The Ithaden’s Slave

by Daniella Wright

  “You will be comfortable in there; your previous settings are still on I believe. There’s also a 3D printer for clothes in the chamber, so you can make some new, clean apparel to wear. When you’re ready, simply ping me on your wrist terminal and I will come to escort you to break your fast. Okay, Kate Stoltz?”

  Kate opened wider the door to her private “cleansing chamber”, her curiosity turning to awe. The place looked like a luxurious spa. Just how big was this spaceship? Yup, she would definitely be comfortable there.

  “Okay Ror, thank you. See you in a while.”

  And with that, she entered her private spa and closed the door behind her.

  Kate couldn’t even remember the last time she soaked in a proper hot tub. At her Wall Street apartment, all that could fit was a small shower and taking a bath at her parents’ bathtub meant having to endure one of Margot’s lectures about wasting such a precious environmental resource as water. But this, this was glorious. The round hot tub dominated most of the room and, after mere minutes, Kate found herself floating in the bubbly, pleasantly warm waters. Her whole body relaxed, her eyes closed. She could definitely fall asleep here, if it weren’t for her desperate need to eat something soon… and her slightly more desperate need to see Sid again.

  Ah, Sid. Kate allowed herself to replay that kiss once more in her head, part of her still marvelling at how she could find a green-scaled alien being so attractive. She instinctively knew this wasn’t their first kiss, and she truly hoped it wouldn’t be their last. While on that particular trail of thought, Kate couldn’t help but wonder what else had happened between them. Had they slept together? Given their chemistry, it wasn’t that hard to believe. Perhaps they’d even been in this hot tub together… Just the idea, made Kate flush with longing. The thought of Sid being there with her, caressing her body… Kate wrapped her arms around herself, thinking how exquisite that would be. And then, her hands found her belly and suddenly all giddy thoughts came to a halt.

  There was a child in there. A child that didn’t show yet, but it was there in her belly alright. What would it look like, anyway? Kate had only seen two Ithaden so far, after her mind wipe at least, and apart from the fact that they both had scales, two arms and two legs, they didn’t seem to have a big resemblance to one another. She sincerely hoped her child didn’t have pink eyes like Ror’s, that little he or she would look more like Sid instead…

  Suddenly angry at how corny her own thoughts had become, Kate slipped out of the hot tub. She wrapped herself snugly in one of the bathrobes hanging on the wall and headed toward the 3D printer bench Ror had pointed out. She placed her right palm on the tablet that was mounted on the wall next to the bench. It sprang to life with a beeping sound, followed by a robotic voice that spoke in Ithaden:

  “User, Kate Stoltz. To print based on your previous specifications, place your palm here. To change your settings, please use your wrist terminal.” Kate had no idea how to change her settings, or what her settings were to begin with.

  “I guess I’ll have to go with previous specifications. I do hope pre-memory wipe Kate had a decent fashion sense,” she mused while placing her palm on the machine.

  Walking at the corridor with Ror a while later, she couldn’t help but applaud her former self. Her clothes were made for comfort and function, but still looked good on her: a pair of black leggings made from a fabric that seemed to be always adapting to the temperature, keeping her warm enough but not too warm; a silver long-sleeved blouse that became flowy at the waist, its texture for all intents and purposes resembling Ithaden scales; a pair of black ballerina flats spun with Ith, that took the shape of her feet right away. Ror was particularly pleased with her shoes.

  “A sensible choice,” he said, pointing to them as they were heading toward the common eating space. “See, that black fabric, like your leggings, will make sure that your blood circulation is optimal, which can be very important if you have a long shift. And in the unlikely case something hits us and we have a support system malfunction, the Ith threads will mimic 1G conditions, keeping your feet on the floor like gravity boots.”

  That was a lot of new information for Kate to digest, so she decided to wait until they sat down at the, well, spaceship cafeteria. As expected, there were more benches with 3D printing terminals. Ror took her to a corner were a human table was set up, with chairs made from wood. He pulled Kate’s chair for her and, after she was seated, he straddled the chair that was across from her at the table.

