He gestured at the human female next to him. Tall with pink hair and shiny tan skin, this female looked like she had undergone the same genetic treatment that Pweet just had. Antaska didn’t say anything, but the two cats, one tiny and one gigantic, snarled and growled.
Then Murrie spoke up telepathically from M. Mort’s shoulder.
“Those reptile humanoids are evil!” said Murrie. “Like all reptiles, they are the darkest, most vile life form in the galaxy! Like the Woogah’s, they hypnotize their prey. These cats told me they tried to do that to Antaska. That must be what they did to Nestgorm to take over his plant. What if they do that to Pweet too?”
Now M. Mort’s guilt threatened to return.
“Well that’s something to think about,” said Captain Kamphone. He spoke out loud so the listeners on the Integer could hear. “Don’t worry, Private Murrie. We’re not going to just take off and leave Pweet here. We’ll keep watching and see what happens next.”
“Watching isn’t good enough,” said Murrie, as usual getting away with being somewhat disrespectful to the captain.
“You can’t control cats, so I don’t try,” the captain had told M. Mort when he’d asked him if he was going to throw Murrie in the brig on one occasion.
“Someone has to go in there to protect Pweet if something happens,” Murrie continued. “And that someone is me. I’m the only one small enough and dark enough to sneak in there unnoticed. Those cats can’t do it. They’d spot them right away.”
The other two cats glared out from the view screen as if in disagreement.
“Yes they would spot you, Murrie,” M. Mort spoke up. “You see how bright and clean everything is in that building? You don’t think a black furry blob would stand out in there?
All heads turned and looked into one of the empty hallways. Empty except for robots and cleaning bots.
M. Mort saw Lieutenant Dweeemm look back and forth from the screen to Murrie.
“Hmm. That gives me an idea,” said the lieutenant.
“Wait. There’s one more thing,” Antaska spoke up from the Integer. “We came here to give those alien females the chance to leave if they want to. Things look OK in there, but we still have to ask them. From what Potat’s been telling us from listening to their telepathic conversations, not all of them are happy here. Someone needs to go in there and ask them if they want to leave.”
“But not you,” said M. Hoyvil.
M. Mort saw Antaska roll her eyes, but she didn’t answer him.
Chapter 32
Pweet woke to the sound of a soft chime.
“Pweet, are you ready to get up for dinner with Eegor?” a familiar female voice asked from a small device on the table at the side of the bed.
It was Apostrophe Eeeepp. Unlike when she woke up the day before, Pweet was happy that it all hadn’t been a dream.
“Yes, I’ll get up now,” Pweet answered.
She threw off the thick satiny comforter and sat up in the luxurious bed.
“Great!” said Apostrophe. “I’ll be there to get you in about thirty minutes.
Pweet threw out her arms in a big stretch. She looked around the room—her room.
I still can’t believe this is real! she thought.
Just in case it wasn’t, she tried pinching her arm again, but nothing changed.
“Wake up! Wake up!” she said to herself.
But she was still in the beautiful opulent bedroom.
Pweet got out of bed and walked to her enormous bathroom with its shiny marble fittings and huge sunk-in tub. After her bath earlier, she’d dressed in the soft pajamas that she found on a chair next to the tub.
She brushed her hair and teeth and then thought about what to wear. She walked across the huge room’s deep-pile carpet to the walk-in closet. There was only one choice for clothes. Pweet would have wear her ship suit. But there were almost too many choices for shoes.
Gym shoes or casual shoes won’t do, Pweet decided. For this dinner, I need something dressy and glamorous.
She located the section of shoes in her size among dozens of other high-heeled dress shoes. One shiny silver pair stood out from the others. The color complimented her ship suit.
Pweet pulled the shoes down off the shelf that held them. Made of lightweight metal, they sported six-inch stiletto heels. Pweet put them on and walked around in them. Soft, cushiony fabric caressed her feet. They were amazingly light and comfortable.
They’re perfect! I love these shoes! she thought.
