by Alma Nilsson
The next morning, while Dru was in the shower, one of the slaves came into the bathroom with no shame at all that she was showering and said, “You have received a package. I will set it on your desk.” Then instead of leaving she looked at Dru’s body and asked, “Are you going to keep all of that fur?” indicating Dru’s entire body.
“Yes,” Dru said shocked.
The slave shrugged then and said, “Some men may like that fire fur, I guess,” and walked out.
Dru looked at where the slave had gone and said to herself, “’Slave’ is really not ‘slave’.” She looked down at her body hair. There was an average amount on her body. Removing it had been something unequal women had been forced to do in Earth’s history. She felt to remove any of it now would be signing herself up to be subjugated in the same ways as those historical women. She shook her head and thought, I would never remove any of my natural hair for a man. I am an equal. She finished her shower and when she was dry went to her desk to see what was sent to her without dressing.
She saw the small black wooden box on the desk. She looked at the note attached to it. It had her name written on it.
Drusilla,
Welcome to the Alliance.
She flipped the small note over, but there was no sender. She opened the fine silver clasp to the box. Inside was a small beautiful black comb. She picked it up and investigated it. Then she ran it through her hair trying it out. It wasn’t like any combs she had ever used before, it glided through her hair as if her hair was silk that never snagged or got knots. She looked at the comb again and said, “Well thank you mystery person.” But when she thought about it, she suspected the gift was from Madame Bai and she had given them all combs.
When Dru went downstairs for class and then breakfast everyone was seated as they had been before. Even at the dining room table there were assigned seats in their ranking order. Dru didn’t mind being the last as she was the youngest, but already even after a couple of days, she felt the other women began treating her more like an inferior than an equal, or a superior as they had done before they came to the Alliance, and she was sure this had to do with the ranking. She decided if it continued, she would have to show some dominance because in the fleet she still outranked most of them and she was a doctor. I’m not the lowest among us, even if I am the youngest, she thought as she sat down.
The next days and weeks were all the same, Madame Bai came to their building and they had a cultural class from five to seven in the morning then they ate breakfast together. At eight their religion teacher came and taught them for one hour. From nine to eleven they had sword training. Then they had a break until after lunch. At two in the afternoon, they were led out on the town with Madame Bai. They went to cultural sites, mostly military monuments or religious temples. Sometimes they went to shops so that she could introduce them to different products and how to pay, which was with your fingerprint. In the evenings, they all ate dinner together and then could do what they wanted. Once a week, Doctor Jina came from the Capital City Hospital to practice telepathy with Dru and talk about sex.
One evening Rachel and Dru were in the drawing room, looking at Rachel’s Alliance social media feed on the large 3D view screen that could be projected over the fire. She was the most active of them all and had already made some Alliance friends both men and women through social media, so her feed was the most interesting to them all. They were looking through the various articles trying to figure out what Alliance people were interested in. “Here is one for us,” Rachel said with a laugh. “The most eligible bachelors now,” she read the title and opened the article. Unlike a human article that would have probably shown pictures of the men with their clothes on, this Alliance article was shocking as the men were pictured with nothing on. And the pictures were intentional. The men had proudly posed for these in various positions showing off their best angles. And even more surprising to the women was that most of the images had been taken in various areas of starships to reflect their specific professions and duties.
The women were dead quiet for about 30 seconds, in shock, and then looked at each other and burst out laughing. They laughed so hard they cried and were so loud, everyone who was practicing swordplay in the gymnasium came out to see what all the noise was about. When Rachel and Dru tried to explain, they only began laughing more. They just pointed at the 3D screen above the fire and then the women from the gymnasium began asking them why they were looking at pictures of naked Alliance men, which brought on more fits of laughter from Rachel and Dru.
Finally, Rachel composed herself, wiping the tears from her eyes and explained, “We opened an article about the most eligible bachelors in the Alliance, expecting to see headshots, biographies and maybe a video but this is what came up.”
Then all the women started laughing. They could not control themselves. It was all just so strange, everything about the Alliance and all their hypocrisies, but this was the best yet, no sex before marriage, but then these men had proudly posed for these nude pictures.
The women started looking through the pictures together with great interest. All the men were grey with long black hair that was worn in different styles of braids and some loose. None of them wore any jewelry or anything on their bodies at all. Some had tattoos which they knew were a kind of ranking, but they had not specifically studied tattoos with Madame Bai yet, so they meant nothing to them. One thing all the men had in common though was muscle. The women had already realized that Alliance people took great care of their bodies, but it was becoming even more obvious that they were actually obsessed with their bodies, every muscle had to be toned and not an ounce of body fat. Most of the women felt very intimidated by this, worried that Alliance men would find them repulsive because they were not as fit as Alliance women. Dru had already given up on that as she had large breasts and there was no way she would ever be as lean and muscular as a typical Alliance woman.
