by Alma Nilsson
“Limited, but I will allow it in good time.”
“I want a ship.”
“I am not even sure I can trust you to walk down to the shrine and back. I am certainly not giving you a ship.”
“What can I do to change your mind? I would have an Alliance crew loyal to you. It is not as if I could get far. I could be a big help in the final battle.”
“I am trying to keep you safe. You are definitely not going into battle only to find an easier way to escape. I may not be as intelligent as you are Wife, but I am certainly not a fool either.”
“I want to talk with my crew that you sent to the capital planet as soon as possible.”
“I know you already have had an update from your doctor, so there is no rush.”
She looked at him and again wondered what he was hiding. “What difference does it make?”
“I will decide when you can talk to them. Not tomorrow or the next day.” He didn’t want her telling them too much about her life onboard or that she was pregnant. The Alliance needed to believe she was here by choice and that they were destined to be together.
She decided by his tone that there was no way she was going to find out why she could not speak to them tomorrow. She needed to put him in a better mood for him to explain his reasoning, so she dropped it for now.
She switched back on her hieroglyphics learning program and began the next chapter. He went out again and did not say where he was going. He did this sometimes, and she did not ask, because he always was back within an hour, usually less. She assumed maybe he had more work to do or was talking to someone, a friend possibly.
After the evening meal, she went to him and put her arms around his neck. Seductively she said, “You still haven’t punished me for last night, as you said you would.”
He kissed her and then said, “No, but now that will have to wait. I don’t want to do anything that might hurt the baby.”
“Just a little, I don’t think it will hurt the baby. I know you have that whip in your wardrobe.”
“Kara, no.” He was so aroused thinking about what happened at the gym and how he could whip her now for it, but then he thought about the baby and used all his self-control to separate himself from her physically.
“So, we are not going even to have sex? People don’t stop having sex when they become pregnant Tir.”
“This is too important.”
She came up behind him again and put her arms around him. He sighed and put his hands over hers, “Tir, I need you. I am so lost right now, and I need you. You are making me betray my people, and I don’t believe in the gods’ or destiny. It is just us, just you. I need you to make me believe this is right or I honestly don’t know what I will do.” I might kill myself or the child, she thought.
He turned around and kissed her. In between kisses, he said, “You have me.” He put his hands on the sides of her head and looked into her brown eyes, “You are saving everyone. This is your destiny, and you have me. Gods Kara, you have me.”
Kara kissed him passionately as she undressed him so slowly and gently; she could feel him begin to relax into the situation completely. When he was naked, she began kissing him everywhere and then said before taking the tip of his ridged penis into her mouth, “See we weren’t going against the gods by me doing this yesterday.” Although it was great that you thought so when I was doing it, she thought as she began lightly flicking her tongue across his frenulum, up and down, to get him more aroused and to stop thinking about everything so seriously.
Before she took him into her mouth, she moved down to his balls and began gently licking them and caressing them lightly with her fingers. She was on her knees and looked up at him. They held eye contact for half a minute before she spoke, “Just tell me if you don’t like it,” she said playfully.
He wanted to tell her, ‘To be serious,’ but the words would not come out as she was already giving him so much pleasure and the idea that she was going to do this again made him more aroused than he had been in a long time.
Kara looked back down and began kissing the inside of his thighs, licking his penis up and down slowly, purposely avoiding the tip and then finally after countless minutes of teasing him began taking him into her mouth and sucking. Then she would lightly blow on it, and she heard him gasp, ‘Gods’ and she smiled.
He was way too big even to consider deep throating him. She hated that anyway, so she just concentrated on what she was good at, keeping it nice, slow and pleasurable. She had never had any complaints before even though she had to admit to herself, she would not include fellatio as one of her top sexual skills. She looked up at him again and made eye contact just before he was going to come and asked, “Do you want me to swallow your come, or do you want it somewhere else?”
He couldn’t think, What a strange question. “Swallow it.”
She smiled and then continued, she had to bring him back, but she was smiling to herself, thinking about the expression on his face when she asked. Obviously pearl necklaces were not something that Alliance men did, she thought. He came, and she swallowed it all and then wondered again at the taste of it, being just like human men, Are we the Lost People?
Tir looked down at Kara and pulled her up to him and embraced her. Then he began removing her clothing and said, “Let’s sleep for a while now.” He pulled her into bed with him as he held her close. Tir’s curiosity got the better of him, though, and he had to ask, “Kara?”
“Hmm,” she was almost asleep.
“Where do human men come if not in a woman’s mouth?”
She opened her eyes and smiled, thinking, You are going to think this is another dirty human thing, I can feel it already. “You could have come on my body somewhere, or I could have spit it out.”
“On the floor?” he asked disbelievingly. She could sense the next word, “Barbaric.”
“Why?”
“It has to do with both the gods and hygiene. There is a myth about…” before he could continue, she stopped him.
“I am too tired to hear about it now. I want to sleep.”
