Those systems on Arbiter had been disabled long ago. Border officers didn't believe in letting machinery substitute itself for etiquette, and they didn't want a disembodied voice chasing them all over the ship, letting them know someone was looking for them. They'd opted to be left alone.
Having checked the water usage to her cabin before coming, Atal knocked, knowing Aer'La was in the shower and, therefore, wouldn't hear him. He had timed his visit carefully. He entered the cabin, giving himself some time before Aer'La finished in the shower.
The room was typical of a Border officer's in that it was atypical. In this case, the cabin testified that its occupant was a slob. There were clothes discarded on the floor and entertainment cartridges scattered all over. In an unusual tribute to luxury on such a vessel, the bed (unmade) hosted a tangle of exotic fur comforters and satin sheets. Atal noted bottles of massage oil and lubricants and averted his eyes, which then caught the true oddity of the place: a hologram of a teenaged Quintillian musician. Larger than life, the boy's nude body stood slick with the sweat of an exhausting performance, his only attire a guitar (which he probably didn't know how to play.) A spray of tiny stars shot from his eyes, and he smiled, innocently and lewdly all at once, at his adoring onlookers.
Such holos were expensive, and designed to adorn the rooms of the impressionable and immature. A Captain hardly expected to see one in the cabin of his bos'n. Where the young singer fit into the equation he would divine later. For now, he had a suspicion to confirm. He sat down on the bed and waited patiently for Aer'La to emerge... without her perfume.
In the interior chamber the sound of running water ceased. He heard the muffled sounds of her coming out of the shower cubicle. She emerged moments later, clad as many women are following a shower, in two towels. One was wrapped around her body for warmth, the other draped over her head as she massaged her hair dry with it.
Without sensing the presence of an intruder, she reached for the bottle of perfume on her dressing table.
"Bos'n," Atal said quietly.
She didn't jump. She was neither a coward nor a victim of overactive nerves. She turned to regard him cooly. "Captain," she said, an eyebrow arched. "I wasn't expecting you."
"I didn't intend for you to expect me," he smiled. "I wanted to catch you without the perfume, so I could confirm my suspicions."
"And they are?" she asked quietly.
"You're a feral."
She did not answer, nor did her face register the sick horror of a fugitive discovered. She returned his gaze, as if assessing him. Then, carelessly, almost mechanically, she untucked the secured corners of towel from above her full, exquisite breasts, and dropped it, standing naked before him. When he said nothing, she began to advance on him slowly. There was no threat in her manner, though he knew, since she was a feral, that she could easily have killed him bare-handed. As she drew near, his arousal struck him like a gust of hurricane wind.
He caught her wrists and stopped her. She didn't fight. Strong as a Varthan woman is, he couldn't have held her off if she had fought.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
She shrugged. "Giving you what you came for."
There was no trace of bitterness in her voice, no suggestion that she resented the demands she must now expect him to make. Nor was there any enthusiasm evident. There was only resignation to the inevitable.
She was beautiful. Naked, the evidence that her skin was dyed was clearer – traces of darker blue in the creases and crevices of her flesh, around her nipples, at the smooth mound of her pubic region. "It would be worth having," he said quietly. "But it isn't what I came for. I don't take liberties with my crew."
"Why not?" she asked, in a tone that added, 'everyone else does.'
"It's bad for crew morale. It's bad for my ego. I never know if the attention is being given to me or this damned star on my belt."
She considered that. "That's... smart."
"Thank you."
"What the hell is someone smart doing out here?"
NCOs don't usually speak the master of a vessel that way; but this was the Border, Atal had entered the cabin without permission, and Aer'La was naked. The conference thus qualified as informal.
"I like to vary my experience."
"I hear you pissed off the old men."
"I hear I'm not really human, but an android sent to infiltrate a Qraitian vessel and detonate myself near the Home world." At this declaration, Aer'La looked confused. Atal clarified. "Be careful about rumors."
