I was going to have to have a look at that as soon as possible. I watched the screen for a moment longer. “And he’s big,” I continued my commentary, as the huge man followed the rest of the group towards the exit. Broad shoulders, thick muscles. Combat specialist was looking like a very likely classification for him. I glanced over my shoulder at Kade. When I’d first met him, I’d been very impressed with his skills, but the more interesting thing had been that he’d been specifically programmed to protect his master, even if doing so meant disobeying any other order I gave him. I had a sneaking suspicion that this new dimari might be similar. And if so, it would take some careful questioning to find out exactly what instructions he’d been given.
I watched as the group travelled through the hallways, security guards blocking any of the relevant exits, until the eight new dimari strode single file into the conference room. Henderson followed them in, closing the door behind them. That was all I needed to see from here, so I moved to stand up… but then I had a better idea.
“Can you link the conference room camera to my comm?” I asked Toros, knowing that Henderson would likely approve of the idea. “It would be good if we can monitor what’s going on inside without needing to actually go in there.” On a normal day, the conference room cameras were not in operation, due to the need for privacy. But there were cameras installed in the rooms, in case of the need for emergency viewing.
“Sure thing,” Toros said, and a moment later, my comm lit up as a request for access came through. I accepted the request, then sat back while he worked his magic.
Military grade comms were remarkable pieces of technology. They could be used for mapping terrain on missions, viewing infrared or ultraviolet light, scanning wounds to recommend the best field dressing, or in this case, connecting to security systems to monitor fragile situations. A standard civilian comm was a far simpler device, though even those still had a multitude of functions.
“You’re good to go,” Toros informed me, a short time later. “Let me know if anything interesting happens. Particularly with Mr Midnight, there. I’m always up for a good bit of gossip.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said, shooting him a token grin as I stood up, Kade standing up automatically at the same time. “Come on, Kade. Let’s go see what the damage is.”
CHAPTER THREE
AIDEN
Well, I could certainly say I was getting plenty of exercise today, I thought wryly, as Kade and I jogged through the hallways towards the conference area of the administration wing. So far, it all looked like everything had gone off without a hitch. We got to the door of the conference room and I thought about activating the camera feed on my comm… but then thought better of it. As much as I believed that Henderson would be okay with me having access to it, the polite thing would be to inform him before I started inadvertently spying on him.
But at the same time, I was desperately curious – and concerned – to know what was going on inside the room. The journey from the docking bay had looked peaceful enough, but I couldn’t rule out the idea that something minor had gone wrong, but that it wasn’t important enough for Henderson to bother me with it until the rest of the dimari were settled.
The waiting felt like an eternity, but in reality, it would have been less than five minutes later that the door opened again and Henderson came outside. “Everything went exactly according toplan,” he said, which had me breathing a sigh of relief. “Major Toth is giving everyone a check over to make sure they weren’t injured when the Eumadian ship was destroyed. We’ve told them that the ship was attacked by pirates, just so they don’t spend too much time wondering about the commotion.”
“Good thinking,” I said, relieved all over again that Henderson was so familiar with the requirements of the dimari. Dimari operated under the belief that they had been bought by a particular master, and that the master they met was necessarily the one who had personally chosen them from the Eumadians’ catalogue. Finding out that they’d been adopted by accident tended to be quite traumatic for them.
“Aside from that, I’ve told them that we’ll be contacting their masters to let them know they’ve arrived, and that they should be here within the next couple of days to collect them. And I’ve taken a copy of all of their operations manuals.” He tapped at his comm, then mine beeped to signal that it had received the file. “Probably the best thing to do next is for you to sort through them all, and then we can start looking for suitable masters. Security should be arriving any minute with the mattresses and some hygiene kits, and I’ve asked the cafeteria to send up a meal for everyone.” He gave me a hopeful smile. “So it looks like we’re all under control. For the time being, at least.”
“Sounds great. Just one other thing; I got security to patch my comm into the conference room camera. Is that okay with you?”
Henderson nodded. “An excellent idea. I’ll ask them to do the same for mine. Oh, but while you’re here, I thought I might ask… The big, black one. That’s not the usual colour for a dimari on arrival, is it?”
“Certainly not,” I said. “I’m hoping there’s something in his operations manual about that. I’ll start with him, and then sort through the rest of them. We’ll need to start prepping theirmasters to adopt them early tomorrow morning, so hopefully I can pin down a few likely candidates before then.