Kara fell asleep in minutes. When she woke the next morning, she vaguely remembered them having very slow sensual sex which he instigated during the night. She was relieved that she had been able to convince him that sex during pregnancy was fine. She wondered what other Alliance couples did. Did they not have sex and just fellatio for nine months? But then she thought about the amount of times he had already made her come and reasoned that maybe this was just the Alliance tradeoff between husband and wife as strange as it seemed. She was happy that she had been able to dispel that quickly. The only thing that kept her sane she thought was his touch.
A few days later, Kara was talking to the bathroom mirror, practicing her Alliance pronunciation when there was a chime at the door. Mux came in with a lot of clothing and things in his arms. He laid them on the bed and then began hanging the clothes up in the wardrobe. She looked at the clothing and noticed that it was made from a much finer material than the one she was wearing and asked, “Are those for special occasions?”
“Some are, but most are for every day. Admiral Tir wanted you to have clothing that suited your rank now, especially since you are reluctant even to wear the one necklace, he gave you.”
“How will I know which is which?” she asked, looking at the dresses that all just looked very nice to her, boxy in that terrible Alliance cut, but made of beautiful material.
“I will show you. Also, in those boxes on the table is jewelry for you. It is important that you become accustomed to wearing it.”
“Is this jewelry that the Admiral bought for me specifically, or are these pieces he might have already had for a potential future wife?” Kara had found that Mux was a good source of cultural information.
“Both. A man begins collecting jewelry for a future wife when he becomes of marrying age.”
“What is the marrying age?”
“Thirty-years old. Before that, a man is unabl
e to marry.”
Kara looked down at the jewelry, there was a lot of it and reflected, He has been buying this for a future wife for the last 15 years, for someone he didn’t even know. “I find this so strange.” She began opening the boxes and seeing the most gorgeous necklaces and bracelets she had ever seen. “I couldn’t imagine wearing any of this.”
“Aren’t you happy with the jewelry?”
“It is all stunning. It’s not that. It is your culture. It is so different,” Kara explained. “I am sure an Alliance woman would have been very happy to receive this, or?” she questioned.
“Yes,” he answered her patiently. As he saw Kara at all times of the day, he had more sympathy than most for her situation. He knew she was trying to understand their culture, but he reckoned it was just too much at once, they were at war, and it was a very unusual circumstance, her being both Admiral Tir’s prisoner and wife. “Men are publically, avid collectors of jewelry so that potential wives know what they will receive when they marry. Admiral Tir is said to have good taste and values quality over quantity.”
Kara looked at Mux stunned as she often did when he said these surprising things about their culture and tried to keep her mouth closed. It all seemed like something from medieval Earth. She closed the box to the necklace she was looking at and decided to change the subject. “Mux, Admiral Tir said he also ordered some human food. Could you bring some coffee to me and a list of what he bought?”
“Everything is the same as what you took from your ship before, coffee, tea, honey, salt, except the human owner, who was very curious about a human aboard an Alliance starship apparently, also included two other items and a personal message for you.” He pulled a communicator out of his pocket and brought up the message and showed it to her.
Hello fellow human, I hope that you will be happy with your shipment. I am also including some chocolate and a bottle of wine in our appreciation and hope you will be a regular customer. Bon Appétit.
Frank, Owner of the Earth Store, Alliance Empire
“Where is the chocolate and wine?” Kara asked excitedly.
“I took it to the kitchen to keep with your other things,” he replied casually.
“Bring all the chocolate and wine here, now.” She had not had human chocolate or wine in a year. She was going to have it now. She knew she could still have a glass of wine while being pregnant, and she needed to do it before Tir found out and had a heart attack and took it away from her. He had already removed the Alliance wine from his quarters. Even though John had told Tir it was fine he said, ‘We are taking no chances, Kara,’ she was so tired of hearing that phrase from him.
Mux set out an exquisite black dress for Kara on the bed and took some of the jewelry from the boxes and put it next to the dress. “Put on this dress and jewelry with no fuss, and I will bring you some of the chocolate and wine as a special favor, even though it is not mealtime. I can imagine how you miss things from Earth.” Mux, like many of the men onboard, were sympathetic to Kara’s situation. They admired her and wanted to make her as comfortable as possible, given the unusual circumstance. They were also all waiting in anticipation as well to see if human women could serve as replacements for the missing Alliance women from their own population, so they looked at Kara as if she represented the future of the Empire.
Kara took off her dress and put on this other one without even asking him to leave. Alliance citizens she had noticed cared little for being naked in front of one another, so she decided not to waste time between her and the chocolate by asking him to leave the room just for her modesty.
She then picked up the necklaces, and Mux came to help her. “You know, we put these on and take them off in an order, shortest to longest and then longest to shortest,” then he began putting them on her.” After he finished putting on her jewelry, he decided that she looked like a proper Alliance woman now. “This suits you,” he said, taking away the other dress.
