Married to the Alien Admiral: Renascence Alliance Series Book 1 Read online

  Kara did not like his smug attitude. She was going to go through his things, and she was sure she would find something to help her escape. As much as she loved the sex, she still had to get out of this situation. As soon as he left, the first thing she did was go check out the swords at the bottom of his wardrobe. Sure enough in the black and yellow boxes, there were short swords like the one he wore. Kara quickly went through her things from the Dakota and found her handheld translator. Then she held it over the engravings on the swords. She got bored after a while, and they were all awards for his different ranks throughout the military. Nothing was surprising about them at all. She put all the swords back and in their boxes and back at the bottom of the wardrobe.

  When she returned her handheld translator to her bag, she got out the small painting her father had painted for her of the beach near their house at sunset. She put it next to what she would assume would be her side of the bed as she slept on that side last night. And lay down looking at the small painting, “What would you think of this now, Dad?” she said quietly to herself. She could not help but wonder, Will I ever be there again to see a sunset on that beach? She became very sad and was happy she was alone because she needed a good cry for all that had happened in the last weeks and especially in the last 24 hours, and the shower was way too cold to have a good proper cry in. Kara let her emotions go then, better here alone than in front of anyone else. She cried for being married, losing her ship and half of her crew and for not dying when maybe she should have instead of accepting this marriage deal. And then she cried for humanity, for wasting so much time on frivolous things instead of military, technology, and defense. After she had cried for all those things, she wiped her eyes and felt much better. Kara always felt that hitting rock bottom with a good cry was the best way to propel herself then back up more quickly.

  She then went into the bathroom to splash some water on her face, and the mirror began talking to her again. “Good afternoon, Kara. Would you like the water warmer? It is currently set for Admiral Tir.”

  “Leave me alone mirror. I don’t like smart mirrors.”

  “Do you need some help shaping your eyebrows?” the mirror asked.

  “No, what’s wrong with my eyebrows?” Kara asked, touching one of them looking in the mirror. She had never done anything to her eyebrows. She had always considered them one of her natural beauties.

  “I can recommend different shapes…” the mirror suggested, and Kara interrupted.

  “Absolutely not. Can you tell me when my next period is going to begin and what Alliance women do for that?” Human women still used a menstrual cup because humanity was all about being close to nature, but she suspected with all this technology, Alliance women would have something much better, and Kara was ready to embrace that technology.

  “Processing,” the mirror said, and then after about a minute continued, “Kara, I have insufficient data to confirm your next period as you have only been aboard a short amount of time. Please seek advice from Doctor Siu in sickbay on deck five, section two.”

  “What can you tell me then, mirror?”

  “I can tell you many things. Ask me a question.”

  “How many women has Tir brought to his quarters in the last year?”

  “Admiral Tir has brought three slave women to his quarters in the last year.”

  “What?”

  “Admiral Tir has brought three slave women to his quarters in the last year.”

  “I heard you. Turn off mirror,” Kara said as she went to go sit on the toilet and take all of this information in. Slave women, she thought to herself and felt a bit sick.

  When Kara finished in the bathroom, she went into the sitting room, armed with her handheld translator again and turned on his computer. She tried to bring up any basic files on the Refa’s crew complement but was locked out of almost everything, but internal communication and she knew that was on purpose. Then she got out her inferior computer and began looking through the little cultural information humans had about the Alliance. She scanned through all the statistics until she found the part about slaves, but it just said that the Alliance had a class of slaves. She slammed the button to close her virtual computer and thought, Useless.

  Kara sat in silence in the sitting room then and thought about her emotions. Why am I so upset? Was it because he was with other women before me or because they were slaves, or was it both? She thought about it for many minutes and concluded that it was both. Kara had to admit to herself that she was fascinated with him and she was jealous, even though these feelings were ridiculous because she had just met him and she was planning on escaping the first chance she got. But when she thought about the mirror had told her, she was not only upset that he had been with other women and slave women, but she couldn’t help but imagine that he had taken advantage of his position to be intimate with them. And in her mind, this meant rape. But it was difficult for her to imagine him raping someone given that he was a very considerate lover, he did not seem like the type, but then she reminded herself you never really know about people until they have committed the crime.

  Mux chimed the door and then came in without Kara saying anything to allow him entry which annoyed her. He greeted her by bowing and explained he had brought the midday meal and would lay it out in the dining room. After he had finished, he told Kara that Admiral Tir was on his way soon, to join her.

  “I just have one question Mux.”

  He stopped and looked at Kara.

  “How many slaves are onboard and how many of the slaves are women?”

  “I don’t know exactly. At least 100 slaves and probably 35 of them are women.”

  “And why are the women onboard?”

  “They are artists,” he said as if that explained everything.

  “I didn’t think the Alliance produced any kind of art,” she said suspiciously.

  “No, artists in that they recite some of the ancient myths, dance and provide basic entertainment.”

