by Alma Nilsson
“I understand,” said Jane, thinking, it would only be a relief to be too optimistic at this point and not really understanding how that could be a negative side effect. Then she thought about all the wild orgies and things Kara invited her to and decided that, Yes, I can see how one could be too optimistic while under the influence of forget-me-not and then regret it later. Her face turned red just thinking about having an orgy with Kara and Tir.
Doctor Ko whispered, “Now you see, that’s what I mean by too optimistic.”
Jane would never get used to doctors being able to read minds, so she didn’t respond. She didn’t like to admit that he was in her mind, seeing all of her thoughts, but she needed him to get better, so it was a necessary evil.
Doctor Ko held Jane’s hand as she lay on the medical bed with her eyes closed. As the minutes passed, she could feel the weight being lifted from her shoulders, bit by bit.
“You may open your eyes now,” John said confidently after about 40 minutes.
Doctor Ko let go of her hands and looked into her eyes, “Chief, don’t forget to be wary of being too optimistic.”
Jane smiled, “Don’t worry, I won’t.”
John asked, “How do you feel?”
“I feel fine, thanks. I mean really fine. Can I go now?”
John took in her countenance, “Good. I’m glad to hear you are feeling better already. Go back on duty and let me know if you have any terrible headaches. Don’t just solve it with scotch or slave artists as the first things you try. Those both only prolong the process of healing.”
Jane gave him a little smile, “I won’t.” She left sickbay and went to engineering. The rest of her day went well. She felt better than she had in weeks and the best part was that she really couldn’t remember why.
That evening Jane had just finished a VM to her eldest daughter Ellie when Kara casually dropped by her quarters.
“Do you want to come in?” Jane asked, surprised to see Kara.
“No, you’re coming with me to the Refa. Tir is having an informal meeting with Admiral Jei and his first officer.”
“Why don’t you take Koz?” Jane asked. Koz was their first officer.
“Because you need distraction, and he’s busy chasing Rachel around the ship. I hope she finally gives in and the long looks of lust across the bridge can finally come to an end once they are both sated.” The whole reason human women had been brought to the Alliance Empire was to solve their demographics issues, their lack of women. And on ship, Rachel and Jane were the last two humans not to be married to someone. Rachel was 28 years old and considered to be the most attractive and outgoing among humans. “I want him to settle. Sometimes when he is just sitting there on the bridge, his mind is a million miles away thinking about her. It’s annoying and distracting.”
“To be newly in love?” Jane asked.
“Not everyone is so sickening about it.”
“No, but most are,” Jane said nonchalantly. She suspected Kara did love her husband, but she displayed love differently than most. Jane sighed; she did not want to go to the Refa with Kara. Informal meetings in the Alliance fleet translated directly into drinking zota, a clear, strong alcohol, out of puzzle jugs which they found absolutely hilarious. “Thanks for the offer, but I really don’t need a distraction right now.”
Kara looked at her more closely and asked, “Did you see John earlier today and get the amnesia treatment?”
“Yes, and I was given strict orders by the doctor not to be too optimistic in my decisions. Not to say ‘yes’ too quickly and I think going over to the Refa to drink zota would be out of character. So, I’m going to say, ‘no.’ Doctor’s orders.”
“An Alliance doctor tell you that?”
“Yes.”
“Come on. This isn’t being too optimistic. This is following orders. I don’t like it any more than you do. And this is an order from your captain.”
Jane knew that Kara wasn’t going to be put off the idea now. “Fine, come in while I change,” Jane had already taken off her uniform and now she needed to put it back on.
Kara entered Jane’s quarters and immediately began looking through her things, as was her curious nature. When she spotted the black box from Admiral Jei on Jane’s desk, she immediately asked, “Who’s been sending you jewelry?” In the Alliance, it was forbidden for women to buy jewelry, and a woman could only receive it as gifts from men. Jewelry was an essential cultural gift-giving practice in the Alliance between men and women.
“What are you talking about?” Jane asked from the bathroom.
Kara opened the simple black box and exclaimed, “Gods,” they had all begun using the expletives of the Alliance, “Who sent you something from Juio's?”
