by Robin Roseau
But I realized I had completely outgrown the need to be a mating candidate. I was entirely devoted to Violet. Now, some of the challenges would be fun, I thought, but I didn't feel I needed them. I remembered thinking how romantic it all was, and maybe that was still true.
But what was romantic was much simpler: being desired. That was romantic. And Violet offered me that affirmation more than I ever thought I'd receive.
I was still smiling when the chair withdrew.
I felt a caress. "You seem to enjoy being kidnapped," said Violet.
"I have a very clever kidnapper," I admitted. "I believe I'm experiencing Stockholm Syndrome."
She laughed. "I'm going to dress you now. You stay right there."
"I can do it if you hand me everything."
"Oh, no. I've been thinking about this for days. You're not spoiling my fun." It was my turn to laugh.
She pulled undies onto me. I had to squirm around to help her, but she tugged them into place very carefully, and she even behaved when she did so.
"Um. Shouldn't I clean up first?"
"The chair took care of it," she said. "You probably didn't notice. You're fine."
Then a bra. She had to help me sit up for that. It didn't feel like my normal bra, but when I reached to feel it, she captured my hands.
"It's not a bra, is it?"
"It's very sexy."
"It's a swimsuit."
"You know, I believe it might be." She released my hands, and I felt. Yep. Swimsuit. I made small adjustments. Then she helped me from the chair. Violet had a summer dress that she pulled over the swimsuit along with a pair of sandals. I appreciated being more covered.
"I have swimsuits and beach dresses for you," she said. "And two new dresses for our more formal dinners."
"You take such good care of me."
"I enjoy it," she said. "Skye, if you'd told me last year that I'd be mated to a human woman, I'd have said you were insane. If you told me how much I wanted to take care of her, I'd have felt the same way. I always assumed I'd have a relationship like Moms do."
"They take care of each other."
"Yes, but it's different than how I'm driven to take care of you. I hope you're okay with it."
"I feel selfish sometimes."
"You shouldn't. You give all of yourself, and you do for me the things I like."
I leaned against her.
"All right," she said. "We're on a small airfield. It's kind of ugly, so I don't want this to be your first view."
"We're somewhere tropical."
"Yes, but I want you to see the best view." She stepped to my side, half wrapped around me, and led me from the jumper.
We stepped into full sunlight, and she still had tentacles wrapped around me. "This is an E.T. resort," I said.
"Yes."
We walked for about five minutes. I couldn't hear any sounds except our own footsteps and Violet. I decided not only was she controlling my vision, but my hearing as well. But then we came to a stop, and I could smell the ocean. Violet moved my hands for me, setting them on a wooden railing in front of me.
"Our ride is directly in front of us, and past it, a half kilometer away, is where we'll spend the next week."
Then I could hear, all the sounds one associated with the ocean. There wasn't a surf, although there was the sound of waves lapping at the shore. I heard birds and a few boats, although long gone were the days of internal combustion engines.
Then the view changed, the swirling colors disappearing, and I could see.
We were standing at a railing. Ahead and down a few steps was a dock. There was a small boat waiting at the dock. Posey, wearing her own summer dress, stood near the boat, and there was a human woman seeing to the needs of the boat.
Looking further, we were in a large, natural harbor, the land rising quickly away from the ocean, the hills green and lush.
"Where are we?"
"We own the island," Violet said. "We bought it from the people who used to live here. We're in the south pacific near Fiji. The island is an extinct volcano. The harbor is the caldera, and you can see where an ancient eruption or landslide opened the caldera to the open ocean."
She had told me our home for the next week was in front of us a half kilometer away. The opening to the ocean was somewhat left, and so there was land across the water from us. But it was a lot further than a half kilometer.
All I could see that might suit was a motor yacht. I stared at it. It was big. Oh, I'm sure as yachts go, they could be much bigger. But I thought it was big, gleaming and beautiful.
I glanced at her, and Violet wasn't enjoying the view. She was watching me.
"It's beautiful, Violet."
I leaned my head against her shoulder. "I think I'm the luckiest human alive."
"Let us agree that we are both lucky to have found each other and leave it at that. Are you ready?"
I nodded, and she turned us to the stairs. We descended together. There was a gangway between the dock and the boat. Posey waited for us, and as we arrived, she took me from Violet and gave me a thorough hug.
As soon as she released me, the boat captain said, "Your gear is stowed, and we're ready to go."
* * * *
It was an easy ride out to the yacht, the water gentle, the boat quiet. The boat had a covered cabin with several rows of benches, but we sat on a bench near the bow, the two sisters on either side of me. The sun was warm and felt good. The ocean smelled good. Posey and Violet both smelled good, too, and felt even better.
"I'm excited," Posey said. "We've never been here."
"Really?"
"You're a bad influence," Violet said. "We've taken more vacations since you arrived."
I laughed. "It sounds like I'm a good influence."
"This is such a beautiful planet," Posey said. "Of course, I haven't been to many, but we learn about all of them. Water worlds like this one aren't unique, but they aren't the norm, either."
"I thought water was required for evolution."