  “Entertainment? For money?”

  He nodded, “Of course, Captain. Is there anything else?” Mux did not want to talk about slave artists with his master’s wife.

  “No, thank you.”

  It was not long before Tir returned and he was pleased that she had waited for him to begin eating. “Shall we eat now?”

  “Wait. I want to ask you about something.”

  He could tell she was annoyed about something, but he was perplexed about what could be bothering her as she had just been sitting in his quarters for the last 40 minutes putting her things in order and no doubt going through his things.

  “I was talking to the mirror,” she began and realized she sounded like a crazy person but tried to hurry past that fact and be serious, “And it said that you had three slave women in here this past year. Explain to me why you would need to rape a slave woman?”

  It took all his self-control not to laugh at her from getting jealous from what the bathroom mirror had reported to her or be furious about the assumption he would ever rape a woman, “Kara, I’d never rape a woman. I’m offended that you would even think that. Second, these slave women are here of their own free will, and they don’t do anything that they don’t want to do, ask any man on this ship. Not only that, they’re making a lot of universal credits, UCs, off us all. I can ask one to come and join us now if you don’t believe me? They recite ancient myths, history, and battle stories. They keep us all sane when we are so far from home and our families. We have been a spacefaring civilization for a long time. Sex is a physical need; slave artists both on ship and on planet provide release. It’s only sex.”

  “Why are they called ‘slaves’ then if they are here of their own free will?”

  “It’s an old class marker and maybe thousands of years ago they were slaves in the true sense of the word, but no longer. Slaves own land, have their own UCs, and control their destinies as far as the gods allow for any of us.”

  “But what about the Alliance’s s
lave planets?”

  “That is a completely different thing. Those slaves are not Alliance people. They are not citizens of the Empire. But still, no one is raping anyone there that I know of. I ‘ve never raped anyone, and I don’t know of anyone who has committed rape or been raped. We do marry, and I understand that you find this barbaric, but we don’t rape. Understand? Can we eat now?”

  She stood up, “I’m still uncomfortable, three women Tir?”

  He put his hand on her shoulder, “Gods, we’ve been married for one day, and you are jealous about three women I had to pay to come here over the last year? Shouldn’t you be feeling sorry for me? Three women is not a lot, and I can assure you, despite my good looks, they charged me a fortune.”

  She frowned, “I’m not jealous about the women as much as I am that you had to pay them.” But if she was being honest, she was jealous thinking about him with someone else as well.

  He looked at her and didn’t know what to say for a minute, this was a normal part of his culture, and no one had ever questioned him about it. “Of course I had to pay them. I didn’t have an emotional connection with any of the women, it was just sex.” He almost smiled then remembering the threesome he had with the slave artist Sera and Doctor Siu.

  Kara looked at him and did not know what to say. Prostitution was legal on Earth, of course, it was, but she herself had never bought sex, but then again, she had never been in the position to have to either. “Why did you do it?”

  “Pay for sex?”

  “Yes.”

  “Because the women I was courting was on the Alliance Capital Planet and I wanted to have sex. These slave artists choose their positions. They are famous throughout the Alliance, they cost a small fortune and pray on the men that are off-planet for long periods of time.”

  “You make it sound like you are the victim here.”

  “No one is a victim,” he looked at her and thought he was explaining this all wrong. “This is a matter of consumerism. I don’t understand why you are upset.”

  “Do you plan to still sleep with those slave artists now that you are married?”

  “Only if you want to.”

  “Like a threesome?”

  He nodded.

  “I can’t suck your penis until I’m pregnant, but threesomes are okay? What kind of gods are the Alliance worshiping?”

  “Threesomes only with other women until you are pregnant,” he clarified as if that would make more sense to her.

  “You must be joking?” Kara let out a laugh then. Then her mind was racing, “What about orgies?” she asked as a joke.

  “All the same rules apply,” he said, not understanding how strange this sexual practice was for her.

  Kara looked at him in disbelief.

  “I don’t understand why you find this shocking. Sex is a natural desire. Should I call a slave artist here now? I wouldn’t mind seeing one again,” he suggested provocatively.

  “No,” she said, adamantly through her laughter. “I cannot believe that you get married but then still sleep with these slave artists. What sense does that make?”

  “A lot of sense. How do you track your ancestry on Earth if not through marriage? Humans do not have a large population. Aren’t you worried about incest? We never procreate with slave artists, only those who we are married to.”

  “Tir, we are not wild beasts and don’t have a problem with incest. We always run genetic tests at special centers before we decide to have children together. But we usually don’t sleep with other people if we decided to be together with someone.”

  He saw his opportunity to change the subject and took it, “What do you mean, ‘decide to have children together’? Certainly, procreation must just happen with a lot of the population?”

  Kara was so fired up; she forgot who she was talking to, “We’re all on birth control until we decide not to be.”

  “Women take birth control? Are you on birth control now and you didn’t say anything?”

