Sarai

by Jarli Grey

  “Don’t call me that,” Jamie snarled, and then subsided. “Oh whatever. I’m sick of being inside all the time. I’m bored. I want to go out.”

  “Jamie, I’ve told you before that’s not possible”

  Jamie pouted. He’d never thought he’d pout, but there it was — he was pouting. To compensate, he glared at Alekyn, eyes narrow slits, mouth lemon-sucked thin.

  “It is too possible,” he snapped. “You and your friends go out every day. So do the visitors I’m never allowed to meet.”

  Yeah, ‘cos that was another thing. Whenever Clan Furis had visitors over, Jamie was confined to his room. Locked in his room, like a kid. It was outrageous and he’d told Alekyn that. Then he’d hit him in the chest when the big lummox had tried to sweet-talk him. Which that had led to other things. He blushed. The sex he and Alekyn had after that had been pretty spectacular, and had distracted him totally from his anger. Dammit, it was happening again — this stupid desire just to get down and dirty with Alekyn rather than dealing with the real problem, his continued captivity.

  “I’m sick to death of being stuck inside. I mean it, Alekyn,” he said warningly. “You can’t keep humans locked up all the time. We go mad.”

  He felt only a little ashamed at lying, but couldn’t help covering his eyes with his hands like a small child. “I can’t stand it anymore!”

  He peeked through his fingers. Sure enough, Alekyn looked worried. Jamie decided to play his trump card. He sniffed and let a tiny tear trickle down his cheek. “I just want some fresh air and to see where I’m living. Is that too much to ask? Would you like to be locked up all the time?”

  “Jamie,” his Sarat knelt by the couch, his expression concerned, “I know this is hard for you, but at the moment, things are complicated …”

  “What things?”

  He was outraged when Alekyn patted him gently. “Nothing you need to worry about, little — oof!”

  “Don’t call me little anything, dammit,” Jamie snarled, ´I’m an adult, not a child, and I want to know what’s going on. Why can’t you take me out? I’m sick, sick, sick of always being inside.”

  He really was behaving like a spoilt, petulant brat, but amazingly it seemed to be working. Alekyn looked really worried, and his beautiful ears were twitching nervously. Maybe he really believed humans would go mad if they were confined. Jamie felt a moment’s guilt at deceiving him but brushed it aside. Nah, Alekyn and his pardmates were being unreasonable keeping Jamie locked away. He’d persevere until he got what he wanted. After all, as the youngest in his family, he’d learned wheedling and cajoling worked wonders — all he had to be was persistent until Alekyn, just like his parents, gave in just to keep him quiet.

  Maybe Matt had been right when they’d argued once and he’d told Jamie that he was an annoying, deceptive little toad, but Matt had failed to realize, big brother that he was, that when you’re the youngest and smallest of three brothers, you had to level the playing field somehow. All’s fair in love and whatever other shit was going on, Jamie reminded himself, before turning a winsome, pathetic look on his hapless Sarat.

  “Surely you understand? Alekyn, humans don’t like to be confined. We’re not toys or puppets — you’d hate never being able to leave here, wouldn’t you?” he appealed plaintively, his eyes fixed on Alekyn’s mournfully. “You wouldn’t tell Tig he had to stay inside and not do anything, would you?”

  Alekyn exhaled noisily, evidently frustrated. “The situation is different, Jamie. Tig is a soldier, my second in command. You are my sarai — you could be carrying my offspring —

  “Geez Louise, not that again.” Jamie curled his lips bad-temperedly, his intentions to deceive momentarily forgotten. “How many times do I have to tell you it’s not possible for me to get pregnant? I don’t care what your so-called doctors think they did, it won’t affect me. I’m a human male and we don’t get pregnant, even if you one-sex wonders can.”

  Alekyn sighed and rubbed his face. “Don’t be insulting, Jamie. I know this is hard on you.”

  “So take me out,” Jamie insisted. “Please…just a walk, to see — oh, I don’t know — some shops or have coffee or whatever you people have — just something other than being stuck here!”

  “Coffee? That is referenced many times in your world’s compnet.” Alekyn looked down his nose. “An addictive drink beloved by humans. It would be better for you to have öte.”