"I'm always careful. It's why I'm still alive. Why did you come here? To find me out?"
"To make certain I was correct, yes."
"And now you're gonna turn me in?" She asked. Then she reconsidered. "No, you're not that by-the-book. Think maybe you'll sell me? Escapees don't fetch much at auction. I'm good at gettin' away, too."
"And you're very honest, apart from disguising your race."
"Yeah, Captain, I am. I got no reason to lie to you now."
"I'm glad. That means you can tell me how you came to be here, and I'll be able to believe what I'm hearing."
She crossed her arms over her breasts – not for cover, just a thoughtful gesture, indicating she was baffled. "You're a strange one," she said.
"Really?"
"You're not here for sex. You don't wanna sell me –"
"I have no such intention. I just want to hear your story."
"I'm not sure I trust a man who doesn't want sex or money."
Atal laughed. "Neither do I. I assure you, Bos'n, I'm strongly interested in both. They're just not my first concern."
"What is?"
"My career – and thus my vessel and crew. I won't take any action – or allow any situation – which jeopardizes the people under my command."
She smiled without humor. "Like Varthan ferals running loose?"
"I'll reserve judgment until I know more about you."
"Okay," she said. She sat down, crossed-legged, on her bed, and gestured to a chair.
Atal cleared his throat, and, despite lifelong exposure to both nudity and public sexuality, averted his eyes. Aer'La, clothed, could have given a corpse an erection. Aer'La, naked, was far more than even a disciplined Naval officer could easily resist.
"Wouldn't you like to put some clothes on?" he asked.
"Not really. Would it make you more comfortable, Captain?"
"It would allow me to concentrate."
Chapter Two
Raised in Captivity
Haltingly at first, but with growing confidence as Atal listened attentively, Aer'La told her story...
I guess the first thing I remember is pain between my legs. I think I was about four years old. I don't really know. Inihu weren't taught to count. I was naked. We were always naked. I was on my back, on a table, and a big man's face was above me. I still have nightmares about that face. He had greasy black hair, and a beard. His breath stank. I wanted to hold my nose, but something, or someone, was holding my arms behind me, pinned down. Most of all, I remember he had a scar that ran up and down over his left eye. Even his eyelid had the scar, like someone had sliced a knife down it. His eye was okay, so I guess maybe he'd had a new one put in. Something way too big shoved itself into my body down there. I felt something, some part of me, rip. I tried to scream, but they stuffed a cloth in my mouth. All I could do was lie there and cry. Now I know it was the man's dick – his penis, sorry – inside me. That was the first time. They did it to all the girls, at about that age. The man with the scar did most of us. He really enjoyed doing the first one to a girl.
I guess, after that, he wasn't much interested. They trained us – stuck something in us – all the time, but it was usually the old women who did it. They'd use fake ones, different sizes and shapes, and make us learn to hold them in. They didn't only put them where the man with the scar had put them, either. Some of the girls learned to like it. At least, they pretended they liked it. I guess I don't know. Maybe they thought I liked it,
too. You learned to keep
quiet, anyway. The whippings weren't as bad if you kept quiet while they stuck you. I learned to hold my breath, not to yell, not to let my eyes tear up.
I remember one little girl – younger than me – that didn't like it. She couldn't learn to take it like a big girl. The first time the scar man stuck her, she screamed and kicked and bit so hard she made herself bleed. I think she kicked him in the balls, too. I didn't see, but I heard, later. When she came back, she had bruises on her face and all over her body, where he must have beaten her. They laid her on the bed, and she cried herself to sleep. No one helped her. I thought about going to her, saying something to try to make it easier. I didn't. I was afraid.
I guess it's a good thing I was.
That night – the night after the little girl's first time – I remember waking up to screams and the sound of a fight. Some of the older girls had gotten up and pulled that little girl out of bed, the one who'd cried. They beat her. They threw her on the floor and kicked and punched her. She screamed and begged, but they kept it up. Then she stopped screaming, and they still kept it up.