  Kara looked at him, blankly. She hesitated.

  “Are you on birth control, Wife?”

  She answered him, “It’s technically still in my system; yes, unless your doctor did something to make it inactive?” Kara noticed his face expression and tried to appease him, “I was going to mention it when you mentioned getting pregnant, but then you took my breath away the first time we were having sex. Afterward, I forgot I hadn’t been able to tell you. Don’t be so cross, not a lot of time has been wasted. We’ve only been married for a day.”

  Tir rose from the table, came around to her side and took her arm gently and escorted her down to sickbay. Their food remained untouched on the table.

  Kara was surprised to see her own doctor John there working with Doctor Siu.

  Siu looked up when they walked in and excused himself from John and escorted Tir and Kara into a private room. “Is something the matter?”

  “Apparently human women are on birth control,” Tir said annoyed.

  Kara was surprised Doctor Siu looked so horrified by this information. He then politely asked Kara to lay down on the medical bed and began running a handheld device over her, looking at the results on the little screen.

  Kara was watching Siu and remembered how he watched her have sex with Tir at their marriage ceremony if you could call it a marriage ceremony. Then, she could not help but wonder, Did you find one of these slave artists and have sex with her imagining it was me, Doctor? She had to admit to herself she was aroused again thinking about him watching her and then she wondered, Do his scans tell him I am aroused too?

  Siu was good at blocking thoughts out that did not concern him. He had to be. Most doctors in the Alliance were bred to be empaths and telepathic and Siu was no exception. But he decided he could listen to Kara’s thoughts because they did concern him, and he had to use all his self-control not to smile and say, ‘No, my machines don’t tell me you are aroused, but your eyes and thoughts do, and I would happily watch you have sex again.’

  Siu finished running scans and professionally said, “The human birth control is at such a low dosage, it wouldn’t inhibit Alliance men from impregnating human women, but I’ll flush it from her system and let our doctors know of the situation on the Capital Planet. I’ve no doubt Doctor Anu can easily take care of this at Space Port One.” He looked at Kara then and said sympathetically, “I’m sorry that you were ever put on birth control. I cannot imagine what a backward place Earth is.”

  Kara was very confused now. She sat up, “What are you talking about? We aren’t backward. Do Alliance women breed a thousand babies not being on birth control?”

  “No, Captain, you misunderstand. You have it the wrong way round. Women’s bodies are sacred. You are the bringers of life. To interfere with women’s health is to interfere with the gods,” explained Siu. “Also, from a biological point of view, it is much less invasive to have men use metabolized birth control.”

  “Alliance women never take birth control?”

  “Only slave artists, as they have a special agreement with the gods.”

  Of course, they do, thought Kara. She could not believe she was going to have this conversation with a doctor but then decided that he had watched her have sex with a man she was forced to marry, so there was nothing professional about their relationship. “Do people only have sex with slave artists before marriage then?” Kara wanted to double-check what Tir had told her. She did not see any reason Siu would lie to her about this.

  “No.”

  She looked from Tir to Siu and waited for more information, and when she did not get it after a short pause, she asked, “Are you going to explain this then?” Then she looked at Tir, “I’m assuming you are not on birth control?”

  He looked at her, annoyed, “No, let’s go. I’ll explain all of this later.” He wanted to go and eat. If they hurried, they could make it back to their quarters in just enough time to eat the midday meal.

  “Wait,” she said to Tir and then looking at Siu asked,
“What do Alliance women do about their periods? As you might have guessed, we are very old-fashioned on Earth. I’m sure there is something better here.”

  Siu looked at her and could see in her mind the shape of a small cup filled with blood. He suppressed a shiver of the savagery of it, “We have a little device Alliance women call, ‘the tab.’ I know that we have some here in sickbay, but I’ll have to look for them. When I find one, I’ll call for you and show you how to use it. I think it will be much more convenient than your cup.”

  “How did you know?” she trailed off.

  Siu smiled at her.

  “Alliance doctors can read your thoughts,” Tir said.

  Kara blushed thinking about all the sexy things that had been going through her mind over the last minutes.

  Tir and Siu smiled at each other, and Tir did not have to wonder too much what she had been thinking about that made her blush.

  “Wife, do you have any more questions for Siu?” Tir asked with a bit of humor to his voice.

  “No, I think I’ve asked enough for today. Thank you, and do not forget to look for that tab, Doctor.”

  When they walked out of the private room in sickbay, Kara looked for Doctor John as she wanted to speak to him, but he was nowhere to be seen. Then she asked Siu who was walking behind them, “Where has Doctor John gone?”

  “He has gone to eat the midday meal. Should I call him back?”

  “No, I’ll speak to him later,” she was so hungry herself she wanted to eat too. Kara and Tir left sickbay and began walking back to his quarters, “I’m starving.”

  “I hate to tell you this, but we have missed the meal.”