“I said we may as well get something to eat, since we didn’t know what time you’d be getting back, and that all the meals are provided as part of your military service,” Soka filled me in. She was aware that newly bonded dimari were sometimes confused about local customs and apprehensive about making a bad first impression.
“And that’s absolutely true,” I told Jai. “It’s perfectly fine if you’ve already eaten. Once Kade and I have finished, I’ll get Kade to give you a more thorough rundown on the way things work around here. I need to have an emergency meeting with Henderson… Actually, that’s a good point…” I set down my fork and typed a quick message into my comm, letting Henderson know that we needed a meetingurgently.
“What was the issue with Cole?” Soka asked. “Henderson didn’t say, he just said it was important. Is there something wrong with his dimari?”
“I can’t talk about it,” I said, gently but bluntly. “It’s…” I searched for words that might describe the situation without giving away any classified information, but quickly gave up. “Xel’s fine. He’s doing well. But there’s an adjacent issue that could be a serious problem. That’s really all I can say about it.”
“Fair enough,” Soka said, not the slightest bit put out. “I’ve been in the military long enough to know how that works. If you’re all set with Jai, I might get on with a few other things this afternoon?”
“You go ahead,” I dismissed her. “I can take it from here.” She got up and headed for the door, and I turned my attention to Jai, even as I continued shovelling food into my mouth. I’d chosen a bowl of camel curry, and as hungry as I was, it tasted heavenly, even if this was far from a gourmet restaurant.
“Okay, so there’s going to be a lot of details to fill you in on over the next few days,” I said to Jai. “But one of the first issues is that in the Alliance, we typically use the term ‘sir’ as being a respectful way of addressing men. For women, it’s ma’am. I address people of a higher rank than me as sir. People in a team I’m leading address me as sir. So from now on, I’d like you to call me sir, rather than master.”
“Yes, sir,” Jai replied, and something about his tone made me look twice. Very often, when I’d asked dimari owners to give their dimari a similar order, the dimari had responded with eagerness, or in some cases, open relief. Quite a few of the dimari had already realised that ‘master’ was not an appropriate term in the Alliance, and had felt uneasy about using it, despite not knowing what a good alternative might have been. But Jai sounded almostangryabout the order. I glanced at Kade, knowing he would be paying close attention to Jai’s behaviour and body language, even without having been asked to. We’d already had several discussions about Jai’s behaviour in the conference room, and given what he’d said about wanting tohave a dimari as a friend, I knew he’d be taking mental notes in order to do whatever he could to help ease Jai into his role.
“I was also wondering why you’re maintaining your scales as black,” I said next, keeping my tone light. I didn’t want to imply that Jai was doing anything wrong, at the same time as I was genuinely concerned about his welfare. I knew enough about the Eumadians’ training methods to know they could have some very twisted ways of viewing the galaxy, and I was bracing myself to find out how that might have messed Jai up a bit.
But he merely shrugged. “It’s a good colour for blending in for combat situations,” he said, almost dismissively. And that, too, was odd. Dimari were not dismissive by nature. So that told me there was certainly more to the decision than he was telling me. I could order him to tell me exactly why he was doing it, but that wasn’t a good strategy for building trust.
“Were you specifically instructed to be black for your meeting with your master?” I asked, hoping to get a bit more information without being too dictatorial.
“No, sir,” he said… with no further embellishment whatsoever.
Okay, I honestly wasn’t sure what to do next. Jai wasn’t following any of the rules I’d learned about dimari behaviour over the past year. Initially, dimari were usually timid, eager to please, and quick to apologise if they misunderstood some social nuance. But Jai was being almost confrontational, and I didn’t have a clue what to make of that.
But then again, he was a combat specialist. Kade, too, had had an unusual level of confidence when I’d first met him. He’d made a number of decisions in combat without my input, and then once we’d got home, he’d done everything he could plausibly get away with to try and seduce me in the shower.
I decided to simply offer Jai some direction for the moment, while I figured out what was going on in his head. “Okay, wellin combat, you’re absolutely right, black is good for blending in, and you’re free to choose whatever colour you think is most suitable in a dangerous situation. But around the base and out in the city, Kade usually sticks to brown – if you’re able to do a decent brown, that is. I know some dimari struggle with that particular colour. Or some others turn themselves purple. That way, most people mistake them for a Solof.”
