by Alma Nilsson
“I’m glad to see you all healthy,” she began. “When I sent you here, I blamed myself for not being able to protect you from this, but now I blame our government for not being able to resist the universal credits and other trivial things the Alliance offered for us. They sold us like slaves. Now we are destined to be a part of the Alliance forever and I’m not one to wallow in misfortune. I have accepted the Alliance into my heart.”
Dru thought, And into your uterus as well.
“And I’ve accepted a new destiny here with these people. We are their Lost People. These Alliance people are our people,” Kara emphasized the word ‘our’.
There were gasps all around the room.
Had Kara become religious? Jane questioned but then reversed her thinking, No, she is just putting on a show.
“We are here to help the Alliance even out their demographics problem, but we will not do so without bringing something of humanity to them as well. They cannot cherry pick what they want from humanity. I have an Alliance Alpha ship,” she said the two ‘A’ words with emphasis. It was a big deal. These were the best warships in the galaxy. It was unprecedented that a human would command one. “I’ll need a loyal crew, but mind you, an Alliance crew. You must all pledge your oath to the Alliance Empire. We aren’t going back to Earth. This isn’t an escape mission.” She looked them all dead in the eye, “And if we come across any human fleet ships, we will fire on them and offer them no quarter. If you’re comfortable with that, I would like to invite you all to return. I will need your answers by tomorrow, and we will depart next week.”
Many of the women made enthusiastic replies affirmatively.
Kara smiled and then said casually, “There is one last thing I must mention according to the new High Council Order that allows us on ship, I must also tell you that if you accept these positions, your position in the Alliance will fall. It will be more difficult for you to find husbands if you haven’t already,” she looked at Rebecca. “As this will be the first integrated crew of human and Alliance as well as for men and women, Alliance courting rules will be different. If you begin courting someone you must marry after two months and share the same quarters after the marriage has taken place. Rebecca has already asked for her husband to be transferred and I have granted it. For the rest of you, I am waiting to hear your answers.”
“Do you share quarters with your husband, Captain?” Jane asked.
“No, he is on the Refa and I will be on the Zuin, but we are in the same fleet. We may visit each other from time to time.”
“And the child? Where will it live?”
“Between both I imagine. I will bring a slave onboard to look after it.”
“Doesn’t that go against Alliance protocol?”
“It does, but I refuse to leave it here without me and I refuse to be here. The options to the rest of you because we must have children will be to leave the children with your husband’s families here or take a year’s leave of absence and then come back when the children are one year old.”
They all knew better than to question why their captain got special rules.
Dru could sense that most of the women were happy with this arrangement given the circumstances. In the human fleet even if people were long term lovers they could not live together and would not be given any special treatment for children. Women who had children did get the same year off, so Dru suspected that Kara had added that bit herself. Dru felt that this was a decent arrangement and was considering it.
Jane interrupted her thoughts, “It’s difficult to choose when your life is going so well here, isn’t it?”
“You think my life is going well here?”
“You’ve learned everything that Madame Bai has set out for us to learn and you’ve learned it well. And you’ve been invited to attend the prestigious Capital City Medical School to learn some of the most advanced medicine in the galaxy. Yes, I would say your life is just beginning to go well here.”
“I haven’t been fully accepted yet. It’s conditional on my passing some exams.”
“And you’ll pass. You’re the cleverest person I have ever met James, and I have met a lot of people in my life, and that is including the captain. You’re destined for something greater than dying with us in space. If you stay here, you can be the first human to wield Alliance medicine and be an insider into their culture. Part of the reason they want us onboard a ship is to keep us separate from their precious society. I think they have found us,” she motioned around her to the other women, “and the Captain, too strong to keep here. That is also why they have replaced us with more docile humans who weren’t in the fleet. Captain told me that most of the 1,000 women just brought from Earth did actually volunteer to come, if you can believe that? You are strong and could become influential here. If Madame Bai is right and your Mr. Mystery giving you gifts is high ranking, which he must be because no one speaks to you, just close your eyes, marry him and then see how far you can go in this new world. Don’t waste your time with us in the galaxy playing cowboys and indians. No one will remember any of our names after we die, but you have a chance to do something meaningful for both the Alliance and humanity. Don’t throw this opportunity away.”
“I hear you. I just don’t want to be all alone here.”
“You won’t be alone. This building is going to be heaving with 1,000 more women.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I know what you mean, but listen to me as your House head,” they both smiled at the joke, “I’m actually taking away your right to go right now. You must begin the Alliance medical school.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
Jane nodded her head, “Of course, I’m kidding. I haven’t gone all Alliance on you yet,” she said with a smile. She put a hand on Dru’s shoulder, “But James, I think you’ll thrive here. Give it a chance. You can always message me. You will never be alone. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Are you going to do the right thing?”
“I’m going to do the human thing.”
“Good answer,” Jane laughed quietly, “See, you’re the cleverest woman I’ve ever met.”
