by Alma Nilsson
Nine weeks passed with no word from Ket. Dru studied all the time now when she wasn’t working at the hospital. One night she was studying late in her private room at the library when she suddenly felt very sick. Her throat contracted and she felt like she couldn’t breathe. The sensation had come on quickly and completely out of the blue. She tried to stand up but fell down from dizziness. Then the alarms went off. The calming voice of the computer told her to wait there and help was on its way, that she had contracted the Uli virus from Alpha Four. Her mind was swimming. She couldn’t think, so she just closed her eyes accepting the darkness almost embracing it.
Ket was working when his assistant told him he had an emergency message from the Capital Planet. He finished what he was doing and then went into his office in sickbay and closed the door. He opened the message from Dru’s Alliance Cultural Guide, Madame Bai. His heart was beating faster, and he couldn’t open the message fast enough, the only reason she would contact him is if something had happened to Dru on the Capital Planet.
Doctor Ket,
I am writing to let you know that Drusilla James has been infected with the Uli virus. No one knows how she became infected; the Capital City police are investigating it as a crime. She was studying in her private room at the library when the symptoms appeared a few hours ago. She is being cared for at the Capital City Hospital on floor five, room twenty. Thankfully, humans are more resilient than Alliance as the doctors say it would have killed one of us by now. They are doing all they can. Chief Engineer Jane, Head of House Human is away on the Zuin and cannot attend to her. Only members of her House or yours, with your permission. If you or your family cannot attend, I will make a formal appeal to become her guardian so that she will not be alone. However, this can take up to a week and she may be gone by then.
Madame Bai
Ket’s hands were shaking as he immediately opened a new VM to the Capital City Hospital. “I want Drusilla James moved up to the Imperial Level, we are courting, this is common knowledge,” he knew that someone had deliberately overlooked her new status to put her on the bottom rung of rooms. But then he also knew that she had not been wearing any of the jewelry he had given her lately, thanks to gossip columns and no doubt rumors had spread that they had split, which was not the case, not yet anyway. The truth was he didn’t know what to do about her sexual expectations, it had never occurred to him that she would ask for fidelity. But now he put that all aside and was angry that the hospital would just so easily dismiss her status without asking him first. He continued the message, “I will return to the capital at once, in the meantime, keep my mother, First Imperial Doctor, updated on all progress with Drusilla and allow her visitation rights.” He sent it to the Head of the hospital.
Then he left sickbay to find Admiral Ver. He found him in his ready room off the main bridge. The Admiral looked up as he came in, “How are things in sickbay?”
“Everything is fine. Ensign Tuz will recover with no harm done.”
“Good. You haven’t come down here to tell me that though.”
“No, Drusilla James has contracted the Uli virus and is in the Capital City Hospital. I would like permission to go to her.”
He looked at his doctor and said sympathetically, “But there is nothing you can do that they cannot do for her. I need you here.”
“If she were an Alliance woman, I wouldn’t ask this, but she is all alone. All the other human women are onboard the Zuin.”
“What about her cultural teacher, Madame Bai?”
“Madame Bai has no legal status connecting her to Drusilla and to petition for one could take a week or more. Already the hospital has disregarded her new status as my intended and put her on the bottom rung of maximum. I need to be there. This was an intentional attack and the police are investigating it. I don’t want whoever did it to succeed in killing her. Right now, she is alone and vulnerable”
“What about your mother or sister? Why not send them? Surely, no one would cross your mother.”
“If your wife was ill in the hospital would she want to see your mother or sister?”
The Admiral laughed, “You’re right, my mother is the last person my wife ever wants to see. Permission granted but Ket, remember you owe me for this. This is a personal favor.”
“Admiral, I am indebted to you,” Ket said and he knew that he would be called in on this debt and no doubt it would come in the form of a duel.
“Go to your human and I expect you to return as soon as she is stable.”
Ket nodded, “Thank you,” and left. He went to his quarters and packed a small bag and then went to the docking bay to take a shuttle craft. He would meet up with a larger ship along one of the main routes to take him the rest of the way back. It would take only a couple of days, he hoped. While in the shuttle craft he wrote to his mother.
Mother,
May the gods be good, Drusilla has been attacked and is at the Capital City Hospital. Please go and see to her. I have VMed the Head Doctor my permission. Set the guards outside her room and make sure she is moved up to the Imperial Floor. I am leaving now. May we now do the gods bidding.
