by Alma Nilsson
“Why would the most racist and most powerful civilization in the galaxy suddenly want human women for wives?”
Tir did not answer her but enjoyed watching her beautiful face while she figured it out for herself. It was an easy answer to an easy question.
After a couple of seconds she said regretfully, “You have got a demographics issue, of course, and now you think you can replenish your ailing genetic stock with humans? How arrogant of you Admiral, I’m sure the GC will have something to say about this. You cannot just pillage human women. And who’s to say whatever is affecting your women will not kill us too?”
“You misunderstand,” Tir said evenly, “We’re not abducting anyone. You’ve been gifted with citizenship to the most powerful and prestigious Empire in the galaxy. You’re volunteering to be the first human women to become wives to some of the best men. Do you think the GC is going to waste their time on this? Humans are nothing. Actually, I think the GC would probably congratulate us for bringing some of you out of the dark ages, even if we are taking a risk that whatever is effecting our women affecting you too, but trust me, I don’t think it will. Again, you should be thanking me, Captain. You’ll be one of the lucky ones as we are only going to invite a select few to begin integration.”
Kara was frustrated, “Take that little sword you’re wearing and kill me then. I’ll not marry an alien and neither will any of my female crew. Humans don’t mix with other species. We find you and the rest of the aliens of the galaxy repulsive.” This was a lie, Kara herself had been known to, on occasion, to have the odd love affair with a passing alien trader, and even right now, she found this Alliance Admiral incredibly attractive despite her mind wanting to hate him for what he was telling her. “Nor do we participate in such archaic and barbaric practices as marriage,” she spat the word ‘marriage’ as she would talk about any other brutal action. Humans might have been behind the entire galaxy technologically speaking, but they considered themselves to be quite sophisticated culturally and had given up religion and concepts of marriage centuries ago.
Tir loved her ferocity, “I admire your spirit, Captain, so I’ve decided to make an example of you. It’s obvious that if I force you to do this, your female crew will fall in line. So, congratulations, you’ll be the first to marry, here onboard my ship tonight and if you resist, I’ll execute every man from your crew until you agree,” he was willing to execute all the human men anyway, all except their doctor who might be useful.
“My crew would all rather die than see any human women barbarically forced to marry Alliance men.”
“Really?” Tir asked in mocking disbelief. “Why don’t we put this to the test then?” he ordered his guards to bring in two, human, male officers through his communicator. Tir didn’t need to specify to make one of them, her first officer. His guards were not ignorant of why he would ask some of her men to be brought in.
Kara’s first officer and communication officer were brought into the conference room. They were bound together with a kind of laser. Her young communication officer had tears in his eyes and looked scared. Conversely, her first officer was ready to die for whatever the cause. But she could not let them die over something so ridiculous as marrying an alien. Kara could run away from a husband, but she was no necromancer. In an instant, her mind accepted her current fate then, and as was in her personality, she already began scheming in those few seconds how she could win the trust of an Alliance man and at the same time steal superior Alliance weaponry, possibly even a ship and return to Earth. Before the Admiral even gave the order to execute her men, she said promptly, “You win, Admiral. I’ll marry an Alliance man today. Let my men return to Earth in our ship, if that is the deal?”
Her first officer began to protest but was punched and subsequently led away with her communications officer by the same guards who brought them in.
Admiral Tir was pleased. He looked at this adorable human Captain, considering all the single men on his ship and who he would give her to. Any of his men would obey him and take her as a wife immediately, but in these few minutes with her alone, he had developed a favoritism for her so he decided that he would pray on the matter. He, of course, wanted her for himself, but taking a human would seriously jeopardize his status and future goals in the Empire.
Tir called in his guards, without breaking eye contact with her, “Your men will be released after you fulfill your end of the bargain tonight. Guards, please escort Captain Rainer to my quarters where she may prepare for her wedding.”