I pulled my blanket over my head and pretended to be asleep. I wondered why none of the teachers came in. They were always right outside the door. There were three or four whippings a night for girls who got up, or talked, or just weren't asleep. Why weren't they coming in now?
Once, I opened my eyes just a crack. The little girl was on the floor, not moving. The other girls had finally stopped beating her, and were just looking at her. A few of them smiled. One spit on her. There was blood on her face, all purple, and a pool of it on the floor, under her head. I didn't know what death was then. I don't know, even now, if she was dead. "Think you're better than the rest of us?" one of them asked the little girl. I thought that was pretty stupid, 'cause I was pretty sure the little girl couldn't hear her, or say anything.
The teacher came in then. There weren't any whippings. She just told the girls to go to bed. They carried the little girl out of the room. That was the last time I ever saw her. After that, I knew you didn't dare tell anyone that it hurt. You didn't dare let on that you didn't like something they did to you. The teachers would only whip you, but the other girls were likely to kill you. That was the way it was.
* * *
I must have been eight or nine when that happened. It wasn't long after that that I first heard the 'F' word. By then, I didn't sleep alone as much any more. I was usually warming the bed of one of the masters, or one of their customers. But this was a night I got to sleep in a bed by myself, back in the barracks. That's where the Inihu stayed, when we weren't in use.
One of the other girls, Jin was her name, was in the room with me. I asked her what she thought might have happened to that little girl, the one that got beat almost to death. Had she died? Or had the masters killed her? Or what? How come we never saw her again? How come we were never told anything?
"Y'ain't s'posed to ask them questions, Aer'La," Jin said. She didn't sound mad. She wasn't one of the mean girls. That's why I felt like I could ask her about it.
"I know," I said. "I just wondered, is all."
Jin was quiet for a while. I figured I'd scared her, but then she whispered, "I bet she went to Freedom."
"Freedom?" I asked, "Where's that?"
Jin shushed me. "Don't say it out loud! It's not a place we're s'posed to know about."
"What kinda place is it?"
"Well," she said slowly, "I reckon it's warm there. And bright and pretty."
After I got away, I found out that my home planet was a lot colder than most planets where people lived. That it was farther from its sun than most planets. I didn't know there were real places where you never got cold, or where you could even find a place to get completely warm. At home, the cold seemed to hang on, even when you sat right by the fire. And the sun wasn't as bright as the moonlight I've seen on some planets since.
"Where is it?" I asked.
"I don't know. I just heard of it. I heard it's a place where no one touches you, 'less you want them to."
"How do I get there?" I asked. A place where no one touched you... I wanted to go there.
See, I hated it. The sex, I mean. I wanted to scream and cry, too, every time. I'd seen what would happen, though, so I took it. I kept taking it. I even smiled and cooed and pretended it was exactly what I wanted. But I didn't want any of them near me. The things they did made me feel dirty, even when they didn't hurt. They usually hurt.
"I don't know," Jin answered. "I guess... I guess you gotta..." She whispered the last word. She was afraid of it. "Ex-scape."
I let out a yelp. You didn't say that word! No one escaped. No one talked about it, ever. It was a sin. No one had a right to say no, or to try to leave this place. We were made to be what we were. Anyone who wanted to be something else was a freak, and deserved to die. And I wanted to say no. And I wanted to leave. And I wanted to be something else. I deserved to die. So when Jin said the bad word out loud, I yelped, because it was all my sins come to light.
"Shut up!" Jin hissed at me. "You're gonna get us caught! Don't you tell no one I told you any of this!"
We didn't talk about it again. I didn't talk to anyone about it. I didn't dare. I might be found out, and punished worse than anything I'd been through yet.
But after that, when I was alone, or when the man or men I was with would roll off me and start to snore, I'd dream about that place Jin had told me about. That warm, bright place where no one ever touched you. That place called Freedom.
