the door marked Wardrobe, he paused and ran a hand through his hair. It had grown longer since his stint on this ship. Back home there were servants to tend to his every need and whim. Here, he was just a member of the general population and maybe more likely than most to lose track of mundane details like haircuts, since he had never had to keep track of them himself.
If she’s my mate, it doesn’t matter. I could be wearing a bucket over my head…
At least that’s what he hoped.
She was human. Had such a pairing ever happened before?
What if the bond didn’t even work between them?
Or worse, what if it only affected him?
There’s only one way to find out.
Zane took a deep breath and opened the door.
3
Zane
Zane stepped inside and time seemed to slow.
The princess stood before two large wardrobe carts. The bright light of the room set highlights gleaming in her dark hair - glimmers of red and light brown that almost sang to his eyes, like playing the harmonics on a pipe lute.
Her dress sighed as she bent to look at a tag and the light played off the satiny fabric too, sending it dancing as if it were on fire.
She turned to him and her eyes widened slightly. They were brown with a ring of blue around the iris, a color the humans wrongfully called hazel or green.
“How may I assist you?”
The BFF droid’s demanding voice cut through Zane’s haze.
He blinked away from the girl to look at the metallic drone that hovered in the air before him, its wings a blur.
“I’m to be the valet for Princess Juno Adair,” he said.
“Princess Juno already has a valet headed down from sector three,” the BFF replied.
“Not anymore,” Zane said, barely restraining a snarl at the impudence of the tiny machine. He reminded himself that as far as these people knew, he was just a commoner. And after his stint of physical labor in the forest and his sprint to get here, he probably didn’t paint the most presentable picture of himself.
“Anna Nilsson gave me the assignment,” he informed them.
“Verifying,” the droid chirped.
He fought the temptation to look at the girl. He needed to stay sharp in case there was any problem.
“Confirmed,” it sang out. “We look forward to working with you.”
“We?” he asked.
“This BFF droid has been assigned to help me,” the princess said softly, with a touch of amazement in her lilting voice. Her wondrous smile confirmed that she was impressed with the little droid.
Maybe she ruled over some backwater planet where the tech was still low-grade. Plenty of human settlements were like that, especially in the outer rings.
Hope blossomed in his heart.
It was extinguished almost immediately when he remembered the gown she was wearing. He knew first-hand the value of that kind of craftsmanship. Hell, the materials alone amounted to more than most colonists brought in over a full cycle.
This princess clearly had money, and plenty of it. Maybe her parents hadn’t wanted to spoil her with her own droid, that was all. But she could clearly afford several. She was all the more likely to become a petulant diva now that she was traveling alone with access to all their credits and connections.
He’d already known enough spoiled, trust-fund babies to last him a lifetime.
But what was he supposed to do?
She called to him like a missing piece of his own soul.
Maybe he could find a way to see past the gown.
He lost himself for a moment, picturing exactly what it would be like to get her out of that gown…
“My name is BFF-67,” the droid said happily, bringing him back to his senses.
“Nice to meet you,” Zane replied. “I’m Zane. Let’s get you both to your room.”
The princess nodded, looking a little dazed.
“Do we know where we’re going?” he asked.
“The Cloud Suite,” BFF-67 said helpfully. “Penthouse level.”
“Yeah, I know,” he said.
Red rings of Cylonius, she’s staying in The Cloud Suite.
The Cloud Suite was a set of rooms so decadent, so wildly expensive that they went empty more often than they were occupied. The Cloud Suite wasn’t a room, or even really a suite. It was practically a palace.
“One of these is yours, your majesty?” he asked, indicating one of the wardrobe carts.
/> She didn’t respond.
“Both are hers,” BFF-67 sang out.
“Excellent,” he said, grabbing a cart handle in each hand.
They were extremely heavy, undoubtedly weighed down with rich fabrics and ample accessories.
Though now that he knew where she was staying, he doubted anything else about her wealth would impress him.
He pulled and the carts groaned. Then the grip-wheels let go and began to move.
The BFF sailed ahead of them out into the main ship.
Zane paused waiting for the princess to follow the drone, so that he could follow her at a respectful distance.
She stood still as a rock, observing him with her lovely dual-colored eyes.
It was the mating bond, he realized. She must be feeling it, too.
“After you, your majesty,” he said, averting his eyes.
She gasped a little and then scurried after the droid.
He smiled in spite of himself as he followed after her.
The carts were heavy, but after his work in the trees, this was nothing. The pull and stretch felt good to his muscles.
They passed shopfronts and a steady flow of guests. But in spite of the rich colors and textures that awaited his eyes, he was unable to pull his gaze from the princess’s dark hair.
At last they reached a door made of carved Alsamian wood and entered the stately hallway that led to the private chute to the Cloud Suite.
“What’s this?” the princess asked her droid.
“It’s a private chute,” the droid said proudly. “We will be the only ones using it.”
The platform hovered and the princess observed it uncertainly.
Could she really not know how to use a simple chute?
Maybe her planet had only single-story dwellings because of unstable seismic conditions. Or maybe she just had her servants carry her up the stairs.
“Step onto the platform, your majesty,” Zane said quietly. “Once we have boarded, you can tell it where to go.”
She shot him a grateful look and then unceremoniously hoisted up her skirt to step onboard. The movement, like the woman, was a study in contradiction, and Zane couldn’t help but long to know everything about her.