Kate, feeling sorry for her friend, felt helpless. What could she say? All of them had registered in an idealistic rush of patriotism and duty without really counting the potential costs. Now her friend, the girl she’d literally grown up with and loved like a sister, was being legally and morally tied to an alien being who might remove her from all she held dear. Sharon would have to be intimate with him. She was such an innocent in so many ways. It was frightening and upsetting. Sharon didn’t have many choices unless…”Have you really thought out all the options?”
With a shake of her head, Sharon said, “There wasn’t really time to think.The two pactmaker reps showed up at my door in uniform and told me to come with them. They didn’t even let me grab my purse. The whole thing scared the crap out of me! I just couldn’t believe it was happening, you know?”
She could feel her body begin to shake as reality really hit. “I mean, it crossed my mind when I turned twenty-nine last week that the claiming age would be over in a year. But, it just seemed so unlikely. They brought me to the city pactbuilding and gave me these clothes to put on. Now I’ve got twenty minutes to figure out what I’m going to do. I don’t even know how they knew to get you here. Since I don’t have any immediate family, I guess they picked you to stand with me.”
It seemed logical, but Kate knew they needed to focus on what was happening now. She was the lawyer here. She ought to be able to fix this situation. She had to find a way to help Sharon. “Well, we can talk about the fun experience I had with the pact reps some other time. Right now, we’ve got to figure out what you are going to do. You only have three options: Seduction, Challenge, or Capture. Each has its own set of rules and problems. How much do you remember of the customs course?”
Mind racing, Sharon searched her memory. “If I choose seduction, we recite vows, go to his planet, and then live together for three weeks. He…” Her voice faltered a bit but she spoke up deliberately after only a second, “follows the Courtship Rules of Seduction. That means he’s allowed certain intimacies from me at certain times. Kind of like baseball…First base, second, like that. He can go further than the prescribed intimacies only with my permission.”
Sharon felt her panic rising as she tried frantically to remember what they had been taught. “God, how long before total intimacy, Kate?! I can’t remember!”
Kate thought back and then said, “Damnit, they wouldn’t give me time to get my copy of your paperwork.” Her expression indicated someone would pay for that fact later. “I can’t remember. Maybe two or three days at the most.”
Three days. It wasn’t long enough.Sharon didn’t think two or three years would be long enough to make her comfortable with the idea of sleeping with that man. Still, at worst, after a few weeks of living together, she could file for incompatible and never see him again. “What about Challenge?”
Kate sighed and said with careful calm, “You recite the ceremony and make the oath, but you are basically challenging him to seduce you into staying with him. You have to cooperate with anything he orders you to do sexually, but you can ultimately refuse to have intercourse with him. He can keep you for two weeks. It’s his goal in that time to overcome your objections and make you want to stay. If you give in and actually have intercourse, you are ineligible for an incompatibility filing. I don’t know, though, Sharon…Shimerian males are supposed to be so dominant in bed…”
Sharon thought of Liken being able to do whatever he wanted for two full weeks except intercourse and shuddered. There was excitement at the thought, too, but she didn’t feel like she could challenge him sexually with her level of experience. She’d only had two lovers, both of whom had been rather dull and unimaginative. Sex had been warmly intimate, but not exactly earthshaking.
This guy was a walking Karma Sutra. She didn’t think she could hold her own in that kind of fight and come out on top for sure. “Nope. No way. He’s way out of my league. That only leaves Capture. I’m leaning toward that. I say the words and all, but then I get to leave. I have one full day’s head start. If I can evade him for one month, I can file incompatible then.” She was starting to feel calmer at the thought.
“Yeah, but if he catches you, you’re in a fix. He gets the rest of the month of full sexual obedience. He can do anything he likes, short of seriously hurting you. He doesn’t need permission at any time for anything, including intercourse. He has to be guided by your sexual likes and dislikes, but he doesn’t have to play fair at all. The rumor is that they’re telepathic or mentally gifted or something.”
Kate’s voice caught as her imagination leapt at the possibilities. “I don’t know what that means exactly, but he can at least read your mind probably. If he picks up on something you would like, but would never admit to liking, he’ll use it ruthlessly. He can’t actually make you do anything that would be sexually repulsive, but he would push your boundaries pretty hard I’d imagine. We’ve all heard rumors and stories about the Shimerians’ incredible sexuality. It might be pretty intense. You’re not that experienced. It would be pretty frightening for you.”
Frightening? The thought was enough to make her want to run from the room right now. There had to be some way to deal with this situation. Thinking hard, she quietly said, “But if I break oath…”
Both women sighed and looked away. There were legal penalties for not fulfilling oaths-”long years in a penal institution with some very uncomfortable companions” kind of penalties. Besides, the guilt and shame of it would be awful. Each woman registering had made an oath of their own free will at the request of their government.
The Shimerian population was in trouble. They had a great disproportion of males. There were not enough females to mate with males and make families. Of the children born, a large percent were male. It was a downward spiral that the Earth government had agreed to help, ending with the signing of the Friendship Treaty.
Earth provided potential mates for Shimerians. In return, Shimerian resources and technology were fully available to Earth. Already, amazing cures for some of the worst Earth diseases had resulted from the cooperative knowledge provided by Shimerian scientists to Earth scientists. All kinds of positive advances were taking place.
The Earth government, making clear it was not prostituting its people, agreed to provide a register of potential mates and carefully agreed upon Courtship Laws. Since the Shimerian males’ version of courtship leaned toward kidnapping and seduction, the Earth government had been very specific that the program would be voluntary and follow prescribed rules. If, after the knowing period, the Earth female did not want to continue the union, she could file legal paperwork that the union was incompatible and should be dissolved.
When the treaty had been signed some eighty years ago, there was hesitation by Earth females and only a few actually became Shimerian mates. However, as the positive breakthroughs in technology and medicine began to become widely felt, the Shimerian government pushed hard for a public relations program in colleges to promote registering.
These “culture classes” explained the process in glowing terms and encouraged young women to register. The classes had a very idealistic slant with just enough excitement to entice. “Help your fellow human beings and Shimerians, too,” they persuaded, “while having an adventure.”