by Cara Wylde
“What do you mean? My… err… masters… told me they didn’t know either.”
The young woman rolled her eyes. “Well, yes, it’s supposed to be a surprise for all the ship captains, but we girls gossip every time we get a chance. There are rumors…”
“About what? I don’t know anything. Back then, in the brig… that was the only time I met other pleasure slaves. You and Grace…”
Kaylee cocked an eyebrow. “Really? You’re not… joking?”
Avery shook her head vigorously.
“Your masters haven’t taken you to other meetings since then?”
“No,” she mouthed.
“That’s… strange. They kept you on the Hordaa all this time? Isolated? Oh my God, Poppy… I’m so sorry! That sounds awful!”
“No, not on the Hordaa. On Earth.”
The look on Kaylee’s face was one of utter shock.
“You’re… so lucky, then,” she whispered, looking down at her lap. “I haven’t been back to Earth since… he took me.” Her eyes flickered to Drav’s huge back. “I miss home so much.”
“Where is he keeping you?”
“Mostly, on the Lyare. But I’m pretty free to walk around if I want. He takes me with him to all his meetings, so I get to see the other four ships a few times a month. The Hordaa has such an amazing greenhouse! Drav showed it to me only once, but I will never forget it.”
Avery closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She had no idea the Kralian ship had a greenhouse on board.
“When did this happen?”
“Oh, I don’t know… about two weeks ago? Your masters were there, too… I remember I thought it was weird that you weren’t around, but I didn’t dare ask about you.”
For a moment, she wasn’t sure what to say to that. She couldn’t believe that the other ship captains didn’t allow their human slaves to see their own planet! She couldn’t even imagine being in their place, being a real slave… a woman kidnapped and taken to an alien ship, having to live the rest of her life surrounded by strangers with weird skin colors. Not that the skin color was the problem here…
“Yes, well…” she eventually said. “My masters are… different. They’re very involved in the work they do on Earth, and they force me to be around them all the time.” She pointed to the black leather collar around her neck. It was her invisibility collar, and Kryan and Aedar had come up with an idea of how to make it part of their plan. “No one knows I’m… in the position that I am in…” She made sure to hesitate and not call things by their name. She had to play her role and sound like she was suffering. “Sometimes, I have to act as if nothing is wrong, you know. I go to work, do my job… But then, there are days when my masters want me to follow them around as the slave that I am, so I use this invisibility collar. No one can see me, but I’m there. Following them around, waiting on them…” Okay, she had to stop. To her horror, Kaylee looked sad and empathetic. She hated it that she had to tell her a fake, lousy story, but she couldn’t tell her the truth now. It was not the time, nor the place.
“I’m so sorry, Poppy,” the redhead said softly. She looked at her with almost teary eyes. “I thought… When I saw you the first time and you said that nothing was what it seemed… I don’t know what I thought. Or… hoped… I… I got it all wrong.”
“No! You got it right!” Avery wanted to scream at her. Instead, she nodded and fixed her gaze on Aedar’s nape. She needed to ground herself. The first time she had the chance, she would tell Kaylee everything.
“So… what kind of rumors are going around?”
Before Kaylee could answer, the music stopped, and silence fell over the room. All the pleasure slaves on the floor straightened their backs, trying to see over the tables. Avery felt it, too. Something was happening. Someone was coming, finally joining the party, and the guests were more than curious to find out why they’d been summoned here with such pomp. Unfortunately, she couldn’t see a thing. She sighed and decided to try her luck with leaning forward on the floor and looking from under the table. A gasp left her lips when she saw tiny white feet in leather shoes walking toward the main table. She pressed her chest to the floor and looked up as best as she could. Sure enough, the cute white feet belonged to children. Human children. Or, at least, they looked human. Then, she saw these children were walking hand in hand with other children, and these kids didn’t look human at all. Their skin was either black, or pale blue, or dark green. There was even an ivory child. The more she stared at the show in front of her, the more confused she got. Apparently, they were opening the way for someone…
“Grace,” she whispered under her breath.
