by C. F. Harris
“You’re not going to be more cautious, are you?” Jorav asked.
I leaned down and kissed him again. Felt the fire erupting inside him as my lips brushed against his.
“You wouldn’t be so attracted to me if I was more cautious and you know it,” I replied. “Now what are we going to do about these parties? I’m assuming you wouldn’t have brought them up if there wasn’t a good reason.”
“You’re right,” he said. “Something has happened this afternoon that makes me think it would be a bad idea for us to continue ignoring these invitations.”
“Right, so we go. You said these people hate the emperor. Seems like those are exactly the sort of people we should be hanging out with given what we’re planning.”
“Perhaps. Perhaps not. They love to scheme, and getting pulled into those schemes could be very dangerous.”
“Not getting pulled into them could also be dangerous. No way to find out for sure unless we step into the trap and see what it looks like,” I said.
“We’d be walking into the belly of the beast with some of the most powerful families on the Livisk homeworld,” he said.
“Yeah, and that’s really terrifying next to being chased down by the emperor’s assassins,” I said. “Come on. Live a little. Besides, I’d really like to see you do a keg stand.”
Jorav opened his mouth to question me but I sent an image I wasn’t entirely proud of from my days in the academy. Alcohol was strictly forbidden for students in the Fleet academy, so of course everyone went off campus at every opportunity to get completely shitfaced. The way they ran classes there it was the only way to stay sane.
“I… see,” Jorav said as the image filtered into his mind. “You humans have very odd customs.”
I chose that moment to grind against him again. I felt desire flaring inside him and grinned. Winked.
“No more ridiculous than some Livisk customs I could mention,” I said.
That desire tumbled over and over in his mind and he put his arms around my waist. Held me tight against him. I held my breath, hoping against hope for one impossible moment that he might go through with it. That I might have tempted him to the point of no return.
Only I hadn’t. His grip loosened as he realized what he was thinking. He shook his head.
“Very well. We’ll go to one of these parties even if you don’t appreciate just how dangerous it is.”
“Next to the emperor I’m not worried at all what a bunch of Livisk rich dudes might try to throw at me. I want to meet these guys. The enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that good stuff,” I said. “We’re going to need some friends if we’re going through with our plan.”
Jorav shook his head. “I agree with you, but I wanted to give you the chance to back out if you wanted to.”
I shook my head right back at him. Reached up and grabbed his hair so he had no choice but to stare at me.
“Jorav,” I said. Slowly, as though I was speaking to a recruit fresh from the academy who did everything by the book because they thought that’s how things worked in the Fleet. “When have I ever given you the impression that I’d pass up an opportunity to bust some Livisk heads and stir up trouble?”
“A good point,” Jorav said. “Which is exactly why I’m so worried about letting you loose on these people.”
4: High Society
Talia:
“You can still see that damned palace from here.”
“Well what did you expect? It’s the biggest structure in the city. You can see it from anywhere,” Jorav replied. The emotion coming through the bond was matter-of-fact. There wasn’t a hint of sarcasm even though that’s damn well what it sounded like.
I stared out across the city towards the imperial palace. The thing really did dominate the skyline around here, and not in a good way. It was a constant reminder that there were very powerful people in this city who would love nothing more than to see me dead.
Jorav’s tower was off in the distance beyond the palace. I’d never really appreciated just how big the thing was. It speared into the sky, twinkling with thousands of lights from all the people loyal to him who lived in the levels below us.
It also looked like one hell of an inviting target. There were times when I wondered why everyone who wanted to kill us didn’t just attack the tower outright rather than dealing with assassins.
“Because to attack openly would be to invite defeat,” Jorav said. “That’s what usually happens to people who try to fight me directly.”
Again he was matter-of-fact. There was no boasting in that statement. It was a simple reality in Jorav’s world. Anyone who fought him in the open was defeated.
At least until he met me.
I turned to the tower/palace we were approaching in Jorav’s personal vehicle. It wasn’t quite as impressive as Jorav’s, though it was made in the same style as everything else in this city.
“Odd,” I said.
“What’s odd?”
“You said these nobles are all from very old families. It seems odd that their buildings would be shiny and new like everyone else,” I said. “I figured they’d be an old style or something.”
“You’re forgetting that this city is razed to the ground in fighting every couple of generations,” Jorav said. “So the architecture tends to be forever up to date as they rebuild.”
“Right,” I muttered. “I keep forgetting that.”
It was a hell of a way to run a civilization. I sometimes forgot that to the Livisk the idea of destroying their largest, wealthiest, and most powerful city every couple of generations in a massive power struggle was the norm rather than out of the ordinary like it was back on earth. Not that cities on earth hadn’t been ground into atomic dust on a couple of unfortunate occasions, but it wasn’t a regular part of the political process.
“Yes, I know,” Jorav grunted. “You humans and your obsession with counting everyone to see what they think your government should do. You run your government the same way you prosecute your wars: crazy.”
