by Robin Roseau
"She didn't want to say goodbye?"
"She says she hates goodbyes."
"All right. I want to tell you something. What happens here is hard for us. It was going to be very hard for me. Then I met you. You didn't want anything from me but friendship, and you offered so much. Do you have any idea how amazing that is? You're a Wookie. Do you know how many people would die to get a hug from a real, honest-to-goodness Wookie?"
"I am not your Chewbacca."
"So? You're an amazing person, and our stories are filled with wondrous creatures that we never get to really see. You're a wondrous creature, and you've become my friend. I'm glad I'm here, and you're a big part of the reason. My heart is going to break knowing you're gone, but I'll be fine now. You got me through long enough to make more friends, unlikely friends. I don't know how I would have made it without you."
And then she was rumbling. A moment later she held me to her, but she was warm and gentle. She rumbled and she rumbled. And then, when she calmed down, I reached a hand up to the back of her head.
"Do Wookies kiss?"
"Not like humans."
"Well, this human kisses, even Wookies that don't kiss back." And I pulled her to me. We had a soft, sweet, surprising kiss. "Thank you, Soft Rain. Promise me this is not goodbye forever."
"It's not," she said. "And the next time I see you, there will be more challenges."
"Good. Tell Thick Fog congratulations for me. And give her this for me." I kissed her again.
A minute later, she was gone. I waited another minute then began sobbing. And a minute after that, Jasmine was there, holding me tightly. I cried for a long time.
"Do you hate us for putting you through this pain?" she whispered to me.
"Don't be stupid," I said. "She doesn't live on the space station, does she?"
She didn't answer immediately but then said quietly, "No."
"Am I ever going to see her again?"
"I don't know. She didn't lie when she said she visits. But this is only her second since we arrived. I'm sorry, Andie."
"It's fine. I'm richer for having known her."
* * * *
Two nights later, Dark Skies ambushed me, quite literally. She snuck into my cell before I arrived and filled it with her scent. And she programmed my visor so I couldn't see her. I walked right in and smelled her right away, but the door closed behind me.
Then I heard in my ears, but I couldn't tell from where, "I want you, Andie. You're going to last about a minute. I will let you say no, but otherwise I am keeping you until morning."
"I'll never say no to you, Dark Skies. Take me home with you."
She did, but only after I was completely obedient to her. I spent hours worshipping her, and hours more in utter ecstasy.
* * * *
Our next batch arrived. We did it my way. I convinced sixteen to volunteer, although I had to work on some of them. I'll explain.
I took them four by four, one each from Bay, Cedar, Clover, and Jasmine. They picked the order I would see them, but in time I would learn to do the batch selection my way.
Most of the meetings went the same. The four women were brought to me all at once, at least until we reached the ones that fought enough to require four guards. They were placed in chairs and locked in, and then their hoods were removed.
For each, I stood in the room, turned away, and I waited until at least one of them asked me who I was. There was typically swearing.
But I was dressed the same way they were. I had four tablets set up, one in front of each of them, and I played the video of my own arrival here.
After that, I turned to them. I didn't sit, not yet. I wanted them to work to watch me. "I came here much the way you did. I actually was put through a second Testing, and they took me at the end. Most of you were taken from your homes."
"I was taken from Testing, but it was my first." I'd hear that a few times, but not often.
Some spewed anger at me. Some cried. Some just wanted to know what was going on. Most swore, some more loudly than others.
Then finally I would sit down. "This meeting can go one of several ways. You can all shoot the messenger. You can scream and yell at me. You can do that for an hour. Then the guards will come and take you away, and you'll have lost the opportunity."
And invariably, one would ask, "What opportunity?"
"For my help."
With almost all of them, that was all it took. They listened. Oh, there might be some screaming, but they listened. I'd tell them what was going on, but I wouldn't tell them how I could help. Invariably, eventually, one of them would ask.
"I can't send you home. They won't let me go home. They're not going to let you go home unless you beat them."
Then I would lay out the choices. After that, I watched, and I skimmed their bios, and I talked about the good parts, the opportunities. I didn't downplay the unfairness, but I pointed out we owed the aliens, that humanity owed the aliens, and yeah, it sucked we're forced to pay that bill. But we'd be paying it, and now it was time to make sure we came out ahead on the deal.
"We're not going to beat them in the arena," I said. "But we can beat them by making them give us what we want. I know this isn't what you wanted, but sometimes life isn't fair. Now, let's talk about making the most from this."
Then I would talk a little longer.
In the end, I got sixteen to volunteer from those meetings. Eight told me flat out they wanted to fight, but they might offer ribbons. Twelve offered ribbons. And eight more accepted willingly when facing the reality in the arena.
Clover got another five days with Peony.
* * * *
I do want to talk about one unruly woman, however. And I would have one or two of these in every batch afterwards.
The four were brought in. This woman fought her entire way, so it had taken four male guards to bring her in, and if she'd fought more than that, they'd have had to use extreme measures. But she struggled in her chair, even once it was hopeless, and I knew she was going to be trouble.
