Married to the Alien Admiral: Renascence Alliance Series Book 1

by Alma Nilsson

  Tir rose from the table and went into the bedroom. He returned with the necklace that she had left in her bag with the dress she had been wearing earlier. He placed the necklace around her warm neck, caressing it as he did so, “Now you are perfection,” he said and kissed the top of her head.

  “I thought you said that I was perfection and the goddess herself when I was naked? I’d rather be naked than wear this heavy necklace.”

  “You must become civilized. Only then you will be able to enjoy everything the Alliance has to offer you, and I guarantee you will not be disappointed. Please leave your human prejudices about what it means to be civilized in the galaxy behind. You are an Alliance citizen now. I’ll not stop reminding you until you begin to believe it and live a proper Alliance life.”

  Slave

  Mux came at exactly seven o’clock and laid out the evening meal for Kara and Tir who had already had more than a couple cups of wine while they waited for the food. Kara had learned her lesson now about meal times in the Alliance and that they were not something to be trifled with.

  Mux set down the luke-warm vegetables in front of Kara, “I never thought I’d be so delighted to see these texture-less and tasteless vegetables again, but here we are.”

  “Be grateful for what the gods provide Kara.”

  “You know most people in the galaxy eat anytime they want?” she said casually.

  “And who controls most of the galaxy?” he asked condescendingly. “Not any society that cannot control themselves to eat at appropriate times, certainly not humans. It’s because the Alliance follows the gods’ edicts so closely; we are rewarded in our mortal lives. Do not be so obstinate about becoming civilized, my human wife, it’ll only annoy us both, and it is a battle you will most certainly lose.”

  Kara wanted to throw a vegetable at him but resisted because she was so hungry, “Listen up my darling Husband,” she could see him bristle when she called him that and decided it was better than throwing a vegetable. “I’m not a pet that needs to be trained. You forced me to marry you knowing full well that I’m human. I’m not going to give thanks to any gods for something that I know was procured only by mortal hands. Show me the gods doing something for me, and I’ll give them thanks.”

  Tir just looked at adorable human and wondered how he was going to get her to behave in a more dignified manner. Humans were the most beautiful species in the known galaxy, but they were unorganized, undisciplined, impulsive, and heathens. And it did come as a surprise to him that she did not want to embrace Alliance culture and thank him for marrying her. When they were intimate things were easy between them, they had a strong and natural attraction to one another, but when he was trying to instruct her, to civilize her, gain her loyalty, she stubbornly refused to obey. Tir had saved her ship and crew, none of them had been harmed, yet she seemed ungrateful. True, he denied her some things, but it was only because he could not trust her. Tir knew though, once she was loyal to him and the Alliance, she would be a strong force to be reckoned with, not just an annoying mostly harmless human hanging around the galaxy.

  “Kara,” he said more gently now hoping that a softer hand might work better, “Do you remember the first time we said each other’s names?”

  “Yes,” she said softly now. They had both felt something larger than them resonate between them. “It was only a few days ago.”

  “How could you think those feelings could come from anything but the gods?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe you are drugging me to think so?”

  “Drugs are forbidden in the maximum class,” he said in a matter fact way that made her curious.

  She looked at him confused then and decided to take this further, she needed as much information as she could get about the Alliance and until she could read properly, she had access to nothing but the people around her. “I know so little about Alliance culture. What do you mean, maximum class?”

  “Alliance people are separated into three distinct classes, maximum, middling, and slave.”

  “Are you born into them?”

  “Yes,” he said, watching her. “We’re born into our class and our House.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Almost every Alliance citizen is born into a House, regardless of class. This is the first point of identification.” Tir pointed to one of his necklaces that had some illegible inscription on it, “This is my House. We don’t say it because you can see it. Everyone wears a necklace like this, from slaves to the Emperor.”

  “That must take the fun out of a lot of initial conversations.”

  “It saves time. We don’t waste time talking to the wrong people.”

  Kara could not even comment on that; it sounded so terrible to her ears.

  “What about those people not born into a House? Are they just unlucky?”

  “Yes, the only reason not to be born into a House is because your parents married outside their class or the child was conceived before marriage.”

  “You’re really selling the Alliance to me, don’t stop talking,” Kara said sarcastically.

  “I didn’t make the laws. And again, shall we compare the lack of the high standard of living in the Alliance with that of humanity’s?”

  She was humbled then, “No. So what happens to these people who are born without a House?”

  “They are not abandoned, but in adulthood, they can never hold an official post. Most of them become traders or pirates in the galaxy.”

  “Are there many of these Alliance people without Houses?”

  “A couple million. People do fall in love with the wrong people all the time,” Tir commented.

  “Why not change the laws then? What’s the point of keeping people who love each other apart?”

  “It’s not up to us. It’s up to the gods, and they still forbid it.”

  Kara wanted to ask, ‘You cannot believe that?’ but she held her tongue.

  “Everything will make more sense to you when you know more about our culture.”

  “I …” she began but was interrupted by a chime at the door.

  Tir grabbed Kara’s hand from across the table and said, “It’s someone to teach you more about Alliance culture,” he said with a bit of humor that she did not trust. Tir led Kara to the sofa and then went to open the door.