“Crazy seems to be working for us,” I said. “Last time I checked we had your people on the run in more sectors than not and we were holding our own in the ones where we weren’t pushing you back.”
Jorav turned to me and grinned. A mixture of amusement and something it was difficult for me to describe came through the bond. Almost like gallows humor.
“You should hope that we manage to turn that around. If humanity makes it to this world I doubt they’ll bother to evacuate their own before they add themselves to the long list of people who have reduced this city to dust,” he said.
I shrugged. “Might be worth it to see the palace go up in flames. Besides, they’ll have to get here and do that before I get around to it.”
Jorav’s floating vehicle came to a halt at a massive landing area near one of the top levels of the tower. All around us I saw people stepping off onto the landing dressed in what passed for the best of the best on this world. Women in elaborate outfits that looked somewhat martial, though I’d never seen a Livisk woman in combat so I couldn’t tell for sure what they looked like. The men were topless whether or not they had the physique to pull that off, and all of them had elaborate dark tattoos running all over them.
“I guess being part of the nobility on this world means you don’t have to spend any time in a gym,” I muttered as I watched a rotund Livisk step off with a woman who looked entirely too young and attractive to be with him.
I suppose some things were constant across all worlds.
“I think that hover car over there actually rose a couple of inches when that guy stepped off of it,” I said, shaking my head in wonder.
Jorav glanced over and laughed. “Not surprising. That’s Rfalv. He’s well known for loving food and women in equal measure.”
“The poor thing,” I said. “I don’t see how she can handle him on top of her. Especially with the higher gravity on this dirtball.”
“You never seemed to compl
ain about the gravity with me,” Jorav said.
I glanced at the landing. We still had maybe a minute before we’d land and be expected to make our appearance. It was exactly like some ridiculous red carpet thing back home. Again, those strange constants on alien worlds.
“I never complained until I didn’t have to worry about that gravity,” I said. I moved in closer to him. Ran a finger over his bare chest. There was a little swirl in his tattoo that told anyone who could read the things that he was a veteran of some battle or another, but I loved to drive him wild by running my finger along it.
And drive him wild it did. He inhaled sharply, but more than that I could feel his mind tensing and his body going into overdrive through the mental bond. That was the nice thing about that bond. No matter how he tried to resist I could always tell what he was thinking.
As long as he didn’t try to block his thoughts from me, that is. But of course he wouldn’t do something silly like that. Not when I was right here to yell at him for trying it.
“You know that we can’t, Talia,” he said.
I leaned in until my lips were right next to his ear. I nipped at his earlobe, surprisingly similar to a human earlobe except that it was blue, sparkly, and forked instead of round. More crazed lust filtered through the bond and I smiled.
Yeah, I still had it.
“How many times do I have to tell you that I don’t care about your traditions before you believe me?” I asked.
“Just one more time, at least,” he said. He reached out and encircled my waist with his hands. Now it was my turn to close my eyes and sigh. I loved it when he did that. So much that I was only a little disappointed that he wasn’t going to do anything but push me away. I could feel his intent before he did it.
Damn it.
“That might be so,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean I’m going to ignore tradition. We can’t.”
“We’ll see about that,” I said. “I’m going to tempt you so much that you won’t have any choice but to give in.”
“As you said, we shall see about that,” Jorav replied.
I didn’t get a chance to continue the seduction. I felt a slight bump under us as the hover car settled to the ramp and then the door was hissing open and it’s not like there was much I could do without worrying about making a scene in front of the Livisk nobility.
If it was the emperor then I might be tempted to make that show. I was new to the nobility, though. They weren’t trying to kill me. Yet. I figured I should give them the benefit of the doubt for the moment.
Jorav took my hand as an obvious servant moved towards the hover car. I couldn’t tell what his tattoos meant, I wasn’t very good at reading them if they weren’t military in nature, but the way he carried himself screamed servant.
“Any advice for me before I get thrown to the wolves?” I asked.
“Pretend that these are the most important people on the planet and you won’t go wrong,” Jorav said. “They love to talk about how important they are even if they don’t get to do anything of consequence these days.”
“Right. Flatter them and kiss their sparkly blue asses. Got it,” I muttered.
“Probably best if you didn’t make reference to their sparkly blue asses while you’re at it,” Jorav muttered right back at me.
We stepped out onto the landing and Jorav moved right past the servant. He seemed annoyed, but then he rushed to catch up with us. Apparently his annoyance didn’t extend to actually correcting Jorav on his bad behavior.
“So good to see you this evening General,” the servant said. “I was told to expect you, but I have to admit…”
Jorav turned and grinned at the servant. I felt something through the bond that was truly surprising. Amusement. He was actually having fun. That was such a change from his usual behavior that I had to look and double check that this was actually Jorav walking alongside me. From the way he’d been acting leading up to this, as though he’d rather cut his arm of than be forced to go to this party, amusement was the last thing I expected.