  “Shall I print us your usual?” he asked. She nodded, without asking what her usual was. She had an inkling that the previous Kate knew what she wanted better than the Kate of now ever did.

  To be sure, breakfast didn’t disappoint. Kate devoured her poached eggs and avocado toast and gulped copious amounts of orange juice before remembering all the questions she had for Ror. Finally, her brain caught up with her stomach.

  “Ror, you mentioned taking a long shift. What was I doing, when I was here before? And how long was I here for?”

  Ror, now finishing his own eggs, seemed delighted to fill in the gaps in her memory. Apparently Kate had spent about 4,5 months on the ship, during which time not only had she learned the language, but also how to work most of the engines and pilot the whole thing.

  “You weren’t a great pilot, between you and me. But Sidanav was very proud of you, you learned very fast. And on the spirit of being fair, you were actually quite the decent mechanic.” Kate had to feel a surge of pride at that. Even as a kid, she was handy with a screwdriver, at least according to her dad.

  “So I was working throughout, then? There were no problems with…with my pregnancy?” Kate asked, while sipping the last of her orange juice.

  Ror’s usually white cheeks turned a very pale pink, almost matching his eyes. Kate didn’t need an Ithaden social dictionary to understand that the question made him feel uncomfortable. “I’m sorry if this is a weird or disrespectful question to ask. I don’t know how your society works or, at least, I don’t remember. I’m just trying to establish a timeline here because I was told on Earth I had been pregnant for 12 weeks.”

  Ror’s cheeks returned to their normal milky color. “No offence taken, Kate Stoltz. It’s simply that the Captain warned me not to make you angry or frustrate you, and that seemed like a subject with a high probability to do both. But I understand, you want to work the numbers, you and I were always alike like that.”

  He flashed a smile filled with long, sharp teeth, teeth that in any other face would look terrifying. Ror somehow made them look cute, funny even.

  He explained to her that the Ithaden gestation period is much slower than the human one. And given the rarity of a bi-species pregnancy, the calculated time her body would need to fully form the child was 15 months, more if the fetus had been harmed in any way and had to regenerate. Kate felt a pang of guilt at that, but she let it be. She had no way of knowing back then, that it was a child she wanted to keep. But things made much more sense now: why that pregnancy test came out negative, why Sid told her that she should stay there for a year until she gave birth when they first met yesterday…

  Thinking of Sid made Kate anxious again. She wondered if he was done, ahem, extracting the truth from the rest of his crew (hopefully everyone was in one piece). And then she wondered if he was thinking of her, of their kiss. Absent-mindedly she caressed her blouse, thinking of how it resembled his scales.

  “Ror, what does the word Ith-rassil mean?” It was something that nagged at her, the phrase Sid kept using to address her. She seemed to understand the Ithaden language but that phrase somehow felt untranslatable… and yet familiar. Ror almost choked on his food.

  “This is not for me to say, Kate Stoltz. You should ask Sidanav, please.”

  For a while, there was an awkward silence at the table. Kate was lost in her thoughts, Ror was wolfing down a second helping of eggs on toast, seemingly more comfortable chewing than talking. And then, a beeping sound on both their wrist
terminals jolted them back to reality.

  It was a voice com from Sid, asking them both to kindly report to the bridge. He had a new plan, he said, that had to be discussed with the whole crew. Kate’s heart sunk a little: she was hoping to see him in private. But as Ror gleefully got up from the table and urged her to follow him, she realized that this was probably her life before. A decent mechanic on an alien spaceship, surrounded by people who appreciated her and a Captain who, perhaps, when they were all alone, did way more than that.