“Yes, sir,” Jai said, and I waited to see which colour he’d choose. Back when I’d first adopted Kade, I’d tried to avoid giving him too many specific orders, preferring that he make his own decisions. But Kade had very patiently explained to me that making too many decisions was very stressful for a dimari, and he was far more comfortable being told what to do. In this case, I hoped the decision was simple enough – brown or purple, rather than giving Jai completely free rein over what colour he should be.
But Jai did neither. Instead, he remained the same midnight black. He wasn’t evenattemptingto appease me. That wasn’t something I’d ever come across before. I was aware that, technically speaking, I hadn’t actually given him an order. I’dsuggestedthat he choose between brown or purple. But most dimari – hell,allthe dimari I’d met in person – had been eager to please their masters, and had jumped on any opportunity to adjust their behaviour to something their masters liked better.
“Jai, stand up,” I said to him, looking him in the eye. He did so immediately. “Sit down,” I said next, and he did so. Based on that response, there was no issue with the bonding compulsion. A bonded dimari shouldn’t be capable of disobeying a direct order from their master, and Jai hadn’t even attempted to resist – which was as things should be.
But Jai was most certainly not only capable, but willing to disregardsuggestions.
But rather than blaming Jai, I was now sure this was something to do with the training the Eumadians had forced him through, and as such, I knew that disciplining Jai for his behaviour would only be compounding whatever negative associations he already had.
A moment later, though, I stopped and took a look at my own behaviour. Jai had been waiting in the conference room for nearly three days before I’d claimed him, and given that I worked right here on this base, from his perspective, there was no obvious reason why I’d taken so long to collect him. And then, within five minutes of meeting him, I’d bailed and left him here while I went off to take care of other business. Dimari typically needed immediate affirmation and reassurance from their masters, and I’d failed miserably to provide much of either, regardless of the fact that circumstances had been beyond my control. Dimari or not, he would be within his rights to be feeling a little resentful about that.
“I’m really sorry about the less than ideal circumstances at the moment,” I said to him. “This week seems to have been nothing but a series of emergencies, so I’d love to be spending some proper time with you at the moment, but unfortunately, I’ve still got a couple more urgent meetings this afternoon. So I’m going to get Kade to give you some more information about me and the base and where we live, and then this evening, we’ll all head home together and at that point, if you have any more questions, you’ll be more than welcome to ask them. You can ask Kade whatever you like as well… Hang on, I don’t think I even introduced you,” I said, realising that the two of them hadn’t even met before we’d had to leave to see Cole. “Kade is my bonded dimari. I’ve owned him for-”
“He’s a combat specialist and you’ve had him for nearly two years,” Jai interrupted me, looking entirely unimpressed.
I froze, holding my breath as I fought back the automatic anger and indignation at his interruption. Dimari didnotinterrupt their masters.
“I guess Soka already gave you the rundown,” I said, managing to keep my tone even. About two seconds later, the anger evaporated, and I decided we had a much bigger problem than Jai just wanting to change a few of his routines or being upset about interruptions to our schedule. This was open defiance, to the extent that a dimari was capable of defying his master.
But that wasn’t a problem I could solve while sitting in the middle of the base’s cafeteria. I finished the last few mouthfuls of my meal in record time, then set the bowl aside. The ongoing pressures of my job, though, meant I was going to have to step firmly into my role as ‘master’. “Kade, I need to go and meet with Henderson, and then the Alliance Parliament. I need you to take Jai back to my office, scan his body shape and order him an appropriate selection of civilian clothes, and order a standard civilian comm for him. I also want you to give him a thorough rundown on our normal routines, where we live, and a brief history of the Alliance.”
“Yes, sir,” Kade said, diligent as always.
“Jai, you are to follow Kade’s instructions for the rest of the afternoon, until I come to collect you both. You’re allowed to go anywhere within the base with him, but not outside the base. I’ll likely be a good few hours dealing with the Parliament, so if it gets late enough to be time for dinner, you can both come back here to get something to eat. Kade, any questions?”
“No, sir,” Kade said. He’d slipped easily into ‘mission mode’, the way he did when shit was hitting the fan and we needed to get things done. At home, he’d have been far more likely to express concern over my sudden change of mood or suggest alternatives to my plans.
I deliberately didn’t ask Jai if he had any questions. If it was anything urgent, he could ask Kade, and if it was anything complicated, I didn’t have time to answer it now anyway. “All right, then, I’ll see you later.” I stood up and headed swiftly out of the cafeteria, making a concerted effort to organise all the details in my head about what I needed to tell Henderson. The sooner I got this mess with the Vangravian female out of the way, the sooner I could start solving whatever the hell was going on with Jai.