"It is, but it doesn't take this much," she said. She leaned back on the bench and lifted her head to the sky. She was wearing sunglasses, and the light reflected from them while fully lighting her face. Her tentacles snuffled a little then relaxed.
I mirrored her, my position made more comfortable by a Catseye tentacle acting as a pillow.
"Why didn't your moms come?"
"We wanted you to ourselves," Violet said. "We didn't invite them."
"They're working, anyway," Posey added. "Azalea is assisting with negotiations with the Indian government to help them decommission one of their nuclear power plants." She shook her head. "They think they can do it without us. They should just pay us to do it."
"Is that the sticking point?"
"No. Pride. We're asking them to pay us their estimate to do it themselves. We think their estimate is low, and our methods offer far lower risk."
"Are you sure it's pride?" I asked. "If it was one of the countries that had the concept of saving face, I'd be more willing to believe that."
"Saving face?"
"Um. Maybe preserving pride? If they're being problematic, I think it's something else. Well, unless you know it's pride."
"What do you think it might be?"
I thought. "Well, it could be simple. Decommissioning a nuclear power plant sounds expensive. Like hundreds of millions of dollars."
"It is."
"Well, that's hundreds of millions of dollars that won't be paid to Indian workers if you do it."
"We've thought about that," Posey said.
"And it's hundreds of millions that you'll remove from the Indian economy." Posey didn't respond to that. "And... Um."
"Yes?"
"Humans aren't always honest. You're not dealing with the Indian government. You're dealing with people who work for the Indian government. There's a difference."
"You're going somewhere. Keep going."
"Someone in the Indian government may have ti
es to whatever company would do the work. Maybe it's a brother or something. If you take the job away, you're taking a very lucrative deal from his brother."
Posey snuffled. "Is there anything else?"
"Of course. Flat out corruption. Someone could have been bribed. A lot of people could have been bribed."
At that point, we came to a stop alongside the yacht. The boat captain tied us off, and the yacht crew lowered a gangway between the two boats. We transferred to the yacht to meet a smiling crew of four. They were all dressed in white uniforms.
"Welcome to Southbar," said a woman. "I am Captain Danette." She gestured to the man behind her. "This is my husband, Gerry. Gerry is our cook and resident expert on everything in the water. He's the one to see when you're ready for a little snorkeling. Meg and Sam are general crew, and it is their sworn duty to ensure you have a comfortable cruise."
We greeted everyone, then Meg and Sam stepped over to the launch that had delivered us, collecting our bags. In the meantime, Captain Danette gave us a tour if Southbar. I learned the boat was "a comfortable twenty meters long". There were two decks above the waterline and one more below. There were places to lounge all over the boat, and it was clearly designed for more than three passengers.
We would be very comfortable.
At the rear of the main deck was a hot tub complete with a glass wall towards the back. Once could also descend a set of stairs to a platform that was just above water level with another platform that actually set into the water. One could swim off the back of the boat and have an easy climb back into the boat.
The walls of the main deck opened, so it was indoor-outdoor. The top deck had a retractable sunroof over it.
Below were two cabins for passengers and a lounge / theater.
All the amenities of home. I was impressed.
Ten minutes later we were in the lounge, cold drinks in hand, and the boat underway. But then Posey said, "We have a conference call with Azalea in seven minutes. We'll stow the visor after."
It was... beautiful. The sun was warm and bright, the water sparkling and beautiful, and I was with two of my favorite people. Even better, they could be open with who they were, and I could be open with my relationship.
Life was good.
A minute before the call, they both untangled from me. "Like she doesn't see us lounging together all the time?"
"This is a professional conversation," Violet explained.
"Shouldn't we get a tablet or something?"
"No need," Posey said. Then the visor told me I had an incoming call from her, and the call automatically connected. It was a little disconcerting, because the visor didn't dim my view but instead overlaid it with the view of where I was looking. A few moments later, Violet was added, and they both there.
I tried to put the visor into command mode, but it didn't respond to me.
"Whoever is running my visor -- can you turn off the vision? This is too disconcerting."
"Yes," said Violet. And there was a small echo.
"Oh, and dim my ears," I said. "I don't want to hear you twice."
"Right."
It took her only a few seconds. Then all I saw were both their faces, and all the exterior sounds faded as well.
"How are you doing this?"
"Our eyes," Violet said. "They are replacements."
"Oh. Wow. Okay."
"Adding Azalea," Posey said. A few seconds later, the screen divided again, and I was looking at all three of them.
"Hello, girls," Azalea said. "How was your surprise, Skye?"
"Absolutely amazing," I said. I lifted my drink and sipped. I hoped the camera caught it. "It's stunningly beautiful here."
"I imagine. Well, Posey told me there was something I had to hear."
Posey relayed a portion of the conversation then said, "But Skye should repeat what she said to us." So I did.
Azalea said, "The Indian government explains this is a matter of national pride."
"No," I said. "Somebody in the government said that. Is it coming from more than one voice?"
"Their chief negotiator."
"Then that's the one who took money," I said.
She said nothing for a moment. "How sure are you?"