Kara thought as he put on the heavy necklaces, I doubt this is what you signed up for when you joined the interstellar Alliance, poor boy. “Now go and get the chocolate,” she commanded him. Mux nodded and left. He was back in five minutes with the chocolate and wine. He set them down on the table in the dining room, and she said with delight, “Swiss chocolate and French wine. Open the wine Mux.”
He looked at the bottle and shook his head, “With what Captain Kara? I have never seen such an old-fashioned device. I don’t know how to open this,” he pointed at the cork.
“The Earth Store didn’t send a corkscrew?”
“There were no devices in the shipment.”
“Your sword. You can open it with your sword.”
“Excuse me?”
“It might work.”
“No. Show me what this corkscrew looks like and I will replicate one and never ask me to use my sword to open wine again.”
“It goes against the gods?” she asked as everything fun in the Alliance seemed to be against the gods.
“No, a man who would use his sword for foolish tasks is not a real warrior.”
“Oh,” she said to the young man and tried not to smile. She wondered then if she should wait and see if Tir would use his sword. Then she went to the computer and tried to bring up a picture of a corkscrew, but as usual, she was locked out of everything but the children’s learning and the ship’s internal communications.
Without thinking, Mux accessed the guest user, “Show me now,” he instructed Kara. Mux did not think that Kara would be able to read Alliance well enough to bring up the guest user herself.
Kara typed in ‘human corkscrew for wine,’ and it came up.
Mux closed the guest's access and then went to make one.
Kara could not help but smile, she quickly opened the guest user again and found external messages, she sent an encrypted message to any of the nearest human ship, which she knew was the Silverado because she had been helping Tir with their strategy for the next battle. Then she closed the user and went into the dining room.
It was not long before Mux returned, and she was enjoying a bottle of Bandol with dark chocolate thinking about escape. The gods are telling me to get off the ship and back to Earth if anyone is asking about these omens, she thought as she ate the chocolate and drank the wine. After she had one glass of wine and had eaten half of the generous chocolate box, she left it all on the table, and said sternly to Mux, “Do not take that chocolate away. It stays there until I’ve eaten it all.”
“But Captain,” Mux protested.
“I’ll take the blame with the gods,” she said as respectfully as she could. “And I don’t think the ship is going to go down for this one misdemeanor of bad luck, do you?”
He didn’t answer her, but they got back to their work of putting away these new things Tir had ordered.
“Can you explain these to me?” She held up some almost transparent stockings with designs that seemed to move on them with the light. Mux just looked at her dumbfounded and then she realized that he was definitely not the person to be asking because judging by his face expression these stockings were no doubt were supposed to be sexy. “Never mind. What is this?” she asked, holding up a box with two bracelets in them.
“Marriage bracelets.”
“So, these are what they look like,” she said more to herself than Mux. They were two black and silver bracelets with markings on them. Some she understood and others she didn’t. She asked Mux, “What does this mean?” pointing to a hieroglyphic.
“It is the Admiral’s family name, now your family name.”
“Great, I always wanted to be tagged like a dog,” Kara said, and Mux gave her a disapproving look.
Kara opened another big box, and it had a large pen in it, “What is this?”
Mux closed the lid of the box and moved it away from her, “The Admiral will explain it to you later.”
“Tell me, or I will tell him you let me have wine.”
Mux looked at her as if she had betrayed him,
“This is for binding tattoos. Some married couples get them.”
“Binding, meaning you can never be with anyone else ever?”
“Yes, you will desire no other.”
“How barbaric can the Alliance be?” she asked rhetorically.
Mux ignored her and then reminded her, “Captain Kara, it is time you go to the shrine and thank the gods. You can also pray to the goddess of house and home that the Admiral does not want you to take the barbaric binding tattoos. And just so you know, those tattoos are considered to be a very romantic gesture in the Alliance.”
Kara just looked at Mux in disbelief. She did not understand this culture at all. How could physically binding yourself to someone be romantic? But then she reminded herself, Isn’t that what this whole marriage thing is about?
Kara wanted to go through more of the things that Tir had ordered for her with Mux and ask him more questions about his culture, but she knew she had to go to the shrine. She reluctantly left him to put everything away. She walked out and immediately his guards were her shadows as they always were as she made her way to the shrine. It was always busy at this time of day, and she had no doubt that was why Tir asked her to come at this time continually. She always walked directly to the fertility goddess’s statue, said the short prayer, waited a minute or two, depending on her mood and then left.
As she was slowly making her way back to Tir’s quarters, she feigned to be tired and asked to go to sickbay. Her guards, of course, took her directly there. She wanted to see John, but unfortunately, of course, it was Doctor Siu coming forward to see her as she entered.
She tried to keep her mind as focused as possible on feeling ill, which wasn’t very difficult as all she had to do was think about the hybrid growing inside of her.
“Captain Kara, please sit down. You must calm yourself.”
Damn, she thought, he is reading my mind.
“This is not going to be a monster,” he tried to comfort her. “It will be a beautiful child to start a new and peaceful chapter in both human and Alliance’s lives.”