Jane walked out of the bathroom and began putting on her uniform, “What are you talking about?”
Kara held up the hairpin, “This.”
Jane smiled and replied casually, “Remember when I told you I saw Admiral Jei at the High Council reception, and he was cross about the length of my hair? Well, the next day, he sent me that.”
“And how did you reply?”
“What do you mean? I didn’t reply. There was no need to send a reply.”
Kara gave her friend a skeptical look, “Why do you think he sent this to you, then?”
“I don’t know? To be funny. You know as well as I do, probably better, that he is known to act strangely even by Alliance standards sometimes with his humor.”
“Did you post it to your social media account?” Kara asked fingering the expensive hairpin.
“Now, why would I do that?”
“To show appreciation, maybe?” Kara asked her friend sarcastically.
“I’m no young woman who’s desperately looking for an Alliance husband.”
“Are you sure? One might be looking for you. It certainly looks that way to me.”
“Oh stop, you misunderstand,” Jane tried to explain, “If you could have heard our conversation, then you would know he meant nothing by this, but to show me he was serious that if I cut my hair there would be punishment and if I didn’t I could wear this lovely hairpin. You know how obsessed this culture is with rewards and punishments. That’s all he meant.”
“I don’t think so,” said Kara. “I think he likes you in that courting maybe wife kind of way.”
“Well, if he did, he’s not shown any interest since then, so I think you’re mistaken.”
“You still have about a year to marry if you want, you know that, right?” asked Kara. “Men still see you as eligible.”
“Admiral Jei is over 200 years old. He had a wife; he has children and grandchildren and probably great-grandchildren. He isn’t looking for a human wife. He is looking to entertain himself and I firmly believe sent that as a joke or a prize or whatever and I appreciated it but it’s nothing more. Now, let’s go if you are really making me do this.”
“I am. Let’s go.” As they walked down the hallway together, Kara commented on Jane’s wards in House Human, “I hear there is a niece of the Earth Store owner Frank who wants to open a restaurant in the Capital City?”
“Yes, but you know it’s tricky because she wants to work only with Frank. Apparently, she hates her aunt Zelda, Frank’s wife, but on planet, Zelda has to approve everything. I have got a VM from Jade I’ve not opened because I know it’s going to be just more complaining about her aunt causing trouble for her.”
“I don’t get it; they all stand to make a lot of money from the deal.”
“I know it’s ridiculous. I think Zelda is difficult. Jade is young and wants to try this. She should be more supportive, but I think she has lived in the Alliance too long, and the jealousy has gotten to her. I think she wishes she could also open a restaurant, but Jade is a chef, and Zelda isn’t.”
“Ah, the jealousy. Do you think that will happen to us?” Kara asked, and Jane knew this was her dry sense of humor. They looked at each other for a second as they continued to walk.
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��I can’t imagine ever being jealous of you,” Jane laughed. “I think I might poison Tir if he were my husband.”
Kara laughed, “I believe you would. I think it’s good the Contract doesn’t make you marry. I’m not sure you could be married to an Alliance man. They can be quite subservient in a way that human men aren’t. I think it comes from men being so unequal in Alliance society for so long, they aim to please too much, even now.”
“I’ve got a regular slave artist. It’s not like I’m a nun, Kara,” Jane said defensively. “I’m not completely ignorant of Alliance men.”
Kara laughed, “Your slave artist does exactly what you want. That’s what he is paid to do. I mean a real Alliance man. I think their wanting to please would drive you insane. It almost drives me insane.”
“I’m not sure what you are talking about?” Jane said with a smile as they got into the transport together. Kara often complained to her how Tir took great pleasure in dressing her like a doll or buying the foods she liked or, most annoyingly, checking that she was okay, especially during her first pregnancy. Human women were used to being equal and taking care of themselves. Human men would never do these things as they would never do for their human partners. It was understood that everyone took care of themselves, and it worked well. Of course, you did favors for each other, but that was different.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about. I don’t think you could take the constant attention from an Alliance man. It is really overwhelming. I had to stop looking at some of Tir’s messages.”