"All right. I hope we're not recording this, because I think I just committed libel. Or slander. Whatever it is. I am guessing. I don't know how you would check. Tell me. Has there been a public campaign in India to discredit you?"
Her tentacles began waving. Azalea normally had better control than that. "You girls hang on a minute. Skye, set the drink down somewhere out of view and don't pick it up until we're done."
I couldn't see, so Violet took it from me and set it aside. Azalea's face froze in a single position for several minutes. I tried asking what was going on, but Violet said, "Please wait quietly. Politics."
At that, I nodded. Then we waited.
But finally Azalea's image stuttered, and she was live again. Then the screen split once more, and Amaryllis appeared.
Posey and Violet both offered greetings in a language I didn't understand. Amaryllis responded, but then she shifted to English. "Although the little human knows Catseye, let us stick to English."
"That wasn't Catseye," I said.
"No. You would call it BP. Greetings, Skye Andrews."
"Hello, Ambassador Amaryllis."
"Azalea Beamer tells me you had something interesting to say about the situation in India."
And so Posey told her part, then I repeated my part, excluding the specific accusations against the lead negotiator. When I finished, Azalea wouldn't let me off the hook.
"But I shouldn't make that accusation on no evidence," I said.
"She made accusations against Mr. Chowdhury?"
"I shouldn't have said it the way I did, Ambassador."
"What should you have said, Ms. Andrews?"
"I should have said that if Mr. Chowdhury is insisting this is a matter of Indian national pride, then it is possible that Mr. Chowdhury has a personal interest in the matter."
"What she means," said Azalea, "is that she think there is a significant chance that Mr. Chowdhury has taken bribes, but she has no evidence and wouldn't make a public accusation."
"Or he has another personal interest that is not in alignment with what is best for India."
"And what did you ask after that?" Azalea asked. So I repeated my question regarding attempts to discredit the E.T.s.
"I am afraid I don't fully understand," Amaryllis said. "We are offering the best choice. I admit we considered the financial concerns you mentioned. But no one from the Indian government has listed these concerns or made any significant effort to negotiate a better rate."
"Don't you find that suspicious?" I asked. "You would think they would want a bidding war between you and whoever will do it if you don't."
"I understand that motive, but they aren't doing that. Surely Mr. Chowdhury wouldn't risk the lives of his countrymen for money."
I couldn't help it. I laughed, then sobered. "I'm sorry, Ambassador. I'm very, very sorry."
"Explain yourself, Ms. Andrews."
"Never, never, never underestimate a human's willingness to put his own personal gain ahead of anything else. I'm only 19. Why do you need me to raise these concerns?"
"Because we don't think like a human," Azalea said.
"You have humans on your team, don't you?"
"Not at this level," Amaryllis said. "Apparently, we should. How sure are you of these accusations?"
"I've made no accusations. I've simply said certain things could use closer scrutiny."
"How sure are you, Ms. Andrews?"
"There's another possibility."
"Am I going to be happy to hear about this possibility?"
"Probably not. It is possibly no money has changed hands yet. It is possible Mr. Chowdhury is waiting for a bribe before he becomes less of an obstruction. Maybe he wants money. Maybe he wants a vacation in Fiji. Maybe he has a sick child and wan
ts you to cure him."
"How sure are you that one of your suggestions, or something close to your suggestions is the real cause of these delays?"
"Ambassador, there are places on Earth where nothing happens if you don't grease someone's palm."
"I do not know that expression."
"Bribes, Ambassador. There are places you must bribe the police to do their jobs. There are places you must bribe bureaucrats to do theirs. There are places you must bribe local criminals to protect you from themselves. My mom told me two of the health inspectors in Cleveland used to engage in outright extortion. If the restaurants didn't bribe them, they would suddenly find health code violations. Ambassador, most humans are good people, but everyone has a price, and for some of us, that price isn't very high."
"Do you have a price, Ms. Andrews?"
"My mother did. My sister's life. And I would have paid whatever you might have asked, too."
"You asked me not to bribe you to take the position here. This suggests you feel you could be bought with money."
"I don't know if there's enough money to bribe me to do something evil," I said. "Maybe if I told myself all the good I could do with that money. Maybe if I didn't think I was being evil. I don't know. I hope I never find out. And that, Ambassador, is the sort of answer every human will tell you, both the ones who can't be bought and those who can be bought for almost nothing."
Then I smiled. "You may be happy to know I am taking your suggestion. I will dual major in business and political science."
"That is the best news of the afternoon," she said. "And will you be working for me this summer?"
"I will work wherever Bluebell and Azalea tell me to work, except I do not wish to work for Bluebell at the Testing Center."
"Unless that is the price of keeping your sister alive."
"It might not need to be that drastic, but yes. I agree that humanity should fulfill your needs. I do not agree with how you ask us to do so."
"You are not alone in that, but we digress." She paused. "Do you have recommendations regarding the situation in India?"
"Yes. Involve a human with a lot more experience than I have. And if you have a means to do so, look into the things I've said."
She switched languages, and it sounded like the language they'd been speaking earlier. I waited until a pause and asked, "Are you sure I don't speak BP?"