Unlike her and the other pleasure slaves, Grace wasn’t walking behind her master, Gorgan. She was walking beside him, and her tiny white hand disappeared in his big, green palm. As she walked toward the table, she did look at her feet, but she didn’t seem scared, nor humiliated. She was also wearing a beautiful white dress, which was very different from the garments she’d been wearing when Avery had met her some time ago. This was a normal dress. Long, rich, perfectly fitted to her body… So perfectly fitted that her round belly was more than obvious.
“Oh, no…”
Grace was pregnant.
For a few long moments, Avery seemed to lose herself in a torrent of thoughts and questions. She was vaguely aware that Kryan and Aedar had stood up, along with the other ship captains, and that the slaves around her were whispering and giggling, but she couldn’t focus on any of it. She was drowning. When she’d met Grace, the young woman had been devastated and depressed. She had spoken about how much she hated her master, and how awful her life was as his favorite. She wasn’t even allowed to wear normal clothes that would, actually, cover her. The woman who was walking next to Gorgan was not the Grace Avery knew. She was different. Changed. The pain in her eyes was gone. Her skin was… glowing.
Avery shook her head slowly and turned to Kaylee.
“What is happening? I… I don’t understand.”
Kaylee smiled. “So many things have changed since we last saw each other. Grace is happy. Since she found out she is pregnant, everything changed for her. Her master changed.”
Avery bit the inside of her cheek. Everyone around them was cheering and applauding, even some slaves, and she couldn’t make sense of Kaylee’s words. She’d heard her perfectly, but she felt like she was suddenly speaking a different language.
“Changed… how?” When Kaylee simply shrugged, she pressed on: “What about you? Have things changed for you?”
Kaylee gave her a mischievous smile. “You could say that.” Discreetly, she touched her flat belly, then looked up at Drav’s back.
The girl’s small gesture didn’t escape Avery. She blinked, opened her mouth to say something else, but then silence fell over the room for a second time, as Gorgan motioned for everyone to sit down and let him speak. Avery pressed her body to the floor again and struggled to catch a glimpse of the Valgan captain’s face. Unfortunately, he and Grace were too close to the table now, and she could barely see up to their waists. Grace’s baby bump caused an odd and unexpected mixture of contradictory emotions to flood Avery’s chest. Was she happy for her? She was going to have a child! That certainly was a thing to celebrate, right? On the other hand… Did she really want the baby? Had the decision belonged to her, or had she been forced into it? There was no way to know for sure… Avery would have to wait for the opportunity to talk to Grace and find out. Right now, it was impossible for her to make up her mind and settle on a single emotion. Joy, or grief? She’d have to leave it for now and decide later.
“Thank you all for joining us on the Swetho!” Gorgan started. “This is, truly, a special day for the Valgans. Well, it’s more special to me, but you all know I like to share everything with my people. The good, and the bad. Today, I want to share with you,” he motioned toward the table that was mostly occupied by green-skinned aliens, “and with all of you,” his hand
s moved to encompass the whole room, “the great news. I am going to be a father. Soon.” He paused for impact, then nodded toward the children who had stepped to the sides. “Since we discovered Terra, Valgans have been blessed with new life. There are two dozen Valgan children on the Swetho, and although we still have to catch up with our Cattalian friends, I dare say we’re on the right track.” He smiled. “We celebrate our children every day. They are the reason why we push forward, give this incredible chance we have all our best, and fight steadily and strategically to secure a home for them. A real home, not a spaceship. So, yes, today we are here to celebrate them. Not only our Valgan heirs, though, but also our Cattalian, Norgavian, and Minarian children.”
He looked at Kryan and Aedar, and hesitated. Thanks to her deep connection with the two Kralian captains, Avery felt it, too.
“Also, the future Kralian children that will bless the Hordaa.”
Avery didn’t feel neither Kryan, nor Aedar relax in the least.
“But today is even more than a celebration and an acknowledgment of our blessings. It is the day when we also celebrate the mothers of our children.”
