by J. Naomi Ay
Thad and I were struck dumb. She did have magnificent breasts, a beautifully flat belly and only a tiny tuft of dark hair to cover her womanhood. I stared at her unabashedly and it did occur to me that I was not the only one enjoying the sight before my eyes. In the very next moment though, Katie returned.
“What the ..?” she shrieked.
“Listen, Lord Dickon,” I heard Senya interrupt Dickon's droning speech. “I've got to ring off now. Bit of a drama going on in my office. Will you ring Kinar tomorrow and schedule another time for us to chat, yes?”
“Yes, yes of course, Your Royal Highness,” Dickon stuttered as the vid went blank.
“Who the hell are you?” Katie demanded, confronting Leesa.
“I'm his mistress,” Leesa shouted back and pointed at Senya.
“You're what?” I gasped.
Senya's silver eyes flew open as he raised his hands innocently. “Not mine,” he said.
“What the hell did she say?” Katie turned to me, looking for a translation.
“Uh,” I responded.
“Uh,” Thad said.
“Yes, I am,” Leesa declared. “Tell her who I am. You owe me.” She leaned over Senya’s desk, her great breasts falling forward like pendulums. “I saved you and now you owe me.”
“What is she saying?” Katie practically screamed. “What did she say and what the hell is she doing standing here buck naked?”
“I'm going to be your mistress,” Leesa cried, running around the desk. Instantly, Katie moved and Leesa tripped, flying face down onto the plush oriental carpet. She let out a squawk and tried to rise but Katie planted a foot in the middle of her back and kept her pinned to the floor.
“Who the hell is this woman and what the hell is she doing here?” Katie looked at each one of us. Leesa struggled to pull Katie's foot off her back but then Katie knelt and grabbed Leesa's wrists. “Somebody tell her to cut it out or I'm seriously going to hurt her.”
“Leesa,” I said as calmly as I could. “Don't fight the MaKani.”
"She doesn't deserve to be the MaKani!" Leesa screeched. "I do!"
"Don't fight, Leesa," Thad warned. "You can't win."
Leesa, apparently taking Thad’s advice, decided to go limp. Katie waited for a moment and then released her. She walked around the desk to Senya.
"What the hell is this woman doing naked in your office?" she demanded.
“I don't know,” Senya shrugged innocently and raised his beer bottle. “I was on the vid with Dickon.”
“She's naked!” Katie reiterated as Leesa rose to her feet.
“I didn't know that,” Senya replied and showed us his glasses sitting innocently on his desk, holding down a stack of papers.
“Like hell you didn't,” Katie snapped.
Just then Leesa roared and charged Katie like a bull. Katie was knocked off balance briefly but in a blink of an eye, she whipped back around, leapt into the air and with her foot, knocked Leesa on the side of her head. Leesa fell backward and landed again on the floor. Katie pounced on her again.
“Listen, toots,” she growled. “You get your tight little ass out of here right now and I'll let you stay in one piece.”
“This is more fun than the football game,” Senya remarked, taking a swig from his bottle of beer.
“Girl on girl action,” Thad shrugged and popped the top on his own bottle.
“Leesa, you need to leave,” I ordered as Leesa stopped struggling and burst into tears.
“He doesn't belong to you,” she wept. “He belongs to all of us.”
“This again,” Senya sighed.
“Does she work for SdK?” Katie still pinning Leesa down, looked to me.
“Uh, yes,” I replied.
“Well, tell her she's fired!” Katie jumped up, releasing Leesa. “Fruph!” The big Andorian lumbered into the office and raised his white eyebrows so high they almost disappeared. “Get her out of here and back to whatever rock she crawled out from under.”
“Confine her to her room tonight,” I added to Fruph. “Tomorrow we are going back to Mishnah. Leesa, the MaKani says you are fired.”
“No!” Leesa cried. “No, please! Sir? Your Royal Highness?” She made a move toward Senya again but Fruph grabbed her by the waist and carried her out. “Lord Berkan!” she yelled. “Please don’t fire me, Lord Berkan!” Her voice carried for some length down the hall.