  Kate had never seen so many aliens before. Huh, that probably wasn’t true, she corrected herself. She simply couldn’t recall seeing so many aliens before. Sitting on one of the chairs in what turned out to be the main bridge (apparently the room they’d used for their jump to the end of the Earth was just “the small, two-people time-shuttle”), Kate realized that all of Sid’s crew were Ithaden like him. She didn’t know why, but this seemed a bit weird to her. The few sci-fi shows she’d watched back in the day all had diverse crews, with aliens from different races… Well, now it looked like Kate was the one amping the diversity factor here.

  To be fair, they may all had been Ithaden but they came in all sizes and colors. There was milky white Ror (or Rorrasan, as was his whole name), standing tall and lean at her side, eager to re-familiarize her with the rest. At the corner on the right was Berranav, a good head shorter than Sid but even more bulkier and very dangerous looking, with black beady eyes like beetles and scales the color of golden sand. Next to him was Xuff, a svelte Ithaden with black and white scales that seemed to be moving in flowing patterns all over her body. Kate didn’t know how she knew, but she was sure Xuff was a ‘she’...

  Kate’s eyes kept taking in the room. At the far end of it, near a console, there were a couple of mud colored Ithaden who looked almost identical to one another. As Ror informed her, everyone addressed these guys as “Mech1” and “Mech2”, monikers she herself had given them in the past while struggling to tell them apart. Apparently the rest of the crew found it funny and so their nicknames stuck. Kate waved at them, a bit awkwardly.

  Last on the list of crew members was an aloof grey Ithaden, sitting close to the entrance. No, not grey: their scales somehow changed color the same way a chameleon does.

  “That’s Theth. You may feel slightly dizzy as she comes near,” Ror whispered.

  Indeed, once Theth approached Kate, some of the Ithaden’s scales became golden like her hair; some turned the palest of pinks like her skin; some silver and black like the color of her clothes. It was dizzying to say the least but, as Ror was quick to add, it was meant as a courtesy. So Kate nodded graciously to the color-shifting alien and turned her focus to the center of the room.

  Ah, there he was. Sid. The only one with such a rich, green hue on his scales; the only one with such human-like, blue eyes… And the only one fully clothed in human attire, Kate realized. Just like when she met him, he wore a figure-hugging t-shirt and soft, long trousers that allowed him to move gracefully despite his strong build. Being human and usually clothed herself, Kate had taken his appearance for granted — but she was seeing now that it wasn’t the norm. Ror and the mechanics wore knee-length black trousers (seemingly made from the same material as her leggings) and a wealth of weird jewelry, from piercings to bracelets and rings. Berranav wore something that looked like a golden dress… no wait, it was actually more like a medieval-style chainmail made from Ith. Such a weird choice for an outfit! But then again, Xuff and Theth only wore their swirly scales, making it impossible to stare at either of them for long without getting dizzy…

  Kate wondered whether Sid’s mundane choice of clothing had anything to do with her. Was he trying to make her feel more at home in this bizarre ship? She smiled at him, shyly. She realized she had no idea how she was supposed to behave toward him in front of his whole crew… Plus, she was never partial to public displays of affection (at least that’s what she used to tell her dates). So she opted to just say nothing, for now. He seemed to be in the middle of addressing the team anyway.

  “Now that all of us are here,” Sid said in Ithaden acknowledging Kate and Ror’s arrival with a nod, “let’s go through what our next steps should be. As all of you are aware by now, there are worries of a breech within the Time Agency. Thankfully, it has become clear to me after our earlier debriefings,” Sid paused for a moment, looking at his crew with what seemed to be a weird mix of embarrassment and pride, “that our team has not been compromised. I am proud to serve among friends.”

  Kate found herself breathing a sigh of relief. Both because she didn’t like the idea of Sid being angry and possibly violent (she could only imagine how outraged he would be if he felt betrayed by one of his ‘friends’ as he just called them) and because, well, being the only human among aliens was disconcerting enough. She didn’t want to also have to worry whether these aliens could be trusted or whether they were secretly plotting to harm her baby.

