by Alma Nilsson
He touched her cheek as if they were still lovers, “Kara, let me comfort you.”
“Micah, we are no longer together.”
“But Kara, part of your confusion is that you have been with aliens. Let me remind you…” his hand was on her arm, gently stroking her.
Kara felt weak. She wanted to be held, but then she looked at him and thought, But not by you. “No Micah. I want to be alone. Goodnight. “
Micah accepted her answer and then wished her a good night all the while thinking. There is something not right about all of this. We had always comforted one another even when we were not exclusively lovers.
Kara went into her small quarters and sighed. She looked in the mirror and said out loud, “I don’t know you anymore. Turning down Micah?” Sex with Micah had always been something that she sought for comfort. He was perfect in that way. Even before they had a serious relationship, they had always had a sporadic sexual relationship. Now she was turning him down when she could probably benefit from jumping back in with a human.
She took off her uniform and all her other clothing as well, everything but her Alliance stockings. She turned off the lights and got into the bed, closed her eyes, and began thinking about Tir and wishing that she could have him and her human life both. She ran her fingers over her sensitive breasts and then down to her inner thighs. She remembered how he always used to kiss her there. She started to feel her arousal increase at the thought of what was next. She brought her fingers up to stroke her vulva and pull a little on the hair there, just like he liked to do. She could hear his voice in her head saying, ‘And I like this distinctly human hair,’ as he would pull on it. Then she began rubbing her vulva lightly, long and wide strokes with her entire hand slowly, while she thought about him. The way his large, strong hands would touch her. It was not long before she changed to using her fingers and rubbing her clitoris, lightly at first but then faster, with much more pleasure to quickly bring herself some release. She remembered how he had promised her to know her body as well as his to bring her to climax within minutes, just as she could do for herself, after a year of marriage. She smiled to herself and thought, But you had almost managed to be able to do that after only a couple of months. She wondered, Will I ever be able to find another I’m so physically compatible with? Is this why I miss him? I miss his physical touch only? She drifted off to sleep with her hand still on the top of her thigh as Tir used to do.
The next morning, they reached Earth and Kara was relieved when she walked into the very familiar Earth Space Port One. It was loud, noisy, and utterly human. From there, she and Captain Jackson took a transport down to headquarters. Once at HQ, they were ushered through some rooms. After waiting for about an hour, she and Captain Jackson were finally confidentially talking about her experience during the war on the Refa with her superiors. She did not mention the marriage, and they didn’t ask. Kara was told that she would need to speak to the Earth Ambassador to the Alliance about negotiating for her female crew and provide him with as much information as she could about the Alliance. She was on her way back from the Alliance and would arrive tomorrow. Kara was dismissed then, and she thought that the worst was over.
Kara went home. She stood outside her apartment building, and the smart technology recognized her and opened the door, the same happened with the door to her apartment. It all seemed so ordinary as if the last year, the war and Tir had never happened. After she walked in, she sat down on the sofa that she had made and cried for so many things, for being home again, for the loss of a baby that she knew she couldn’t keep but couldn’t find it in herself to get rid of either and for never being able to be with Tir again. She began to wonder if this is what love felt like, this complete aching for someone, or if this really was destiny. She wiped her tears and thought, Destiny, is so ridiculous.
Kara got up then, went into her small yellow kitchen, opened the door to her balcony, even though it was autumn and a bit chilly, it did not feel cold anymore after her days on the Alliance ship, and watched the people go by below and tried to balance her emotions by the familiar rings of the trams going by and the sound of the people’s footsteps. After several minutes she closed the door and poured herself a glass of wine. She drank it while she looked at her empty, colorful apartment and wondered if this would be her future forever, alone here.
After she finished the small glass of wine, she went into her bedroom, put on her pajamas, and called her parents on a video call. They were very happy to see her. She did not tell them she had been abducted or any of that. She just said she had been away with the war. Her family operated strictly on a the-less-information-the-less-awkward for us all basis. They liked each other but were not close. Her parents were artists, and she was in the military, there was very little middle ground. Her mother called her a murderess once, and that was when she decided to keep them at arm's length.
Kara then checked her messages, but there was nothing new there, so she pulled the blue velvet curtains on her ancient four-poster bed closed and went to sleep. As she drifted off, her mind wandered to the time she told Tir about her apartment and this bed, and she could not deny that she missed him. She suddenly got up to retrieve the barrette from her uniform pocket and held the cool piece of jewelry in her hand as she fell asleep.
Kara was dreaming about Tir. He was putting the barrette in her hair, and she kissed him. His cool lips were promising more kisses to follow. She told him that she loved him for the first time, and this made him so happy. He picked her up and kissed her even more passionately, refusing to put her down for several minutes. When he finally did set her down, he took all of her clothes off except for the barrette. He was kissing and licking her whole body as he stood naked in front of him. Suddenly Doctor Siu was there too watching, as he had done at their wedding ceremony, and Kara was even more aroused at the thought that they would both touch her. Tir whispered in her ear, “Do you want Siu to lick you too? He’s so curious about humans.”