“Where are those hot wings?” Thad asked and started digging through the trays.
Katie turned on Senya. “What do you have to say for yourself?” she demanded.
“I'm innocent?”
“The hell you are!”
“That's enough,” Senya snapped. He got up and headed over to the couch. The vid clicked on and the football game came into view. It was nearly the end of the first quarter and the score was zero zero.
“I'm going to bed.” Katie turned on heel and left. “Alone. Again. Enjoy your evening, gentlemen.” She disappeared for a moment into Kinar's office and then turning back around, she came in again. “Obviously, this game is far more important to you than talking to me. Obviously, watching this game with your posse is far more important than spending any sort of time with me. After all, what am I, just your milk cow, here to feed your heir.”
“Katie,” Senya sighed.
“Maybe we should leave,” I suggested. “Thad, would you like to watch the game in my suite?”
“This is better entertainment than the game,” Thad chuckled dipping about twenty wings in a white sauce and stuffing them into his mouth. “Let's stay here. Are you going to take out Ron now too, Katie?”
“I'm tempted,” Katie growled and glared at Senya.
“We can pause the game for a bit if you two want to talk privately,” I suggested, getting to my feet. “Come on, Thad, let's take a walk.”
Thad whistled through his teeth. “I don't think it's safe to leave Ron alone with her Berk. She's a full captain now and she's got lethal feet.”
“She is lethal in a few other places too,” Senya remarked while opening a new bottle of beer and taking a long pull.
“You're damn right,” Katie spat. “I don't know why you have to sit here when we all know those stupid Ravens are going to lose again anyway.”
“That's probably true,” I muttered, sitting back down.
Senya drained the bottle. “I'm sorry, Kate. I've been a little busy lately and so have you.”
“Right.” Thad lifted his own bottle in agreement. “It's your fault, Captain. It's not like he's had an entire planet, an interplanetary corporation on four different planets, and his own surgery schedule to attend to. You're just too preoccupied with your baby and your ship to fit him in the five minutes a week that he has available for you.”
“Shut up, Thad,” I warned.
“No, Thad is right,” Senya said, pulling himself to his feet. “You guys can stay and watch the game in here if you like. Come on, Kate.”
“No, forget it!” she growled. “Stay here. I'm going to bed alone. Your five minutes are up. Watch the game, that's obviously what you would prefer to do.”
“No, I'd rather fuck you actually.”
“Well I don't want to. I want to talk to you.”
“No, you want to fuck. You just don't want to admit it in front of Thad and Berkan.” He grabbed her hand.
“I'm not sure I'm healed.”
“You are healed. You're ready and right now, I am very ready.” He picked her up.
“Stop it,” she squealed. “We need to talk. We've hardly spoken in ten months.”
“First we'll fuck and then we'll sleep,” Senya replied, carrying her out the door. “I've hardly slept in ten months.”
“And when are we going to talk?”
“You can talk while I am sleeping.” The door shut behind them.
“I like that,” Thad chuckled, tossing a handful of egg rolls into this mouth. “I wonder if Gina will fall for that?”
“Ach, Thad,” I sighed and pullin
g out my cell, I sent a quick note to Luci telling her how much I loved her and missed her. Then I dove into the little egg roll things too and turned my attention to the football game.
Chapter 20
Shelly
“Oh, give him to me!” I cried as Katie walked in the door. Carefully, so as not to wake the baby, she handed him to me and carefully, so as not to wake the baby, I covered his soft downy head with a million kisses. I loved having a baby to hold again. I loved that sweet milky, powdery smell of him and that adorable toothless smile. I sat down behind my desk with his little head lying upon my shoulder and his little bottom tucked into the crook of my arm.
“Is he in?” Katie nodded toward Ron's office.
“Surgery,” I mouthed so as not to wake the baby. “Should be done soon.”
Katie nodded. “Did Tim call you?”
“Nope. Why? Is something going on?”
