Page 16 of Her Alien Warrior
"Carry a token of her with you, acclimate your body with her scent, her offered fluid. It has been done for many generations before ever bathing with an intended mate. In fact, brother, it is only recent generations that have skipped this step because warriors have become distracted and wait until the last possible second to regulate themselves.
"Now, they take their supplements to avoid rut. They ignore their needs until even the supplement can't rid their adrenaline and they are forced to be restrained or bathe with whoever is around," she was on one of her rants, and by the sounds of it she would go on for a while yet if I didn't divert her attention, "You know, warriors used to take care in selecting their bathing partners, giving a token of interest before they touch them. They are all thirsty sodenmars exposing themselves to whoever accepts, it's a shit throwing mess out there, and you're one of the only decent males out there and not even you are willing to make an effort."
The image of a sodenmar resting in the sun with their legs lulled open exposing their genitals was not appealing, the animals were odd looking creatures that threw their own feces around at other males, hoping to ruin their competition's chances with a female during their own rut. Being compared to one in the context of mating was an insult. They baked in the sun's heat surrounded by food, and shit, with their cocks erect during mating season for any female that passed to jump on them for a deposit and then leave. For a lucky sodenmar, they were visited by many females as their seed plumes. They did not take mates as we do.
"I'm not unwilling, Rokva. She is asking for the list of warriors agreeable to bathing and wishes to rejoin her Blue District study."
Her mouth closed from what she was about to say, and a familiar glint appeared in her eyes that could lead to no good. It wasn't until she was promoted to commander that she cut back on her mischief, but when it came to me, she held no boundaries.
"If that's what it will take, brother, I will make it happen."
"Make what happen?" I tried to sound disinterested because if I outraged too much it would only cause her stubbornness to harden.
"You'll see." And then she called the security team back in. "Olben," the head of security glared at my sister, but she smiled at him regardless, "add General Sou-el to the list of bathing candidates for medbay, then send the list to the human Renee of Earth's implant. Remove him from the list directly after."
"If this is one of your matchmaking stunts, this is a gross violation of my clearances," Olben said with an eye twitch.
"Ofcourse not. General Sou-el, do you wish to be placed on this list?"
I could not deny that the idea of knowing Renee would choose someone from that list, and I was not on it had me cursing my fate to honor only with wisdom. The silence that consumed the security hold while both my sister and head of security waited for an answer was heavy. If I said yes, I would be putting Renee at risk, and there was no other option.
"I do not qualify for this list," I told him honestly. All applicants for the medbay must pass all optimal physical standards for a bathing ritual, no matter for human or warrior.
Olben's eyes lowered, he understood what I meant. He had forgotten and since he had access to all personnel files, he was fully aware of why I would not qualify, but he did not wish to go against my sister's order directly so he freed us both from the burden as best he could, "Go to medbay and be cleared for the list and I'll add you when the results are sent to me."
"Perfect," Rokva surprised me with the ease in which she accepted this compromise because it would lead to her not getting what she wanted. "General," she smiled at me, her fangs on full display, "I expect you to follow through with your duties should the human pick you from the list. The medic will confirm the safety of what we discussed earlier. Warriors, I have business to attend to, my free time is spent for the rotation."
When she left, Olben spoke again, "I shouldn't be saying this, but the commander has been acting more strange than normal.You are her brother, perhaps you can find out if something is upsetting her?"
"I wouldn't call this her most mischievous of displays," I countered, and he didn't appear convinced.
The other security officer chuckled, and Oblen growled at her to stay quiet.
He cracked his wrists before he turned in his seat. I thought that was the end of the discussion, but he spoke with his back to me as he typed on his screen. "She has marked the security room with her blood like an elder hut over a sacred dwelling as if the goddess will protect our ship from outlaws or security breaches. Her blood will no more protect us than the elder's blood protects the tribe from fire. It is nonsense and distracting for the real reason this ship will be safe, which are our efforts here, looking for loopholes and detecting viruses."
"What he means to say is he likes the smell of her blood, and he is having trouble concentrating," the other security officer, whom I was not familiar with teased. "I've seen him salivating to lick it, but he is a prude that doesn't want to risk rut or using the medbay services."
"Novek," Olben warned. "She is our commander; we will honor her by respecting consent."
"He won't let me lick it either," Novek fake pouted, then she licked her lips like she'd attempt to merely to get a rise out of our head ofsecurity.
Olben spun in his seat and then glared at me, an easy target for his troubles.
I hadn't even noticed the scent of my sister's blood until he made mention of it. It did permeate the room, but I was so used to her scent that I had dismissed the difference between her being here recently, and her blood dried on the threshold.
Chapter six
Renee
Aminor headache was making concentrating on anything difficult, and I didn't really have much I needed to be focused for. I couldn't even enjoy watching Earth from the observation deck, without feeling the queasiness of staring out into space and needing to close my eyes despite the beauty of the planet. We would be disembarking from Earth's rotation as soon as every shuttle was accounted for, and I wouldn't get to see this again for a year, but it would feel like only a few months for me, as some of that time would probably be in stasis, especially for the returntrip.
Briefly, I thought about returning to General Sou-el's office to rest, since I didn't have an assigned living space yet, but an image of him walking off after saying he didn't have need of a mate, and his sister clearly making an effort to set us up squashed that idea. My next choice was to go to my daughter's room, but I saw how cramped her space was. That closet was just big enough to have two people sitting butt-to-butt cheek on her couch to cuddle for a movie, and her bed atop that was big enough to fit one large warrior if they didn't move.
That should have been enough room for us to cuddle up, and might have worked if she were Laurel, but Becky was not an easy sleeper. I learned fairly quickly that no matter how big the bed was... Becky would make sure I either fell off the side, or ended up kicking me in the back. Sleepovers would have ended when she was five years old if I didn't discover the secret pillow technique of wrapping my arm around a pillow and her until she passed out, and then using that forcefield to stop her from kicking me out of the bed. I hoped her bed came with straps to make sure she didn't fall off the bed herself.
A passing trill officer was kind enough to greet me and show me the way to the medbay. I wouldn't know their name to thank them, as they rarely gave their names to anyone unless they felt they would be communicating with you frequently. Even the trill who facilitated at the exchange office only showed a clearance card when going about their business. Joel said it was better to simply refer to them all as the trill and do my best to avoidtheir snobbery. This one was very kind and spoke in poetic reference to eyes and something about the forest, then proceeded to tell me the next time I see them to place my pinky to my forehead and fan my fingers just so as a sign of greeting and gratitude for the goddess.
It was becoming a commonality that the trill and necia warriors referenced a goddess often and had a belief system that I should probably learn more about as I wasn't sure if they were referencing the same goddess or different ones as they were different species.
