by J.J. Mainor
Chapter 21
Ares remained at the door, staring as Roxanne inspected the room. It had been so long since he had been with a woman, let alone seen one. On all the Republic ships visiting for supplies in the past two years, there had not been one among all those crews. He couldn’t remember seeing any when the Confederation ships came by either. The ships from the Independent Union had a few in their ranks, but those girls were always so cold and professional. It was likely they had already been claimed by their fellow officers.
Then there were the ships of the Eastern Imperium. The landing parties never had a shortage of the fairer sex. Imperium girls were some of the most beautiful creatures he had ever encountered. Their copper skin was so smooth and flawless, their short, pitch-black hair was like strands of velvet through the fingers. They were so demure and polite, yet warm with words. He would turn off his translator at times because from their lips, the Imperium languages rivalled the most beautiful love songs.
They were a lot more open about sex than women of the Republic. Though it was prohibited, and the lesser workers like him were watched closely during visits, it was not impossible to obtain their private company. Imperium visits became more than just a release of sexual energy. These woman had a way with their hips to make you forget these were one-time flings. They weren’t providing sex, they were making love; and before they were done, their partner would swear she was the right woman and vow to marry her.
Roxanne’s genetic features were the exact opposite, yet she was no less beautiful. Ares couldn’t stop staring at that long, golden hair. As she removed the pieces of her suit, his eyes traced downward along the outline of her curves.
Remy was too old to be with such a young woman, especially one this beautiful. Ares figured she had to belong to that officer. He struggled with his own urges not to make a move that might cost them his help. Still, this beauty might be worth damnation.
He turned to leave her before those thoughts became action, when she stopped him. “Don’t go,” she pleaded. “Don’t you want to stay and talk?”
His tongue dropped from his mouth and all he had for an answer was a gargle. Still, he figured, the invitation was hers. He didn’t want to offend the lady. Shutting the door behind him, he took one of the chairs at the table.
Roxanne shook off the last boot and sat down beside him.
“Where are you from,” she asked, looking upon him as if he was a new book sitting on her shelf for inspection.
“I’m from Happy Falls.”
A pleasant fascination flashed from the young woman. “Sounds wonderful,” she mused as someone judging his hometown from name alone. But all was not happy.
“It’s not,” Ares admitted. “Kind of a shithole ever since the bottling plant closed.” He told her a boring tale of a bottled water company setting up shop to capitalize on the town’s name, until the local government realized they were drying up the water supply. The politicians couldn’t shut them down directly, so they made it increasingly difficult for the bottler to do business. Eventually, they left and took the jobs with them.
Ares didn’t believe she would find it interesting at all, but every word drew her closer and closer to him until she was just about in range for a kiss. His story increasingly relied on words that would round his lips, expecting the next to bring her into a connection. And just when he was about to close the seal, the door opened, pulling them both sharply away from each other and back into their seats.
It was Remy entering with a look of jealous anger on his brow, at least that’s what Ares saw. He wasn’t going to take the chance and quickly excused himself to find out what his assignment was supposed to be.
“He was a charming young man,” Roxanne sighed. Charming wasn’t the word that came to Remy’s mind concerning Ares, or any of the men he ran into on this world. He knew it was just as dangerous bringing the girl down here among an entire group of sex starved men as it was to leave her on the Freedom with one who had taken advantage of her limited memory and simple outlook on people, but this option seemed to provide the more likely path toward her freedom. Remy knew the risks in trying to free her from her cage, and he had to take the responsibility of keeping her out of harm.
The book he had tucked under his arm was just one way of helping her. He had found it in one of the crew quarters on the way here. It seemed someone on this station had a ravenous passion for books. It was one of the many ways, Remy supposed, for one to forget the animal instincts this job repressed. There was quite a library in that room and he figured one wouldn’t be missed.
Remy recognized one volume as a classic Republic novel. Widow’s Walk was the story of a new mother who had lost her husband in the early days of the new Republic. She decided to strike out across country looking for a new life for her and her baby daughter. He handed the book to Roxanne, thinking she might like to read about a woman who didn’t rely on sex to get along in the world. He felt reading a story about a strong woman might give her the sense of self she didn’t seem to have been programmed with.
“I thought you might like to read about your country back on Earth.” Of course he lied about the underlying subject. As someone who wasn’t accustom to deep thoughts, Roxanne would likely have been turned off if he sold it as a social novel instead of a grand adventure tale.
Watching her take the book and flip through the pages with a glint of magical wonder, Remy saw his plan to undersell the book was the right course. He could always bring up the complex social message later as an exercise.
“Can you stay with me,” she pleaded sensing the book was actually a consolation for leaving her alone as Pittman often would. “I get so bored by myself.”
The irony wasn’t lost on Remy. He took the seat Ares had formerly occupied hoping to convince Roxanne her momentary solitude was necessary.
“I have to help them build a new ship that will take us away from this place. As soon as we’re all aboard and away from here, I’ll stay with you, I promise.” He took her hands in his as if intimate contact would reinforce his pact; as if to reassure this girl her coming loneliness was a necessary price for her freedom from that prison Lieutenant Pittman had for her. “I’ll even read with you. Maybe I can find you other books while I’m gone to ignite your imagination.”
She returned his hopeful smile with a satisfied one of her own, letting him leave with the dream of a story binding his word to her bosom.
The pages splayed out to her imagination, the words travelled through her eyes and into her mind. “It was a cold November day. The leaves had long ago shifted their hues, withered and slipped from the maple in the front yard.”
It sounded so beautiful to her: a tree with leaves that changed color. And a yard! This world already sounded fantastic.
“Every day the sky was just a bit grayer as the sun dropped in the sky.”
And the sun moved! She already imagined what it must be like to stand on the surface of such a wondrous place and just look up at the sky as the warmth radiated across the skin. Would she too change hues, she wondered, with the changing of the seasons? Or would she wither with the passing months? If that were so, it would still be worth it to experience fresh air and warm breezes. She could hardly wait for Remy to take her away from this dreary place and show her his dynamic home. Until that day, she had this book to tease her with the experiences of a fictional woman.