“Yeah,” Katie replied and frowned. “Something weird has entered the solar system and it’s orbiting us.”
“What weird?” I said, my heart skipping a beat. I hated weird things. The baby stirred and whimpered, feeling my sudden anxiety. I rubbed his little back until he settled down.
“It's like a cloud,” Katie explained. “But I'm sure it's nothing to worry about, Shelly. Anyway, I'm going to head back over to the base but I'll feel better if Steven stays here with you. Can you watch him for a while?” She held up his diaper bag. “There's a bottle in here for when he wakes up.”
“Absolutely, no problem at all,” I insisted. “I will feel better if he stayed here with me too instead of that nasty Spaceforce daycare. No, we don't like Spaceforce day care, do we, sweetheart?”
“Thanks a million,” Katie said, turning around to head out again when the door swished open.
“So then I told him that it wasn't going to work no matter how many times a day he shaved,” Janet was saying. Ron was smoking and clearly not interested in hearing about Janet’s latest, overly hairy, Altarian boyfriend.
“There you are,” Katie cried and grabbed Ron’s arm, pulling him out into the hallway. “Do you know what’s going on?”
“Oh, let me hold him for a minute!” Janet begged.
“Thirty seconds are all you get,” I said as Steven opened his bright blue eyes and yawned. He smiled at me, showing me his two little teeth and then patted my face. “Say hi Gramma Shelly. Hi Gramma Shelly,” I cooed.
There was a loud bang out in the hall and for a moment it felt like the building shook. Janet grabbed my arm and pulled the both of us toward the back office as the sound of gunshots filled the corridor right outside our door where Ron and Katie had gone. The next thing I heard was Katie screaming.
Chapter 21
Senya
It was just before 5 AM and his day had just begun. He left his car in his designated parking spot in the cool garage below the Admin building and headed over toward the hospital. His day, if and when it ever ended, would be in his Admin office in the center of the complex, so better to leave the Porsche there. He needed to walk a bit too. It would help him wake up. He had only had about two hours sleep which was about par for him right now. The heavy fog of fatigue hung over him like a blanket, so much so he had completely forgotten what it felt like to feel rested.
The walk was helping though. The early morning air was fresh and as cool as this planet ever seemed to get. He wanted coffee and considered waiting until he got to the hospital, getting a cup from the dispenser, feeling the heat of it in his hand. He wanted it now though and imagined it so hot it would burn his skin if splashed. Now it was here, materializing from his wish. He sipped it carefully and went in through the doors of the ER.
"Good Morning, Doctor!" A female voice called, native Rozarian, young, hopeful.
He mounted the stairs, bounding up them with surprising strength considering his weariness. It helped to wake him further, practically running up those six floors. This is why he avoided the lifts, he told himself, though in truth, he knew it was to avoid the other people who might be on the lift.
He considered his day as he climbed through his building. He would put on scrubs in his office, taking a last look at the notes before heading to the surgical suite for the 6AM cut. This would be the first of three he would do today. After that, around the noon hour, he would go to Engineering for a series of planning and review meetings and then, hopefully before 6PM, he would return to Admin where he would concentrate on SdK business.
Inevitably, Dickon or Kinar or Loman would interrupt. Depending on how late the evening went, he may or may not go home again. It didn't matter to him in either case. His wife wouldn't care. She was back at work now at Landbase Rozari and when she returned home, her attention was solely on her baby, without a passing thought for him.
He went through the doors of his medical office and to the closet where he kept his scrubs. Pulling off his t-shirt, he felt a twinge behind his eyes. It was starting again. How long had it been? Longer than last time? The twinge turned sharper and started pulsating.
"Kari-fa!" he said aloud and ran his fingers along his right wrist. The scab had healed. There was only a thin line of swollen pink skin, indicating about two weeks since his last bleeding. He didn't have time today. Not now anyway and he was trying to stretch it beyond two weeks. He hoped to get back to a month. He willed the pain to go away and for a moment it did, but then reappeared at the base of his skull. "Kari-fa!" he swore again. His skull pulsated. He rubbed his neck as best as he could. He must think of a way to fix this!