“I want him to,” she replied and then opened her legs wider.
Then Siu was there, his grey eyes meeting hers as he began to lick her vulva slowly. Then Tir joined him. Their faces next to each other looking at her from between her legs, giving her so much pleasure, commenting on her exotic human taste.
After they almost made her come, they began touching, kissing, and licking her all over. She had never had four hands and two mouths on her at once before, and she found the situation intoxicating.
Sui was groping her breasts with his skilled hands, and Tir was kissing around her inner thighs, occasionally making her jump with the sensations.
Kara was suddenly awaked by a noise outside, and she opened her eyes and couldn’t remember where she was. But it only took a couple of seconds for her to be comforted by the familiar sounds of the city around her. It was early morning. The tram bell rang. She smiled; I am home. She pushed back the velvet curtains, and got out of bed, made herself a coffee and then checked her messages again. She almost dropped her coffee when she saw one from Earth’s Ambassador to the Alliance.
Captain Kara,
Please read the following article and meet me in my office as soon as you can this morning.
Ambassador to the Alliance Empire
Lora Lane
Kara opened the attached article, which brought her directly to the Galaxy Court’s information page and an article about her recent marriage. Their military identification pictures had been used. She read the short article and swore out loud. The article made their marriage not only look romantic but almost like some kind of Cinderella story. She knew, of course, he had told her that he was an important person in his society, that he was the successor to the Emperor, or that he had been. But it had all just seemed so alien, outside her comprehension. But now, looking at it in black and white, she understood why he had told her that if she escaped her own people would think she was a spy as outrageous as that was. But she had to admit, the galaxy must be looking at this article and
saying to one another, ‘This cannot be real, a human?’ She hoped that people would question the Alliance’s motives, but as she read through some of the comments on the gossip pages that were already discussing it, she realized that people weren’t that clever. She was being accused of a lot of things, espionage, deceit, and witchcraft, which she particularly liked, “Better to be a witch than a spy,” she said quietly out loud to herself.
She took a long hot shower and then put on her uniform and went to speak to Earth’s Ambassador to the Alliance, however, she was arrested as soon as she walked in the government building. She did not try to claim ignorance or her innocence to guards who knew nothing but that she should be arrested. It was not a long walk to the human fleet headquarters’ jail, and she was put into a cell. There was no window, so she had no idea how much time passed before she had a visitor.
An older woman with silver hair, deep wrinkles, and bright pink lipstick came in. She was wearing an old suit of the same hot pink as her lipstick. She looked at Kara and said, “I am your council. You are being tried as a spy, which is probably no surprise to you. If you do not want to go to court you can tell the man who has been impatiently waiting to see you all day in the hallway, I was late,” she explained with a smile, “everything. I told him, though. I don’t think you are the type to give up any information and that he had been sent on a fool’s errand. He didn’t like that as you can imagine. So, what is it going to be Captain?” She hoped that Captain Rainer would chose to go with her rather than a backhanded deal with the military. She had heard the rumors that the Captain was still pregnant with the hybrid child and she hadno doubt the military would squeeze all the information out of her about the Alliance and take the child for scientific research as well.
Kara stood up and moved to stand in front of the older woman with just a transparent forcefield between them, “Councilor, I am not a spy.”
“Sure, you’re not. You sent all of your female crew to the Alliance capital planet, you stayed aboard Admiral Tir’s ship for months and then just you were able to ‘escape’ at the end of the war. Now, this morning, we read that you are married to this zombie meant to be the next Emperor of the Alliance Empire. Tell me, Captain, if you are not a spy, then what are you?”
“This doesn’t make any sense. If I were a spy, why would I so openly be married?”
“Well, that is the thing, isn’t it? You weren’t open about it. You mentioned it to no one until now. Don’t you think that is a bit suspicious? No doubt one of your enemies had that article published.”
“I was embarrassed about being married; that is why I did not mention it. I just wanted to put my whole Alliance experience behind me. I thought if I left and didn’t mention it, the marriage would have just disappeared. I am not a spy. I was forced to marry an Alliance man. I was forced to send my crew away. The alternative was death.”
“Sure. Now do you want to go to court or do you want to tell all your Alliance secrets to the man from your fleet waiting behind me? If you talk to him, a deal will be struck with your husband,” she spat the word, “who is on his way here, no doubt.”
“I am not a spy,” Kara said, defending herself.
The older woman sighed, “Look, between you and me I think it’s better if you tell them all you know, and maybe then they will grant you clemency since obviously you are so naïve and were forced into this. Maybe if this is really your lucky day, you can have your old life back.”
“This is ridiculous. Why would the Alliance spy on us? We have nothing they want.” But she as soon as she said it, she knew she was wrong. They wanted human women and any information about fertility.
“If they wanted nothing, then why did you tell Captain Jackson that they wanted human women?” She looked at Kara sternly. “Now are you going to go with me and do this the hard way or go with the guy behind me?”
“Councilor, I want to go to court. I might be stupid being coerced into marriage and sending my female crew away, but I would never betray my people, and I am not going to settle for some plea bargain that says I did. I have suffered for my people for the lives of my crew.”