  Kara watched Tir let in the female slave artist. She did not know what to expect as she had never actually seen an Alliance woman more than at a distance or on media, let alone an Alliance prostitute. And Kara had certainly not expected to see the woman who walked in with Tir now.

  “Captain Kara, this is slave artist Sera, the most charming woman in the Empire.”

  Kara did not know if she was charming or not as Sera had not spoken yet, but she could not deny Sera might be the most beautiful creature she had ever seen, despite being grey-skinned and wearing an ugly green Alliance dress that looked like a box. Sera did wear a lot of ornate jewelry that added more shape to her dress, and now Kara could begin to understand why Alliance women wore the jewelry, to add definition to the boring dresses. Kara was taking in her appearance with fascination. She reckoned Sera must be wearing at least five to eight necklaces all of different lengths and made of different metals with stones as well as many bracelets and long earrings that almost touched her shoulders. She also had her long black hair pulled up in the most intricate braids with many jeweled hair accessories. Finally, Kara looked at her face, which was a perfect heart-shape with sharp grey eyes almost matching her skin and high cheekbones and decided that this is what physical perfection looked like. Her skin looked so perfect that even Kara wanted to reach out and stroke her.

  Tir offered Sera a seat and some wine, she took both but only had eyes for Kara. She had never seen a human woman before and was startled by her short brown hair, big brown eyes, and golden skin. She wished that Kara had not been dressed in an Alliance dress as it revealed nothing about her figure which had been rumored around the fleet to be such curvy people were s
aying she looked like the goddess herself. Sera smiled at Kara, “What would you like me to entertain you with this evening?”

  Kara took a sip of wine, assuming Tir was going to answer this question, but when he did not answer, she swallowed the wine and asked, “What would you suggest for someone who has been forced into marriage and knows almost next to nothing about Alliance culture? Is there a story about that?”

  Sera smiled at Kara and looked to Tir for approval to grant this request. He nodded. “There is the ancient myth about the Lost People I think you would find interesting.”

  “Is it a long myth?”

  Sera smiled, “No, it is not long. Would you like me to recite it for you?”

  “Yes,” said Kara realizing that she had to ask Sera to do something since Tir was no doubt paying her to be there and entertain them. This is so bizarre, Kara thought to herself.

  Sera stood up then and dramatically began telling the story of the Lost People:

  Long ago, when the Alliance was still an infant and ships got lost, a fleet of explorers and scientists were pulled to the other side of the galaxy by an unknown force. Unable to come back, they found an almost inhospitable planet, too bright, too hot, but uninhabited except for some small animals. They sent a message back to the Empire explaining their situation, begging to be rescued. The message took over one-hundred years to arrive. When it was received, the Alliance had already counted those in that fleet for dead. The Empress and Emperor then were very greedy and did not want to waste time and resources to look for some citizens who may or may not be still alive and waiting to be rescued. The Imperial Family decided to conceal the information about the Lost People. They had the message destroyed. From that point forward, everything only got better for the Empire, technology, military, colonies, and Alliance civilization in the known galaxy soared, and no one thought about the rumored Lost People again, until we discovered a species almost like our own. They called themselves ‘humans. We sent ships to investigate them before they had the technology to understand what we were doing. We believed that these humans were most likely the Lost People. However, since the Empress and Emperor of the past had all the original documents destroyed, no one remembered the exact location of the Lost People. So, it was decided, conveniently, that humans were not the Lost People and the Alliance continued to expand and almost completely to ignore humanity. But now, the gods are punishing the Alliance for not retrieving the Lost People when we were twice given the opportunity to do so. They are making us suffer with low-female birth rates and catastrophic disruptions to our perfectly ordered society. We have been given a third chance now, to accept humans back into the fold or die from our pride.

  “Who believes this?” asked Kara a bit spellbound.

  Sera looked at Tir and then back to Kara, “Any of us who consider themselves to walk in the light of the gods.”

  “So, almost all of you?” Kara asked.

  Sera nodded, “Humans are the Lost People, you must feel that in your blood. Our skin colors are the only difference between us.”

  Kara shook her head, “No, we aren’t. Do you have any proof? Where did all the Alliance technology go from Earth then? We’ve been the last civilization to modernize in almost everything in the known galaxy. If we were the so-called Lost People, we wouldn’t be that far behind the Alliance.”

  “It’s possible that the first Lost People destroyed their Alliance technology to start over. We don’t know why or how as there’s no record on Earth or in the Empire, although there are many conspiracy theories about it. One thing we all know for certain, humans are the only other species in the galaxy genetically like us, and now humans will have to save us. The myth and the reality are aligned now. You’ve no proof that you are not the Lost People. Nothing you can hold up and say, ‘See humans are organic to this planet’ because you are not. There are too many similarities, not only in genetics but in your ancient cultures. You are us. Thanks be to the gods who light our paths.”

  Kara just drank some more wine thinking about this. She knew so little about Alliance culture and religion, so there was no way that she could compare it to ancient Earth cultures and religions to the Alliance religion.

