by Alma Nilsson
“But you are switching classes to become maximum class?” she questioned him.
“I am,” he said seriously and touched his heart with one finger, “but I’ll always be a slave.”
“And slaves don’t sleep with slave artists?”
“Under no circumstances. We are loyal, we are strong, we are as close to the gods as one can become. The maximum class is weak. They must spend all of their time ruling, making laws, guarding the rest of us. They cannot spend more energy fasting for love.”
Babette looked at him then in a new light and realized there was a great deal she didn’t know about the Alliance and about him. She knew almost nothing about the slaves in the Alliance except that the slaves in her building were the worst. She often compared them to mythical forest trolls that were more devious than helpful, and she had heard though that’s how they all were. And yet when she looked at Mir, it was difficult to imagine him being a slave.
“I’ve never heard it called ‘fasting for love.’ I like that.”
He looked at her seriously, “Well, that is exactly what it is. It hurts just like starvation pains.” He wanted to reach out and touch her, “We need the physical touch just like we need food.” He looked at her bewildered face and asked, “What are you thinking? You look startled.”
“I just thought it was going to be more of a fight about fidelity, and I’ve only now just realized how much I don’t know about the different Alliance classes. And, more importantly, how much I don’t know about you.” She left off, saying, ‘And I am beginning to doubt myself for rushing into this relationship as quickly as I have.’
“Well, I guess we will have a lot to discuss being pen pals,” he said the word ‘pen pals’ very hesitantly, at the last minute trying to think of a better word but then failing.
Babette touched the necklace under her dress again and smiled up at him, “But this is binding to our commitment, right?”
He nodded, “Until we agree to end it, “Mir couldn’t resist then and kissed her so quickly and lightly he hoped they would escape a fine.
Babette wondered if it had really happened, but when she looked into his face and saw his smile, she knew the kiss had happened. And she wanted more, but then, just as swiftly, he bid her farewell, and she was alone on the Promenade surrounded by Alliance people walking all around her, some giving her curious glances. She ignored them all and just stood there thinking about Mir and all he had told her. Then she thought about what she had done on the bench and wondered where that little robot was now. She couldn’t feel it. She would have to go home and look for it.
A few days passed before Babette received a VM from Mir. She smiled when she saw it on her computer and saved it until the evening to watch it in the privacy of her room at House Human. After dinner, she sneaked some wine up to her room and opened her 3D screen to view the message. He was gorgeous, and no doubt, he knew it. He had recorded the message without a shirt on, his necklace like hers, clearly visible.
“Babette,” he touched the necklace, “I just wanted to prove to you that I still had this and that I was honest in what I said, it is exactly like yours.”
She smiled at his image and said out loud, “And are you completely naked?” She wished it was VM in real-time.
“I have been thinking about you a lot. I wonder what kind of work you do? I know you work at the Capital City Library, but I don’t know what your exact position is and if you like it?”
“Hate it,” she said back to the VM and took a sip of wine.
“Why you chose to leave Earth without having ever been to the Alliance Empire before?” He paused, “All these things I want to do know. Please message me back with answers.”
Babette liked his message, she watched it three more times before she replied.
She hid the wine glass at the last minute and then began, “Mir, I was happy to see you had the same necklace. I haven’t taken mine off just as you instructed not to. As for your questions, I will answer them as you answer mine. One for one. Your first one, what is my job, and do I like it? I am a librarian’s assistant, and I am terrible at it, and therefore I don’t like it. I want to find something else to do, but it’s challenging. On Earth, I worked in a shop, and I loved it. I loved meeting people and just selling things. It was easy. But here I am not allowed to do that as I am not of the middling class, however, Jade, another human is trying to get special permission to open a restaurant I hope I can work for her. Now you tell me about yourself. Why would you ever want to be with a human woman?”
Mir and Babette sent each other VMs every day.
Mir: I must admit, I never imagined myself with a human, and your Captain Kara scares me. She might make the perfect Empress, though. Tell me why you came to the Alliance to marry an Alliance man.
Babbs: Why not? I had never left Earth, and I was probably never going to either. The standard of living in the Empire is much higher than on Earth, and you all are supposed to be like us, or we are like you. However, you want to see it.
Mir: You are like us. You are the Lost People. Tell me, do you believe in the true gods?
Babbs: Humans aren’t religious anymore, therefore, this is all new to me. But I say my prayers every day.
Mir: I was born into the slave class. We are as close to the gods as any mortal can be. It was difficult for me to give up certain aspects of my spirituality to switch classes. I never wanted to leave that behind, but I wanted to live a maximum life. Unfortunately, the two cannot be combined. Now I must walk in the maximum class and wear my hair long.
Babbs: I cannot imagine you any differently. And I must point out that we would have never met if you hadn’t switched classes. I would have never seen you.
Mir: You are very right. I would have been invisible to your maximum eyes as the gods are.
