by Judy Mays
Lifting the clothing that Lorilana had brought her, Brianna found a pair of brief panties that fit tolerably well, but nothing remotely resembling a bra. After pulling on a pair of loose-fitting green pants, she dropped the long, matching tunic over her head. Checking her reflection in the full-length mirror hanging beside the door, she was reasonably satisfied with her appearance.
The soft green color of her apparel complimented her auburn hair and green eyes. Draping gracefully over her breasts, the tunic hung well below her knees, but she certainly had the height to be complimented by the style. She frowned at her bare feet, but Lorilana had not provided shoes or stockings of any kind. Grabbing a comb and brush from a shelf next to the tub, she began the long process of comb-drying her hair.
A musical tone from the outer room caught her attention.
Still brushing the tangles from her hair, she returned to the other room.
The outer door slid open and Lorilana walked in. “My, what a difference a bath can make. You look positively radiant, my dear.”
Brianna continued to brush her hair without commenting.
“Princess Merilinlalissa from Mediria wants to be introduced to you,” Lorilana continued.
Before Brianna could reply, though, the door chimed again.
Lorilana motioned to the door. “The door will open only to Char’s and my palm scans,” she said. “Anyone else who wishes to enter must be admitted. To release the lock, simply push this panel.” She applied light pressure to a slight indentation and the door slid open.
A man stepped through the door, his eyes searching, memorizing every detail. After he’d thoroughly scanned the room, he concentrated on Brianna. His flat, hostile stare completely unnerved her, and she tripped backwards and collapsed onto the couch.
He wasn’t as tall as Char, but he was much broader. Muscles rippled on his bare chest and arms. His thighs bulged beneath a short kilt, and he wore sandals with straps wound around huge calf muscles. He carried no weapons, but he looked as if he didn’t need any. He was bald, with a prominent brow ridge jutting over deep-set, black eyes. His large nose looked more like a bird’s beak, while what was probably a very expressive mouth was drawn into a thin, stern line.
And, he was green—a deep, olive green!
Brianna was so shocked at his appearance that she didn’t notice the much slighter woman who followed him until she began to speak.
“Kahn likes to intimidate people when he first meets them, but he’s usually harmless.”
Lorilana snorted. “Harmless enough to break a man in two with his bare hands. Princess, this is Brianna Claire O’Shea. Brianna, Princess Merilinlalissa.”
“Her Royal Highness Lillalistross dem al’ Merilinlalissa, Princess Hardan,” interjected the green man’s gruff, gravelly voice.
The princess grimaced. “Go away, Kahn. You’re too intimidating, and there’s no one here to hurt me. You’ve been guarding the passageway all day.”
Grabbing his arm, she tried to tug him towards the doorway.
Cocking an eyebrow, he gently removed her hands from his arm. “Yes, Princess,” he replied. “I’ll be immediately outside.” Bowing, he turned and left the room. The door slid closed behind him.
“Fine figure of a man, isn’t he, Brianna? What musculature! And he’s hung like a Deslossian stud bull,” Lorilana said wistfully. “If I could only get him into my bed.”
Gawking, Brianna wrenched her head around to stare at Lorilana. The older woman seemed serious!
Brianna’s mind whirled. This can’t be real. I’m not on a spaceship. I’m in the twilight zone. No, I was in an accident and am lying in a coma, dreaming all of this!
The princess’ musical laughter drew Brianna’s attention back to her.
Brianna just stared. The princess was almost as tall as she was and built much the same way. Long, greenish-black hair cascaded down her back, reaching well below her knees. Her features were much more delicate than Kahn’s. Nor were there brow ridges above her dark eyes as there were on her huge guard. The princess could pass for human… if she weren’t the same color as a Granny Smith apple.
She gestured to Lorilana, “You may leave now, Doctor. Introductions have been properly performed, and I wish to know Brianna better.”
Lorilana’s eyebrows shot up in surprise at the dismissal, but she acquiesced gracefully. Nodding her head, she left the room.