“Fine,” said the older woman. “It doesn’t matter to me. If I don’t take your case, I will have another. But one thing I must say for you Captain is that at least this is interesting and I will get my name in the Galaxy Court papers. So, I’ll register the documents, and we will begin to go through the motions. You realize this is going to go very quickly as our government will want this done before the Alliance arrives.”
“When do they arrive?”
“In three days, I suspect the next three days are going to seem very long for you. I’ve already put in order for you to be monitored so that there will be no bad treatment of you, but you know how things are here, someone knows someone who’s paid someone off. I hope I will see you alive tomorrow.”
Kara watched the woman go, and as she opened the door, she heard her say, “I told you, you were wasting your time. She’s all mine. She’s not taking any offers.”
Kara sat down on the small cot and thought, What would be the benefit of trying me as a spy? And it was not long before she realized it was obviously for more leverage against the Alliance. She wondered then if her people would really abuse her while she was in this cell. If the Alliance was as strong and ruthless as they were rumored to be, wouldn’t that defeat the purpose of keeping me here? They would have less leverage if I were beaten up. However, it did occur to her, that if they threaten her with physical violence, she probably would tell them more about the Alliance, and then they would have even more leverage and her heart sunk. Well, I might be still having that abortion from being beaten up here, she thought with a heavy heart. It also occurred to her that if Tir wanted her back, he might negotiate harder if she had been injured. She could not help but be reminded of how he looked after her physically, almost as if she were a precious doll.
Tir’s first officer slid a memo across to him on the open computer screen between them in the conference room. Kara had been arrested as a spy. Tir looked at it unemotionally and then said, “This was unfortunately expected. They are barbarians.”
“They think this will give them more bargaining power.”
“And this is why no one likes dealing with humans.” Tir had the Alliance ‘s new Ambassador to Earth brought in, “The humans have arrested my wife for espionage. I’d like you to remind them that she is my wife and an Alliance citizen and that by the Galaxy Court ruling of 4587 no citizen of dual-citizenship can be tried for a crime without the approval of the other government.”
“This is true Admiral, but we still have an ambassador there, and I think he may have,” the new ambassador trailed off.
Tir was angry now. Obviously, the old ambassador had already been bought by one of his enemies, but he could still intimidate the man, “Tell the old ambassador that if my wife is harmed by the humans, he will be held personally responsible.” Then Tir dismissed them all.
He sat in his empty conference room and looked again at the article that the Galaxy Court had run about their marriage. He wondered who on his ship had told them that story? But the damage was done. Before the article had run, he had hoped to go to Earth and convince Kara to return with him by offering her whatever she wanted, a ship, him, anything. Now, he knew he would have to bargain for her. He didn’t want to have to do that, but he knew her people were holding her just for this reason alone. He was going to have to buy her and the other women like slaves and again he thought, Why are the Lost People such barbarians?
Kara heard someone enter the hallway that led down to her cell. As far as she knew, she and the one guard were the only ones here. She stood up to stand as close to the forcefield as she could to try and see who was walking towards her. She was very surprised to see an old Alliance man. He had grey hair to match his grey skin and a very unhappy face expression. She stood waiting, and when he reached her cell, he stopped and just looked at her for a good minute before speaking.
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“As an Alliance citizen, I am here to make sure that you are treated within reasonable comfort while incarcerated. You look okay. Are you okay?”
“Who are you?”
“I’m the Alliance Ambassador Tui.”
“Where is Admiral Tir?”
“He’s not here.”
“Seriously. You know what I meant,” Kara said sharply. “Where is he?”
The old man laughed, “Young love. I remember that. Enjoy it, young lady,” he sighed and then said, “Your husband is on his way, no doubt to secure your release.”
“How will he do that? I’m going to court. I’m being tried as a spy.”
“Captain, no one really thinks you are a spy. You must realize that? Your government just wants better leverage when they negotiate with us about you, the other human women on the Capital Planet and possibly future human women going to the Alliance.”
“My people aren’t going to auction me or anyone else off like a slave,” she said defiantly. “Humans don’t work like that.”
“Yes, they are. Your government sees this as an opportunity to get military weapons, Alliance technology, and UCs. There is no doubt about it. You, being tried and convicted as a spy, only makes you more expensive. And the human government knows that Admiral Tir will pay a lot to have you returned to him.”
“I don’t believe you. I’m an asset to my people. I’ve served them. I’ve just fought in a war for them.”
The ambassador raised his eyebrows at her, “Why would I, of all people, lie to you? I’m here to help you. I know your councilor. Tell her nothing. Remain silent for the next three days. Your husband is coming and the less you say, the easier this all will be.” He was quiet then getting out his computer painfully slowly and grabbing a nearby chair. “You seem so innocent in the way of politics for someone who has jumped in on the deep end. I’ve read your reports, and you said very little about your time in captivity which is good. I also have your crew’s reports that basically say the same as yours. Now,” he said sternly as if talking to a child, “you need to remain quiet. Do you understand?”