by Desy Smith
“Oh, grow up, Essence. Did you not anticipate that? You would be his Queen.”
“So what I have between my legs is supposed to make this man not only fall for me but persuade him to consider my views?” I ask.
“Yes. If there’s anything a male loves more than sex, it’s sex from a young woman, a woman who’s like a virgin because she’s only done it once.” Here she goes bringing up the past. “You will earn his favor. It’s a skill we women have.”
“And when he tires of me?” I ask because in the books, it usually always happens.
“If he gets in our way, we’ll kill him,” she responds. I open my mouth but close it quickly, not expecting her to say that.
“We’ve been programmed to be independent. I don’t know how to be anything but that.”
“We have twenty hours to deprogram you, Essence,” Grand Dame says. “I’m not going to force this on you, but you won’t survive on Earth, not by yourself anyway.” I think back to Earth’s landscape, the lack of people there. Could I truly survive down there by myself? Or would I go mad from lack of interaction, food, and supplies?
“Someone has to teach me how to fuck. I won’t convince him if I can’t fuck,” I state quietly, embarrassed I’m admitting that out loud.
“I wouldn’t worry about that. We women are born knowing how to please a man, but if you want more pointers, I’m sure Cher wouldn’t mind sharing.” I sigh still not wanting to do it but knowing I’m too much of a coward for the alternative. ‘Let’s turn you into a submissive woman,” Grand Dame says, to which I roll my eyes, I still didn’t like what that word meant.
Chapter Six - Horatio
Planet: Gaia
Scipio: Men’s Division
Twenty-Six Hours Later
Finally, after twenty-six excruciating hours of being in the air, we finally make it back to Scipio on Gaia. When the pilot gives us the signal, we rise from our seats, stretching. Sitting in one place for that long makes one stiff.
“Report!” I call out to Avery.
“On it,” he replies before a male robotic voice sounds in the shuttle, making me snicker. Knighthood told us the women named the voice in their shuttle and that has to be the silliest shit I ever heard.
“Fuel percentage at thirty percent. It is recommended you fill up before traveling again,” the robotic voice says. “There are no damages. Replenish sanitation pods. Warning, air filters need to be changed and cleaned, thirty days late.” I groan at that.
“What do you want us to do?” Noah questions after hearing that. I look around at their tired faces. If Knighthood were here, he would see to it that we addressed all the needs of our shuttle before retiring. It was three in the afternoon and it would take another two-to-three hours, if we were lucky, and they would half-ass it because they’re tired, which meant we would have to do it again. I despise doing shit, especially the same shit, multiple times.
“Return the earpieces and your findings to their appropriate places,” I instruct the men. They nod their heads waiting for my next set of instructions. “Get some rest, we’ll meet back here at eight p.m. to take care of the needs of the shuttle.” Thankful sighs are heard from them all, including Noah. As they begin to file out, I stop them.
“I said to get some rest, not go to Lust or to Diara,” I tell them.
“That is restful,” Noah jokes and they all smile in ecstasy. They were right, I could go for some, followed by a nice back rub.
“Just be back here at eight,” I tell them and begin walking, but I stop in my tracks when I take notice of Christopher at the entry door. After all these years, my hatred for him has yet to fade.
“Emperor has requested your presence.” I start walking, already knowing where Emperor will be at this time of day. I take notice of the halls and briefly stop to marvel at them. Gone were the bare walls we men were used to. Instead, pink streamers were taped to the wall, horribly I might add. A few were straight, others were crooked, bent and distorted at weird angles. Whoever the fuck hung these either didn’t care or simply didn’t know what the fuck they were doing. I stop again and backtrack, looking down the other halls and seeing more streamers in different girly colors. What the hell is Emperor up to now?
A floor-length poster of Emperor and what looks like that woman I ran into on planet Earth captures my attention. I walk toward it, inspecting the picture, which seemed to have been taken when she wasn’t paying attention.
Her chocolate skin looks mesmerizing, her long black dreads are pulled up into a neat bun, her edges are styled perfectly around her forehead, and her eyebrows are thick but arched. Her lips are big, the bottom bigger than the top, and burgundy-colored and wet. I take in her long, slender neck that reveals her breasts, which are pushed up and spilling over her tiny top. She looked sexy as sin. I continue marveling at the picture, taking in the font at the bottom that reads ‘Mrs. Emperor’. Wait a minute. Emperor did not . . . I trail off, realizing what this truly is. Shit! Emperor knew.
