“Nice to meet you.” She glanced back at Aaron. “This is Ca—Pilot Aaron Lucio.”
The Commander’s head cocked to the side. “He wears clothes?”
Emi looked back at Aaron, who remained silent although she sensed his stress levels ratcheting up. “Yes.”
“Huh. Interesting. Male crew, and you allow them clothing.”
Emi forced a smile. “That’s how we choose to do things.”
Emi sensed curiosity from the commander, but no disdain. “I do not suppose he is available for sharing or sale, is he?”
Emi nearly jumped at the immediate wave of unspoken outrage that blasted toward the Moran from Aaron, but he remained still and silent behind her.
“No, sorry. My men aren’t for sharing or sale.” She held up her left hand and pointed at her ring finger, where she wore her engagement ring and wedding band. “We’re married.”
The Moran’s brow scrunched. “Married?”
“Mated. We belong to each other.”
The Moran’s confusion morphed into amusement. Behind her, Aaron settled down a little, allowing Emi to feel the Moran’s emotions again. “Very well. I shall take you to meet the station commander.”
Another Moran ran up, slightly out of breath, and spoke to the commander in their language.
“And, late as usual, this is my pilot, Mlaui Mil’rawin.” The commander looked a little put upon.
“Hello,” the newcomer said.
Emi nodded. “Hi. Doctor Hypatia.”
“You can call me Rawin.” Then the pilot’s obsidian eyes perked up. She straightened. Emi realized she was staring at Aaron standing behind her. “Clothes? On a male?” She let loose a rapid-fire volley of Moran until the commander raised a hand, silencing her.
“It is their custom, Rawin,” the commander said to her pilot. “Now, Dr. Hypatia, let us go.”
Emi glanced back at Aaron before following the two Moran women. The pilot held back to walk in step with Emi.
“Dr. Hypatia, why do you allow your males clothes?”
“It’s how we do things.”
“Are your males also trained for pleasure, or just service?”
The commander looked back over her shoulder, but she wore a smile. “Rawin, you are rather chatty this morning.”
“I am curious.” She returned her attention to Emi.
“They’re my husbands. Mates.”
That seemed to command the pilot’s attention. “All three of them? That is absolutely unheard of. Or you must be very rich to afford three of them.”
Emi felt a wave of envy from the pilot. Sure, she could play that game. “All three of them give me great pleasure, believe me. I’d be lost without any of them.”
“I would be most honored to sample that,” Rawin said. “And I would be happy to exchange mine for yours for a night of sharing. I love to share my males. They are extremely talented.”
Emi felt an ugly spike of jealousy in the pit of her stomach. “Sorry, I don’t share.”
The pilot frowned. “What?”
The commander stopped suddenly. Emi almost ran into her. The Moran turned and let loose with a low, threatening-sounding stream of Moran at Rawin. The pilot’s eyes widened, then narrowed, as she listened to her commanding officer.
Finally, the pilot responded, throwing a barely concealed glare at Emi. Then she pasted a fake smile on her face.
The commander straightened. “My apologies, Doctor. I had forgotten to ask my pilot for some information before we left our ship.”
Emi could play that game, too. “Oh, sure. Not a problem.” She flashed a smile at Rawin, pretending she hadn’t just heard the commander dress her pilot down in front of a member of a different species.
Not that Emi had understood a word of it, but apparently the chastising tone was universal among spoken languages.
She felt Rawin’s ire clouding her the rest of the visit to the station’s commander. Rawin excused herself for a few moments. When she returned, her ire had been replaced by a smugness Emi didn’t understand.
As they were getting ready to leave the station commander’s office and Emi was hoping she’d get off the station scot-free, the station commander received a message.
After conferring with the station commander, Commander Ren’yawlkin looked apologetic. “Our leader, Mauri Dob’antu, wishes to meet with you and your men.”
“Me…and my men?”
“Yes. She wishes to show you around our city and have dinner with you.”
Emi grumbled inside. She’d been ordered by the DSMC to indulge the Kal’moran leader for the sake of diplomacy, and that meant she would have to accept the leader’s invitation to come down to the planet and meet with her and take the grand tour.
“Sure. That sounds…great.”
“Do you have collars for your men, or will you need some?”
“Um, collars?” She feigned ignorance and hoped they’d buy the act.
“No males on our planet may be uncollared. It is our law.”
Shit. “No, I guess I’ll need some.”
“Will they require modesty pouches?”
“Eh, what?”
The commander seemed stumped for the word. Out of the corner of Emi’s eye, she caught the pilot smirking.
Emi couldn’t shake the certainty that the pilot was somehow behind the sudden invitation.
Commander Ren’yawlkin finally figured the word out. “Covering. We do not allow males to be clothed, for security purposes, but we do allow modesty pouches. Our males do not use them but some males of other species seem to feel less threatened when allowed to do so.”
Sigh. Despite how she’d teased Ford, she really didn’t want a bunch of strange females ogling her men. “Yeah, guess I’ll need some of those, too. No chance of getting a waiver on the outfits, huh?”
“Sorry, it is how our laws are.”
“I can’t just leave the guys in the ship?”
“Mauri Dob’antu was very specific in asking that you and your entire crew come to the planet.”
The station commander called her assistant in. Emi assumed she was being ordered to come up with the appropriate garb for Emi’s guys. She left and returned a few minutes later with three collars and three pouches that were little more than skimpy G-strings.
“Will those be sufficient, Doctor?” Commander Ren’yawlkin asked.
“I guess they’ll have to do.”
Commander Ren’yawlkin received a page on her communicator and excused herself for a moment.
Rawin smiled at Emi. “I think you will like our world. I have four household males, including two pleasure males. I would be willing to put mine to the test against any of yours.”
Emi forced herself to smile and make it look real. “I appreciate the offer, Rawin, really I do. But it would be against our customs.” Hopefully that was a safe answer.
“Oh, but I insist, Doctor Hypatia. My pleasure males are considered two of the best there are. It is common for us to trade or share males between friends on our world. Come, Doctor, there is no harm in sampling the pleasures of our world for the sake of diplomacy, is there? I certainly would like to sample a human male’s skills. I have yet to experience a human male.”
Even if Emi hadn’t heard how this woman treated Aaron like shit, Emi wouldn’t have wanted anything to do with her scheme. “No, thank you. No offense, Rawin. It simply isn’t our custom. Now, if you’ll please excuse me, I need to get back to my ship and get my men.”
She ran into Commander Ren’yawlkin in the outer office. “Heading back to my ship.” She held up the collars and G-strings. “Got men to dress.”