After the door slid closed once more, the princess grinned at Brianna and burst into merry laughter. “Now that we’ve gotten rid of Lorilana, what would you like to know?” she asked as she flopped down onto the sofa. Picking up the brush, she started brushing Brianna’s hair. “Let me do that, I’m used to long hair. I brushed my sisters’ hair all the time back on Mediria.”
“Why? What?” Brianna stuttered as the princess pushed her around and started to work the tangles out of her hair. “You’re green! Oh! I beg your pardon. I mean…”
Sighing quite audibly, the princess stopped brushing her hair. Placing her hands on her shoulders, she turned Brianna to face her. “Everyone from Mediria is green, of one shade or another. And, please call me Meri. I’m sorry if I seemed overbearing, but it was all a sham. Lorilana’s a wonderful person. However, if I hadn’t ‘dismissed’ her, I’d never have been able to speak to you privately. I’m sure you have questions you want to ask and asking them of someone less alien-seeming will probably be more comfortable for you. From what Lorilana told me, we’re biologically the same except for skin color.” I’ll tell her about the gills later. The sooner she feels comfortable with someone, the better.
Hands clenched tightly in her lap, Brianna gazed solemnly at Meri for a few minutes. Then she smiled. The princess just might be the silver lining of the cloud she was under. “I think this is going to be the start of a beautiful friendship,” she said and held out her hand.
The princess stared at her hand uncertainly for a few minutes and then held out her own. When Brianna grasped it firmly and pumped it, the princess began to smile. “I do believe you’re right. Now, what would you like to know?”
* * * * *
Grumbling, Lorilana stalked into Command and collapsed into the chair next to Char’s.
“I thought you were introducing Meri to Brianna.”
“I did. Meri dismissed me.”
He grinned. “I didn’t know anyone could make you leave if you didn’t want to go. I know very well that you planned to monitor that meeting.”
“Why did Ademis have to marry a Hardan princess?” she said in a vexed tone.
He laughed outright. “Knowing our Meri, she planned to get rid of you at the outset.”
“Humph.”
“Put yourself in Brianna’s place. Wouldn’t you want the opportunity to question a seemingly neutral third party if you found yourself in similar circumstances? For all that she seems to be adapting well, she is, in essence, a prisoner.”
Lorilana leaned back with a thoughtful frown on her face. “You’re right, of course. Although from what I observed earlier, you seemed to have calmed her down.”
Char grinned devilishly. “She was anything but calm, Lori.”
“And judging by the way your tail was lashing when you left, you were not exactly levelheaded either.”
Still grinning, he asked, “Have you come to trade sexual innuendoes or is there something you wanted?”
“Will you ever learn, Char? I only have your best interests at heart.”
He snorted. “Only if they coincide with what you think are my best interests. Now, why are you here?”
“I’ve come to listen to their conversation, of course.”
One eyebrow cocked, he turned from the computer panel he was monitoring. “Do you really mean that?”
Lorilana had the good grace to show her embarrassment. “Yes… No… I don’t know. I’ve never been in a situation like this before. I feel that I have to know everything about Brianna to maximize our chances of success. We could fail, you know.”
&
nbsp; “No, Lori, we won’t fail. And we can’t monitor their conversation. That would put us on the same level as Bakom. Brianna is certainly as human as you and I. How can we treat her as anything less? And Meri would never forgive us. Do you want a Medirian assassin breathing down your neck?”
Lorilana snorted at Char’s comment. “Assassin indeed! As if the king of Mediria thinks I’m a threat to his family! Ha!” Then she sighed. “I just wish I could be so certain of success.”
“Go back to your quarters and relax. We need tonight’s dinner to be a success, and you’re too keyed up. Brianna must agree that marriage will be the only way to save everyone on her planet.”
“From what I observed,” she said dryly, “she won’t need much convincing.”
Char turned back to his console. When he refrained from commenting, Lorilana rose to leave.