“Horatio,” Christopher calls my name in an annoyed tone, waiting at Emperor’s office door. I head in that direction, telling myself to keep my mind blank. I did not want Emperor reading my thoughts. Blank, I tell myself. Blank, I repeat one last time as Christopher opens the door.
“Horatio!” Emperor exclaims as he takes notice of me, putting down whatever paper he was looking at mere seconds ago. I nod my head once, addressing him.
“Sit, sit,” he tells me as he gets up, walking toward his mini liquor cabinet, then pouring two goblets of scotch. I take note of Christopher making himself comfortable in the corner. Emperor hands me the goblet, and what I’ve learned about how to drink scotch instantly floors my mind. I swirl it around in the glass as he does before smelling it then taking just a sip from it. I exhale at the taste.
“That’s good,” I tell him.
“It’s from Earth, from the year 1985,” he tells me as he takes another sip. The older it is, the better it tastes, I recall. Emperor clears his throat. “Christopher, would you leave us?” I look to Christopher, who opens his mouth as if he’s going to say something but instead he nods his head once and leaves.
“What do you think of the decorations?” he asks me. I shrug my shoulders, not knowing how to respond to that. I wasn’t nor will I ever be a woman. “I ask because she’s close to your age. Do you think she’ll like it?”
“I suppose if any of those colors are her favorite color and if they’re hung better, she would.” Emperor nods his head. He opens his mouth to say something else, but I stop him, not in the mood to do this back and forth, especially not after being in the air for a day.
“You know,” I state rather than question.
“Are you surprised?” he questions as I take another sip from the goblet.
“It did take you a while,” I tell him with another shrug of my shoulders.
“For her, yes, although that’s not to be blamed on me. For you, I realized it after a year of you working with Knighthood.” I dared myself to not think about Knighthood, not wanting Emperor to retaliate against him, as I knew he would. “Don’t worry yourself about Knighthood,” Emperor tells me, reading my mind. “I’ll handle him as I usually do.” I wanted to question what he meant by that, but I didn’t, well couldn’t, coward.
“Why are you and Highness the only ones able to do both?”
“It’s our DNA. Some of the men are stronger when it comes to our telekinetic gift and can lift this whole palace. Others wouldn’t be able to lift the canter full of scotch over there.”
“The women are affected the same way, I assume.”
“Yes, about the same, the stronger ones can erase your memory.”
“What’s the endgame of all of this?” I ask him. “Why are you bringing that woman over to Scipio? To marry her?”
“The same reason why I searched so desperately for you,” Emperor confesses. “Unlike Highness, I see no competition. You see I’m older and stronger t
han you and the girl.” Emperor smiles at that. “But I’m no dummy, either. I wouldn’t dare send you both away because you would come back with vengeance. Nor would I put any of you to death because that would be a waste. Instead, I want to mold You in my image.” I replay the word you in my mind to which he laughs. “You caught that huh?”
“Yes,” is my only reply.
“I suppose your old enough to grasp this concept,” he tells me as he takes another sip.
“Men and women regardless of our genitals being made to fit each other, are different. We’re stronger, more level headed, while the women are weak, sensitive, emotional. I wouldn’t dare mess up this natural order.” I understood what he was saying but still . . .
“I agree with you, we are superior,” I really did, I didn’t have to bullshit my response. “But Highness can do both just as you can,” I state. “If the natural order wanted to ensure, we men stay on top, she wouldn’t have been given both abilities too.” Emperor waves my thought away.
“The natural order has its flaws, as you are aware, letting two slip-ups happen.” I knew he was referring to Highness and his new Queen. “But what it fucks up, we’ll fix.” Now I was lost.
“Just to clarify, you want to train me in your image.” He nods his head. “Take the woman as your Queen, and . . . it sounds like you have a bigger goal.” I ask him as I finish the scotch. “Care to share?
“Yes, I have nothing to hide. We’ll be working together from now on.” I nod my head at that. “You see, Gaia is dying.” I stop sipping to give him a look, one he notices but doesn’t comment on nor elaborate what he means. “We’ll need to wipe out the women before they get the chance to wipe us out.” What the fuck?
“With you on my side, you ensure that we will win this battle against the women and save Gaia, creating a new world.” I couldn’t help myself.
“And what is that woman’s role in all of this?”
“She’ll help us re-populate Gaia once we kill all the women.” He couldn’t mean what I think he means. “I do,” Emperor says, letting me know he’s read my mind again. “She’ll ensure the future generation of men, will be born the correct way, as you and I were.” Emperor finishes.
“And if she’ll create other women who can do what she can?”
“We’ll fix it.”
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