“Oh, here is one for you James,” remarked Jane dreamily. “Ket of House Vo. Imperial Doctor. Currently serving onboard the Tuir under Admiral Ver of the Imperial Family. Doctor Ket’s favorite time of the year in the Capital City is blooming season. What he is looking for in a wife, a doctor who is just as dedicated as he is.”
Dru laughed as she looked at the picture of the undeniably handsome naked man, in what looked like a sickbay, and asked, “Dedicated to what? Working out in the gymnasium all the time?” Everyone laughed and then they looked through more pictures, but there was something about the doctor that she liked and Dru decided that she would look back through his profile alone in her room later. She thought, This was what Doctor Jina had suggested wasn’t it? To begin fantasizing about Alliance men.
“Oh,” said Rachel. “This must be old, look there is the Captain’s husband.”
They all went quiet. Their hearts beating faster. He was absolutely a god of a man with tattoos running down the length of his body and then they all stopped laughing when they read the bio.
Next in line to the Imperial Throne.
Jane started, “I don’t think…”
Rebecca who had always found fault with their captain interrupted her, “You don’t think she sold us to be Empress of the Alliance? Well looking at this, I think she absolutely did. And I’m disgusted.”
Dru didn’t know what to think. But it was difficult to put it out of her mind that she might have been betrayed. Then she reminded herself of Captain Rainer’s thoughts as they were being escorted off the Refa, “No,” she said quietly. “Captain Rainer didn’t betray us. Can a human even be Empress? With all their rules and racism towards humans, I doubt it. She’s just as much a victim as we are.”
“And even if she hadn’t married him, do you think the Alliance would have just let us go? No, they had this planned from the beginning. Captain would be right here with us if she wouldn’t have married him. Now let’s see this as a positive thing, if she’s in a position of power, that’s good for us all. As Madame Bai said, she was pushing Admi
ral Tir to get us in the fleet,” Jane said persuasively.
“The wrong fleet,” Rebecca commented bitterly.
“But a better fleet,” Rachel said.
Jane nodded, “A better fleet indeed. Let’s not be too hasty with judgements now. We don’t know what happened between the Captain and her husband.”
There were lots of nods around the room. The conversation died then. Rachel closed the screen and they all went off to bed.
After six weeks, Madame Bai announced that they would all go to their first Assembly and that they should wear the formal dresses provided for them. They had a special class the morning of the Assembly as Madame Bai wanted there to be no misunderstandings about what to expect and how to behave. Madame Bai came into the classroom and it was obvious that she was very excited for them. Unfortunately, her excitement was not contagious. They had all become closer in the last six weeks and they had found learning about the Alliance culture interesting, but now to actually go out and live it was not something any of them really felt they wanted to do.
“Tonight, will be your first Assembly. This will be the first opportunity for you to meet with eligible men who you might marry,” Madame Bai was beaming. “As I mentioned before you should all wear your formal dresses and I would prefer you wear your hair in Alliance styles, but I’ll leave that up to you. As for what to expect,” Jane interrupted her.
“Will there be alcohol there?”
“Yes, but I expect you all to act in a civilized way. Alliance citizens do not drink to get drunk.” Then she looked them all in the eye and said sternly, “And if any of you drinks too much or acts inappropriately, you will all be punished. This is your first outing and all the eyes in the Alliance will be on you.” She took a deep breath, “Now as I was saying, this will be your opportunity to meet eligible men.”
“How will we do that? Will I just say, ‘Hi, I am Rebecca do you want to get married?’” Everyone laughed at Rebecca’s comment except Madame Bai.
“No, you will certainly not say that. As a part of the Contracts, women may not approach men for social conversations, that was outlawed thousands of years ago. They have the right to choose us and we can decide to accept or decline without prejudice. And please remember that you must dismiss them, or they won’t leave you at the Assembly.” All the human women looked at her in bewilderment, “You will wait for a man to approach you, and if you like the look of him, you will have a conversation. When the conversation is over, you must dismiss him. If the man likes you, he will contact you again to meet him on another day. If you meet again and get along well, he will probably ask to begin courting. Ladies, please read your cultural handbook. We have gone over this.”
“But no sex?” questioned Rachel.
“No, definitely not. Ladies I have explained this many times, you do not have sex with an eligible suitor until he is your husband.”
“I just cannot believe that is true,” said Jane. “You know on Earth we have this wild idea to follow our bodies urges and our hearts.”
“We are more civilized here so keep your bodies and hearts under control until marriage bracelets have been exchanged.”
“Is marriage not for love then at all?” asked Dru.
“Marriage can be for love, but it should also be for respect and similar position in society as well.”
“What is our position in Alliance society again?” asked Jane sarcastically and everyone laughed because Madame Bai had made it clear on many occasions that they were in many ways second class citizens despite their official ranking as maximum class.
