by Alma Nilsson
“It’s true, no one cares what happens to humans but humans and the Alliance in a strange way, I guess. The Jahay were constantly using us as fodder. It’s only because of Captain Rainer that we are even alive.”
“Being a slave isn’t life,” another said.
“But we don’t know what our fates are yet, so let’s just take each hour as it comes ladies,” Jane said authoritatively as she entered the room in a black Alliance dress. “I must admit though; I don’t have high hopes of being rescued. But who knows? The Alliance may decide that introducing human women into their precious society is too difficult and end up releasing us all after a few months or a year. We can always hope,” she smiled. “Alliance culture seems to be very contrary to our own and they may find that it is better to use medical technology to fix their demographics problem, and risk angering their gods,” everyone smiled at her as she sat down. “I miss my family too and this is tough on all of us. We need to just concentrate on each thing as it comes.”
Dru could at least be grateful then that she had already left her loved ones behind willingly when she left the Exterior. She had already cried those tears. What she was most upset about now was being stuck on the Alliance Capital Planet and being married to an alien for the rest of her life. And this punishment thing, she was just about ready to bring it up with Jane when the women began talking again and she decided to wait. She didn’t want to remind anyone of her examination yesterday. It was mortifying that they all watched her orgasm with a robot that way.
“Does anyone know much about the institution of marriage?” Jane asked the group. She was hoping someone had an interest in archaic mating rituals.
Dru spoke up, “I only know what we all probably know, that women were owned by men. Forced to change their names with no control over their lives.” She knew that some people in the Exterior considered themselves ‘married’ and she had read some old books about it, but like slavery, it was just in the past. No one on Earth was really married in the traditional sense anymore, not even in the Exterior.
“Yes, that’s about all I know too. Does anyone know anything about Alliance marriages?” Jane asked. “The doctors on the space port didn’t look owned, nor does Madame Bai or her assistants and presumably, they all must be married since there are so few women. Maybe marriage isn’t what we think it is,” Jane was trying to be positive and get a good conversation going about this so they all wouldn’t dwell on what was lost, whether it be temporary or permanent.
“They call those three women who live here with us ‘slaves’, except they don’t act like slaves. One of them aggressively batted a piece of bread out of my hand this morning with very strong words and threatened to beat me if I was in her kitchen ever again without permission,” Rebecca admitted, her beautiful golden eyes serious. “I have seen slaves before on Beta 56 and they were in chains, beaten and didn’t make eye contact. They did what they were bid to do by their masters, broken. These women,” she gestured towards the kitchen, “are telling us what to do. So, it’s possible that ‘marriage’ in the Alliance is the same as ‘slave’, neither is what we think it is.”
“It could be our translators,” Jane suggested, and everyone grimaced. Human translators were notoriously bad. Humans were just too creative for most languages in the galaxy that were solely focused on efficient communication. Humans just had too many words to describe emotions and different aspects or scenarios in life. “I agree with you; those slaves don’t really seem like slaves and Madame Bai definitely doesn’t act like anyone owns her.”
“Marriage and slavery could just be different in this culture and we don’t have words for what they really are,” Dru thought out loud. “I’ll be very surprised if our new Alliance translators have different words for them, but I suspect we just don’t have the cultural words for them as we have never had these kinds of relationships on Earth ever.”
Everyone considered this quietly, but the truth was no one remembered anything about human marriages except what had already been mentioned. Slavery, marriage and religion had been abandoned a long time ago on Earth in exchange for equality and acceptance of everyone regardless of sex or color. Being confronted now in the Alliance with what they considered the most negative aspects of humanity’s history had them all worried.
“Did Captain Rainer look owned when we saw her?” asked Rebecca. “I was so overwhelmed with what was happening I couldn’t really take anything in.”
Jane laughed, “No and judging by the amount of security laid on us she had given her new ‘husband’ a lot of trouble already. If I had to make a snap decision about this, I’d say, that we hear the word ‘marriage’, but it is not a correct translation or as Dru suggests we don’t have the word for what this really is. I hope when we get our Alliance translators later today, we’ll understand our situations better. It’s possible we are worried for nothing. Maybe they want us to have a child, donate some eggs or DNA and then we can go home.”
“The doctor yesterday told me women can’t leave the planet according to something called the Contracts,” Dru said. “I think when they say ‘marriage’ that is what it is, but I agree there is something not right about it if we think of it in the human way because Captain Rainer was definitely not harmed by her … husband,” Dru had to pause before the word ‘husband’ because it was strange to say. She smiled when she thought, It’s a strange as calling someone ‘Knight Lancelot’.
“Do you think she had sex with that zombie?” another woman asked, newer to the crew than Dru, and obviously didn’t know about Captain Kara Rainer.
“Have you met our captain? She is just as wild in her personal life as she is professionally. The answer to that question is ‘Yes, without a doubt.’ The real question is if she would ever allow herself to become pregnant and have a child. She isn’t really the mothering type and it seems that’s all the Alliance wants us for, to be breeders for them under some guise of marriage or whatever marriage is here.”
