Queen of Hearts

by Michael-Scott Earle

  At least I knew her nature.

  “I have forgiven you,” I said at last.

  “Then may I cook you dinner, Husband?” Her lips lifted into a smile, and I wondered if she was wearing lipstick, or if they were naturally that red. I felt like I was starting to lean into her mouth, and I blinked my eyes a few times to clean the cobwebs that suddenly appeared in my mind.

  “Did you just fucking use your power on me?” I growled.

  “No.” Her eyes widened and she let go of my bicep so she could raise her palms to me. “Husband, I swear to Odin. You told me never to use it on you, so I--”

  “Lied again,” I sighed and then rubbed the bridge of my nose with my fingers.

  “No,” she said as she grabbed my arm again. “Please, call Eve. I did not use my ability on you. I would not risk it. Please. It is because of our submission. Please do not be angry with me.”

  “Don’t touch me.” I pulled my arm away and stood. She stood with me but then she was on her knees with her head bowed.

  “Please, Adam,” she whispered as she grabbed my right hand with both of hers. I hadn’t even seen her move to reach me, but that could have been because I was distracted by my anger.

  “Look,” I hissed as I tried to calm myself. “This isn’t working. I didn’t want you to submit to me. I just wanted to ensure you were allied. You don’t have to try and act like my wife. We don’t need to have a relationship. I’m fine with you being with other men or whatever. I don’t care.”

  “I care,” she said as she turned her eyes up to me. “I am submitted to you. I want to be with you.”

  “You want more than that,” I said.

  “I want you to love me.”

  “You are the kind of woman that expects every man to love her.”

  “Yes,” she said with a half-smile. “And you have not fallen in love with me yet. It is annoying because I am bound to you, and you are the only man who will ever matter to me, yet you despise me.”

  “I wouldn’t say I despise you,” I said, but then I wondered if she had used that particular word on purpose so I would say I didn’t feel that way about her.

  “Then there is still a chance for me,” she said. “Please do not send me to my room. I wish to be at your side. I did not use my powers on you. Ask Eve when she comes to the bridge. I will not fight against her. I am not afraid of her knowing everything I think of you.”

  “I am here,” Eve said, and I turned to see her and Zea walk past the row of officer chairs.

  “Eve,” Sivaha said as she stood with a smooth, floating movement. “Adam thinks that I may have used my powers on him. Can you…” the Nordar woman tapped her temple with her finger and then glanced at me.

  “You want Eve to read your mind? Like… on purpose?” Zea asked.

  “I want my husband to know that I will follow his wishes,” Sivaha said to Zea. “If you were his--” The Nordar woman paused in mid-sentence and then closed her mouth carefully. Then she smiled and nodded her head toward my two lovers.

  “His what?” Zea asked.

  “She was thinking that--” Eve began to say, but Sivaha held up her hand to interrupt the vampire-woman.

  “I have realized I am approaching this wrong,” the silver-haired woman said. “I have given the two of you none of the respect that you deserve, and I have not asked for your permission.”

  “Uhh, permission?” Zea’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”

  “Neither of you is married to my husband, yet he cares for you as such.”

  “Yeah, we are planning on doing this whole Nordar rite thing, or whatever, and then submitting to him, so what is your point?” Zea crossed her arms and then looked at me.

  “I have tried to take time away from you without your blessing,” Sivaha said. “I would like to apologize for attempting to cut around you, and for the various ill-fitting names I have called you.”

  Zea’s eyebrows raised with a bit of disbelief, and she turned toward Eve.

  “I accept your apology, Sivaha,” Eve said with her usual smile.

  “Thank you,” the silver-haired woman said as she turned to Zea.

  “Uhh, sure.” The hacker shrugged and then sighed. “I guess I can’t really be mad at you for trying to dance around another woman to get her man.”

  “Thank you,” Sivaha said. “Might I now ask both of you for a boon?”

  “Boon?” Zea asked. “Like a favor?”

  “Yes,” the Nordar woman said. “Can the three of us speak privately?”