Ket
Ket’s mother entered Drusilla’s room. She was unconscious. Zol had been monitoring her son’s intended for hours, via live stream from the palace, but now was the first time she had entered her room. She went to Drusilla’s side, pulled up a chair and sat down. Zol was worried, she wasn’t getting any better and now this had more to do with the will to live than the initial illness. “Drusilla, I am Ket’s mother, First Imperial Doctor Zol,” she didn’t expect a response, but continued talking anyway, “I’ve been worried about you ever since you returned from Boru.” Zol spoke her mind now which she would have never done if Drusilla was awake, “You ask a lot of my son, our society and the Alliance. What you ask of Ket, his fidelity, will shake us to our core. Maybe we believed we were so clever in sidestepping the gods with our loopholes for our own pleasure that they are now reminding us of what happens when we are not obedient to their wills. And now you, one of the Lost People are to remind us of what is right. I’m beginning to believe you are, but to do this you must come back to us Drusilla. Ket will not give you up. You are his destiny and he is yours.”
She took Drusilla’s warm, pale hand in her own grey one and reached out her mind to Drusilla’s. Zol could feel Dru’s depression easily and it didn’t take long to get to the root of it. Racism from the Alliance, alienation from all things familiar and longing for companionship, but most prominently the separation from her beloved Ket and the idea that she lost him. Drusilla was clearly choosing death if she couldn’t have Ket. Zol had seen enough, she left Drusilla’s mind and said out loud, to her unconscious form, “Ket is coming, Drusilla. He is coming for you, don’t leave us.”
Drusilla didn’t stir and the computers monitoring her showed no difference, but Zol had instinctually felt she had made a small difference. She could feel it in Drusilla’s presence in the room. Somewhere the young woman had heard her. She could feel it.
Zol put their House Vo guards outside Drusilla’s rooms at the hospital for her protection and had spoken to Jane who was clearly distraught over the incident but didn’t know what the proper protocol was so trusted Zol to take the appropriate actions. No one was allowed in or out that had not been cleared with Zol first.
Captain Kara had contacted Zol and told her that she wanted ‘someone’s head on a platter’ for this. Zol had been shocked at the human’s sentiments as she took it literally. She messaged Captain Kara back reminding her that even though she was human she was not a part of House Human and therefore everything would have to be organized through Jane. But she assured Captain Kara that justice would be done.
Dera had been sent to Drusilla’s room to collect some personal things to make her feel better in case she woke up. Dera had never been to Drusilla’s room before and was shocked by the sparseness of it. It felt so impersonal and empty. She opened Drusilla’s closet and saw nothin
g personal besides her few pieces of clothing, nonetheless she took a spare dress and stockings for her. Then she saw the small things Ket had given to Drusilla on her desk in the boxes they had arrived in. She opened them up to see what was what and took the large piece of jewelry from his known collection and the location ring with her. Just in case she woke up before he arrived. When she opened some of the drawers in the desk, she found nothing but the notes that had arrived with the presents and found Ket’s handwriting on three of them that had been set aside. Dera sighed, You do really love him don’t you, my poor Drusilla. Then she looked around the room and couldn’t see anything else that was personal to Drusilla or that would bring her any comfort and felt sorry for her friend then, literally having next to nothing that was hers. She knew now why her friend loved her brother so much, he had been her everything here. She said to the empty room, “You created this isolated prison for her by putting the ban on her. Ket, you better own up to it now.”
Three days passed until Ket arrived.
Ket entered Dru’s room silently. He went to her side and took her hand. He did not speak out loud but mentally reached out to her with all his strength. He knew from his mother; she was willing herself to die. Over and over in his mind, he was calling out to her, Drusilla, I’m here. I’m not going to leave you. Please come back to me. After some hours the doctors tried to make him go, but he refused. Finally, his mother instructed the guards to not let anyone else in, so he wouldn’t be interrupted as he tried to reach her.
The first night, every time he felt the tip of her consciousness, he would lose it again just as quickly as he had felt it, but it gave him hope. By the next morning, he had almost grasped it. He was speaking both mentally and out loud, which should have been unbelievably loud in her head to get her to come back to him. “Drusilla, I’m here, please come back to me. I can’t let you go. I will do anything for you, just come back to me.”
Finally, by the midday meal, when he didn’t think he had any more energy to try, she opened her eyes. He had never been so relieved in his life.
Dru’s eyelids were heavy, and everything was so blurry and dark. She saw a figure and hoped it was Ket. She hoped she had not imagined it. She thought she felt his cool hand and had heard his voice distantly calling out to her.
“Drusilla,” he said emotionally.
She tried to speak but couldn’t. He helped her drink some water from a ceramic cup, “Ket?”
He brushed some red hair back from her face, “Yes, I’m here.”
“What’s happening?” she asked confused.
“You have been very ill. Somehow you caught the Uli virus from Alpha Four. Thankfully, humans are stronger than Alliance people and your body fought it off, but then you’ve been unconscious for about a week.”
“I had frightful dreams,” she said still confused.
“I’m sure you did,” he couldn’t help but still be concerned. He was still holding her hand.
She looked at their hands and gave a small smile, “I like that you are near.”
They were both quiet for a few minutes, holding hands.
“Are we still courting?”
“How can you ask that?”
“How can I not?”