A chime sounded from outside the room. Apostrophe had arrived to take Pweet to her dinner with Eegor.
Eegor stood next to the door just inside his private dining room. He straightened his dinner jacket and brushed a hand through his hair.
I’ve never felt this nervous in all my life when waiting for a woman, he thought.
A few moments later, Pweet arrived. She strode through the door with the confidence of a queen, six inches taller on high spiked heels. Pooquali and Apostrophe hustled in after her and rushed to Eegor’s kitchen to get the bubbly drink and the first course.
Eegor looked down at Pweet momentarily stunned by her beauty. Her bright silver hair glimmered in the light of many candles set around the room. Her high cheek-boned face glowed even brighter.
It’s more than just beauty, he thought. My ex Tilde was beautiful too, but there’s something about her beyond that. What is it? I don’t know what it is, but could I be falling in love with her? This soon?
“Hello, Eegor,” Pweet broke the silence. “Thank you for inviting me to dinner. It smells wonderful.”
“You’re very welcome,” said Eegor.
He turned and saw that the Eeeepps had put steaming plates of attractive food made from alien recipes on the dining table.
“Will you join me at the table?” he asked.
Eegor bent an elbow for Pweet to take as he had seen done in ancient Earth movies. For some reason, he felt the need to be his most polite and gracious to this female. But he didn’t have much practice at it.
Will she think I’m a big goof? he worried.
But Pweet was acting happy and friendly. She put her arm through his and walked with him over to the clear floating table. He led her to one of two blue-cushioned chairs. Purple frames curved around the chairs in a fantasy design.
“What a beautiful table!” said Pweet.
“Do you like it?” said Eegor. “One of the alien females designed it just for this meal. Some of them are experts at subatomic particle drafting, and they love getting something creative to work on.”
“Yes, I like it,” said Pweet. “It’s like a dream. I’ve never seen dining furniture this amazing and beautiful.”
Eegor didn’t want to let go of Pweet’s arm, but he had to. He pulled out a chair for her on one side of the table and then pushed it in after she sat down. Eegor went to the other side of the table and sat down in his own chair. It seemed like too far away.
Why did I ask for such a big table? he asked himself.
The Eeeepps, who had been standing near by, approached and poured pink bubbly liquid from a crystal bottle into the glasses. They served food from various dishes and then left the room.
“Thank you,” said Pweet.
“Enjoy your meal,” said Apostrophe.
Eegor waited for Pweet to start eating before he started to eat his own food.
“It’s delicious,” said Pweet after taking a few bites. “Even better than the food I got on the Woogah space ship coming here.”
“I’m glad you like it,” said Eegor. “But that reminds me. I wanted to ask you how you got here. What happened to you? Were you kidnapped? And why aren’t you hypnotized? You must have been through something terrible, but you look fantastic. Like you just stepped out of the spa.”
Eegor felt a light pink flush under his green-tinted skin after he said that last part.
“That’s a lot of questions,” said Pweet.
“Can you tell me how you got here? I’m
curious, and I want to know if someone hurt you,” said Eegor truthfully.
Pweet sniffed a little bit, but she didn’t start crying again.
“That’s so kind of you,” she said. “I can’t remember anyone caring like that about me. Well the Woogah doctor was kind of nice, or trying to be.”
She sniffed again.
“I’d like to tell you, but it’s hard for me to talk about it right now. I’m really happy to be here, and I don’t want to mess up my happy mood by talking about depressing stuff. Can I tell you about it later?” Pweet asked.
“Of course you can, of course,” said Eegor. “I’m sorry if I upset you by reminding you.”
“No, it’s fine,” said Pweet. “But maybe instead, you can tell me your story. About how you and the Eeeepps came here and took over the work plant and freed the slaves.”
“Yes, I can tell you that story. But I’ll have to warn you that it’s not all a happy story. There are dark parts to it. Many dark parts. In fact, the part that I myself played in the darkness led to my coming here. I did some things I’m now ashamed of. Very bad things,” Eegor forced the words out.
