Page 50 of Under His Heel

“The captain did that? Is he even allowed?”

Given that Alex really didn’t know anything about laws, and he hadn’t understood his contract, for all he knew Tracht was bending the rules. Not that there was anything Alex could do to change it now. So he shrugged again.

For some reason that got Parsons angry. “No. It’s bad enough that he treats you like… like he does, but if he’s actually going against the contract—”

As he ranted, his voice got louder, and some of the others in the lounge were turning to stare. Alex growled a messy, “Shut up!” and shook Parson’s shoulder.

Talking made saliva dribble out. Alex wiped it away and glared at Parsons. “Don’t make it worse.”

Parsons noticed the others and ducked his head. “Sorry. You’re right. I can’t do anything to help.”

Alex didn’t know what kind of help Parsons thought Alex needed, but whatever. “S’fine.”

They sat watching the movie for a little while. It wasn’t too bad—might as well have been Nick sitting next to him. Except if Tracht was right about Parsons, then Parsons wasn’t secretly plotting to sell Alex out.

He looked at Parsons suspiciously. Nick always seemed nice too.

“Hey,” Parsons said a few minutes later. “China is a country on Earth.”

“Huh?”

Parsons got his tablet out of his gym bag and set it on his lap. He fiddled with it a bit until a map was displayed. “Here,” he said, pointing to one of the larger outlined shapes. “That’s China.”

Alex had a vague idea about Earth—the planet that humans originally came from—but he’d never been close to it. At school he’d learned about the local planets, with only a passing mention of Earth.

“So, Xiaoyu—she was my wife—her family was originally from China. Her grandparents moved to Zhuanxu station, and that’s where she was born. One of my tours with my old job took me to Zhuanxu, and I met her there.” He smiled. “She was one of the managers at the docks, and I was pretty lost so I asked her for directions. She was nice enough to walk me to my ship directly, and we got to talking, and talking, and talking… and then I asked her on a date, because I really didn’t want to stop talking with her.”

Was that the kind of seduction Parsons wanted? They were talking now, but Alex wasn’t sure what would count as a date on the ship. He really didn’t think maintenance-shaft blowjobs would somehow be equivalent to whatever the hell Parsons had with his wife.

“Anyway. So that’s China. I grew up on Khoina—that’s a planet in the next solar system over. Supposedly my family is descended from South Africans,” Parsons pointed to the tip of one of the continents on the map, “but we’ve been on Khoina so long, it’s hard to tell. I got my spacer’s license and started moving around on various ships. Met Xiaoyu. She got a job on Cadmus, and we decided to make that our main hub.”

Alex had grown up on one of the stations orbiting Khoina. It wasn’t too far from Cadmus, in relative terms—you could easily hop from station to station and get there within two years. Not that he and Nick had taken the direct route.

“Once we’ve got comm access again, I’ll show you some vids from Zhuanxu and China.”

Parsons went on with his little geography lesson. Cadmus was dominated with people originally from Germany or Greece. Atalanta used to be owned by the Greek government until they sold it to the same company that ran Cadmus. Somehow every station in this solar system had ties to what Parsons called “Europe,” while Khoina was in a predominantly “North American” zone.

“The old Earth countries don’t really matter that much anymore,” Parsons added. “A few people cling to them, but after so many generations, we really barely count as the same people. So it’s understandable for somebody not to know ancient Earth’s political boundaries.”

Alex looked back down at the map and nodded. Right. Who cared about China or Germany or whatever.

It was kind of nice that Parsons had shown him anyway.

===

Alex woke to a pop song blaring loudly. The tune was unfamiliar, garish, and completely deafening to his tired body. He was still sore from everything Tracht had put him through the previous evening, and he hated that his precious sleep had been interrupted like this.

Tracht didn’t seem to enjoy the alarm much either. He made a disgusted noise and fumbled around in the dark.

“I hate comm space,” Tracht muttered. The sound kept going.

Finally Tracht turned on the soft bedside light—still much too bright for Alex—and grabbed his tablet from the night stand. He hit a few buttons and said shortly, “Do you know what time it is?”

A woman’s voice responded with, “Of course not. The time difference is never the same.”

Alex sat up a bit so he could look at the screen. A woman with pale skin and long, wavy black hair stared back at them. Her makeup was impeccable, and the jewelry on her ears and around her neck spoke of considerable wealth. She looked of a similar age to Tracht, and something about how she smiled reminded him of Tracht.

“I can’t see you. Is your camera on? Or is it lag?”

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