  Jamie side-eyed him. Öte tasted like weak, milky tea — undrinkable and flavorless, but it was the only hot drink Alekyn had allowed him to have. He brooded on that resentfully — to his chagrin, Alekyn hadn’t allowed him alcohol. When he’d tried to sneak some on the sly — just to taste it and to prove he was an adult — Tig had caught him and turned him over to Alekyn, who’d sent him to his room like a kid in disgrace. Again.

  Still, if agreeing to drink öte at a café, or the Naferi equivalent, was the price he had to pay to get out of the den, he’d take it. Or at least drink it. Yuk.

  Once he was outside the den, he’d keep his eyes peeled for a way to get home.

  He sighed. And pigs might fly, he thought, though if he miraculously found a space shuttle, he’d take a chance on heading for outer space. Surely flying a spacecraft couldn’t be all that much harder than flying a plane? Not that he could fly a plane, but, seriously, how difficult could it be? He knew from hearing Alekyn and his pardmates talking, that Eled was their pilot, and Eled didn’t strike Jamie as the smartest Naferi in the kindle. He sighed, sudden misery eating at him. He was going to be stuck here forever …

  Alekyn grunted and Jamie sniffed again, trying to look pathetic. To his astonishment, his acting seemed to be working.

  “All right, Jamie,” Alekyn raised a hand authoritatively. “But you will behave and stay close to me. Many Naferi are very interested in your species and some might try to steal you from me.”

  Jamie looked at him incredulously. He had to be joking, but then again, who knew? “I’ll behave,” he promised solemnly.

  “What is that you’re doing with your hand, sarai?” Alekyn asked curiously.

  “Just crossing my fingers,” Jamie replied. “Humans always do that when they’re excited.”

  “How peculiar,” Alekyn responded. “I can see there is much for me to learn about you and your kind, my sarai.”

  Jamie smiled angelically. You never spoke a truer word, he thought. Then he wondered why his emotions were ping-ponging all over the place.

  ________________________________________

  ALEKYN WAS AS GOOD as his word. Two days later, after some intense discussions with his pardmates, he bundled Jamie up in a heavy cloak, masking his face and form, and sat him in a vehicle like a hovercraft, albeit one that was far more maneuverable than the human equivalent. Like a dragonfly, it hovered and then darted upwards and along. At first Jamie’s felt a bit queasy but once he’d gotten used to it, he’d begged Alekyn to let him fly it.

  To his outrage, Alekyn had laughed and shook his head dismissively, even though Jamie had insisted he’d paddock-bashed cars and trucks on his family’s farm since he was ten years old. He could drive just about anything and so could Matt and Theo. He gave up arguing after a couple of hours, and silently, morosely, studied how Alekyn handled the flyer. Eventually his Naferi captors would forget to watch him closely and then he’d seize the day. His earlier fantasy of flying a space shuttle returned. Yeah, right, steal one of these flying things, find a space port, steal a space shuttle and then, bazam! home to Earth.

  Yeah, because that wasn’t at all unlikely, was it?

  The first trip to the centre of Altas, the city the pard called home, raised a few issues. Once Alekyn landed the flyer, he unstrapped Jamie and helped him out of his seat. Seriously — did he think Jamie was some sort of girl?

  Yeah, he did. His sarai. His significant other. Something fragile, someone who had to be looked after. Jamie bit his tongue and said nothing, even though his masculine pride was taking a beating.<
br />
  Before Jamie had time to orient himself and look around, Alekyn grabbed his hands and swiftly carabineer-clipped the bands together.

  “Come, sarai,” Alekyn put his hand under Jamie’s elbow, guiding him forward. Jamie dug his heels in, outraged.

  “No way,” he snarled, hitting Alekyn’s hand away. “I’m not going anywhere like this!”

  “Like what?”

  “Manacled like a criminal.” He pulled fruitlessly at the bands, but they wouldn’t separate. “Shit! Take them off me now!”

  Alekyn shook his head. “No.”

  White with rage, Jamie stared at him. “Take them off,” he said slowly and clearly, fury acid-etching his words.

  “Come, sarai,” Alekyn repeated implacably and reached for him once more. “You wanted to see something of your new home, and so here we are. Tig and I decided people have to know you belong to our clan. That’s why the bands are necessary —”

  “It’s not necessary to chain them together, you big, possessive oaf.”