Pweet’s delicate hand, just about to reach her glass to her lips, stopped in mid air. She looked at him in surprised disbelief. Then she set her glass back on the table and stared into Eegor’s eyes with her large sky-blue eyes.
“You don’t have to tell me your story either if you don’t want to, Eegor,” she said. “Anyway, everyone’s done something they’re ashamed of at some time in their lives. I know I have.”
“No. This is worse than that, and I think I need to tell you,” Eegor answered. “We’ve just met, and you don’t know me, but…,” Eegor paused, getting up the courage to speak. “But I think there’s something special about you, and I really like you already. So I want you to know about me now, not later. Because it feels like I might fall in love with you, and I need to know now if you’re going to hate me.”
Eegor stopped talking. He couldn’t believe he had just said that.
What has come over me? he wondered.
But Pweet took his confession in stride.
“OK, then tell me,” she said.
Pweet looked across the clear floating table at the big handsome man who had just confessed so much to her. She was on a rollercoaster of emotions that had first took off with the surprise of how attractive he was. Then the beautiful, amazing bedroom he made for her swung her up in the air. Even higher, his confession of possible love. And now, would her joyful feelings crash when she heard the terrible deed he was about to confess?
She stopped eating and gave Eegor all her attention. Pweet looked into his beautiful sea-green eyes. But she was careful not to stare fixedly the way Marroo had stared at her so often on the trip to this planet. She smiled her encouragement.
“It all started about a hundred years ago,” Eegor began his story. “I was a fitness instructor for Earth humans on the trip from Earth to the Verdante planet and then the space station. I had a female partner who was also my mate. She was tall like me and incredibly beautiful. But not as beautiful as you.”
Pweet smiled at him again but didn’t interrupt him.
“Anyway, I was jealous of Tilde,” said Eegor. “Other males were always flirting with her. Even Verdante males. So I started cheating on her with the Earth females.”
Pweet couldn’t stop her eyes from widening.
“Yes, I know that was bad. But that’s not even the worst part. The worst thing happened only about a year ago,” Eegor continued. “Like I said, I got in the habit of cheating on Tilde. And on my last trip, there was this female named Antaska.”
“Antaska?” said Pweet. “I’ve heard that name.”
“Really?” Eegor asked.
“Yes,” Pweet answered. “She’s the one Marroo the slaver kept talking about the whole time we traveled here from Earth. But I’m sorry I interrupted you. Please keep going.”
“So Antaska was the one I noticed on that trip,” said Eegor. “She had bright pink hair that really caught my attention. Anyway, she seemed interested in me in the beginning. I’d look at her in the dining hall, and she always looked back. I flirted with her in class, and she didn’t seem to mind. But then she started ignoring me.”
Eegor paused and took a gulp of his bubbly drink. Pweet took a sip of hers too. This story wasn’t sounding good so far, and she dreaded where it might go next. But she knew that she needed to hear it.
“Go on,” Pweet encouraged him.
“I will,” said Eegor. “But the next part gets bad. It’s kind of hard to tell it.”
He paused again, and Pweet waited. Eegor took a deep breath like a sigh and continued.
“The other thing I didn’t mention before was that Tilde got jealous of Antaska and started beating on her in class,” said Eegor.
A small gasp escaped Pweet’s mouth.
“And I didn’t do anything to stop it,” said Eegor. “I just let it happen. But Antaska learned some fighting skills and started to fight back. Then Tilde got pissed, and she started taking it out on some of the other Earthlings in the class. Some guys. And I guess she fell for one of them. After that, I was a real mess. Antaska was ignoring me. Tilde was ignoring me. And that’s when I did the terrible thing.”
Eegor stopped again and covered his face with his hands.
“You can tell me,” said Pweet.
He pulled his hands away from his eyes and looked at Pweet. She could see the pain there, but she could only look back at him and wait to hear the rest.
“One day, I found out where Antaska was going that night. I waited inside a room that I knew she’d be walking past. Then I grabbed her and tried to rape her,” Eegor confessed at last.