The guards were only momentarily surprised by his words but swiftly obeyed and escorted Kara out roughly by the arms.
Kara did not break eye contact with the attractive Admiral as she was lead out. She thought, I guess we have a deal then, no handshake, no telling me who I am going to marry?
Tir watched Captain Rainer be led out and then as soon as she was gone, left the conference room and went to the large shrine onboard the ship. Only a couple of other men were there praying in front of the various gods’ and goddesses’ statues as he entered. The shrine was a dark room, lit only by artificial candlelight around the various statues. Tir stood before the goddess of home and said a prayer. He closed his eyes and prayed for the goddess to guide him.
Make no mistake, the Alliance gods were not only real but took a genuine interest in their people’s lives, and at that moment the goddess of home wanted to make an example of Tir, just as Tir wanted to make an example of the Captain Rainer. From her magnificent palace in the Alliance Heavens, the goddess of home lifted her hand and silently commanded Tir by infusing his mortal body with blind lust for the human, Marry her yourself Tir. I have brought her to you to fulfill your destiny to the Empire. Your desires will be recognized through this human.
Tir suddenly felt a deep feeling of longingness and even protectiveness over the human. He no longer only felt lust for her. The combination of all of these emotions made him realize that he could not give her away to any of his men, no matter how honorable.
Tir summoned his squire, Mux, and ordered him to procure some Alliance dresses for Captain Rainer from the replicator and get her to wash herself. After his revelation in the shrine, he was confident in his destiny. He would marry her tonight, and as much as he wanted to unzip that filthy uniform and ravish her as an inferior human, he also wanted her in a respectable Alliance dress and clean. As this was going to be their wedding night, he did not want her to hold this little thing over him for the rest of their lives. He assured himself that he would have time to roleplay later with her human uniform, as he had no intention of returning her to the Capital Planet anytime soon.
Kara was taken to the Admiral’s quarters and guarded by the two guards in a dull sitting room with no patterns and only the colors of grey, yellow and black. She sat on the sofa while the guards stood for about twenty minutes until a young man came in. Kara guessed him to be still a teenager.
“Captain Rainer, you must undress and wash yourself,” he pointed to the bathroom. Mux had never spoken to a human before and found her coloring to be unnerving. She looked Alliance but all the wrong colors.
“Ha,” she laughed, “I’m not bathing. I said I would marry nothing more.”
Mux did not know how to handle this. She was going to be his master’s wife. As such, he had to obey her. However, he reasoned, she was not his wife yet, and the Admiral would be furious with him if she was not presented as he wanted. Mux made a decision then and drew out his sword. He was prepared to force her to get clean. “Take off your clothes and get yourself, clean human. You are Alliance now and we wash our bodies daily.”
Kara took the opportunity to knock the young man hard enough that she could make a grab for his sword and nearly succeeded in getting the upper hand.
Mux was surprised only for an instant. Even though he was young, he had been training in the military since he was seven years old. He only struggled to get his sword back for an instant, and then he easily was able to pin the human back. Sh
e undoubtedly had some nicks from the scrap, “Stop this now. You cannot escape. Go bathe yourself.”
Kara had to admit defeat and walked into the bathroom at sword point.
Mux locked the door behind her, saying as the door closed, “I'll only let you out when you are clean.”
Kara just looked at the boy unemotionally and thought, What a ridiculous situation this is? After the door had closed and locked, she looked at her reflection in the mirror, and she had to admit, she looked like a woman who had been captured in war. Her uniform was dirty and had blood stains on it and her short brown hair was very messy, especially in places that it had blood in it. She took off her clothes then and entered the shower area. As she did, the shower spoke to her, and she jumped almost losing her balance. Kara hated cleansing technology as it always caught her off guard.
“Please state your name human,” the shower ordered.
“Kara,” she replied.
“Scanning. Be warned. The maximum water temperature is 25C.”
The shower began raining water down on her, and she screamed as it was so cold.
