“It wasn’t by design. So what are you saying? That Triss will return and start an anti-Crawford movement?”
“Possibly. Actually, I don’t know what she’ll do. She might do nothing but her attitude will show and a number of the others will be influenced by that. That will lead to division and disruption because, of course, I and Jarmasin and Tansy and Cherevine will defend you and some will follow us.”
“Hmm. I can see that that might make things difficult but why is it so important? After all you’ve got what, another three weeks at most, and then you’re all on your way home. Why does it matter if you’re not all the best of friends?”
“It’s not just about that, although I admit I’m not looking forward to three weeks of bickering females, it’s also about you.”
“Me?”
She chewed her lower lip. “Yes. After this is over, you’re going to collect your lady love and go gallivanting across the universe in your sexy new spaceship. The problem is, you don’t know what the universe is like. All you’ve seen is Bartimarm and, believe me, Bartimarm is very civilised compared with many places. For all the Theocracy likes to pretend that it’s the galaxy’s greatest civilisation, its influence only extends over a relatively small area. Fifty systems is a lot for a single civilisation but it’s nothing compared to the several million that are out there. Ask your pilot. I suspect he’s travelled more widely than most.
“When you go out there, it’s possible that you’ll manage to stay out of trouble but it’s probable that you won’t. Sometimes you’ll be able to talk or politic your way out of it but sometimes you won’t. You’re going to have to learn to be tough if you want to keep what’s yours.”
“I’m no fighter.”
“Yes, you are. You don’t fight physically, but you’re a fighter. You need to learn that sometimes physical force is necessary.”
I seemed to remember having a similar conversation with Taragis.
“Okay, but what has this got to do with Triss?”
“Triss comes from a harsh world, at least the bit she comes from is harsh. Her civilisation is… civilised but their tough life has made her people tough. To us, perhaps they can seem crude or even cruel but they survive. More than that, they thrive. Triss is used to that. She’s used to males who are strong and tough. She’s not used to males who go cow-eyed over a pair of domesticated animals. It offends her and it upsets her because she’s seen you be tough and can’t understand why you don’t behave like that all the time. She’s… what’s the word, conflicted.”
“But she despises me. You said so yourself.”
She shook her head. “I did but I was wrong. I’ve just realised it. Deep down she likes you… or wants to like you but you keep doing things that don’t conform to her idea of how you should behave.”
I snorted. “I’m certainly not going to turn myself into a macho, chest-beating poser to conform to her ideals. I am who I am and if that doesn’t suit her… tough.”
She smiled fondly up at me. “There, you’re doing it again. You may not beat your chest but you’ve got strength and determination… just the characteristics Triss admires. The difference is that you show your strength more subtly than she’s used to.”
The ludicrousness of the situation suddenly struck me and I laughed aloud.
“What’s so funny?” She sounded cross.
“You. Lorca Lhewlyn Dibhach, you’re a wonder. Here we are having just fucked ourselves stupid, and you’re calmly discussing another woman. Doesn’t that strike you as amusing?”
“We’re not discussing another woman, we’re discussing power and authority and the necessity of you displaying it.” She smiled. “However, I agree the setting is a bit bizarre. It says something different to me, though. It says I’m so sure of you that I don’t need to seek constant reassurance.”
“Oh, you are, are you?”
“Don’t misunderstand. I don’t mean you’re under my thumb or anything but that…” she stopped and sighed. “I don’t know what I mean except what I said.”
“There you’re wrong. You have me under your spell. I’m bewitched, bothered and bewildered. I lose all sense of proportion when you’re around. I do believe you’re really the Wicked Witch of the West.”
“Wicked Witch of the West? What are you blethering about?”
“Sorry. A character from a children’s book.”
She gave her head a rueful shake. “Just when I think you’re starting to behave like a mature being you launch off into irrelevancies. Children’s book, indeed. If I had a suspicious mind, I might think you were trying to distract me.”
I put on my most innocent expression. “Me? You’re the one who’s distracting. How do you expect me to concentrate when you parade these in front of me?”
The ‘these’ were her breasts which I started to stroke. She pushed my hand away.
“Behave. You can play later. Now you’ve made me forget what I was saying.”
“Good.” I bent and nibbled her ear.
“Stop it. I’m trying to be serious.” She sounded sincere so I stopped. “Where was I? Triss. She’s confused because you don’t conform to her expectations and that makes her angry. She’ll turn her anger against you and you’ll have trouble. You need to do something.”
“Why and what?”
“I’ve already said why. She’ll cause you trouble.”
“I heard you. I don’t understand why her causing me trouble is such a big deal but let’s put that aside for the moment. What should I do?”
“You need to exercise power and authority. You need to show her who’s boss. You need to dominate her. You need to show her that, even though you’ve got a caring side, underneath you’re as tough as the next male.”
“That might depend on who the next male was,” I said with a grin.
“You’re beginning to irritate me, Crawford.”
“Sorry. It sounds more like I need to persuade her that her vision of the ideal man is limited; that, just like women, men come in many forms and, just because I don’t conform to some fictional ideal doesn’t mean I’m any less of a man.”