  “I know what you are going to ask,” Eve said as the smile faded from her lips. “I am not opposed to the idea, but Zea might be, and Madalena most definitely will.”

  “I will speak with the Prime Valkyrie,” Sivaha said as she turned to Zea. “I wish to have alone time with my new husband and would like to journey with him to retrieve his mother.”

  Zea didn’t say anything, she just narrowed her eyes at the silver-haired woman.

  “No,” I said. “I’ll decide who I am bringing with me to Ganymede.”

  “But if your women are fine with me accompanying you alone, and none of them feel slighted, isn’t that fine?” Sivaha turned to me and raised an eyebrow to the perfect height.

  “It is my decision,” I said.

  “Of course it is, Husband,” Sivaha said with a slight bow of her head. “Men always do whatever they wish without the input of their wives.”

  “Ha,” Zea scoffed, and Sivaha turned back to the hacker.

  “Would you see it in your heart to grant me this one boon? You already spend so much time with him, and I have none. Will you be charitable to a woman who loves your man as much as you do?”

  Zea rolled her eyes and sighed. Then she shook her head and turned to Eve. “Are you really okay with this? I just can’t believe it.”

  “My choice is love,” Eve said with her usual smile. “I know Sivaha’s thoughts. She once intended malice toward Adam and Madalena, but now she sincerely wishes to serve him as a wife. I do not wish to stand in the way of that, but you may make your own choice.”

  “See, when you say it like that, it makes me feel like a bitch if I say no.” Zea crossed her arms again and frowned.

  “I did not mean--” Eve began to say, but Zea interrupted her.

  “I know you didn’t mean that. Fuck, you never want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but this multiple wives thing feels so hypocritical for me because I tried to take Adam from…” Zea’s words trailed off and she ran her fingers over her eyes. It didn’t look like she was crying, only that she was frustrated.

  “Do not forget that I am here for you, my love,” Eve said to the hacker as she reached her hand out to touch her arm.

  “Yeah,” Zea sighed again and then turned back to Sivaha. “I’ll think about it.”

  “Thank you,” the Nordar woman said. “I will go speak with the Prime Valkyrie.”

  “Okay.” The hacker shrugged, and then Sivaha turned back around toward me. “If you still do not wish to take me with you, I will understand, but as Eve said, I only desire to be your wife and love you. Eventually, you will come to accept me.”

  I opened my mouth to reply to her, but she spun and walked away before I could. Her dress swished to the side as she walked, and I realized that the slits over each leg extended up above the bones of her hips, and I couldn’t see any sort of underwear.

  “Ugh. She’s soooo… ugh,” Zea growled.

  “Sultry?” Eve asked with a wide grin.

  “Yeah,” Zea admitted. “I could never pull off that dress. You could, Eve.”

  “Not as well as her.” The vampire shrugged, and they both turned to me.

  “No comment.” I had to shake my head to clear my thoughts, and then I sat back in my chair.

  “Righttttt,” Zea chuckled as she moved to her control chair. “I should tell her no just to piss her off.”

  “That is not like you,” Eve said as she sat next to me.

  “Yeah, but I want to
be a bitch sometimes. I can’t help but feel that Sivaha would tell me no if I was in her position.”

  “She might.” Eve shrugged, “but she is changing. She realizes who is the most powerful of Adam’s women.”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked.

  “I am speaking of Zea,” Eve said as she gestured to the hacker.

  “Huh?” Zea looked confused.

  “You were right. You once told Adam that the only person keeping this ship from turning into an orgy was you. I would not mind other women sharing our bed. Neither would Madalena. Paula and Kasta would want to be invited, and will not complain about the circumstances. The only two women who wish to possess Adam are you and Sivaha.”

  “Hey, look,” Zea said as she sighed and rolled her eyes again. “No more making me feel like I’m the fucking weird one here. There is nothing normal about one guy and four women. I’ve already made concessions. I love you, and I was fine with the three of us, but then Madalena came and I had to readjust. Now Sivaha is in the mix, and I don’t know what either of you wants from me.”

  “Zea, it isn’t like that.”

  “Bullshit,” she moaned. “I’m the fucking party pooper, but hey. I’m still here, and I still love both of you.”