Babette and Mir both lived for the next VM from the other. Mir always worried that in the next VM, she was going to tell him that she met someone else. He knew that it was unlikely as she was wearing his necklace, which was binding, but there were always rumors that once there was a love so strong, the binding necklace didn’t work. After every Assembly, he would check the Capital City Gossip Columns to see what the human women had been doing and to see images of his Babette. He was both disappointed and relieved that she rarely was featured in any of the images or columns.
Babette returned from another Assembly, where she was practically bored to death. All the other human women were talking to men, she had to do the same, but they all were so dull. And her mind and heart were already spoken for, it was no surprise then that she was ecstatic when she saw that she had a message from Mir waiting for her.
It was a written message unlike him,
Babette of House Human,
We will be in orbit around the Capital Planet tomorrow. Would you meet me before your work begins for the morning meal at the Restaurant Zie? Thank the gods for this opportunity.
Mir of No House
7th day of the 10th week of the year 18906
Babette read through the message twice and wondered why he wrote it formally and why he dated it. It had a date from when he sent it. She knew it must have some significance as Alliance people never did things randomly. She got out her Alliance Handbook and searched for, ‘mentioning the date.’ And she got too many hits to be useful and she said out loud, ‘Oh no, not that.’ Then she searched, ‘stating the date on a message between a man and a woman.’ Then she got a lot of hits, but it was becoming less. She added, ‘between a single man and woman,’ and finally, she got 20 hits, the first one being,
When a man notes the date on a message to a woman it is to indicate one of the following;
the beginning or end of a ban
the beginning or end of a courtship
the date to plan a marriage ceremony
All Babette could focus on was, ‘the beginning or end of a courtship,’ and she was starting to get herself worked up. She then tried to search, ‘words for ending a courtship’ an
d dozens of phrases appeared in her search, and one stuck out in particular, ‘Thank the gods for this opportunity.’
Babette began to silently cry as she messaged Mir. She didn’t know why he would want to end their relationship. Maybe I’m too human and not serious enough? She wiped at the tears and wrote,
Dear Mir,
I will meet you for the morning meal at Zie.
Babette
She did not include the date, formal titles, or any religious salutations. She felt the gods were ruthless for dangling Mir in front of her only to take him away, and she wasn’t going to play along at all right now.
Mir was excited to see Babette’s reply until he read it. He wondered then if she had met someone else. Her answer was frigid. Mir thought then, Maybe she has changed her mind and doesn’t want to marry me? Maybe she has found someone better?
Babette put on one of her human dresses. It was a long, red, and white striped dress that suited her. She was in no mood to be anything other than human today. She hesitated before she took off the necklace Mir had given to her, though, she told herself, I’ll just leave it on until the moment comes for me to return it to him. So, I don’t lose it. But she knew the real reason was that she didn’t want to end this with Mir. She had never been in love with anyone until she met him, and now she would do anything to keep him.
As Babette walked through the city that morning, earlier than she had ever been before, as she had never eaten breakfast out, even though it was the most popular time for Alliance people to dine out, she ignored all the curious stares she got from her dress. She hated the Alliance right now. All she wanted was Mir, and he was going to end this, over breakfast of all things. She told herself she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of crying either.
Mir was waiting for Babette outside the restaurant Zie. He had arrived very early so she wouldn’t go in before him. He had been up most of the night thinking, looking over the images from the gossip columns, and he wanted to know if she was leaving him for Commander Tem. That was the only man he saw Babette with more than twice, and in the pictures, they were always talking. Tem was not a good-looking man, but he had a friendly personality, and he had the one thing that Mir didn’t have, a House. Mir was devasted that Babette wanted to end things, but he would do his best to respect her wishes.
Babette saw Mir waiting for her outside Zie. He hadn’t seen her yet. She stopped walking and just looked at him. He was looking in the wrong direction, and she thought, If we were really meant to be together, he would be looking this way.
A bit of red caught Mir’s eyes, and he looked the other way. He saw Babette and couldn’t help himself; he began walking towards her.
Babette couldn’t move as she watched him walk down the street. She just stared at him and wished he wasn’t ending this.
Mir was overwhelmed with Babette’s utterly human appearance, and by the time he came to stand in front of her, he said nothing but put his arms around her and kissed her passionately. He didn’t care if they both had to return to the High Priestess’s punishment rooms for this. He needed her at least one last time.
Babette had been so overwhelmed with the thoughts that he was going to leave her. She was utterly unprepared for his kiss. After a few moments, she could hear people around them, warning them.
“You two should find somewhere more secluded, no one likes to see such open displays of affection.”
“Be careful young ones, you’ll be fined good and hard for those passionate kisses.”
“I hope you will be married soon,” an old woman said as she passed.
It was those last words that made Babette pull away just enough to look into Mir’s eyes and ask, her voice shaking a little, “But that’s not why you asked me here, is it?”
