Sonya came back a minute later, with three sets of shirts and pants, plus a belt and a jumper, and five packets of olive-green socks. “That’ll do you for now. I’ll let Aiden decide what else you might need. There’s a bathroom just around the corner where you can get changed.”
I nodded, then headed off, changing quickly and folding my grey set of clothes, storing them neatly inside the bag the uniform had come in. My master would need to tell me later what to do with the set – whether to keep it for future use, or throw it away. I’d been taught that most cultures had their own styles and fashions of clothing, and that the Eumadians’ utilitarian garb was rarely appropriate once we landed on our masters’ planets.
But I couldn’t help notice, as I changed, that the bathrooms would also be a convenient place for a brief bout of sex, and I could easily imagine being pushed down onto the cold tiles on my hands and knees while some solider or other took me from behind. Or perhaps they’d bend me over one of the benches, take me two at a time, one from each end. A wave of nausea hit me, and I tied my shoes as quickly as I could, then got out of the bathroom as fast as my legs would take me.
“All set?” Soka asked, with an easy smile, as I rounded the corner back to the desk. “I’ll show you one of the dorm rooms, just so you know what they’re like, but Aiden will have to get one assigned to you.” She led me down a short hall, then swiped her comm over an electronic panel by a plain grey door. The door slid open, revealing an entirely spartan dorm room inside. It contained a single bed and a dresser, but that was all. There was a window, half-covered by a blind, and I could see a courtyard outside with a few tufts of green sprouting out of some plant pots. This, too, seemed a very likely spot for a quick tumble, and I could almost feel the scratchy fabric of the blanket against my face, as my head was pushed into the bed by some powerful man standing behind me.
I nodded, not wanting to spend any more time here, either.
“Well, that’s pretty much it for the tour,” Soka said. She checked her comm. “It’s nearly midday. Let’s head back to the cafeteria for some lunch, then hopefully Aiden shouldn’t be toomuch longer once we’re done there. Any questions before we eat?”
“Are there any other dimari who work on the base?” While she was offering, I may as well take advantage of the opportunity to get some more information.
Soka scrunched up her nose as she thought about it. “There are… hmm… three… no, four others who actually work on the base. There are a few more staff here who own dimari, but they tend to be more like domestic servants, who just take care of things at home. I’m sure you’ll meet the others over the next few weeks. And there’s Kade, of course. He’s Aiden’s other dimari. I don’t think you got a chance to meet him before they had to leave, though.”
“Do you happen to know what Kade’s area of training was?”
“He’s a combat specialist,” Soka said cheerfully. “And my goodness, he’s rightly impressive on a mission. Or, at least, that’s what Colonel Henderson says. I don’t go out on active duty myself. I’m more a behind the scenes kinda gal.” She winked at me and grinned. “But if you need a form filled in or a schedule organised, I’ve got that shit nailed.”
I smiled politely. “What about the others who work on the base? What are their specialties?”
“One’s a pilot – well, he will be working here. He’s one of the ones who arrived in the same crate as you. There’s a mechanic who works on the transporters, and Dax, who’s actually a domestic servant, but his master suffered from some fairly serious injuries, so now Dax works in a support role for injured soldiers, and there’s Til, who’s a medic.”
It was a large base, but only a handful of dimari. Still, having a few of them around made me feel a little less apprehensive. But I noted that none of them were erotic companions. So presumably the base didn’t currently have anyone filling that role. Thatdidn’t bode well for the amount of work I was going to have to do.
“How long has Kade been here?” I asked next. That was a question that really should have waited for my master to return. It was up to him to decide how much he wanted me to know about his possessions. “And has he owned any other dimari before Kade?” What I really wanted to know was whether he was the sort to burn through dimari and then throw them away once they’d passed their usefulness.
“Kade’s been here not quite two years. And no, he didn’t have anyone else before Kade.” Hm. That didn’t tell me anything in particular, except that Kade had clearly survived two years as a combat specialist. It wasn’t a terrible situation, but it also didn’t tell me much about what I should expect.