“Order,” Madame Bai said and clapped her hands to stop the laughter. “It’s true, as humans you are below us all, however, as women who can potentially breed other females, your status is higher. You’re all also very beautiful and brave so I have no doubt you will be able to marry above your station. Please do not embarrass yourselves tonight. Remember what you have learned and behave in accordance with the Contracts.”
“I feel like we should all be reading Jane Austen,” Jane said quietly and there were more smiles.
“Jane, if you don’t stop with this nonsense none of you will go to the Assembly. You may find this funny as an older woman, but think of your younger crewmates, they must marry or be punished. Now act your age and live up to your position in your House. Do not forget you are responsible for everyone’s behavior.”
Jane met Madame Bai’s eyes with defiance but said no more, she knew that the other women wanted to go just to get out of the building. “Good, now if there are no more questions, I’ll leave you free for the day and then one of my assistants will accompany you tonight. If a man asks to see you another day, you may say ‘yes’ in the moment, but you must let Jane know who he is and where he wants to meet you. Jane will not permit you to go off with any riffraff and I expect there will be many who will try just because you are human. Keep your guard up and follow your instincts. And ladies, don’t drink too much, I don’t want to read about any debauchery in the Capital City gossip columns tomorrow.”
Later that evening, after dinner, Dru put on her formal dress which was the exact same cut as her other Alliance dresses, boxy. But this formal dress had the appearance of water moving at night over the entire fabric. So, when she walked it was as if she were wearing water that glimmered in the light of the two nearby Alliance Planets that were always visible in the Capital City’s sky. Dru investigated the material but could not figure out how the illusion worked. She looked at her hair and decided she would just wear it loose. It fell becomingly down to the middle of her back and curled nicely at the ends. She had no doubt this was a direct result of the fine comb she had been given weeks earlier and her tinkering with the dryer in the bathroom.
Once she was satisfied with her appearance she went downstairs to ‘the great fire room’ as they now all called it. Jane was handing out drinks, “I don’t know if this is any good, I bought it from a nearby shop. It’s called Zota. Apparently, it is a kind of hard alcohol. I’m sure Madame Bai would have a heart attack if she knew we were drinking this before our first Assembly,” Jane said, handing Dru a drink. When they had all arrived, Jane made a toast, “To Madame Bai and our first Assembly. May we all find zombie husbands and have many hybrid babies.”
“To Madame Bai and the hybrid babies,” they all said and drank and then choked because the alcohol was so strong and disgusting.
“Wow,” said Rebecca coughing, “Well, I don’t ever need to taste this again in my life.”
Dru had had much worse homemade moonshine in the Exterior and finished her glass of Zota and then took another. She didn’t know how she felt about tonight. On one hand, she was curious to see what an Alliance Assembly looked like, but on the other hand, she didn’t want to meet any Alliance men with the idea of marrying and having hybrid children. But then she reminded herself that she still had a year’s reprieve, as she was not considered of age yet, unlike her crewmates who would all be expected to find a man as soon as possible. She drank another glass of Zota and looked at the other women, they all had the expression of people who were lost in their own thoughts, like people who knew they would die soon, and wanted to live their last days as well as they could.
After a few drinks of Zota, all the women were chatting happily as they made their way to the Assembly in the transport with one of Madame Bai’s assistants. Of course, the assistant was upset as it had taken longer than she had expected to corral the human women into the large transport.
They were 30 minutes late. And everyone turned when they entered the room. The Assembly was being held in a very large yellow stone building that seemed to be just one large rectangular room. There were some statues of the various gods and goddess scattered around, but otherwise devoid of any decorations or beauty. The room itself had very high ceilings and was lit entirely by candlelight.
“Look at all the men,” commented Rebecca as they entered. There seemed to be twenty or more men to every woman.
“And
these are just the ones who happen to be on planet tonight,” said Madame Bai’s assistant. “This is a lesser Assembly. At the Year Assembly, you will struggle to see other women as there will be so many men.”
“Can anyone attend?” asked Rebecca already eyeing some men up.
“No,” replied Madame Bai’s assistant. “It’s by application and this is only for maximum class as well.”
“Where is the wine?” Jane asked. Their escort pointed out the bar and they proceeded to all get a cup of wine. With wine in hand, they settled into a corner to watch this Alliance ritual.
All of the Alliance women were dressed in dresses with patterns not unlike their own, with the illusion of moving images on them. And most of the men wore their black military uniforms proudly with all of their status jewelry so that nothing would be left to guessing. The women from the Dakota thought that they wouldn’t have been affected by seeing so many eligible men tonight, but the truth was it had been months since they had seen a man besides their guards and here were many good-looking eligible men of all looks and ages looking to marry and they were taken in by it. And most of the women did long to be spoken to but were dismayed that a lot of the men were looking but no one coming over to talk to them. And they knew that they were not allowed to approach any men, so they just stood there in a deadlock.