  Alekyn’s eyes almost crossed with anger and for a moment Jamie felt intimidated. He stood his ground, though, glaring back as ferociously as he could. After a second Alekyn muttered something under his breath and shook him slightly.

  “Did you not promise to behave if I took you into the city?” he growled. “Does your word mean so little to you?”

  “You didn’t tell me you were going to drag me around like a prisoner!” Jamie felt his face burning. “This is awful. Why don’t you just chuck me into a jail and have done with it?”

  “Stop performing, sarai. You wanted to see Altas and here we are. Do you want to go straight home again?”

  Jamie seethed with anger. To hell with not being able to fly anything at all — he was going to find a way home and Alekyn, goddam him, could go whistle in the wind. Stupid catman. “I’m not performing. I’m also not bloody moving until you take them off me.”

  A tufted ear twitched, and that was like gold to Jamie. Time to manipulate the alien, he decided. He dropped his gaze to the ground. “You don’t care this is killing me, do you?”“

  Right on cue, a tear rolled down his cheek, and his mouth quivered softly. “I’m nothing more to you than a…a possession.”

  Rumbling issued from Alekyn’s big chest and he shifted uneasily. “Jamie, the bands tell others that you belong to me.”

  “You don’t have to chain them together, though. That just makes me feel like a criminal. I’m not going to wander off or try to run away. There’s nowhere for me to run to — and if any other Naferi tried to snatch me, well, you’d be able to fight them off, wouldn’t you?”

  He risked a quick glance at Alekyn. The big Naferi looked torn, so Jamie sniffed, a sad little sound.

  It worked.

  “Oh hells, sarai, you win,” Alekyn grumbled, unclipping the carbineer. “But you are to hold onto my hand, do you understand?”

  Jamie grinned broadly and nodded. He understood, all right — he understood that as soon as he could, he’d find that damn spaceport and fly away way home.

  ___________________________________________

  FOR AN ALIEN WORLD, DOWNTOWN Altas reminded Jamie pretty closely of the photograph of a Paris street scene his mother had displayed in her sewing room, except that also had a gorgeous Parisian couple from the 1940s kissing one another passionately. Cobblestone streets were lined with ornate shopfronts with large windows showing all sorts of interesting — and admittedly much more exotic — goods for sale. Not that he had much of a chance of looking too closely at anything, he thought resentfully. Alekyn, still angry, was walking way too fast for Jamie to actually see anything more than shopfronts and blurred shapes.

  He sighed. This wasn’t quite what he’d envisaged this morning when they’d set out. Instead of a leisurely comfortable walk through this new world, all they’d done was argue, and now this march-or-die procession. He was heartily sick of it. He wanted to stop at one of what looked like cafes, have the equivalent of Naferi coffee — yuck, öte — and maybe talk to some of the locals. He grinned, some of the local aliens.

  From different worlds. Strange, unknown — to him, at least — worlds and peoples, a good proportion of which seemed to be represented on the streets of Altas.

  But Alekyn was simply pulling him along, not letting him see anything. He tried digging his heels in and almost stumbled but his Sarat, his speed not one whit abated, simply righted him and strode onwards. Jamie hadn’t felt so put upon since he’d been a toddler. While chucking a mammoth tantrum might relieve some of his anger, he had a feeling that instead of being patiently ignored, as he remembered his mother doing with him until he’d exhausted himself out of whatever infantile snit he’d been in, he’d now end up being punished in a more adult way.

  Maybe even a spanking.

  That random thought unexpectedly focused his mind sharply and disbelievingly he felt his groin tighten. Oh, come on, he told his dick, don’t tell me you’re getting a taste for that! Surely not. But even so, an unbidden image of him lying across Alekyn’s muscular thighs, his cock trapped and engorged, his arse reddened and throbbing …no, no, no!

  He swallowed, throat moving convulsively. This situation was getting more and more surreal. He really needed to find his way home before he lost it completely.