We’d reached the cafeteria, and Soka led me to the end of the counter, handing me a tray. “All the food is provided free of charge for the staff at the base. And since Aiden owns you now, you’ll be considered staff. So help yourself to whatever you’d like. I know it can be nerve-wracking trying to figure out how everything works when you’ve only just arrived, but please don’t worry. Aiden’s a wonderful master. You’re going to be in very good hands.”
I nodded, unable to come up with anything to say. My master might have been wonderful to Kade, but I had a feeling that my own experience with him was going to be far different.
CHAPTER TWELVE
AIDEN
Idragged myself out of the chopper that had flown us to Cole’s place and back, heading for the cafeteria. My head was throbbing and I wanted to curse at the universe for dropping not one, but two barrels of chaos on me at the same time. Acclimatising Jai to life on Rendol 4 was going to take a significant amount of time and effort, and now I had to worry about planning a colony of Vangravian babies as well.
Cole’s phone call and the subsequent meeting we’d had with Rohinavon, the Vangravian woman, had been shocking, to say the least. Vangravian society was a staunchly matriarchal one, and by Alliance standards, it was at the very dystopian end of the spectrum. It wasn’t just that the women led the society. Rather, they’d decided that males were completely worthless, aside from the handful of them they kept for breeding purposes, and so all male Vangravian babies were sold to the Eumadians to be trained as slaves when they were only a day or two old. Rohinavon wanted to change that, and so she’d pulled off a daring escape from her home planet and was now requesting that the Alliance help her to set up a colony where we couldraise some Vangravian children, and in about twenty years’ time, prove to the whole galaxy that Vangravian males were just as capable and valuable as Vangravian females.
The meeting had been tense, but very informative, and now I needed to explain the entire shit-show to the Alliance Parliament, to find out whether they thought it might be a realistic possibility or not.
But first, I was going to have to brief Henderson, since he’d be handling a lot of the local outworkings of the project if it went ahead, and before that, I needed to get something to eat. And probably a strong cup of coffee.
I debated whether or not I should go and collect Jai first, and that one extra decision was one too many. My brain froze up right there in the middle of the hallway. There were too many details to figure out, too many risks, too many possible outcomes…
“Sir?” Kade prompted me, when I just stopped in my tracks. “Are you all right?”
“No, I just… Shit, I’ve got too much going on at the moment,” I muttered, rubbing my eyes. “We need to get something to eat, but I’ve got to collect Jai as well and finish explaining who I am and what the hell he’s doing here. Running off right after he’d bonded with me was a fucking awful thing to do, and I don’t want to ignore him for even longer, but right now, I can’t even think straight… Fuck, this is the worst timing!”
“If I may make a suggestion, sir?” Kade ventured. “Perhaps we can collect Jai, then we can all eat lunch together, and then you can finish his orientation afterwards. Or if you need to see Colonel Henderson urgently, then I could explain some of Jai’s role to him instead?”
Stars above, I loved having Kade around. He had a way of just cutting through the clutter and making things simpler. “Yeah, that would be fantastic,” I said. “Hold on, I’ll find out from Sokawhere Jai is.” I sent her a quick message and got an almost immediate reply. “Well, that makes things simple. They’re already in the cafeteria.” We headed in that direction, and it was easy to spot Jai and Soka as we came into the room. Jai was still maintaining his jet-black colouring, and that was another thing I needed to talk to him about sooner or later. I waved at them, then Kade and I headed to the counter to choose something to eat.
When we sat down at the table, I managed a weary smile for Soka. “Thanks for looking after Jai. And I’m really sorry for running off right after we’d just met,” I said to Jai, knowing he’d likely be confused by the apology, but I wanted to say it anyway. Masters did not typically apologise to their dimari. “Have you eaten lunch?”
Jai stiffened at the question. “Yes, master,” he replied, looking suddenly fearful. “Soka said…” He trailed off, glancing apprehensively at Soka.