We removed the hoods. The guards left. And it took her about three seconds before she was screaming at me. I tried to wait her out, but she continued to scream horrible things at me. So finally I marched down to her end of the table and screamed, "Do I look like I'm dressed any better than you are?"
That shut her up for about three seconds. "I don't see you locked into this fucking chair, and what's that over your eyes?"
"I've been in that chair. Well, not that one, but I've been in that one-" I pointed, "More times than I can count."
"But now you're some sort of collaborator."
"Let me ask you something. Do you want to know what's going on? Because I can have the guards come back and get you, and you can find out when it happens. Or do you want to know ahead of time?"
She actually shut up for a while, but it didn't take long before she was telling me, "This is bullshit! I know my rights." She went on and on about that. And I didn't blame her.
"You can shut up, or you can let me finish and then tell you how I can help. If you don't want to know, I bet these other three do."
That got me another five minutes. But at that point, she began telling everyone else what to do. When one tried asking me a question, she shouted over her. "Why are you asking her? She's with the enemy! We're going to fight. We're going to stand together, and we're going to fight. They aren't going to take us like this."
Blah, blah, blah.
"You know," I said. "You're as bad as the aliens. No one in this room has very many choices to her. I'm not going home. I don't know when I'll see my parents again. None of you are going home, either, unless you win the challenges. We're all in this together with only limited choices. But you're as bad as them. You're trying to take away the rights of these three to make any choices at all. If you want to fight, great. Then fight. But these three women deserve the chance to make up their own minds without having you screaming at them. So shut the fuck up."
&
nbsp; "Go to hell." Then she began browbeating.
"Jasmine Brighteyes," I said. "I need you and a squad of Ardents, if you can assemble them."
It turns out she could, and I was sure she had them waiting, as they walked in the room only a minute or so later.
The woman hadn't shut up.
I pointed. "I don't care what happens to that one, but I would really like her to shut up."
Two of the Ardents stepped forward, and they had some sort of alien gag. It took them about a second and a half. The woman went insane, but she was a lot quieter about it.
"Now," I said calmly. "You three. If you want to listen to more of what she has to say, I will arrange it. Do you?"
One said, "No," and the other two shook their heads.
"Fine. Administrator Brighteyes, please have that woman removed. I do not care what you do with her, but I absolutely hate women who bully other women."
The Ardents had her out of there seconds later. I breathed heavily for a moment, Jasmine watching me. "Thank you," I said. "She ate all my time. I need my next group delayed. These women deserve the chance to discuss their options." I paused. "And I'm sorry. Everyone, this is Jasmine Brighteyes. She is the administrator here. She is a Catseye. Do you want her to stay so you can ask her questions, or should I ask her to leave?"
Then I plopped down in the nearest chair.
"What's going to happen to that woman?"
"She won't get any privileges," Jasmine said. "She'll go into the arena. She'll try to fight. She won't fight very well. She'll go into a cage. She'll have her challenges. She will lose."
"Are you going to hurt her?"
"We don't do that here," Jasmine said. "We deny privileges. But no matter what you do, we feed you. We take care of you. We won't hurt you, but if you twist an ankle or something like that, we fix it. We take the pain away and we heal it for you. But understand that you will be here for some time. The cells are very boring. Very, very boring."
"I can vouch for that," I said.
"I can, too," said one woman. "Please don't put me back in there."
"There are privileges that make it less boring," said Jasmine.
"I'm wearing one of them," I said. "It's basically the best computer on the planet, and I get all the television shows without commercials. Not that I have time to watch television, but that's just a detail."
"Those glasses?"
"Yes," I said. "It's called a visor. It's like one of those virtual reality devices you hear about coupled with military night vision goggles. I can make phone calls, surf the Internet, and see in the dark."
"Ms. McGowan," said Jasmine. "I know you don't want to be returned to the cell. Ms. Hayes doesn't want to go back to her cell, either."
"They keep you in one of those cells?"
"Yes," I said. "For the last three weeks or so." But I tapped the visor. "It's not so bad, although I get tired of the aliens ogling my legs."
There was a half smile at that. It was ragged, but it was the best I'd gotten with these women since they'd arrived forty minutes ago.
"You have pretty good legs," another said. "No one's going to ogle mine."
"You'd be surprised," I said.
"Please don't let them put us back in the cells," pleaded Lisa McGowan, the one who was already afraid of the boredom.
"Ms. Hayes has no control over that," said Jasmine. "Even I don't have control over that. I don't even control whether you get a visor."
"Then who decides that?"
"You do," Jasmine said. "You decide to earn a privilege. And this is the first we offer. It is also the first we take away."
"Please," said Lisa. She turned to me then back to Jasmine. She didn't know whom to ask.
"Would you like a visor, Lisa?" I asked.
"Yes!" She looked at the other two women. They were watching her. "I mean. The other woman..."
"The one who wanted to make your decisions for you?" I asked. "The aliens made a few for you. They made some really big ones, and they aren't done, either. But they're leaving you some choices. You can be obstinate. You won't win. Or you can make the best of the situation. That can be hard, because I bet you really want to walk over here and slug Administrator Brighteyes right in the nose, don't you."