“That’s right. You need to do something startling to make her revise her opinion of you.”
“So I should go out and fight a sabre-toothed tiger bare handed or challenge Sir Sacred-Trust-in-God to a duel. Pistols at dawn, that sort of thing.”
“You’re being facetious again but, no, nothing external. It needs to be personal. I know, you need to spank her. Give her a sound thrashing. That’d shock her to the core.”
“Now who’s being facetious? She’s a martial arts expert. I’d be dead or incapacitated before I managed to lay a finger on her.”
She shook her head decisively. “No. Not if you did it right. Let me think. She has a very strong moral code. Her society has a strict etiquette about how people should behave in various situations. It keeps them from killing one another. She’s already offended against that code and I think she knows it. In fact, I suspect she’s waiting for you to call her out on it. If you were to put it like that… that you were offended by her behaviour and she needs to be punished…”
“She’d just laugh… before she broke both my arms, that is.”
“No. It’s not what you say it’s the way that you say it. You need to be calm and totally firm. Don’t give her any room to deny anything. She’s abused your hospitality. Her behaviour has offended you. She needs to be punished.”
“You really think that would work?”
“I’m sure of it.”
I shook my head in bewilderment. “I can’t believe we’re having this conversation. You really believe that if I say, ‘Triss, you’ve been a bad girl. Bend over while I administer twenty strokes,’ she’ll just do it? Much more importantly, though, I don’t hit women. That’s abuse.”
“That’s what my preamble was about. You’re an innocent abroad. I’m guessing you come from a well-ordered society where you have strict laws and social codes and professional
law enforcers. People go about their daily business expecting to be unmolested. They take no special precautions to ensure the safety of themselves or their property.”
I gave a rueful grin. “It’s not quite as idyllic as that but, in general, yes, we do.”
“Societies like yours and the Theocracy are in the minority. I don’t mean that all systems are lawless but the idea of what constitutes acceptable behaviour varies greatly. You would find people’s attitudes to each other barbaric on Triss’s planet yet theft is virtually unknown. The penalties for stealing are severe.”
“How come you know so much about it?”
“I studied it,” she said shortly. “Crawford, are you paying attention to me?”
“I am, I assure you. Intellectually I know what you’re saying is true but it’s difficult to appreciate it, if you know what I mean.”
“I do. All I ask is that you remember it and don’t assume all beings follow your beliefs in honesty, truth and justice. Don’t fall into the same trap as Triss. Now, what are you going to do about her?”
“Nothing. At least nothing yet. I’m not entirely convinced there’s a real problem so, if I was to act now, it wouldn’t be out of conviction. Also I need to overcome my prejudice, in your terms, about laying hands on a woman. So I’m going to watch and wait and think.”
“I think you should act now but you know your own mind best.” She grinned wickedly up at me. “And while you’re thinking about it, think about her sexy little bottom stuck up in the air while you paddle it.”
Shit. She wasn't suggesting there were sexual overtones in this was she? Triss did, indeed, have a sexy little bottom and the tight pants she favoured displayed it to great advantage. Immediately, the picture she’d painted flashed through my mind followed by one of her, her magnificent cheeks raised to receive a spanking. I was instantly hard.
“Perhaps I should practice on you, first,” I growled. I pushed the tray away and wiggled down the bed a bit. “Have you ever climaxed from having your nipples sucked.”
“No,” she said, lifting a breast to my mouth, “but there’s always a first time. Did my vision turn you on?”
I was too busy to reply. I didn’t just suck her nipples, I made love to her breasts with lips and tongue and teeth and hands. All of her was spectacular but her breasts were something else. They were perfect; perfect to look at, perfect to hold, perfect to touch, perfect to worship. Every time I saw them, clothed or otherwise, I itched to touch them. I made the most of my current opportunity. I didn’t quite succeed but the aftermath was most satisfactory.
I had no idea what time it was when I awoke but I was alone. The problem with a spaceship was that there were no windows. Not that there would be anything to see if there had been. What I mean is that there were no external signals to mark the passage of time. I made a resolution to get some clocks then remembered I had an ibic.
“Julian, what time is it?”
“Nine twenty seven and sixteen point three three five seconds.”
“Thank you Julian. You can forget the seconds unless precision is essential.”
“I shall bear that in mind.”
“I take it that’s nine in the morning?”
“It is. Would you like me to use am and pm?”
“Yes, please, unless that would confuse the others.”
“I shall consult them.”
“Nine twenty seven by whose time?”
“Bartimarm Standard Time. It is traditional to maintain the time of the last place visited. I shall change to Earth time when we arrive in your solar system.”
“You’d better use GMT or, better, BST.”
“Thank you. I shall.”