He took off his jeans and pulled on his scrub pants and then the booties, which would rip at the toes before he even made it down to the third floor surgery. Then he willed himself a fresh cup of coffee and a cigarette.
Leaving the confines of his office, he put the cig between his teeth and lit it with a flick of his finger. As soon as he did, he realized he had made a mistake. The cig was one of those vile filtered Mishnese ones that the Court insisted he smoke to preserve his health, as if they would make any difference. He was immune to lung cancer and he hated filtered cigs. They tasted like nothing. They did nothing for him.
He tossed it away, imagining its molecules dissembling in the air above him. He wanted a Camel, double menthol, and tried to remember where he had last encountered one. Every pack he had at home had been confiscated by Kinar or one of his staff. He scanned all of his offices, all of his desks and recalled a single pack, half empty in his Engineering desk, third drawer on the right. He held out his left hand and reached into that drawer for a single cig. Much better.
He inhaled the strong tobacco as he walked into the operating suite. It didn't kill his migraine but it did dull it a little, enough to get through this procedure. He had five more cigs in that pack now and could send someone out to the store for another case later in the day. He would send Susie. She was obedient and ignorant. She would get him whatever he asked, unlike Shelly who would argue and then lecture him on smoking. She would demand to know if he was allowed them and then refuse to purchase them, telling him she had forgotten.
By the time he left the surgery, it was nearly noon. He had finished four of the five Camel cigs, drank as many cups of coffee and his headache had receded to just a quiet throbbing in the back of his skull. Janet was walking with him, breathing heavily as she climbed the stairs, complaining about not using the lifts. He was not listening to her, his mind was already on his afternoon meetings and the call he would need to make to Berkan as soon as morning dawned in Mishnah. He wished he could have something to eat before then. He wished it was how it was before, when his wife would bring him lunch in a bag and they would eat together at his desk and then he could quickly fuck her before they both went back to work.
He thought about the sandwiches she would bring him and his mind wandered to the kitchen at their home, searching for tuna fish or egg salad in a bag with some mineral water and a sweet. He couldn't find anything there. There were neither sandwiches nor bags. The refrigerators were fil
led with concoctions created by the staff, all things he didn't like. His wife never cooked for him anymore. He had liked what she made. She knew what pleased him. Now nothing pleased him.
“So I told him,” Janet said. “He needs to shave more, even if it is three times a day. I can't handle a guy with all that hair. If he won't do it for me, then what else won't he do for me? You know what I mean? Ron?”
He nodded absently. At least he thought he nodded and then pulled out his cell. He called Susie and told her to fetch him a case of Camels.
“Sure, Doctor,” she said brightly. Her voice was always cheerful. He found it annoying. He did not like to speak to her too much, preferring to just email or text. He told her to fetch him a sandwich too. Bread with a meat. No cheese. No bird. Fish or beef.
“Mayo or mustard or both? Lettuce, tomato, pickles?” How could one be so pleased to do such a simple and inane task? Nothing. Just bread. Hard bread with meat. Not pork. Never pork. Kari-fa, he was hungry and tired. How difficult was it to fetch a sandwich?
“I realize that on his planet, that's considered fashionable.” Janet was still talking. Her voice was grating on him too.
They emerged from the top stairwell and rounded the corner to their offices. His wife was there. He could sense her from across the building. Her presence sent a bolt of electricity down his spine. She could do this to him. She turned her back to him when he came to their bed and she did not make him sandwiches but still she made his heart beat faster.
“There you are,” his wife said and grabbed his arm.
Shelly was there holding the baby, walking up and down in the office, making noises to him. Shelly loved the baby and still she loved him too. He wished his wife would love them both. He wanted to kiss her but her manner was hard and cold.
“Do you know what is going on?” his wife said, pulling him away from the door and further down the hall.
He listened. He searched her mind for that of which she was speaking. There was something in the sky, a dark cloud. Spaceforce was worried about this cloud, but they did not know yet what it was.