  Her baby… Like a reflex, her hand almost went to touch her belly — but she disguised the silly motion by tugging at the sleeve of her other arm instead. This wasn’t the time to get sentimental. Getting a hold of herself, she tried to pay closer attention to what Sid was saying. Some of the Ithaden words he was using seemed to elude her but, thankfully, Ror next to her was more than happy to point out that her wrist terminal had a built-in, real-time translator. With a tap, she activated it.

  Sid’s plan was to go back home. His home, that is: the Ithaden capital, where the Time Agency was based in his native timeline. He was well aware that the risk factors to this plan were literally unknown, as consulting any timelines would potentially tip off anyone at the Agency that may have been compromised, or worse, collaborating with the Xerrks. The team would be marching forth blindly, so to speak. And yet, it was the only way to find out who imposed the Quantum Lock on 2019 Earth and perhaps, well, reason with them. Sid wanted to believe that it was a mistake on his co-Agents behalf, an oversight.

  Seems like the Agency was always swamped with anomalous issues. They may be based in the Ithaden capital, but the Time Agency was more like a United Nations organization: usually impartial and working toward the good of the whole Universe, not just their home planet. That was admirable, but it also made them a little apathetic at times. But surely, Sid went on, if someone was to explain the ramifications of this Lock and how it almost prohibited the Third Sun prophecy from happening, the Time Agency would see their mistake. They all wanted the good of the Ithaden after all, especially if it coincided with the good of the Universe.

  Ithaden had great poker faces, Kate was beginning to realize. With the exception of Ror, whose cheeks seemed to turn pink whenever he was feeling embarrassed or self-conscious (something that seemed to happen a lot), it was impossible for Kate to tell how the rest of the crew was feeling about Sid’s plan. At least it was impossible until Xuff spoke.

  “Captain, like you I am also trained to think more aggressively than analytically. Neither of us likes to play it safe,” the female Ithaden said, in a tone that made Kate think something more than battle strategies was being implied. Sid seemed to ignore the innuendo, if indeed that was what it was. “That’s why your suggested course of action makes me wonder,” Xuff continued. “If we believe the Quantum Lock to be a non-malicious oversight on the Agency’s behalf, why travel all the way there to tell them? Why not just message them, or read the probability lines so that they can see our concern? That way we could save our fuel, which we just replenished I might add, for trips that can bring more glory or that are indeed unavoidable…”

  “Combat General Xuff,” Sid cut her short. His tone was firm but not disrespectful. “I understand your frustration with this plan. Traveling blind when we can just communicate first, seems overly cautious and costly to our resources. But given the magnitude of what’s at stake here,” he continued, shooting Kate a brief but warm glance, “I am willing to be overly cautious. Even if it means risking the Time Agency reprimanding us for the, to q
uote you, ‘avoidable trip,’” Sid concluded, his gaze back to the Ithaden. If Combat General Xuff had any further objections, she clearly elected not to voice them.

  After some prolonged planning on the optimal time to jump in order to arrive undetected by the Agency, the meeting seemed to be adjourned. Kate lingered awkwardly for a bit, waiting to see if Sid would come to talk to her. Then she remembered how focused she used to be back in her Wall Street days, when working at the firm. She certainly wouldn’t appreciate it if somebody was trying to chit-chat, let alone flirt with her. So she decided not to be that person. No, she would be useful instead. Taking a big, centering breath, Kate marched toward the two mechanics. They seemed genuinely pleased to see her.

  “Hi, you two. I am led to believe I used to be part of the mechanic team here? As you probably know I don’t remember much, but if you point me to simple tasks I’d love to help out to the best of my abilities.”

  Several hours later, Kate was lounging on the green couch back in Sid’s quarters. Sid wasn’t there, but his rococo couch was by far the comfiest piece of furniture in the whole ship and Kate craved some comfort at the moment. Plus, as far as Ror had told her, none of the crew had quarters of their own apart from the Captain (even the notion of having his own room seemed to confuse the good alien).