I considered the problem of Triss as I prepared for the day. I agreed with Lorca, at least in part, that something needed to be done though part of me wanted to ignore her. She didn’t like me and I had enough women not to care that much. Once we’d returned to Geretimal, she could go her own sweet way. It was no concern of mine. A more logical part of me said that was not a good idea. Triss was strong minded and headstrong but hopelessly romantic. She would be a natural leader and, as Lorca had said, could foment trouble if she wanted. Even if there was no spark between us, it would be better to have her for me than agin me. Still, the idea that the only way to achieve that was by thrashing her did not sit easily on me. Deliberately causing someone pain offended my mores and using pain to force someone to change their point of view offended my moral sense. It seemed barbaric; an action redolent of the Spanish Inquisition or Stalinist Russia. On the other hand, she had been correct in saying I was naïve in the extreme and, although sentient beings might be sentient beings the galaxy over, as Hermes’ ibic, Dear, had said, it was certain they’d have as many differences as similarities. I knew nothing of Triss’s world and had to take Lorca’s word that her course of action was correct. Wait a minute. No, I didn’t.
“Julian, what do you know of the world Triss comes from?”
“She comes from a planet called Dantiss, which is a corruption of an old word meaning ‘our world’. Dantiss circles a G2 sun which the locals call, not surprisingly, Our Sun. In standard galactic astronomical nomenclature it is…”
“Thank you, Julian,” I said with a sigh. “I asked the wrong question. What do you know of the part of the world where Triss comes from and the society she lives in?”
“Dantiss’s orbit round its sun is slightly larger than Earth’s although your suns are similar. Dantiss is, consequently, cooler than the Earth. Much of the free water is tied up as ice and the only major ocean lies in the equatorial region. Beyond 40 degrees north and south, the climate is inimical for life, except for occasional regions where volcanic activity provides local heating or, in one area, a warm equatorial current mitigates against the natural climate. While the equatorial regions are relatively flat, the rest of the land is mountainous, the average height being typically 5,000 metres and the highest reaching over 10,000 metres. Civilisation lies in the valleys and the plains between the mountain ranges. Madam Hunter’s home is in one of the larger valleys 32.5 degrees north of the equator. Is this the sort of thing you wanted to know?”
“Yes, thanks. Tell me about her society.”
“Dantiss has no formal central government. There is a world-wide assembly which is made up of representatives from the regional assemblies which, in turn, are made up of representatives of area assemblies, and so on. Representatives are not elected by popular vote but are chosen informally by their status as measured by chavis. Chavis is achieved by a combination of physical strength, stamina, a willingness to undertake risky actions and force of will. Naturally, males tend to demonstrate greater chavis than females and society is, consequently, strongly male-oriented. Perhaps because the death rate in males is higher than females or perhaps because of a genetic quirk, there are more females on Dantiss than males. As a result polygyny is common, with males who demonstrate the greatest chavis sometimes having as many as ten or a dozen wives.
“The people of Dantiss naturally vary considerably in attitudes and abilities. However, by repute, they are seen as stubborn, intractable, boastful and shallow on the negative side. On the positive they are loyal, brave, honourable and steadfast. They value physical skills highly and, particularly, martial arts.”
“I see. Thank you.”
“Is that enough? Each area of Dantiss has its own peculiarities. Would you like me to give some detail about Madam Hunter’s?”
“Er, no, thanks. I think I have enough.”
I went to find breakfast in thoughtful mood. I could see why Triss had a low opinion of me. I certainly didn’t demonstrate chavis. Equally, chavis wasn't the only measure of a man’s worth and Triss needed to learn that. Perhaps Lorca was right. Perhaps it wasn’t an actual beating she required so much as a symbolic reminder that she needed to change her attitude. Of one thing I was certain, if I was to do this I would have to mean it. A half-hearted attempt, sort of going through the motions, would be
worse than doing nothing.
Lorca and Lashak’ka were in the kitchen.
“How are you feeling,” Lorca asked.
“I’m fine. How are you?”
“I’m fine, too. Actually, I’m quite excited about the idea of seeing your home planet.”
“Hmm, we need to talk about that later. How are you, Lashak’ka?”
“Fine, thank you. I see why you’re so worried about your cats. They really must be very ill.”
“Hmm?”
“Hermes showed us his home movies, remember?” Lorca said with a grin. “They’re certainly lively animals and quite cute.”
“They have their moments. So you forgive me, Lashak’ka, for kidnapping you, if temporarily.”
“Oh, yes,” she said and coloured. “It will give me a chance to get to know you better.” She giggled at her own daring.
I smiled. “It certainly will.”
Triss came in, looked at me sourly, and set about making her breakfast. The temperature in the room dropped several degrees. Nobody spoke until she had left carrying her breakfast on a tray. Lashak’ka shivered and Lorca gave me a ‘I told you so’ look. Jarmasin came in.
“Hermes says we’ll be exiting from the F-point in about 13 hours,” she said cheerfully then caught sight of our faces. “What’s wrong with you? Oh, Madam Sour-Cream.”
“I assume you don’t have a problem with my little side trip?” I asked her.
Surprisingly, she ducked her head and blushed. “No. You know why.”
I did. I’d managed to push her declaration that she belonged to me to the back of my mind but now it returned with a vengeance. How did I manage to end up in such complicated situations?
“Good.” I kept my tone neutral. “I’m sorry there isn’t much to do. This was a bit of an impulsive decision.”
Lorca waved a hand casually. “Don’t worry. We’ll cope.”
I Won A Spaceship Page 47