They all turned to Jasmine. "Do we lose privileges if we say yes?" said Jane Easton, one of the others.
"No," I said. "She's heard far worse. There are two ways you earn privileges. You can earn one right now, but if you don't want to take this choice, you'll get another chance tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?"
"It's boring. I slept a lot the first day."
Then I did my normal sales job. Lisa I sold because I told her the wonders she would see and the things she would learn. Jane I sold when I talked about the types of men that she'd find in the arena as compared to the ones who wanted a willing mate. And I reverse-sold Chelsea the same way.
Jasmine walked out of the room and returned with two visors. Chelsea looked at them longingly as we fit them for Lisa and Jane.
"Administrator Brighteyes, Chelsea didn't turn us down because she isn't going to cooperate. She turned us down because she wants someone big and rugged. I think she doesn't have a very good idea what that really means, but can you blame her for that?"
"Actually, I can," Jasmine replied. "Who would want a big, rugged man?"
They looked at her nervously, so I leaned down and whispered conspiratorially, "She's a total lesbian. She's constantly looking at my legs. She's the worst of the lot, really. But maybe it's not so bad when she looks. She's kind of cute."
"Please, Administrator Brighteyes. Could I have a visor?"
Jasmine studied her. "There is a price for an early privilege."
"She's always charging a price for stuff," I said. "Don't let her scare you. What price this time?"
Jasmine talked about the interviews in the arena and how she wanted the women to go out there, stand tall, and give the challengers a real chance to get to know them. "I normally don't make this offer this soon, but if you promise to do what I ask, I'll let you have one now. But if you don't keep your promise, I'll take it away."
"I promise," she said. "But I don't know what you mean."
Jasmine retrieved one more visor and then explained what she meant. And then she put me through a simulated interview. "You see?" Jasmine finally said. "That's not so hard?"
"I'll do my best. I promise."
And so I sent three back to their cells, all in visors.
Once they were gone, I turned to Jasmine. "I have five minutes, and if I don't spend the first four wrapped in tentacles, I'm going to cry."
She was holding me nearly immediately. "What's wrong?"
"That woman. That woman. She made me so angry, Jasmine. These women have so few choices, and she wouldn't even let them consider the possibilities. She's a small-minded bully. I understand her frustration, but she had no right to bully these women. Tighter, please."
She held me for a few minutes then said, "You're a good woman, Andromeda Hayes."
I huffed. "You had those four Ardents waiting."
"Of course I did. You're going to get some of those. Surely you knew that."
"I suppose. Thank you."
"Of course."
"It's going to be late, but do you think you'd have dinner with me tonight? If it's too late, or you have too much work, that's fine."
"I'd love to have dinner with you. Will you want to swim first?"
"If that won't make it too late."
"It won't be." Then she tightened her hug. "I wouldn't suppose you could skip the suit."
I pushed away from her, although she knew to keep tentacles wrapped around me. "I think you're teasing."
"There are new women here," she said. "They've never seen."
"There's a lot of video of me they can all look at."
"It's not the same as in person and you know it."
"You're serious, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"And
tomorrow morning, too?"
"Yes," she said.
"Are you going to ask me to do this every two weeks?"
"No comment."
"Fine," I said. "There's a price."
"Blankets?"
"Screw the blankets. After everything I've done, you owe me twelve-million-count silk sheets. You. Me. And a challenge. I'll give you your two swims, and I get a challenge."
"Oh, you think so."
"Yep. And in two weeks, if you want me to do it again, it's another challenge."
"We don't have time for a challenge today."
"You can owe me."
"And I suppose you want to make the decision grid."
"You can decide what we're doing. I know you'll pick something we can both enjoy."
"And you know that, how?"
"Because if you don't, it'll be the last time I do this for you."
"Are you blackmailing me into letting you win besides?"
"Not at all. A fun challenge for both of us, and fair for both of us. If I win, I want a backrub, delivered on command."
"All right. If I win... You already let me taste whenever I want. I don't know what to ask for."
"Seriously? Didn't I once hear you say you always think of something?"
"All right. If I win, you let me touch those." She gestured towards my chest.
"Are you serious?"
"I've never touched one," she said. "I'm just as curious as the next alien, Andie."
I pushed away from her completely. "I think you're messing with me."
"I don't know what else to ask. This is something I can't just take from you if I want it. You already give me everything else."
I studied her. "I'm sorry, Jasmine. That's just... To me, it's a prelude to sex. I can't just sit there and let you fondle them that way."
"It's not sex."
"It's a prelude. No one touches them except my lovers or my doctor, and I can't begin to tell you how uncomfortable that has always made me." I turned away. "I'll do the swims. Forget the challenge."
I didn't fight her when she stepped up behind me and enveloped me again. "If I win, you owe me an evening of conversation, any topic I want to talk about. Any question I ask. Honest answers only."
"If you let me have proper clothing for it."
"Agreed."