“Very well. We’ll leave Brianna and Meri to themselves.”
She left Chardadon to the silence of his monitors… and his fantasies of Brianna.
* * * * *
“Was Lorilana really serious about having sex with your guard?”
“I don’t think so.” Meri resumed brushing Brianna’s hair. “Ademis told me that she and her husband are absolutely devoted to each other. While many married couples on Drakan are rather promiscuous, Lorilana and Dadon are not.”
Brianna grimaced. She was, for all intents and purposes, being forced to marry a Drakian. Isn’t that just Jim Dandy. I have to marry a man who won’t be faithful. But then, this is going to be a marriage in name only, right? Shivers raced up and down Brianna’s spine when she thought of Char’s kisses. Yeah, right.
“Brianna? Are you all right? Brianna?”
She shook free of her fantasies and glanced back at Meri. “Yeah, sure. Ah…why did you marry a Drakian if there’s no certainty of faithfulness?”
“Ademis won’t be unfaithful to me. We love each other too much. Besides, he wouldn’t want to upset the Medirian royal family. We make nasty enemies.”
Brianna snorted. “Lots of people say they’re in love but lie through their teeth.”
“Lie through their teeth?” A mental picture of a person lying between a set of teeth passed through Meri’s mind.
Noticing the perplexed look on Meri’s face, Brianna sighed. “Never mind.”
Meri put down the brush. Taking Brianna’s hand, she stood and pulled her towards the bedroom. “You’ll understand Drakan society better if you know how to operate the video monitor.”
Once in the bedroom, Brianna let Meri push her down onto Char’s huge bed. She walked over to the control panel next to the bathroom door. “This blue button controls the video screen. The range of entertainment is limited to what’s stored in the ship’s computers, but there is a full complement of historical programming for all human planets plus all others that have been explored or discovered. There’s probably some basic information about yours in here now.”
Brianna felt her spirits lift. “How do I turn it on?” Television! She could survive if she had TV. Now, if only they had shopping malls too.
Meri pushed the blue button. “The screen is voice activated. All you have to do is register your voice pattern, and the computer will run whichever program you select. This screen is like the one in my quarters, so I should be able to program your voice into it. There,” she said, “all you have to do is identify yourself to the computer.”
“How do I do that?”
“State your name and position.”
“What exactly is my position?”
Meri stared at Brianna for a moment and then smiled. “You’re the ambassadorial liaison from a newly discovered planet.”
A slow smile slide across Brianna’s lips. “Do planetary ambassadors in your Federation of Planets have diplomatic immunity?”
Meri’s grin was conspiratorial. “Of course they do.”
Brianna stepped to the computer terminal next to the video screen. “Brianna Claire O’Shea, Ambassadorial Liaison from the planet Earth to the Federation of Planets.”
“So witnessed and accepted as such by Lillalistross dem al’ Merilinlalissa, Princess Hardan, Ambassador at large for the planet Mediria.”
“Acknowledged and recorded,” affirmed the computer’s disembodied voice.
“That will put a definite kink into Bakom’s plans,” Meri commented smugly.
Brianna settled cross-legged on the edge of the bed. “Why does everybody hate this Bakom so much? Aside from the fact that I’m his next experiment, that is?”
Meri shivered. “Bakom’s evil, Brianna. He’ll stop at nothing to gain power first over his own planet and then over all others in the Federation. Three years ago, he kidnapped an Aradab girl from my planet. When confronted, he explained his actions away with his Tests of Humanity.”
“I thought the five known planets’ inhabitants were automatically classified as human.”
Meri belly-flopped onto the bed. “They are. I’m sure you noticed Kahn and I do not look very much alike.
After Brianna nodded, she continued, “Unlike Drakan, which has only one race of people, we have three major races on Mediria. My planet is almost 90 percent water with only one large landmass and numerous islands of varying sizes. Kahn’s people have lived only on land for generations and have lost some of their ability to breathe underwater. My race is the most populous of the three. We’re comfortable on both land and in water and are able to breathe in either environment. The members of the third race live almost exclusively in the water.”