Mir was still holding her, his hands on either side of her cheeks, “Babbs, that is exactly why I’ve asked you here.”
Babette’s heart was beating so loudly she thought she might have misheard him, “Can you say that again?”
Mir looked into Babette’s confused eyes and stroked her cheek, “Come with me, we must talk and not here.”
Babette didn’t want Mir to let her go, but he did, and she walked next to him on the busy street, “It’s best if we skip the morning meal if you don’t mind?”
“I’m not hungry anyway,” Babette admitted. As they walked in silence, she began to question what he had said, Was that a kiss goodbye or not? What is going on? He said we weren’t breaking up, but?
Mir found a secluded bench in a nearby park. He and Babette sat down. He watched her and tried to read her face before speaking.
Babette found Mir’s expression so severe it almost frightened her. She reached up to take off the necklace, “I suppose you will want this back.” She took it off and then took the small silver ring from her pocket and tried to give it to him.
Mir almost began to cry he was heartbroken, “Are you leaving me for Commander Tem? Because he has a House?”
Babette’s hand stilled between them, but she closed her hand around the jewelry, “No, I would never marry Commander Tem.” She lied, but he was only her back up if Mir didn’t marry her. “We are only friends. I,” she didn’t want to make this conversation any more embarrassing, so she didn’t finish her sentence.
“You what?”
“I don’t want to say. And I’m not sure how this became about me. You were the one who sent me the message ending things. Then you kiss me and don’t explain a thing. I guess as some kind of goodbye kiss because you don’t want to be with a human. And now we are sitting here on a bench, and I just want this to be over.” She couldn’t help it then; tears were escaping her eyes.
“I never said I wanted it to end this, quite the opposite. Babette, my dear sweet Babette. I wrote that message so that we could marry. I have decided that if you will have me without a House, then we should just go ahead and do it. How did you ever conclude that I wanted to end it.”
Babette said through her tears, “You really mean it then?” She moved her hand with the jewelry back to her lap.
“Of course, you are all I think about. Every day. I never want to lose you. We are destiny. We are meant together. The gods have let us know. They have given us many signs. It doesn’t matter if we get married now or in five years. We will be together.” He paused, he hated to see her cry and know that somehow, he had confused her, but if he embraced her again, there might be more fines than a punishment would satisfy. He took a deep breath, “Now Babette, will you have me as I am, without a family or House?”
“You know, I will.”
“Good. Do you think you can sneak away tomorrow night?”
“Tomorrow?”
“Yes,” Mir nodded. “And do you have a friend you can bring with you as a witness?”
Babette was shocked he wanted to marry so very soon. “I can ask Jade. But I don’t know how we will be able to stay out the whole night without raising some kind of alarm for us.”
“What about Doctor James? Do you think she would help us?” Mir knew that Doctor James had made her husband get a binding tattoo. He thought she would be sympathetic to their love.
“I don’t know, I guess I could ask her,” Babette said, unsure. “Jade sometimes spends the night at her aunt and uncle’s house so that wouldn’t be out of the ordinary.”
“Good. Now, what made you think I was ending this?”
“My handbook on Alliance culture. The phrase you used, ‘thank the gods for this opportunity’ or whatever it was. My book said that that phrase was used when ending a courtship.”
Mir frowned, “First, promise me you will stop referencing that book before jumping to conclusions. Our culture, like any other culture, cannot be spelled out in an easy book. Second, the phrase, ‘Thank the gods for this opportunity’ can be used to end a relationship, but I don’t think anyone has said that to end a courting relationship in over 50 years. And if I wanted to end this, I wouldn’t write to you like this. Our courting has been
secret, I wouldn’t write anything about it if I was ending it. I wouldn’t want to implicate either of us.”
“Then why did you write it now if our marriage will be a secret too?”
“Because our marriage will not always be a secret, and we need a record. No one will go looking for a message between us now. However, when we need to prove we are married, we will have it. And our witnesses.”
“You have it all planned out?”
“I’m an Alliance man after all,” Mir said, grinning. “And tomorrow, you will be my wife.”
“And then what?”
“I’ll have to return to my ship,” Mir said regretfully. “But I hope when I return next, it will be for a longer period, and maybe we can sneak off together.”
Babette smiled, “I don’t think I can wait until tomorrow. Why not just do it right now? I just won’t show up for work.” Babette was already thinking about skipping work and very excited by the thought.
“No, you can’t do that. People will be suspicious. You need today to ask Doctor James for help. And I need to speak with the priest to marry us.”
“I thought we just said some words in front of our friends?”
“Babbs, I was of the slave class and now of maximum and have no House. What we are doing is illegal. If we ask only our friends to witness our marriage, not only will they too be implicated, but our marriage will never be seen as true as it goes against the gods to marry between the classes.”
“But people do it,” Babette countered.