“Captain Rainer will do whatever she needs to do to survive and I’ve no doubt she has a million plans to get herself free and rescue us, none of which I can even imagine or speculate about, but I’m sure she’ll implement one of them to make sure she ends up on top of all of this. She’s like a cat, never dead and always happy, weirdly enough,” said Jane. She had served with Captain Rainer for years and nothing surprised her about that woman anymore.
Rebecca smiled, “You’re right. Remember that green guy? The smuggler we took onboard last year.”
“Don’t remind me,” complained someone else, “I could hear their screams in my quarters. I was so relieved when we had to turn him over to the authorities at Europa Space Port. That was the longest week of my life. I just couldn’t imagine; he was so green and with a tail.”
Dru couldn’t help but smile, she knew about their captain’s more experimental sex games as it was not that uncommon that Captain Rainer would occasionally drop by sickbay and want something healed privately and quickly. Dru was always easy to accommodate the Captain as she could read her mind and they never needed to discuss anything. There were no awkward questions between them, not like when she saw John their chief medical officer. She wondered where he was now. She knew that he had stayed onboard the Refa with the Captain.
“Life is short, each to their own,” said Jane. She couldn’t help but think about her partner and her children then. She was happy that at least they had had almost two decades of happiness together and that the children were almost adults themselves. She knew Jim would miss her greatly, but she also knew that he would rather have her alive here than dead somewhere in space.
The conversation then changed to the dresses they all had on, the warm beds they had slept in and anything else they could talk about that was not too emotional. It was an unspoken feeling that no one wanted to continue their conversation about marriage. Either for fear of working themselves up to something that was all a miscommunication, or for the worse, that it really was marriage and
they would all become a forced breeder to a zombie.
Finally, at 13:00 they were told by one of the slaves that refused to give them their names, that the midday meal was ready, and they all walked very quickly into the dining room with the unreadable banners and the long tables. Individual plates were set out and platters full of white vegetables family-style were placed in the center of the table. There was a white hard bread on each individual plate and there was red wine in their cups. No one spoke as they all ate ravenously at the mediocre food. The slaves replaced the food numerous times as they continued to eat. The vegetables were served at a luke-warm temperature which Dru thought was probably considered piping hot for Alliance people and the wine was closer to vinegar than wine, but she didn’t care. It all was delicious compared to what they had had over the last weeks. They had been on low rations for the entire war and then even worse dietary conditions when they had been taken prisoner. Dru wanted to warn the other women not to eat too much too quickly or it could make them ill, but she didn’t want to be the Junior Doctor now. She just wanted to eat. She was so hungry herself she didn’t even abide by her own advice and after the meal was finished, she felt a little ill.
When they had just finished drinking some luke-warm herbal tea, Madame Bai came into the dining room beaming and instructed them all to come out to the drawing room. They finished their tea immediately and joined her on the circular black sofas around the fire. When they were all seated, she introduced two doctors who had accompanied her and her assistants. “These doctors will change your translators from human ones to Alliance ones. As I understand it, it’s not a difficult or painful procedure, but it’s best, if you’re all laying down while it’s done. I’d like to ask you all to return to your bedrooms and the doctors will visit you to perform the procedure in good time. Jane and Mary,” Madame Bai searched Jane and Mary out with her eyes, “They’ll begin with you two and Drusilla will be last. As everything in the Alliance, we do it according to rank,” Madame Bai reminded them and then she dismissed them.
Dru went back to her room and just laid down on the soft yellow fur on her bed. One of the slaves had obviously cleaned her room while she was downstairs. She knew that because she never made her bed unless she was in fleet accommodation. She definitely had not made it today. Dru closed her eyes and relaxed. She didn’t mind being the last as she thought she might vomit from all the food she ate if anyone tried to change her translator now. Unlike many of the other women, she had only gotten a translator when she joined the fleet. So, she, unlike the others who would have gotten their translators after puberty, remembered the dizzy fuzzy feeling that lingers with a new translator quite vividly and she imagined that this would probably be worse because they were exchanging one for another.
She closed her eyes and relaxed on the bed. She couldn’t hear anything. Everything was completely silent. Her mind wandered. Dru was looking forward to being able to read everything around her and have a better understanding of what people were saying. Alliance translators were the best in the galaxy. She decided that even if she were rescued, she wouldn’t give back the translator.
Dru wondered if she would ever leave this planet. She thought about escaping but realized if she did and Earth had not negotiated for their release, she would be a fugitive. She thought about returning to life in the Exterior, but then decided that she would rather be a pirate in the galaxy than return there. She was almost dreaming about what her life would be like aboard a pirate vessel when she heard her door chime.
Dru opened her eyes, sat up and said, “Come on,” and then mentally berated herself for sounding so casual.
The doctor entered and gave Drusilla a smile. She mentally greeted her, Hello young one.
Dru was still unaccustomed to this kind of communication and struggled to respond so she spoke out loud, “Hi,” then after a minute of silence while the doctor set up her things she said, “I’m looking forward to getting a better translator.”