Jane laughed, “And how well did that work out?”
Kara smiled, “Did we die?”
Jane just shook her head, Kara had missed some critical messages mixed in with the husband messages while Kara had just begun ignoring all of his messages. “Thankfully, you realized that some of those messages were actual work messages before we did all die.”
“Yes, thanks to my loyal squire, who now reads through all of Tir’s messages and sorts them for me.”
“Poor Zin, I feel sorry for him having to look at all that,” Jane said sarcastically.
“I know, I really feel sorry for him too.”
When they boarded the Refa, no one except Tir’s squire, Mux, met them. The Refa’s corridors seemed quiet as he escorted them to the formal reception room. As they followed him, Jane asked Kara, “Where is Andrew?”
“He’s here but asleep now with his nanny,” Kara replied. Kara and Tir’s son lived between the ships as Kara refused to allow him to be on the Alliance Capital Planet as she didn’t trust Tir’s family to keep him safe. Andrew, or An, his Alliance name, had one Alliance male nanny onboard the Refa and one female human nanny, one of the women taken from the crew of the Dakota, onboard the Zuin. He was over one year old and looked very Alliance with grey skin and green eyes like his father but had his mother’s brown hair and devilish smile. “He’ll be with me next week, which suits me just fine. Tir loves having him here right now. I think it’s that charming age, and Alliance men just dote on him as he tries to walk on his cute little legs.”
Jane smiled, “It’s true. Even on the Zuin, I see the way they look at him. All the Alliance men seem to all want one.”
“It’s interesting, isn’t it? But we can’t forget, they see us as the Lost People and hybrid children as the saviors to their race. Of course, they look at him like that.” With their demographics issue, religious Alliance people believed that not only were humans the Lost People but that it was humanity’s duty to return to the Empire and save them from their demographics issue.
Jane and Kara stopped talking as they entered the formal reception room used for just these kinds of purposes. Five men were in the room already, Admiral Tir, Admiral Jei, their first officers, and Admiral Jei’s young squire. There were some black sofas and a gorgeous yellow stone table between them.
Tir stood up to greet Kara and Jane.
“Here they are, some of our finest human officers. Captain Kara and Lieutenant Commander Jane, this is Admiral Jei, Captain Ota, and Captain Pan.”
Jane and Kara bowed as was the Alliance custom in the fleet, and then Tir took Kara’s hand and guided her to a place next to him.
Jane sat down next to Captain Pan, across from Admiral Jei.
“Chief, we meet again.”
“Admiral,” Jane replied.
“Have you cut your hair since we last met?” Admiral Jei asked Jane seriously.
“I have not,” she replied with the same seriousness. Now Jane looked at him in a new light after what Kara had suggested in her quarters about the hairpin. She looked into his grey eyes and thought to herself, It’s a wonder he looks so good for his age. His long hair that he kept braided back simply was all silver, but other than a few wrinkles on his face, he looked well-preserved. On Earth, he would have easily been mistaken for a 50-something year old. And, of course, his large and robust body was still in top physical form. Her mind wandered further then, I wonder if he has nude pictures of himself on social media? Then she caught herself, Where is your mind running to? He is the Admiral of the entire fleet. He’s no slave artist for you to fantasize over. Kara is wrong in this.
“Good. You are of the maximum class and must have long hair, not short like a slave, only they may emulate the gods,” Admiral Jei replied, taking in this human woman’s lovely appearance again. He had tried to forget about her after she had not responded to his gift, but he could not. He needed to see her again, so he had specifically joined this mission to meet her. Tir could have easily calmed this uprising.
Tir brought out a puzzle jug and began filling it with zota. They played as they talked about the uprising on the colony.
Jane noticed that Admiral Jei spent a good portion of the night looking at her and asking her questions, not to do with the uprising or engineering specifically, but about working with Alliance officers and even more personally, how she found the Alliance in general.
“I like it,” Jane replied, not altogether honestly. “I’ll always miss my human children though,” she put one finger over her heart to indicate her sincerity in the Alliance way.