* * *
I got older. By ten or eleven, I'd grown big breasts, and my body didn't look like a little girl's. We Inihu grow up fast. I was called to serve the masters more often. I kept dreaming about going to Freedom, and hating the touch of a man's flesh on mine.
Then, one night, I was taken to the bed of Master Hix. He was one of the masters who didn't only keep Inihu girls for company. He kept a boy Inihu, too.
I knew there were boys of my kind, but I'd never met one. He was there alone in the master's bed chamber when they brought me in. I'll never forget the first sight of him. He was beautiful. He was small – smaller than me, though he was probably my age. He was lying on the bed silks, naked, and completely unashamed of it. All the men I'd ever met pretty much kept their clothes on, even during sex. They didn't show their bodies to mere Inihu. We only saw the parts we needed to deal with. This boy didn't bother to hide anything.
He had greyish skin, like mine. It was smooth and perfect, like a girl's, if she's been treated okay. The only hair on his body was on his head, and it was gold like honey. He had green eyes. He looked like a statue someone had made out of silver and gold, with emeralds set in the face. A pretty, sweet little statue. He was drinking from a gold cup, and playing with some kind of bone pieces on the bed silks. I later found out that they were pieces from a game. I didn't know what games or toys were. Inihu girls weren't given anything to play with. This was the first time I saw that Inihu boys were treated differently.
After my first glimpse of him, I made myself look away. He was like me, but he was a male. I'd been taught not to look at a male unless he wanted me to. I was supposed to be respectful and obedient, unless, in bed, I thought he wanted me wild. Then I could kick and claw and bite. Some of them liked that. If they didn't, they'd beat us for doing it. Of course, they were likely to beat us even if they liked everything we did.
He got up from the bed and walked towards me. I figured he was going to hit me for looking at him. I wondered if I was allowed to hit back at a boy Inihu like I was at a girl. The masters liked it when girls fought each other, but boys were the special property of just one master. This one might not want his boy damaged. I figured I should probably just let him hit me and leave it at that.
He didn't hit me, though. He smiled at me, a friendly smile. "I'm Druberj," he said. "Who're you?"
I didn't answer. Inihu didn't introduce themselves to each other. Or to anyone. No one care
d what our names were. We only had them so the teachers could call us out to punishment.
"It's okay," he said. "We're alone. You can talk. The master won't be here for a while. Anyway, I know you're not afraid of me. I'm not strong enough to hurt you."
He was right. Female Inihu were designed a lot stronger than their brothers. It made us more exciting to the masters. It made us good fighters against each other, and it made us wild in bed. Boy Inihus were designed to be weak, so they didn't stand a chance of overpowering the masters. Girls could be controlled a little more easily, I guess.
"I'm Aer'La," I mumbled.
"Would you like something to drink?" he asked. He pointed to the goblet in his hand, and walked over to a sideboard, where there were more like it. He poured wine into one from a fancy, crystal bottle.
"Don't" I snapped at him. "That's the master's!"
He laughed. It was a good laugh. I'd never heard a laugh that wasn't harsh, or mocking, or brought on by someone else's pain. It was a playful laugh.
"So? I'm the master's, too. He likes for me to have wine," He grinned. "He says it loosens me up."
He held the cup out to me. I shook my head. "He'll whip us."
"He won't whip me," said the boy. "He wouldn't take the chance. Any scars would lower my value, in case he loses a big bet, and has to sell me off." He ran the backs of his fingertips over the curve of one smooth buttock. "Boys are rated on their skin. I don't get anything but spankings." He rolled his eyes. "But I get a lot of them. My master likes it. Last week, he bruised me, and he had to have the healer fix it."
I had been to the healer a few times, too, when the cuts from a whipping bled too much. My own back and buttocks were not perfect, like this boy's. They didn't care if a girl was perfect.
Taken Liberty v5 Page 3