“Oh, human translators aren’t that bad, you should hear some of the others. It’s just that human technology is everyone’s favorite to make fun of in the galaxy.”
“Charming,” Dru said.
The doctor looked at her and smiled, “We all can’t help ourselves,” she explained indicating Drusilla should lean back. “Humans are adorable.”
Dru leaned back and looked up at the doctor in her navy dress with the white trim and before she could ask the doctor answered her.
“Yes, it’s a doctor’s uniform. The men’s look different, of course, but when you are an Alliance doctor you will wear the same.”
“What if I don’t want to take that path?”
The doctor smiled at her again, while picking up her instruments and moving Dru’s head to the side. “I can read your thoughts and besides what else would you do? You have been a great gift to the Empire.”
“You mean because we are human women and good for breeding?”
“No, you because you are strong, young, clever, telepathic and good for breeding. The rest of the human women are standard, you are special Drusilla.”
Dru didn’t know how to reply so she didn’t. She closed her eyes and let the doctor begin the procedure. After a few minutes, the doctor began talking again, probably to take her mind off what she was doing.
“Your Captain Kara is quite happy with Admiral Tir aboard the Refa. There are so many rumors about their sex life. I’ve no doubt that the Admiral will be able to convince other human women to join you here when he goes to Earth for the war reparations.”
“I can’t believe that. Why would human women choose to come here to be wives? I’m sure that my government will not only deny the Admiral his wife back but negotiate for our release as well.”
The doctor shook her head, “I’m sorry, but I must disagree. In this galaxy we are the strong and you are the weak. And just because you oppose this doesn’t mean that all human women oppose this situation. I’ve seen the reports from Earth. You’re poor. You make strange decisions about population control and you’re severely disadvantaged in the galaxy.”
“That’s all a choice,” Dru corrected her. “We’re true to our home. Every planet is born with a perfectly balanced ecosystem and most of you have destroyed yours in the quest for technological and military gain. We’re as we are meant to be.”
“Misguided, poor and backwards?”
“I don’t see it that way. Earth is beautiful. Our nature is beautiful.”
“And humans are beautiful but misguided,” the doctor said with a hint of a smile. “Listen, I don’t mean to make you irritated. I’m just being honest. We all think humans are interesting and attractive. But we don’t think Earth is beautiful. Your sun is too bright and your nature too strange. We believe you are us but somehow many years ago you were lost in the galaxy. Maybe an early space exploration ship or an experiment that went terribly wrong.”
“What’s your point?” Dru wanted to ask her about the ‘experiment’ but was too cross to do so.
“My point is that you shouldn’t be so proud of a place that is so low. You are truly Alliance now, not just one of our myths.”
Dru didn’t really understand everything the doctor was referring to but just said defiantly, “I’ll never think this is better than my home planet.”
The doctor gave her a sympathetic look, “This is your home planet. And I know from your initial medical report that you were not vaccinated for anything until very recently. Your body showed signs of broken bones that were set improperly only to be corrected years later. You were …”
Dru interrupted her, “I know my life. I don’t need a recap.”
The doctor then got images of poverty, ignorance, pain and suffering from Drusilla. She knew it was an unintentional share, but she still could not help but be moved by such vivid memories of needless suffering. “You might not have minded such a life, but many women from your planet, would rather move to the Alliance and become wives than live in galactic poverty.” T
hen when she realized that Drusilla thought marriage was some kind of punishment she said, “Marriage is not what you think it is. But I will leave that topic for Madame Bai to explain.”
“Please stop reading my thoughts,” Dru said looking up at the doctor.
“You’re projecting them in your anger, Drusilla. You might as well be saying them to me.” The doctor brushed her hair away from the side of her head preparing to change the translator, “Just relax now, I’m going to remove your human translator. “The doctor made some adjustments, removed her human translator from above her ear and then said, “Now, you will feel some pressure and some heat. It shouldn’t hurt.”
Dru nodded and her eyes remained closed. She remembered getting her first translator right before she joined the fleet and she had a bad headache for days.
After a couple of minutes, the doctor asked, “Can you hear me clearly?”
“Yes,” Dru said opening her eyes tentatively. “Wait, I cannot turn it on and off. Is it broken?”
“No, unfortunately our translators, as most in the galaxy don’t have that function, only human translators. I know that you humans value your diversity in languages so this will be a loss for you. Maybe in the future the Alliance will make special translators for you if everything works well between our civilizations.” The doctor gave her a sympathetic smile, “Now please look at the bedside panel and read it to me.”
Dru sat up slowly. She felt a little dizzy. She looked at the panel and read everything out, “Lights, shades, internal communication, mirror, bed. Bed? What is that?”
“Every one of you have asked that question. That’s for your personal pleasure. You’re alone here without a man. It …” Dru interrupted her.
“Oh, stop. I understand,” she said blushing and thought, I’m definitely not going to push that button. It will remind me too much of what happened at the space port medical exam and other memories I’d rather not relive.