“What you are asking is a very serious thing. We would be ostracized for pursuing monogamy and using binding tattoos.” Ket could hear his guards stopping the doctors who were now outside the door wanting to come in. He also heard his mother talking to the doctors and he knew he needed to tell Drusilla his decision now because the doctors could only be stalled for minutes and then he may not be allowed to see her again for hours maybe days. “I’ve lived my whole adult life with slave artists. And as much as I adore you, I couldn’t remain true to you without the binding tattoos.”
Tears began to run down her cheeks, “So you are leaving me?” Did he come all this way to leave me like this? she wondered; heart broken by the thought.
“No,” he stroked her hair with his other hand and made the Alliance sound to calm her a mixture of ‘sh’ and ‘z’s. “Quite the opposite. I’ve been praying a lot about this since I received your message and then when I thought I might lose you completely, I realized that the gods were telling me that they would take you away from me if I didn’t submit to you. I’m here and I’m willing to pledge my life and body to you and only to you for the rest of our lives.”
She didn’t stop crying.
“Why are you still crying?”
“I don’t know. Is this real? I can’t believe you would do that for me. I was so sad thinking that you would leave, and I would have to join the Rez Club for pining over you.”
“I don’t want to lose you. We’ll work this out. I’ll consult some old diaries about how people managed fidelity without going insane.”
“I don’t think people go insane from lack of sex, Ket,” she said flatly
He brushed some hair out of her face again, “We’ll work it out. You should relax now.” Ket mentally let his mother know she could let the doctors in now, which they all must have heard too, including Drusilla, if she had been listening, but she was tired, so he doubted it. “The doctors are coming in now. They’ll make me leave, but I’ll not leave the hospital. I’ll be right here.”
“Don’t leave,” she requested. She wanted to say, ‘I want to make sure I didn’t imagine what you said. I need to hear it again and again.’ But she didn’t.
“I’m not leaving you. I’m right outside.” Gods, this pained him. When he had reached into her thoughts and memories, he had known that living in the Alliance had not been easy for her, but he had not realized the extent of just how depressing it was for her. That every day was a challenge. He felt like a fool that he had not considered how living alone in that big building was so detrimental. And then his silence over something that he should have told her that he was considering. He thought that would have been obvious, but instead he hurt her more.
Zol looked at her son and touched his arm using influence as if he were a boy again, “You came back, she is awake and those are the things that matter now.”
“Every step of the way I have confused and hurt her,” Ket countered.
“She must have liked something in the way you behaved,” Zol smiled. “I looked into her memories and I saw a lot of things you did right. I think we can only expect humans to change so much in one lifetime.”
“But Captain Kara,” Ket began.
“Is an outlier. There are always a few. And the other humans who are married are also having issues with the custom of slave artists, but none have been so vocal as Drusilla. Maybe it’s because you were clever enough to insist Dera introduce her to the practice. Had you already been married, she would have never forgiven you, binding tattoos or not at that point.”
“I can’t give her up. We’ll take the tattoos. I hope this will not affect our position as First Imperial House.” Ket felt guilty for Dera then, her position would be put in jeopardy over this. She would have to marry now, something that they all hoped she would not have to do.
“I think if a daughter is born as soon as possible, our position will remain stable despite this archaic cultural custom being suddenly employed again. As long as it’s only Drusilla demanding it people will just think it is romantic that she cannot share you. We will try to keep this a secret for as long as possible. There will be rumors of course.”
Ket nodded, “One more thing, I don’t want her returning to House Human. She is too lonely there. I want her to move to our home.”
“No, she’ll have to remain where she is, it’s only for a couple more months.”
“This is an unprecedented situation.”
“I’ve seen it too, but it doesn’t mean that she wants to give up when she has almost won the race. Let her decide. If she comes to me and asks for a place to live, I’ll welcome her. But I’ll not do it because you ask it.”
Ket looked into Drusilla’s room. The doctors were still with her, they were talking about a human
illness he had never heard of, apparently it was similar to Uli and this is why she was able to recover. Ket could just barely hear that they were finishing up their conversation. As they left, he went in. All the doctors gave him varying looks of disapproval as they went by.
He sat down next to Drusilla’s bed and they looked at each other in silence for many minutes.
Dru was so happy to see Ket, that he was really here and that this was not a dream. He looked so tired though, he had dark circles under his eyes. She reached out for his hand and he granted it. “I hope you didn’t lose your position by coming back.”
He smiled at her and touched her face gently, “No, but the whole Empire now can see how in love I am with you.” This was something that Alliance society frowned upon this outward display of love, because it unsettled people.
She smiled.
“Drusilla, I don’t like to think of you alone in the apartment building where you are now. Would you like to live elsewhere?”
“As you know I’m bound by my contract with the Empire. I must live there with the forcefield and the guards until I marry. I thought I only had a matter of months left. We are getting married after I finish my practical. We are, aren’t we?”
“Of course, although I’ll ask you properly.”