He looked over at Pweet, but she didn’t react. She’d been expecting this.
“But it didn’t happen. She fought back and bit me. Then Tilde and other people came in—my Verdante master and mistress. They sentenced me to seventy-five years confined in my room in their residence on the Verdante planet,” said Eegor.
He stopped and looked at Pweet again. He waited.
Pweet looked back at him. She didn’t know what to say.
“Let me think about this for a minute,” Pweet said finally.
Eegor blinked his eyes and waited. Pweet looked down at her plate.
What he just told me was terrible, horrible, Pweet thought. He confessed, and he seems to regret it, but is it forgivable? And yet, he didn’t need to tell me this story at all. If I stayed here on the Woogah planet with him, it’s not likely that I’d ever find out. But it was still a risk. Because if I did find out, and he hadn’t told me, things would definitely be over between us. So he’s telling me this because he cares about me?
She looked up at Eegor again. She searched for the right words, and then spoke.
“You’re right. What you just told me was horrible and very disturbing. But I know you didn’t really have to tell me. So I think maybe, possibly, I might be able to forgive you because you truly seem to regret what you did. But it’s still upsetting, of course.”
Across from her, Eegor let out the breath he’d been holding.
Now Pweet had a question.
“You said you were sentenced to seventy-five years’ confinement on the Verdante planet about a year ago. How did you get here on this planet one year later?”
“Oh, that’s the next part of the story. The part that starts to get better because I stop acting like a jerk. Well, not at first,” Eegor admitted.
“OK. I’d like to hear the rest,” said Pweet.
Eegor was relieved that he’d told Pweet the worst of it, but the next part was bad too.
Will she change her mind about forgiving me after she hears the rest? he wondered. Will it be too much? Will she forgive me but still think I’m an idiot? Well, anyway, I have to tell her now.
He watched her delicate but strong hand lift her fork up to her luscious mouth. Through the transparent table between them he took in the
sight of her curvaceous body. Her plain ship suit was made elegant just because she wore it.
Pweet hesitated before continuing to eat her food.
“Keep eating, please,” Eegor told her. “I know you must be hungry. I’ll tell you the rest of the story while you eat your meal.”
“Thank you. You’re right, I’m starving,” said Pweet.
She dug in to the main course and side dishes. Eegor took a deep breath and continued.
“Like I said, I was sentenced to confinement on the Verdante planet. When I first got there, Antaska was there too staying at the residence of her Verdante, M. Hoyvil. And there were some semi-humanoids I knew living at M. Hoyvil’s place. The Eeeepps. You’ve met two of them, but M. Hoyvil’s primary female gene contributor created six total.”
“Hmm,” said Pweet in between bites of food.
“I was really mad at Antaska. I blamed her for what happened. I thought it was all her fault. I was confined, but she was free to go wherever she wanted. So I wanted revenge. I was in solitary, but I was allowed to communicate on email and video, and I called Iiooonaa Eeeepp. She’s like the leader of the Eeeepps. I told her I wanted to get revenge on Antaska, and she said the Eeeepps would help. They’re like that. I mean, they enjoy causing trouble. But these two are OK. Don’t worry.”
Apostrophe and Pooquali had entered the room with the second course of the meal. They moved around the table replacing plates and refilling glasses.
“How do you like the food, Pweet?” Apostrophe asked.
“It’s wonderful! Thank you so much for everything,” Pweet answered her.
Phew! thought Eegor. I think she’s taking this OK so far.
The Eeeepps left the room with the empty plates, and Eegor went on with his story.
“Actually, those other Eeeepps, Iiooonaa and the older ones, they’re not just trouble makers, they’re downright evil,” Eegor admitted. “And I was an evil guy at that time too. So Iiooonaa offered to hurt Antaska for me. Rape or kill or whatever. I didn’t care. I just wanted revenge.”
This was about the worst of it. Eegor looked at Pweet again. She just kept eating her food.
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