Gorgan’s words made many people gasp, masters and slaves alike. He smiled mysteriously and continued:
“Yes, mothers. We wouldn’t be here without them. Valgans wouldn’t be here without our beautiful ladies from Terra.” He pressed his palm on Grace’s lower back, and she stepped forward. “From the first day I found her, Grace has been my favorite. I knew she was the one. Yes, yes… call me a hypocrite, I don’t care… I’m the only one who had a harem…”
“Had?” Avery thought.
“But, even so, my intuition didn’t fail me. She was the one all along, the only woman who could make me happy one day. And that day has come. Those who know me, know that my greatest wish in this life was to be a father. Grace has made it possible. So, to celebrate her and our baby, I’ve decided to make some changes to how things are run on the Swetho.”
Suddenly, the atmosphere turned tense. Avery could feel that no one had expected this. Sure, it made sense that Gorgan would want to make a big fuss about his unborn child, especially since it seemed it would be his first heir, but… changes? What changes? He’d called the Terran pleasure slaves mothers for the first time. That was enough to unsettle some of the aliens belonging to the other races. Apparently, he wouldn’t stop there, either.
“Please don’t take this the wrong way,” he said, as if he felt like a disclaimer was in order. “I’m not trying to impose anything on you, my friends. I’m not saying that my way is the right way, but I do believe that these changes are going to benefit the children and the mothers on the Swetho. If our children and the women who gave birth to them are happy, then all of us Valgans are happy. I have discussed this with my personal counselors, then put it to vote. From now on, all the Valgan pleasure slaves will be considered wives and mothers. The word ‘slave’ will not be used, nor accepted anymore. As long as you are on the Swetho,” he was addressing the other captains and their people, “the slaves you bring with you will be treated as equals. They will not sit on the floor, they will not wear demeaning garments, and they will be allowed to speak freely and interact with whomever they like.”
The tension in the room grew. Avery could almost feel it crawling all over her skin, trying to find a way to enter her system and cause an anxiety attack. Was there any real chance for this to end well? Gorgan must have been aware that his speech would ruffle some feathers… On the other hand, Avery had to admit that she was impressed. The Kralians had been on the Terrans’ side all along, but she hadn’t expected any fair treatment from the Valgans. Well… it was impossible for it to be entirely fair, but it was an improvement.
Gorgan waited for a long moment. Next to him, Grace moved her weight from one leg to the other and tried to make herself small. All eyes were on her, and she was painfully aware that all the guests were scrutinizing her, maybe even wondering whether she’d put a spell on her master, or something. Not in a metaphorical way, either. Her shoulders relaxed only when someone started applauding, softly at first, then more confidently. She raised her gaze and saw that someone was one of the Kralian captains. Aedar. Kryan joined him, and the tension was broken. It fell into tiny pieces to the floor as more and more people expressed their approval, or at least their understanding, through nods, whispered words, or hesitant applause.
Gorgan smiled brightly. Taking a step forward, he raised his arms to his sides and said: “Lovely ladies, please take your seats and enjoy the party.” He was referring to the pleasure slaves.
Avery gasped when someone tapped her on the shoulder. She immediately sat up and turned to see who it was. A Valgan woman with smiling black eyes was offering her a chair. More than that, she was offering her a hand, so she could stand up, and Avery had no choice but to accept it. Slowly, she rose to her feet, and the Valgan woman grabbed the pillow off the floor and placed it on the chair, which she then pushed between Kryan’s and Aedar’s chairs. Avery sat down carefully, as if she was expecting all of this to be a joke, a test so the aliens could then punish the slaves who’d failed it.
Five minutes passed, and nothing happened. Well… nothing suspicious or bad happened. There was a bit of a chaos as the Valgans helped all the young women on the floor up and onto their chairs, around the tables. Avery had expected that at least some of the masters would have something negative to say, but they all seemed fine. The only one who looked rather uncomfortable was the Minarian captain, Araime. The ivory-skinned woman didn’t have a slave of her own, since she couldn’t have children anyway, but was carefully studying her men’s slaves. Her furrowed brows told Avery she wasn’t very satisfied with the scene unfolding before her pale blue eyes, but her moral code required her to respect the new rules on the Swetho. She was in someone else’s home, so to speak, so she’d have to keep her mouth shut. For now.