“Are they green too?”
“Yes, but it’s such a dark green, they’re almost black. Other than their color, the Nessians, as they are called, look like my people.”
Brianna stared at Meri. “You can breathe underwater?”
Meri motioned Brianna closer as she pulled her hair back behind her head. “Every person on my planet has gills. Even the Aradab, Kahn’s people, have residual gills. Anyway, since the Aradab don’t look like my people and the Nessians, Bakom decided to test one of them. He kidnapped a nine-year-old girl, Kahn’s sister.”
“What happened?”
“Char’s family found out what Bakom was up to and rescued Paala. Char had Ademis bring her back to my father’s court. That was when I first met Ademis, by the way.”
“I imagine Kahn’s family was relieved.”
“My brother Davlalardrac took Paala home and returned with Kahn, Kahn’s youngest brother, and twenty cousins. They pledged themselves to my family’s service for all eternity,” Meri answered with a wry grimace. “You can’t believe how tiresome that can be. My father couldn’t convince them to go home. One of Kahn’s cousins has also accompanied me on this trip. They decided that it would be impossible for only one of them to stay awake the entire time I was off planet.”
“Was Bakom punished?”
“The Academy was censured on Mediria. Its members, with a few exceptions like Lorilana and her husband, are only allowed in certain sections of our capital city, and no member of the Academy is permitted anywhere near our planet without official clearance and an Aradab escort.”
“That doesn’t seem to be a very harsh punishment.”
“There wasn’t much else we could do without bringing public shame on Paala, but Kahn’s family exacted a much more subtle revenge.”
“Oh?”
Meri grinned. “They decided that Bakom would have his subject for the Tests.”
“What happened?”
“Kahn’s aunt volunteered to take the tests as long as they were videotaped for the benefit of the scientific community, were witnessed by scientists from both planets, and were personally administered by Bakom.”
“Did he agree?”
“If he hadn’t, my father was going to declare him outlaw and kidnapper on Mediria. Under our laws, any Medirian anywhere in the galaxy would have had the right to execute him. He didn’t want to spend the rest of his life looking over his shoulder.”
“What happened t
o Kahn’s aunt?”
Meri’s grin stretched from ear to ear. “You should ask what happened to Bakom. In most cases, any given drug will enhance an Aradab’s natural abilities in whatever physiological or psychological manner the drug is to affect them. Giving an aphrodisiac as powerful as mithrin to Kahn’s aunt was a huge mistake. She wore Bakom’s tail bloody!” Meri gloated. “It was six months before he healed.”
“And Kahn’s aunt?”
Meri rolled onto her back, a wide grin on her face. “After she’d finished with Bakom, she asked for a real man. No one had the courage to try.”
Laughing, Brianna fell back against the pillows.
After they both stopped laughing, Meri asked, “What do you want to know about Drakan?”
Propped against the pillows, Brianna asked, “How did they become hermaphroditic?”
“You can get the full story from the computer’s archives. Basically, however, about two thousand years ago, a plague swept across Drakan, killing almost three quarters of the total population. Very few of the survivors were male. Even back then, there was an Academy of Science. Its scientists convinced most of the population that the only chance for their species’ survival was if everyone became hermaphroditic. About three-quarters of the survivors agreed. Everyone who so chose underwent a series of operations when he or she reached consensual age. Those who chose not to do so remained either male or female. Hence, three sexes on Drakan.”
“Are children born hermaphroditic, or are the operations still required?”
Meri rolled back onto her stomach. “That’s the strangest thing about Drakians. They’re never quite sure what their children will be. Of course, a child with parents whose ancestors had never undergone the operations will be either male or female. It’s when the hermaphroditic and unaltered genes mingle that interesting things happen.”
Brianna sat up and propped her right elbow on her knee and rested her chin in her hand. “What do you mean?”