  The three of us were silent for a few moments, and then Zea let out a laugh that surprised me.

  “What--”

  “I’m just thinking about when I first met both of you,” she interrupted me. “I was pretty sure I was going to get killed because Elaka Nota had found me out and was hunting for all of us. That’s why I decided to help. The both of you seemed like my only option. Now look at us. We are arguing about how many wives Adam should have.”

  “We are not actually arguing,” Eve pointed out.

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Zea said as she looked at me. “I’m the one arguing. Anyways. Part of me doesn’t want to give Sivaha any time alone with you, then part of me remembers the few days we spent together on Queen’s Hat when Eve was Juliette’s prisoner. I was already in love with you, but that sealed the deal for sure.”

  “Sounds like both parts of you are saying no,” I replied. “And it doesn’t really matter since I’m the one making the decision about it.”

  “Yeah,” Zea said. “Probably for the best if she doesn’t go with you.” The hacker crossed her arms, bit her lip, and then looked at Eve. The two women stared at each other for a few moments, and then Zea turned back to her controls.

  “Where is Nikki?” Zea asked. “In the training room? That is normally where she is when she isn’t sitting in the pilot’s seat.”

  “I gave her the rest of the day off,” I said. “You are going to dock us at Ganymede.”

  “Oh,” she said as her mouth opened. “I dunno if I’m--”

  “You’ll do fine,” I said. “I’ve seen you studying what Nikki is doing. I know you didn’t think highly of your piloting skill, but you got us through a ton of shit before Madalena’s crew joined us.”

  “Alright,” Zea said as a bit of red came to her cheeks. Then she cracked her knuckles, rolled her slender shoulders and began to run her fingers over the controls. “We’ve got thirty-two minutes until we are out of warpdrive. What are your orders, Captain?”

  “Call the bridge crew up,” I said. “Jupiter space should be peaceful, but I want everyone at battle stations.”

  “Got it,” the hacker said, and then she leaned down toward the transponder system. “Madalena, Sivaha, Paula, Kasta, Lux, Mikhael, Josefinna, Milda, Calisto, Hegeia, Uma, and Waiola, please report to the bridge. We are exiting warpdrive in thirty minutes.”

  “Was that a ship-wide announcement?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” Zea replied, “but the rooms that Yu and your sister are in are muted. They have no idea what the fuck is happening right now, and Kasta has guard drones in front of each door.”

  “Good,” I said. “Call Kuroda up also.”

  “Got it,” she replied, and then she called the dragon-shifter up to the bridge.

  Kuroda was actually the first one to arrive, and I half expected the strange man to approach me at the head of the bridge and ask for a new assignment, but the man just gave me a stoic nod and then sat down at the gunner’s station I had assigned him earlier.

  “Hey Zea, where are Kuroda’s wives staying?” I asked.

  “They each have a room on the second floor,” she said. “I forget which rooms; I think they are on the opposite side of Paula and Kasta’s.

  Lux, Madalena, and Sivaha were next on the bridge, and I motioned for the black-haired woman to come to me.

  “Yes, Adam,” Lux asked as the three Nordar woman stood around me.

  “I want you to train the four women Kuroda brought on board. Not now, but I want them ready by the next time we have to engage an enemy in combat.”

  “It will be done,” she said. Then I nodded to dismiss her, and the valkyrie spun with a whip of her twin pigtails. The rest of the crew had filled in their seats, and I moved to take my seat along with Sivaha and Madalena.

  “Alright crew,” I said loud enough for everyone on the bridge to hear me. “Shortly, we will exit warpdrive and be in Jupiter Navy space. We might receive communication from one of the sentry ships, or we might miss them and be able to communicate directly with the harbors on Ganymede. This should be an easy few days of shore leave, but we tend to be unlucky, so anything can happen. We are here to find my mother and then bring her onboard. Any questions?”

  “What about the yakuza?” Sivaha asked, but her voice was low enough so that I thought only Madalena heard her.

  “I have not decided,” I said, and the silver-haired woman frowned.