Mux, hearing the human scream from outside rushed inside the bathroom quickly to make sure she had not hurt herself. He was momentarily dumbstruck by her body and just stared.
Kara told him sternly, “Get out, boy!” When he had retreated, she stood deadly still and let the cold water run over her, trying not to shiver. She had some cuts from her scuffle with the young man which stung when the shower provided her with soap and shampoo, but she had to admit to herself it was good to get clean. The Alliance soap smelled rather nice, something flowery, but alien a reminder that she was not in a safe place.
When the water stopped, the shower dried her off with some waves of chilly air blown on her, from top and bottom. She didn’t even think about her messy hair which had dried very badly. Then she looked in the mirror, and the mirror lit up and switched on. The same automated voice offered a hand-held laser to brush her teeth. She used it. She suspected it was the Admiral’s, so she felt some small retribution in using his laser toothbrush. As she brushed her teeth, she tried to remember what his teeth looked like. She wondered if they were pointy, she could not remember. Kara had heard so many rumors about Alliance people in her life. She honestly did not know what she should believe. She did know one thing, that was a fact, Alliance and humans were the only two genetically compatible species in the known galaxy. Thinking on that gave her a chill. She put the laser toothbrush back and took in her appearance. I’m clean for this marriage thing at least. Then she could not help but smile at the ridiculousness of it all. A human marrying, hilarious, she thought. She looked for her uniform, which she had left on the floor, but it was gone. The boy must have taken it, she thought disdainfully.
Kara walked into the bedroom naked, but clean and dry. She had expected to see the young man there, but she was alone. Not one to waste an opportunity; she took the time to look around the Admiral’s quarters; he had three rooms, a bedroom, a sitting area, and a dining room. Kara thought to herself, Being an Admiral in the Alliance certainly has its benefits. She opened his tall black lacquer wardrobe, inside hung three black uniforms, one stood out from the others, and she guessed this must be a formal uniform. Kara saw numerous black wooden boxes of various shapes and sizes stacked underneath the uniforms and was about to go through them when the young man returned. She closed the wardrobe and thought, If I get a chance later, I’m absolutely going through those boxes. If Kara was anything, she was curious.
Mux was surprised to see the human naked going through the Admiral’s wardrobe. However, he felt, as she would soon be his wife anyway, he would not reprimand her for going through his master’s personal belongings. So he ignored her and set three, plain, Alliance dresses out on the bed.
Kara watched the young man and recognized these dresses as typical Alliance women dresses, not that Alliance women ever left their planets, but she had seen numerous videos and pictures of them. She knew from seeing them before that they would drape unattractively, like soft boxes, over her body. Kara reflected that Alliance women had very little in the way of curves on their bodies, so maybe that was a reason they liked the boxy look. But she did not want to wear one of these ugly dresses.
“Where’s my uniform?”
“I threw it in the recycling,” he lied, Admiral Tir told him to keep it and try to clean it, but he needed her to wear one of these dresses for the marriage ceremony. “Choose a dress. I made these based on your uniform measurements, and I even made them thicker for you, as you are human and a woman, so they will keep you warm onboard.”
“Do Alliance women require more warmth as well?”
Mux gave her a look of disbelief, “Yes, women prefer a temperature of 19C.”
“What’s the temperature on this ship then?”
“Men prefer a temperature of 15C.” Mux paused and then added, “You may raise the temperature to 19C in your husband’s quarters.”
“How thoughtful,” Kara replied and took the black dress, she was freezing without any clothes on, “Where are my undergarments?”
“We don’t have such things in the Alliance. Alliance women wear nothing but stockings under their dresses,” he handed her some almost transparent stockings. He then turned, putting the other two dresses in the Admiral's wardrobe.
Kara watched the young man put the other dresses in the Admiral’s wardrobe and thought, Well, Admiral Good-Looking is marrying me himself. Good. She had to admit it was honorable that he would not ask anyone of his crew to do what he was not prepared to do himself.