Unless it was amusement because he got to have some fun at the poor servant’s expense.
“Have to admit that you didn’t want to see me here? I’m sure old Ergohl is going to feel the same way when he sees me here. It’s not often someone takes you up on an invitation you only sent out of polite obligation, right?”
Amazing. Jorav was actually having fun with this. He seemed to be enjoying making this poor servant look nervous. The man looked away for a moment and then seemed to decide that saying nothing was the best course of action. He simply moved a few steps ahead of us and led us into the massive building.
“You enjoyed that, didn’t you?” I whispered.
“I figure you have to take pleasure in life where you can,” Jorav replied. “Besides, don’t think for a moment that our escort won’t report everything I say to him here back to his master as soon as he can. It’s all part of the game, and there are eyes and ears everywhere.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said.
We moved into a massive and quite impressive room where there were Livisk nobles chatting with one another while servants moved in between them delivering food and drinks. The nobles were a study in contrasts. The men were almost all rather… corpulent. They looked like the sort of men who hadn’t turned down a good sandwich for their entire lives.
The women, in contrast, were all stunningly beautiful and wearing those same vaguely militaristic outfits that had been modified to accentuate their bodies in all the right places. And every one of the women was in perfect shape. We’re talking the sort of figure that made me jealous, and I was no slouch in the working out department. Fleet standards meant that I had to be, no matter what those asshole ground pounding planetary assault troops liked to say about us only doing the driving and them doing the real fighting.
“None of these people look all that threatening,” I whispered to Jorav.
“That might be so,” Jorav said. “But keep in mind that while they might not have all that much power, they have just enough that they could kill you without a second thought and never suffer any consequences. They might even find themselves being rewarded for their trouble considering the emperor’s opinion of you.”
“Right. I’ll keep that in mind,” I said.
“You’re thinking that thing again,” Jorav said.
“What thing is that?”
I tried to sound completely innocent, but I knew I was doing a terrible job of it. Especially since he had that pesky mental link to tell what I was thinking. It was useful when I was doing something interesting like teasing him and making him regret he’d ever been born into Livisk culture which prevented him from getting freaky naughty with me while we weren’t officially bonded, but less useful at other times.
Like now.
“That thing where you try and disarm me with a smile and then you turn around and say something about how next to the emperor trying to kill you a couple of nobles are nothing,” he said. He paused for a moment but spoke before I could get anything out. “And you’re probably right. They aren’t going to know what hit them. Still, you need to be careful.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said.
Still, I couldn’t help but smile. It was nice to know that he had so much confidence in my ability to take care of myself. I just hoped I could live up to his confidence.
“You will. Don’t worry,” he said.
We moved into the crowd of Livisk and I could feel their eyes on me. I suppose other humans might have felt nervous in a crowd like that. After all, I was surrounded on all sides by the most rich and powerful of a race that had made destroying humanity wherever we spread in the galaxy their civilization’s mission.
I smiled at all of them. A predatory smile. As far as I was concerned they were all targets, and being surrounded by so many of them only made it all the more interesting. Some of them shied away from me while others fixed me with what could only be disapproving looks
.
Let them disapprove. Fuck all of them. I’d already decided they would be the second group to have their backs up against the wall when my revolution came. The emperor and anyone at his palace still enjoyed the first spot in that line.
“So what do I do now that we’re here?”
“You do what you always do at parties like this,” Jorav said. “Circulate. Talk with people if they’ll let you, though you’ll find a lot of people here who don’t care for humans.”
“Right. I didn’t get that feeling at all before but now that you pointed it out I totally see what you’re talking about,” I replied.
“Is that more of your human sarcasm? You know I have trouble with that,” Jorav replied.
I reached out and patted him on the chest. I noticed a few more disapproving looks. Who would’ve thought a bunch of sparkly blue aliens who made a point of running around topless all the time would be such prudes? Well fuck them and their prudishness. Touching Jorav’s chest was all I had right now because of that stupid tradition, and I was going to take what I could get. And try to ignore the way that simple touch was making me weak in the knees.
It had been too long. I really needed to figure out a way to stop him from being such a prude.
“Watch yourself and don’t do anything dangerous,” Jorav said. “That’s all I ask.”
“Why Jorav? What in our time together would make you think I’d do something dangerous?”
Jorav held my eyes for a moment then shook his head and sighed. Apparently he’d finally decided to give up on trying to keep me reined in. Which was a good thing. If I got one more speech about how dangerous someone or something was on this dirtball then I was going to scream. I was an enemy combatant being held captive in the capital city of the enemy homeworld. Going to the bathroom could be dangerous. The first time I used what passed for a toilet on this world I’d been sure their stupid love of combat extended to trying to figure out how to get their toilets to work.
Jorav turned and melted into the crowd. Good. We could do more damage if we were split up. Though there was always the mental link pulsing in the back of our minds to let us know if one or the other was in trouble.