  “Alright, everyone prepare to exit warpdrive,” I said, and the bridge grew silent.

  I closed my eyes and recalled my last memories of my home. I hadn’t particularly enjoyed the work with the yakuza, but I had been excellent at it. Most of the time, they didn’t even need me to do anything but stand around and look mean while the various bosses negotiated with the other gang lords, but sometimes they called for someone who could break bones and shoot firearms.

  When I first started working for them, they had asked me if there was anything I didn’t want to do. I told them that I didn’t want to hurt or kill kids, women, dogs, or men who hadn’t fucked with us first, and they honored my wishes.

  I knew that other diabolical shit happened in the organization, but I didn’t put my nose where it didn’t belong. I just did what they told me to do, and they paid me enough money to help take care of Hanekawa’s illness.

  I didn’t want to believe we were really these tiger aliens. I didn’t want to believe I went into the Jupiter Marines because I was naturally violent. I didn’t want to believe Yu could have fixed me right from the start and that I’d wasted all that time in the yakuza or in jail.

  I didn’t want to believe that I wasn’t human.

  What did that mean for Madalena, Eve, and Zea? I remembered Sivaha asking what kind of children she would bear me, and I hadn’t been able to give her an answer. I’d only had unprotected sex with my three lovers. I’d climaxed inside of them countless times, and I’d never asked them what kind of birth control they were on.

  I am not using birth control, Adam. Nor is Madalena since she desires your child. Zea is, though.

  I didn’t open my eyes to look at Eve, but I wondered why she wasn’t using it.

  You know why, my love. I want more love in my life, and a child from you would be a blessing I have prayed for. It is funny how life works. Once upon a time I just wanted to be free from my prison. Then I wanted to help others. Then I wanted love. Now I want to feel a life growing inside of my womb. I am selfish, since we do not know how the battle with the SAVO will go, but I crave the circle of life that I must subconsciously know I will never have.

  I turned to her and opened my eyes, but the dark-haired beauty just gave me a sad smile.

  The scientists said that the work they did on my DNA made me st
erile. I had hoped that they were wrong, hence why I am not using birth control.

  I sighed and nodded at her. Then I noticed Zea’s head was turned toward us, she must have guessed that we were talking to each other, and her lips twisted to the side with annoyance.

  Madalena must have felt my sadness, since I felt her fingers close over my left hand, and I turned to see the worry on her face.

  “It’s fine,” I whispered. “Just thinking about my mother.”

  “I understand,” Madalena said, and I knew that she did. Her mother had been submitted to her father, and she died when I killed the man.

  “Five minutes,” Zea said, and the bridge grew quiet. I was left to my own thoughts again, and I wondered if my home had changed a lot in the three or four-ish years since I had been there.

  “Exiting warpdrive in ten, nine, eight, seven…” Zea’s voice continued as she danced her fingers over the controls at her seat. As soon as she reached the end of her countdown, Persephone’s screen shifted out of blackness, and Jupiter came into view.

  The red and cream colored gas giant spun with a slow and methodical intensity. I recalled the red eye staring at me in my dream, but the actual planet was all sorts of beautiful.

  “Wow,” Zea said with a whistle. “I’ve never seen it before. Well, I’ve seen pictures, but damn. Those cream rings make it look like an expensive bowl of ice cream.”

  “Or creamy coffee,” Paula said.

  We stared at the planet in silence for a few moments, and then Zea shook her head and glanced over at her controls.

  “We are on course for Ganymede,” she said. “I put us on the front arch of its rotation, and in a spot that wouldn’t put us in the way of the other moons. It will take us three minutes to get there-- Oh, they are sending us communication. Do you want to answer it?”

  “You can take it,” I said, “but put it on speaker. We want to land in City Four. Spaceport doesn’t matter, but the Atlantic Sector is the nicest area of the city.”

  “Greetings, Ganymede,” Zea said. “This is Persephone.”

  “Greetings, Persephone,” the female traffic controller said. “It looks like you are on course to land.”

  “Yes,” Zea said. “We’d like to land in City Four, Atlantic Sector. We have rhodium to trade.”