“Thank you. That would be very nice.”
Chapter Twelve
Baltin escorted Emi back to the welcome center where Aaron, Caph, and Ford had uncomfortably spent their time sitting nearly naked and locked up in the holding room and being stared at like fish in an aquarium.
“I will take you to your quarters,” Baltin said. “Mauri wants you to experience our facilities.”
“Quarters?” Aaron asked Emi.
Emi gave a quick shake of her head. They followed Baltin to a building next door that reminded Emi of a hotel from the outside. Apparently, that’s exactly what it was. A clerk at the front desk gave Emi a key after eying the men.
Baltin said something to the clerk, who immediately smiled.
“There you are, Doctor Captain,” the clerk said.
“Captain Doctor,” Baltin quickly corrected.
“Just Doctor is fine,” Emi said after shooting Ford and Caph a quick shut-up look when Ford snickered and Caph pressed his lips together.
The clerk looked confused. “Just Doctor?”
“Yes. Just Doctor.”
The clerk’s eyebrows raised and she shrugged. “Very well, Just Doctor.”
Aaron stepped on Caph’s foot in warning to stifle his laughter.
Apparently unfazed by the petty antics of males, the clerk continued. “Do you need boarding arrangements for your males, Just Doctor, or will they stay with you?”
Baltin started to correct the clerk again, but Emi forced a smile and laid a hand on her arm. “It’s all right.” It was starting to sound like a bad old-Earth comedy sketch, and all Emi wanted to do was get somewhere private with her men and decompress. Her nerves felt tightly wound.
It didn’t help that all three of her men were dressed in nothing but collars and the less-than-concealing banana slings. After the sights she’d seen, she wouldn’t mind getting them totally naked.
She wondered of the Morans would let her guys keep them when they left. She wouldn’t mind making them wear them on occasion in the privacy of their ship.
Baltin helped Emi find her room. “I shall return to take you on the agricultural tour after I requisition a cart and take care of some things. That will allow you some time to refresh yourself and rest.”
“Thanks,” Emi said. “I’d appreciate that.”
“Would you like me to order you and your males a meal?”
“A snack would be great, thanks.”
“I will have something sent up.”
When they were alone in the room, Emi flopped back on the bed. “What a fucking place.”
“So?” Aaron started. “What’d you see?”
“Ha! You ain’t going to believe this.” She detailed the stables and the breeding session she’d witnessed. As she talked, the twins’ jaws dropped lower and lower until their mouths hung open.
“You’re kidding?” Ford asked.
“Nope.”
“No shit?” Caph commented.
“No shit.”
Aaron, however, frowned. “I really want to get back to the Bight as soon as possible.”
“You and me both.”
“No, I mean I have a really bad feeling about all this. Especially what you were saying about the pilot.”
“If you’ll recall, I was the one who didn’t even want to come down here in the first place. I was perfectly willing to say fuck regulations and fuck orders, but you sort of overruled me.”
“Next time, feel free to remind me of that.”
“We will,” Caph and Ford chimed in.
Baltin returned to Emi’s quarters about an hour later. “Are you ready to go?” Baltin eagerly asked.
Emi nodded. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
Baltin had brought a motorized cart with her this time. She led Emi to it when they left the hotel. Apparently their destination wasn’t within easy walking distance. Emi held on and prayed the Moran didn’t wreck them. The open cart didn’t have any restraint belts and either there were no speed limits, or Baltin completely disregarded them. Fortunately, there didn’t appear to be many other carts in use, the citizens using an extensive public transportation system of trams, or simply walking.
Finally, something to take her mind off what she’d witnessed at the stables—fear of death or dismemberment in a Moran cart accident.
“We carefully expand our agricultural lands as our population and needs increase,” Baltin cheerfully explained, raising her voice to be heard over the sound of the wind. “We alternate orchards with fields in such a way as to prevent erosion or overtaxing the land’s ability to support the crops.”
“Uh-huh,” Emi said through clenched teeth as they hit another bump. She tightened her grip on the railing. Apparently road maintenance in this area wasn’t as high on the Moran priority list as erosion prevention and keeping their feral males well-fucked.
“The area we are heading to is in the process of being added. We wall in the section first. Then, once we have thoroughly prepared the area, we can remove the dividing wall and properly develop it for our needs.” They were approaching a barricade. To Emi’s immense relief, Baltin slowed and stopped, putting the cart into park.
“Here we are, Doctor.”
Emi forced a smile. “Great.” Thank the Gods! On wobbly legs, she exited the cart and followed Baltin over to a guarded, sealed access port in the wall.
Baltin turned and pointed at a field behind them, which was being worked by several males, some of them apparently ferals from their collars. “You see over there is where we have already annexed the prepared land. This is why the wall around the city is not…as you say, straight. We add on in the most appropriate area to suit our needs. It makes it irregular.” She spoke to the guard, who nodded. The guard gave Emi a quick bow, opened the port, and stepped aside for them.
Baltin smiled at Emi. “This section is scheduled for final clearance and is to be opened in a few days.” She motioned for Emi to follow her inside.
The guard sealed the entrance behind them. Emi stared around, the new section of wall extending past them several kilometers into the distance through a wide, cleared swath that stood in stark contrast to the thick, lush vegetation they were looking at.
“What will this be used for?”
“Once it goes through final clearance, it will be cleared for farmland.”
Emi frowned. “Why not clear it before you wall it in?”
“Oh, we would never put our males at risk like that.” She turned to speak in her native tongue to someone who’d approached them. Emi couldn’t tell if the person was female or male because of their heavy, protective clothing that covered them from head to foot. The headgear muffled the person’s voice. Emi suspected it was a Moran woman, from everything else she’d seen.
Baltin turned back to Emi. “They are not quite through yet with this section, but it should be safe. Come. This way.” Baltin followed their guide, motioning for Emi to come with.
Emi felt her nerves tingling, on edge. She wondered what was so bad that heavy protective clothing like that was needed.
And she wondered why she didn’t have a suit of her own.
Baltin chattered on about the agricultural operation as they followed their guide down the path. They came to a clearing, where several four-legged, furry animals that reminded Emi of goats grazed next to a small pond. Each animal wore a collar with a sensor on it. Instead of hooves, like goats, they had fingered paws that looked like a cross between a dog and a monkey. The animals also had thick, bushy crowns of coarse hair on their heads.
“These are dau’phnalin,” Baltin explained as she reached out and petted one of the brown animals. “They help clear the area because they are immune. They are the only animal on the planet immune.”