“Good lad,” Henderson said, smiling at Kade as well, since he knew that Kade would be just as instrumental in that process as I was. “I’ll leave you to it, then. Let me know if you need anything.”
He lumbered off, and I headed for my office. Once upon a time, I’d have had to find a desk in the common room, where a collection of consoles sat in a shared space for anyone to use. But since being assigned as the Dimari Protection Officer, I’d been given my own office – a fact that I was immensely grateful for now.
Inside, I sat down at the main desk, while Kade took a seat at a second console by the wall. It was a configuration we were used to working in, given that Kade needed to read any given document in the Eumadian script, rather than in Alliance common. I linked the two consoles, so that he could see what I was looking at, but his console would translate it for him.
“First up, I’m just going to make a list of the various different specialties the dimari have been trained in, and then we can start looking at specifics,” I explained to him. “And if you come up with any useful ideas as we go along, I’m more than happy for you to interrupt me.” In all likelihood, we’d been together for long enough that Kade would interrupt me anyway. But giving him explicit permission to do things had become a habit, and I liked to think it smoothed over various situations that could otherwise have been unwieldy.
I opened the first of the files. Henderson had noted down each of the dimari’s names, though at this point that didn’t really mean much to me, and he’d made a few cursory notes about which of them was which, though the information was limited to the colour of their scales and how tall they were. At this stage, there really wasn’t much else to distinguish each of them.I started making notes of their training – domestic servant; domestic servant; pilot; nurse; another domestic servant; a domestic companion – a role that was similar to a domestic servant, but with a greater focus on navigating social occasions; an erotic companion… I cringed when I read that one. Given that the Alliance was very much against slavery in the first place, finding a suitable home for someone who had specifically been trained as a sex slave was even more complicated. We’d need to find a home where the dimari would feel that their long years of training were appreciated, at the same time as not letting them get exploited. And finally, the last file, which belonged to the jet black dimari, listed him as a combat specialist – absolutely no surprises there – but at the same time, he was also an erotic companion.
What?
I made a few noises, the beginnings of words quickly cut off again, as I tried to process that. Then I highlighted the line on the console, bringing Kade’s attention to it. “I’ve never heard of a dimari with two specialties before,” I said, looking quizzically at Kade. “Is that normal? Is that a thing the Eumadians do?” Given how much time and effort went into training the dimari inoneskill, I couldn’t understand how they could manage to train someone in two skills.
Kade had been loosely following along as I went, but now, he peered more closely at the holographic screen, then scrolled down, reading more of the details of this particular dimari’s training. His name was Jai, I noted in passing, and there didn’t seem to be anything in the introductory paragraph about why he was presenting himself with his black colouration.
“It’s not something I’ve ever seen before,” Kade said, still frowning at the screen. “And the number of skills he’s been taught makes no sense. All dimari are trained with a certain level of sexual skills, but there were things my trainers wanted me todo that they had to abandon, because taking the time to teach me those things would have hindered my combat training. Combat specialists and erotic companions are the most difficult dimari to train, because while they have a natural affinity for their type of work, there are necessarily certain parts of the job description that they would have an aversion to. Learning to shoot a gun was exciting. Learning to tolerate being shot at was…” He hesitated, then finished the sentence with, “…not pleasant.”
The comparisons to an erotic companion were easy to see. Any particular person might find edging very pleasurable, for example, but find bondage daunting. And the average erotic companion was trained in a wide variety of skills that would stretch outside their own particular interests or kinks.
I considered the implications of that for a moment. “So do you think it’s likely that Jai was custom trained for a specific owner?” Kade himself had been customised by his intended owner, for all that he’d never got the chance to serve her.
“Very likely,” Kade said. “But there’s nothing in his contract of sale about what in particular he’s going to be expected to do, or why the buyer wanted those two skill sets in one person. Surely it would have been easier to buy one combat specialist and one erotic companion. For the price they paid, they could surely have afforded both.
That was something I hadn’t even considered yet, and I glanced at the screen, running my eyes down to the price tag… “Holy fucking shit!” I muttered. One hundred and eighty thousand credits. Kade himself had cost one hundred and fifty thousand, and I’d thought at the time that it was an astronomical sum. “Definitely a customised purchase,” I said, mostly to myself. “Well, I hate to say it, but finding him a suitable owner is going to be challenging. Given his combat skills, it would almost certainly have to be someone in the military. But findingsomeone who’s also willing to take on an erotic companion is going to be tough.”
