Page 38 of Alien Barbarian's Little Human

The door slides shut behind me. I’m surrounded by opulence and convenience, but everything feels strange. The riot I encountered seems to have tainted my perception of everything.

Then there’s the whole jalshagar thing. I never took those legends seriously. But here I am living one. The research community is split fifty fifty on what, exactly, the jalshagar bond does or doesn’t do. It seems to be one of those murky ‘can’t be fully measured by our current instrumentation’ type of deals.

Not much help for someone like me, stuck in the throes of it all. Spicy novels are one thing, but having a destined man just fall into your lap isn’t something they trained me at the academy for.

I’d gone in as an officer straight out of university. Military intelligence, never supposed to see the bad end of a battlefield. But intelligence turned out to be too dull, too confining. I asked for a transfer to the diplomatic core.

One crash course in alien cultures later, and here I was, trying to negotiate an impossible treaty with a man who may or may not be my soulmate.

It’s not like Varona is ugly. Far from it. Not only is he aesthetically pleasing, he exudes a natural, unforced sensuality. His purple eyes call to me from a place beyond time and dreams, a place I can’t quite remember but can never fully forget.

I decide to give up surfing the holo web hoping for answers to my dilemma. There’s a lot more information about how to induce it or find it than reverse it.

At least the bedding feels nice, soaking up the tension from my body. I lay there in my uniform, too tired to undress. Interstellar travel takes a hidden toll on the body, or so I’ve been told.

Unfortunately, I can’t quite get to sleep. Fiery thoughts of Varona mingle with my dreams of a horned lover. It’s more of a relief than a nuisance when I get an incoming call from IHC command.

I dig out the holocom and sit up on the bed. After turning the filter to ‘just woke up’ to smooth out my appearance, I accept the comm. The green globe resolves into the features of a wizened human male with dark gray eyes.

“Ambassador Boyd,” I say crisply. “How can I be of assistance?”

“Did you meet with the Ishani ambassador yet?” he says by way of greeting.

“I did.”

“You sound hesitant.”

“It’s not that, I was just taking a power nap. Negotiations are set to continue tomorrow morning.”

It’s something of a lie. I have a brunch date with Varona, that could be seen as a negotiation.

“Early morning or late?”

“Late.”

“I’ll expect a progress report immediately upon completion of this negotiation session. We must get the ishani to sign the treaty.”

“I know how important it is, Ambassador. I won’t let you down.”

“See that you do not. If the Ishani put their support behind the Ataxians, it will box the Alliance into a corner. Since we’re officially allies of the Alliance, if not a member, this puts us at odds as well.”

“I know, Ambassador. I’ll do my best.”

“Your best isn’t good enough. Do better than your best. Get the job done or I’ll find someone who will. Boyd out.”

I sigh as the screen returns to a green globe.

“Thanks for the pep talk, boss. I feel so much more confident in my ability to get the job done now.”

The truth is, there’s probably no way to convince the Ishani to sign a treaty with the IHC. They aren’t dopes. They know what that alliance would mean on the political spectrum.

I spend most of the night getting sleep in fits and starts. I dream of the horned barbarian lover, as usual. But I dream of something else. A living gray cloud, relentless and indefatigable, pursuing me until I’m too tired to run any longer.

I’m already awake and dressed when the alarm on my compad goes off. I turn it off and stifle a yawn, Vakutan coffee in my hand as I head off to meet Varona.

Fortunately I don’t have to go back out onto the streets. It looks like the protesters and counter protestors from yesterday are back. This time, they’re not resorting to violence. I suppose they learned a lesson from Ishani's easy smackdown.

But then again, I notice more than a few in the crowd wearing headphones. I’m not sure if that would work or not, but it’s probably a step in the right direction. I’ve never seen anything in the galaxy that’s all powerful. Every hyper intense laser meetsa shield it can’t break, and every unbreakable shield meets a torpedo it can’t withstand.

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