  Eventually they arrived at a tall building, something that looked official and important. Aliens of all descriptions were walking in and out. Jamie frowned and stopped dead. He brushed the hood back from his face and immediately wished he hadn’t as nearby Naferi slowly realised they were looking at a human. Their resulting stares and whispers had been awkward and uncomfortable, the scrutiny and Alekyn’s sudden tension making him fumble his hood back over his face and press close to Alekyn, who squeezed his hand gently. A couple of the Naferi had pressed closer than good manners apparently allowed. Alekyn bared his teeth, his free hand going to where his stunner would ordinarily have sat if he had been on duty.

  People scattered nervously. Jamie swallowed, his throat dry.

  “Where are we?” he asked quietly. “I just wanted to grab a coffee and people watch. This looks…official.”

  “I thought before we did that, our visit would be a good opportunity for the healers to check you over,” Alekyn replied blandly.

  “For what! There’s nothing wrong with me. You lied to me!”

  “No, sarai, I…er…simply refrained from telling you everything. We can go for öte in a few minutes, once Healer Tiff has seen you.”

  Jamie stared at him, eyes wide with horror at Alekyn’s perfidy.

  A couple of attendants hustled them into a small waiting room. Tiff appeared not far behind them.

  Jamie glared at him, remembering the probe, the ball gag and the sense of powerlessness. Tiff didn’t seem to notice his anger, smiling at him like a peculiar odd old uncle.

  “You’re not touching me,” Jamie got in first, his eyes shooting sparks that would have killed if they’d been lasers. “No more probes …”

  “Indeed not, Alekyn-sarai —”

  “My name is Jamie Munroe,” he interrupted sharply. “Not Alekyn-sarai — Jamie Munroe. And no more of anything I don’t want done to me. If this were Earth, I’d already be suing the crap out of you.”

  “Suing? Crap? Not sarai?”

  Puzzled, Tiff looked at Alekyn. “Major, is your sarai’s translator not working properly?”

  Alekyn sighed. “It’s working, healer,” he responded tiredly. “It’s just Jamie doesn’t like people to address him by anything other than his given name. Please accede to his wishes, even if they seem strange.”

  Tiff leaned back in his seat, his eyes shrewd as he studied Jamie. “Hmm,” he said. “Jamie, how are you feeling?”

  Jamie blinked, his eyes suddenly, stupidly, tearing up. How was he feeling? Even Alekyn hadn’t asked that. He considered his answer.

  “I’m angry,” he admitted, glancing across at Alekyn. “I don’t want to be here. I miss my home and m
y family — I want to be home with my brothers, facing whatever it is the Zill are planning to do to my planet.”

  Alekyn was sitting very still, his eyes fastened on Jamie, mouth tight.

  In spite of their earlier fight and his anger, Jamie felt a stab of guilt. “I’m sorry,” he muttered tautly. “I like you, Alekyn, I do, but you must know I’m not happy. You can’t simply make me into what you want — I’m not a sarai, I’m a human being. I need a…a purpose, a goal, meaningful activities …” His voice faded. ‘sorry, but that’s the way I feel,” he whispered.

  The hurt on Alekyn’s face was palpable. No-one spoke for a few minutes, and the silence grew until it became uncomfortable.

  “I see,” Tiff nodded. “Well, it is better you are honest with us. You are depressed and worried for your pard. I sympathize but you can do nothing to help your own kind. PanGal is already negotiating with your world’s leaders. The Zill will not be able to invade your planet.”

  Relief coursed through him. “That’s seriously good to hear, but it doesn’t solve my problems. I want to go home and Alekyn will not let me. I’m being treated like a prisoner, locked up in a…gilded cage without freedom, without anything to do, and it’s driving me nuts.”

  “Nuts?”

  “It is a human word for mad, healer.” Alekyn shrugged stiffly. “My sarai likes to exaggerate —”

  Jamie stared at him silently until he looked away.

  “I’m hating my life,” Jamie said finally. “I have committed no crime, yet I am locked away. I wanted to study and pursue a career — now I have to stay here and according to Alekyn produce little furry babies.”

  Tiff looked aghast. “Furry babies? Major, what have you been telling him?”

  Alekyn grunted. “Jamie doesn’t accept that he can bear offspring. I don’t know why he thinks our babies would be furry, but Jamie says many things that I do not understand.”

  Tiff rested his hands on the desk before him and steepled his fingers together.