“Besides me,” said Kara coming up between them. “James, I need you tomorrow. Admiral Tir is doing this ridiculous punishment at the Grand City Temple. I don’t want to be the only human there but the only way I can bring someone else is to bring a doctor, so that is you. I don’t want John. I’m tired of looking at his face as we’ve had too many meals together on the Refa.”
“Yes, Captain,” Dru said knowing about the punishment as she had read about it in the Day.
“Good. I’ll see you tomorrow. Dismissed,” Kara said and then turned to Jane and began talking about crew integration.
Dru went up to her room to consider her options. She laid down on her bed. She was sure that Captain Kara Rainer, Zu, was as wild as she had ever been and now the woman had an Alpha Alliance Warship. Not to mention, a powerful husband who seemed smitten with her. Going with the Captain could be the wildest adventure of Dru’s life, and she couldn’t deny that a part of her wanted that adventure. However, she also wondered about her life here. If she were to stay. What the other human women would be like and what kind of expatriate community they could build here. Do I want to be a part of a community more than have a grand adventure in the galaxy? She didn’t know, she had chosen to go into the human fleet because it had been her only option. Now she had a choice and she had to search her soul to figure out who she really was. Something that she had never really considered before. She had never had a choice like this before, a choice between two good options. Dru wished she had someone to tell her the future, but then she laughed thinking what a bad idea that would be as in every story, anyone who ever asked what happened in the future ended up with that bad future because they asked.
Dru looked across the room at her desk. She got up and sat down and brought up the picture of all the women from the Dakota that was taken the da
y they arrived. She looked at herself in the picture and then went into the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. She thought about Jane’s words downstairs, ‘You have a chance to do something meaningful for both the Alliance and humanity.’ Dru asked herself quietly, “Are you willing to risk a brilliant future for an adventure? Or stay here, and ride out the unknown, to see who this Mr. Mystery is and become an Alliance Doctor? What’s it going to be?” She looked at herself seriously in the mirror for so long she began to see herself differently, but after 20 minutes she knew what she had decided. She was going to stay.
The next morning, Dru took a hired transport to fly her to the Grand City Temple as it was across town. She was alone in the transport, which was uncommon for hired transports, and when she arrived, she paid with her fingerprint. She wondered if she could ask the Captain for reimbursement for the trip as it cost her 3 UC and technically, she was working, illegally, but working on the Captain’s orders, nonetheless. She had never been overly shrewd with her money but her 250 UC were slowly dwindling down and she had only been in the Capital City for a couple months. As she exited, she was surprised by the crowds lined up outside the temple. She pushed through the people that were lining up to get a glimpse at Admiral Tir’s punishment. People moved aside when they saw that she was human and that she was on her way in. When she reached the massive antique gates, which were closed, two guards asked her where she was going.
“Captain Kara has asked me to accompany her today as her doctor.”
The large guards looked at her ID necklace and nodded. They let down the forcefield and opened the antique gates. Inside, Dru walked towards the main temple building. There were very few people in the temple courtyard today, just some slaves and religious devotees that probably worked at the temple. Dru reckoned it must be because of Admiral Tir’s punishment that there were so few people here today.
Captain Kara had described this punishment to Dru as some ridiculous Alliance thing so that he can be granted forgiveness for her escaping because he didn’t treat her well enough onboard the Refa. Dru didn’t know anything else about this particular punishment, but she had read a lot about punishments in her cultural handbook. She knew punishments were a large part of Alliance culture and the fact that this was taking place publically at the Grand City Temple, she could only assume that it was going to be bloody, painful and difficult to watch.
As Dru approached the large yellow stone temple, she saw Captain Kara and Admiral Tir as well as what she suspected was the rest of his family and Imperial Entourage there. Dru noticed that Captain Kara and Admiral Tir were in a heated conversation, so she held back with the rest of the Alliance people just watching them.
“Tir, you don’t have to do this,” Dru heard Kara saying. “It’s absolutely barbaric.”
“Yes, we do. Things will never be right between us without the goddess’s blessing. You would have never been taken if I had been a better husband. I must make this right before you, my family,” he touched her abdomen, “and the gods.”
Then the High Priestess appeared and cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention. She was an older woman with silver hair that she wore in many braids down her back. She also had on so much jewelry Dru wondered how she could move. When everyone stopped talking, she ceremoniously bowed to the statue of the goddess of marriage, which they all did in turn, and then the High Priestess addressed them all.
“Admiral Tir has put his name on the temple wall to amend for his actions concerning his wife’s abduction. I have prayed to the goddess for many days concerning this issue and it has been decided that his punishment will be The Bloody Tears Until the Candles are Lit.”
Dru had not realized that by Admiral Tir saying he put his sins on the temple door that it meant the High Priestess decided his fate. She had read about this punishment. The one seeking penance will kneel praying while he is cut by the one he wronged to fill a sacred chalice which is then poured through the back of the goddess’s eyes, as if she is crying bloody tears for the sins committed. And as the priestess indicated, ‘until the candles are lit,’ that meant until the sun set which was hours from now as it was only mid-morning.