  Sera watched Kara thinking she was so lovely and hoped that she would be able to stay longer, but she had to be invited to do so. Sera was going to be as charming as possible, “Did you enjoy the myth even if you do not believe in it?”

  “It was very interesting as far as myths go. I think it makes for good propaganda now when you are trying to get human women to have children for you and conform to your archaic beliefs.”

  “Even if it was just propaganda, do you think it would work?”

  “I think the Alliance would’ve had a better chance if you would have asked us for help and not insisted on making us marry. You’re just taking and forcing us to do things that we find barbaric which won’t result in compliance. Think of all the children that will be born out of anger because of this.”

  “Will our children be born out of anger, Kara?” Tir asked evenly, clearly annoyed.

  “If you continue to keep me on the tight leash you have me on now, then most definitely yes, they will. I’m quite used to being as free as you are Tir. And I doubt you would like to be as confined as I am for the foreseeable future.”

  “This is true, but you are on the losing end of getting what you want. You came to this war expecting to die in your little ship.”

  She bristled at him calling her ship little, although it was little compared to his.

  “And you didn’t die, I saved you, but instead of gratitude for saving you and your crew and even marrying you, you continually deny your destiny, a destiny clearly set out for you from the gods and only trying to escape.”

  Kara looked at him in disbelief, “And you wouldn’t do the same in my position?”

  “No, I’d accept my new fate. And in some ways, I’ve given up more than you have. I have jeopardized everything by marrying a human.”

  Kara was getting angry now, “Then why did you do it? Why am I not dead or with the rest of my female crew?”

  “You know why. It was the will of the gods. You’ve experienced the same as I have in these last few days. They’ve thrown us together forever. Our paths are linked, and the sooner you stop acting like you are alone in this galaxy and that you have any control over your fate, the better. I’m getting tired of dragging you along and reminding you of your place.”

  “Tir, we are in control of our fates,” Kara said evenly.

  Tir rose, but then Sera interrupted them before this argument escalated, “Captain Kara, I’ve never met a human before. I know little of human culture, could you tell me why you find Admiral Tir so disagreeable? In our culture, if someone saves your life, you owe them yours. This is why the Admiral struggles with your stubbornness not to give yourself to him in every way.”

  “He definitely has my gratitude,” Kara said, answering Sera but looking at Tir seriously. “But I cannot just give myself to anyone. Humans do not marry anymore, and we are in control of our destinies. I cannot just walk away from my beliefs because I got lucky is not something that I am comfortable with. I’m not willing to give up my freedom to Tir or mythological gods.”

  Both Sera and Tir were shaking their heads at her, “The gods control all of our destinies here. You were meant to be with Admiral Tir. You know it, Captain. Everyone on this ship can see it between you two, but you resist every time you remember something about your life before. Open your eyes and accept your fate.”

  “I’ve been forced into marriage and seen my female crew off for the same fate, and just because I don’t mind having sex with Tir does not mean we were meant for anything. I’ve enjoyed sex with a lot of men in my life. It’s a primal animal instinct. There’s nothing spiritual about it.”

  Sera smiled, “I agree with you, sex is an instinct all species have, but it doesn’t always stop there. I know that you are clever enough to understand that, even if you do not
believe in the gods or fate. Humans must fall in love, and even if you do not marry, you do decide to spend a considerable amount of time with people you consider special in your life, don’t you? I don’t know much about humanity, but I can’t imagine it being so different than Alliance culture. As far as you and Admiral Tir’s relationship, I just am telling you what I know and see. I can also see that the truth makes you very uncomfortable right now, so let’s talk about something else. As a slave artist, I represent the living and breathing culture of the Alliance Empire onboard this ship. I can tell you anything you would like to know. Please ask me something.”

  Kara looked into her grey eyes, “Tell me how you think my female human crew are faring now on your capital planet being married off like animals?”

  “Oh, they would not be just married off. I heard that Admiral Tir pushed you a bit…” Kara interrupted her.

  “Coerced,” Kara corrected her.

  “But I also heard that you had an instant connection, so even if he might have pushed you for marriage, you don’t look completely unhappy nor are you chained up here.”

  Kara had to admit that this was true. Had she met Tir under different circumstances, she had no doubt that they would have fallen in love, the marriage part. She was unsure of but definitely would have fallen in love. “I’m not physically chained no, but I’m locked in and can’t leave. Who told you we had an instant connection?”

  “Someone who witnessed you both together came to see me afterward,” Sera said with a knowing smile.

  Kara blushed, she knew that must have been Doctor Siu. She then remembered his eyes on her as she rode Tir. “What did the good doctor say about us?”

  Sera smiled seductively, “He said that your beauty was unparalleled and that your body was the most perfect female form he had ever seen. Doctor Siu was jealous that he could not touch you as Tir was doing, but that he could only be a spectator.”

  Kara thought about that for a second, and she could not help but be aroused. She tried to get control of herself again, though before this did turn into a threesome. “Sera, tell me, how do you think my female crew will find their husbands? Will they be physically forced?” She did not add, ‘as I was’ because she was not forced to have sex with Tir. Not ever, she wanted him, and despite him being irritating now talking about their destiny, she still desired him, his body against hers. She had never felt this way about anyone.