“Of course, but after you marry and have an Alliance child, you’ll see them again,” Jei answered matter-of-factly. He knew he was pushing this personal topic, but he had already decided in the last half an hour, under the influence of zota, that he would pursue her again. He missed having a wife and why not have a wife that he could explore the galaxy with for a while. Jei was a man who liked new things and adventure. He wanted to know what it would be like to be married to a human and someone like Jane.
Jane shook her head, “If the gods deem it so,” which everyone knew really meant, ‘That is not happening. Ever.’ Jane had become accustomed to the hypocrisy in the Alliance of saying one thing and meaning the complete opposite.
Kara gave her a look, “I hate it when you go completely Alliance, Jane.”
Then the women looked at each other and shared a laugh, highlighted by the alcohol.
Jei had his answer then. He loved a good challenge, and in that moment, had made Jane his new conquest. He was of course much older than she was, but he still had a good 100 years left in him, if not more, which would be about equivalent to the rest of her lifespan. His children were already adults, and he had adult grandchildren who were married as well with children. Still, it wasn’t unheard of, especially in the past before their demographics problem, for prominent and important men to marry again and have more children if their first wives died prematurely. He looked at Jane now, imagining a hybrid daughter between them.
Jane saw the look in Admiral Jei’s eyes and thought, Are you giving me sexy eyes, Admiral? She pretended that she didn’t notice his heavy gaze on her for the rest of the evening, but she couldn’t deny she was a bit wet between her legs because of it. When she went back to the Zuin alone, as Kara was staying with Tir, Jei insisted on walking her to the transport himself. He didn’t say anything as they walked through the Refa’s corridors, and
she was relieved, as she felt she could have easily said something to prove that she had completely misread the entire situation influenced by the zota and Kara’s previous comments. She found it difficult to believe that a man who was so important would be interested in a lowly and young human like herself. Over the course of the evening, she had been impressed by Jei’s superior intellect and his patience for Tir who wasn’t the quickest robot to download the information. But most of all, she was charmed by his witty sense of humor and the look in his eyes when he looked at her. She knew that when she returned to the Zuin, it would be her hand between her legs thinking about him.
Jei didn’t trust himself not to say anything ridiculous as he had had more zota than he should have, but he had been determined to figure out the puzzle jug, which he had successfully done, and now they all owed him 50 UC and this meant he had a legitimate reason to contact Jane tomorrow. But this came at a cost, as he couldn’t say anything charming or witty to Jane now. Something to make her think about him as she was alone in the transport back. He chided himself for not thinking about which was the better win in the long term, as saying something to her now would have been much better than winning at the puzzle jug. As it was, he only said, “May the gods be with you,” as she boarded the transport. He thought for a minute she might have been open for a kiss in that moment before she boarded, but he hesitated because he thought it was only his fanciful thoughts that imagined that look.
When Jane returned to her quarters, she put on her blue silk pajamas and then looked through her social media. She was shocked that Admiral Jei had already added her as a connection. She added him back and then looked through his profile. She was fascinated. He was 205 years old, and his wife had died in a transport accident on the Alliance Second Planet 14 years ago. He had two grown sons and one grandson who was also an adult, and a great-grandson and so forth. His home and House Rega were located on the Alliance Second Planet, which she knew very little about. Then she dug deeper. He had no new known jewelry, so she assumed this meant he was never planning on marrying again. If he had been planning on marrying again, he would have added to the collection or begun a completely new one for a specific woman in mind, as was the custom in the Alliance. Jane was not surprised to see that he also had some nude portrait pictures of himself on his social page. She loved this about the Alliance, the men were so proud of their bodies; they all had nude portraits done. She noticed that these images were taken a long time ago though, again another sign that he was not looking for a new wife. She said out loud, “You are just flirty, aren’t you, Admiral?” She could not help but think as she looked at the pictures, And probably still very sexy too with that thick cock. Jane wondered then if he was up for a fling. Was that even allowed between officers? They could get married but flings probably not. But then she reminded herself that they were both considered widows, so that was more grey area. She wondered then, Would I sleep with him then if he wanted to? And she put her hand between her legs thinking about him and had her answer.