“I freely accept the punishment. Thanks be to the goddess,” Admiral Tir said formally as he began taking off his shirt and handing it casually to a nearby slave. He then took a large black chalice from the High Priestess and a silver ornate dagger with a purple sashed tied around it. He handed the dagger to Kara.
“What do you want me to do with this?”
Admiral Tir gave Kara a look of annoyance, “I will kneel in front of the goddess and you will cut me across my chest until this cup is full. Then you pour the blood through the spout behind the statue of the goddess, so she cries blood and we will repeat this until the candles are lit for evening prayers.”
“That’s hours from now.”
“It wouldn’t be much of a punishment if it were easy. Now, please proceed, Wife.”
Kara looked at the chalice and at the dagger. Tir was kneeling before the large statue of the goddess of hearth and Kara had no choice, she began making small cuts across his strong grey chest to try and fill the cup. It took a long time as she didn’t want to accidently cut too deep or hurt him too much. She hated this.
Dru watched as her captain cut Admiral Tir, it took at least 30 minutes for her to make enough small and shallow cuts to fill up the chalice. Dru wished that she could have guided her captain’s hands telepathically, but there were two other doctors there and they would notice. And of course, it was forbidden to help either of them in a punishment scenario. Before Captain Kara poured the blood down the spout, which would slowly make the goddess statue cry Admiral Tir’s blood, all the witnesses had to light some candles and say some prayers, all while Admiral Tir knelt, blood running down his body and onto the yellow stone around him. Dru had seen a lot of rituals in her life, many involving blood, but she was still shocked to see it in such a technologically advanced society. It almost seemed surreal, this ancient temple with the ancient punishment going on in the most modern metropolis around them.
Zol, the First Imperial Doctor to the Empress, had been sent to oversee the punishment as Admiral Tir was next in line to be Emperor. She was pleased that the Admiral had made his wife bring the young human doctor along. She knew her son Ket had put a ban on her. It was supposed to be a secret, but her husband Juh was bad at keeping secrets. Zol didn’t mind that Ket might be interested in this human. She was healthy, young and had more potential to have daughters than any Alliance woman at the moment. The only thing that worried Zol was the question as to whether or not human women could become civilized. She had read Anu’s report from Space Port One, ‘Obstinate human. Failure to comply. Failure to understand her situation,’ which gave Zol serious pause. She knew that Captain Kara struggled with the most basic of rules, so she wanted to see this young doctor for herself and to see if she had the same obstinate disposition as her captain. People had speculated that Captain Kara’s bad behavior could be blamed on Admiral Tir, and that human women brought directly to the planet, surrounded by other women, as they should be, probably could be taught to appreciate Alliance ways.
Zol watched the woman with red hair and she could not help it, she was charmed. Drusilla came appropriately dressed, wearing a necklace she assumed that Ket had bought for her, it looked like his taste. When she arrived, she quietly stood back with the rest of them. When the prayers were said, she knew all the words and said them without hesitation. When Admiral Tir was cut, she gave a telepathic shout of disgust that only Zol and the other doctor there, Siu, could hear. Then closed her mind off again, realizing her misstep. Zol knew from her reports telepathy was somewhat new for Drusilla and so she gave her some leeway as it takes children years to control themselves especially when they have strong emotions. Zol thought is showed good character that she was disgusted by seeing this punishment. As any normal person should be, this was barbaric, and it was only men who liked to do these
things to prove themselves.
Drusilla half wished she would have eaten more for breakfast and then half not, as the blood, even though she was a doctor, was disgusting to watch run down from the statues’ eyes, down the body of the statue and onto the floor. They repeated the punishment twelve times before it was time for the candles to be lit for the evening ceremony. It was a good thing too as Dru noticed Admiral Tir was almost ready to pass out.
When it was finished, Captain Kara was holding Admiral Tir in her arms with no thought at all to the blood all over him and now all over her. She was whispering something in his ear, and he replied something back which made her hug him even more tightly and then he groaned. She moved away after some moments and his doctor and the Imperial doctor, dressed in navy blue with silver trim began to see to him as Captain Kara stood aside.
Dru moved up, “Do you need anything, Captain?”
“No,” Captain Kara replied not taking her eyes off of her husband. Her face and hands covered in his blood. “Do you know about these punishments?”
“Some, we have a cultural handbook. I can send you a copy.”
Captain Kara waved her hand, “No, I shudder to think what I would find in there after what I already know from living Alliance life onboard a ship. What life here must be like?” she shook her head. “I already have document upon document to memorize about Alliance fleet regulations and I prefer to make Tir teach me cultural things, then I know what is really done in practice not just in theory. The rest, I’ll have Jane fill me in on when she can on a need to know basis.”
“The Alliance likes the idea of order,” Dru remarked and Captain Kara smiled.
“Yes, and that will be their downfall,” she said cryptically.
Dru didn’t ask what she meant by that. At this point she did not want to know. “I’m sorry I’m not going with you.”
“You aren’t sorry James, so don’t say it. If I were you, I wouldn’t go either. You’ve a lot of potential here on the planet. And we might be dead by the end of the year.”