Avery relaxed when she felt Aedar’s hand on her thigh. His gentle grip seemed to burn her through the thin, transparent material of her dress. She had chosen to wear a dark purple leotard, which she’d paired with one of the white transparent dresses they’d brought her from the Hordaa. She felt rather comfortable in her Kralian clothes, so she had nothing to complain about.
“What a turn of events, right?” he whispered.
“Y-yes. I’m not sure what to make of it.”
“Me neither.”
“Poppy…”
Kryan’s low voice startled her. She turned to him, and he motioned with his head toward his left, where Grace was now seated. A smile grew on Avery’s face. She waved at Grace, and the girl waved back.
“Wow! Congratulations.”
“Thank you.”
Gorgan was seated next to her, his back slightly turned as he was engaged in conversation with a Valgan woman. Apparently, he couldn’t care less that his slave… well… slave turned wife… was talking to another slave.
“Are you… happy?” Avery dared to ask.
Grace nodded slowly. “Can you believe this is happening?”
Avery shrugged, then shook her head. No, she couldn’t believe it. She was at a party, on a spaceship, and she was breaking bread with aliens from five different species. Valgan bread really was puffy and delicious, though…
CHAPTER FIVE
Avery ate in silence, forcing every bite down her throat as she strained her ears to listen to the conversations around her. Kryan and Aedar didn’t talk much, either. She could feel it was hard for them to make small talk with the other captains in the Alliance when they could barely hold back the burning questions plaguing their minds. Even though Gorgan’s intention had probably been for everyone to feel good, there was still tension in the air. There was chatter around all the tables, but it was clear that no one was saying what they really thought. From what Avery could tell, they were trying to keep the appearances and not give their real opinions about the new rules on the Swetho, be those positive or negative.
/> “This is too much,” Avery finally snapped quietly. She leaned toward Kryan. “What do you make of all this?”
The Kralian sighed. “Not here.” His warm palm covered her hand on the table, and he closed his eyes just for a second to better tap into their special, telepathic connection. He could feel her distress, and he would have done anything to be able to wrap her in his arms and whisper in her ear that everything would be okay and they’d figure it out. The three of them. But he couldn’t afford to let all the other guests see how much he cared about a slave. He and Aedar had noticed a long time ago that any human who saw them interact with Avery could intuitively feel there was more happening between them than they could see with the naked eye. The SPG agents could sense it, especially the women, and neither he, nor his brother wanted to test the aliens’ intuition and see whether it was as strong as the humans’.
Avery dragged in a sharp breath. A moan almost escaped her lips when Kryan’s skin came into contact with hers, but she swallowed it forcefully. A wave of thoughts and emotions flooded her whole being. Kryan was just as confused and worried as she was. Did Gorgan really change his mind about how the Terran pleasure slaves should be treated because his favorite was pregnant? Would it even last? What about the other women in his harem? What did these changes mean in the long term, and would the Cattalians, the Norgavians, or the Minarians be open to adopting them on their own ships? Did they even agree with them? And if they, in fact, didn’t agree, would they choose to turn against the Valgans? No one was saying anything now, but what about when they left the Swetho? What about when they were alone, with their own people?
“How does this affect our mission?” Avery sent through their telepathic link. She didn’t get anything back. Gently, although it hurt her in an inexplicable, non-physical way, she pulled her hand away. Kryan’s mind and soul invading hers was sometimes too much.
She shifted in her seat and stole a glance at Grace. The girl had been observing her and her masters for a while, curiosity painted on her beautiful, full features. For the first time, Avery noticed Grace wasn’t as thin as the last time she’d seen her. She had put on some much-needed weight, and not only because of her pregnancy. She looked healthier and happier in her own skin. Avery wondered for how long she’d been watching her and Kryan’s silent exchange.