Kara looked over the other items he brought and then asked, “Where are my shoes?”
“I didn’t have time to have any made. You’ll have some by tomorrow,” Mux lied. Mux purposely did not make shoes for her as there would be less of a chance of her escaping with shoes. He knew who she was and that she was not a stupid woman by any means. Her beauty may blind the Admiral, but Mux was going to take all the precautions he could think of to keep her where she was supposed to be.
“I need shoes now,” Kara demanded.
Mux shook his head, “Tonight you’ll marry, and you’ll not be leaving these quarters for many days, I suspect. Shoes aren’t a priority for you.”
Kara narrowed her eyes at the young man. She would make her new husband get her some shoes. Then she turned her attention to fastening the ugly dress.
Mux watched her struggle with the clasps of the dress. After a few minutes, he sighed and said, “Let me.”
Kara moved her hands away from the clasps and watched the young man expertly close the dress. Unfortunately, he did it too quickly for her to see how he managed. However, once done, she had to admit, although the dress was unattractive, it was both warm and surprisingly comfortable.
Kara sat on the sofa with the young man across from her for at least an hour in silence. She had tried to ask him as many questions as possible to get any information she could that would help her escape, but he had been trained well and did not respond to her. So in the silence, after she had looked around the room for the millionth time, she finally nodded off to sleep. Soon her dreams drifted to a long-haired alien with a muscular body putting his hands and tongue all over her. She was awoken suddenly by the sound of the door opening and wondered if she had made any sounds during her sleep. She felt her cheeks were flushed and she was soaking wet between her legs, but the young man’s facial expression was still very much neutral when she looked over at him in the chair across from hers.
When Tir came in, Mux rose, bowed and left quickly. Tir took in the human, now washed and dressed in Alliance clothing and was satisfied that this is what the gods wanted for him. However, he frowned at her messy short hair.
Kara stood up, waiting for the Admiral to speak and was surprised when he said nothing but just walked right past her into his bedroom.
Tir retrieved his comb and then handed it to her silently.
Kara was so surprised, she did not than
k him but sat back down and began combing through her short hair, which had some knots and probably looked very wild.
Tir painfully watched her struggle with her hair for a couple minutes before he could not take it anymore. He silently took the comb from her hand, sat next to her on the sofa and said, “Just relax" then he activated the smart comb and quickly combed her hair slowly and gently until there were no more knots and her hair lay as he supposed it was supposed to. If he was going to marry this human, he didn’t want her looking like an ungroomed garden animal. And if he was honest with himself, he had wanted to run his hands through her brown hair since he had met her, and he was not disappointed. Her hair was soft and light. Tir could not help himself and purposely touched the back of her neck gently with his hand with every stroke of the comb. He was pleased that she did not tell him to stop or move away from him. It was an electrifying touch for them both, which was good because soon he would be touching her everywhere, inside and out.
Kara was surprised by his gentleness. She found that she was becoming aroused by his actions, his closeness, the smell of him, like petrichor, and the power he had over her. His forcing her to marry him was a situation Kara had never imagined ever to be in, but against all of her instincts, she found there was something sexy about this whole thing. She turned to look around at him when he had finished combing her hair, and their eyes met, Are you not going to kiss me? Do aliens kiss? she wondered.
Her face expressions amused Tir. First, it was evident that she wanted some more physical attention, but then her expression changed, and it became apparent something entirely different had crossed her mind. He caressed her cheek with the back of his hand and got up to return the comb to its place. When he returned to the sitting room, he found her in front of the locked door. He came up behind her and unlocked the door. It opened in front of her.
Kara did not move but just looked out into the corridor in front of her. His heavily armed guards were there, they looked at her and then to Tir towering above her. She could feel him motion to them with his hand, and then they nodded. He then closed the door again and locked it. She still didn’t move. He was standing right behind her. His body pressed up against hers.