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“Help me suit up,” she said. She looked up at Thuliak, trembled, and shook her head, then forced her gaze back down into the locker.
“We have important matters to discuss,” Thuliak said, voice booming. “Do you speak on behalf of High Command or not? I was told I’d speak with someone who had the authority of Even behind her.”
Emissary had the chest piece of her suit in her hands, but she paused and looked up at Thuliak. “I did represent High Command, but not anymore. I’m tainted.”
Thuliak laughed. “So what then? With whom can I speak?”
Emissary shook her head and shrugged. She moved drowsily, like she might just fall asleep before she got her suit on. Like she’d given up entirely. All the strength and fight was sapped right out of her.
“I’m sorry, Airlock,” she said. “We can’t overlook this. Not for either of us. This isn’t what we were prepared for.”
“What?” I said, looking frantically from her to Thuliak, not sure of which was more likely to be able to help me, or which of the two I should be the most afraid of.
She slid the torso piece onto her shoulders, then fished around for the arm pieces to socket into the chest piece. “Human men are…less than this.” She looked right down at Thuliak’s cock—which wasn’t even hard right now—and shook her head. “Human males aremuchless than this. This is…not even the strongest woman in High Command could resist this. I’m drafting a warning right now through my implants. Wecannothave any contact with this species of alien. Under any circumstance. It will be the end of Eden as we know it.”
Thuliak growled. “I came here fordiplomacy, woman, how can I do diplomacy if you will not let me speak to anyone with authority?”
“What’s going on?” I asked, suddenly feeling like a scared and stupid little girl. It was like Thuliak and Emissary were the two adults in the room, but they didn’t get along, but I needed one of them to tell me what was going to happen to me so I could stop feeling so scared and uncertain.
“We have to go into exile,” Emissary said. “We’ll suit up and walk to the cryo skiffs on the belly of the ship. We’ll launch ourselves to the nearest colony, and…” She shook her head. “And in several centuries we’ll reach the nearest world, a world with human men and women all intermingled. The men might be able to satisfy us, but after seeing him, I doubt either of us will ever truly be satisfied. It will be a cold, lonely life for us, Airlock, but it must be done.”
Thuliak grinned from ear to ear, his earlier anger disappearing entirely. “You two little humans arethisattracted to my form?”
Emissary and I both gulped audibly. Thuliak laughed. It was a deep and booming laugh, but it was playful and charming at the same time. I couldn’t help but smile, and when Emissary smiled too, I felt embarrassed for both of us. We were both soft and impossibly weak. Somehow I doubted a woman from a planet other than Eden would be so hopeless against Thuliak, even if he was “more man” than a human man.
Still staring at Thuliak’s naked body, Emissary shook her head and muttered to me. “Help me suit up, Airlock. Isn’t it ironic that two Eves will have to go into exile together. We can choose new roles once things settle down. The skiff doesn’t even have an airlock on it, and I think we’ll both have to act as emissaries on whatever colony world takes us in.”
“But you’re High Command,” I whispered.
“Not anymore,” she said, shaking her head, “the only good thing is that only two of us were tainted. Somehow I have to wonder if he knew.”
She narrowed her eyes at Thuliak.
“Knew what?” he growled. “That you were too weak-willed to resist even looking at me?”
“When he phrases it like that,” I whispered to Emissary Eve, “it makes us sound really pathetic.”
She frowned and nodded.
“I didn’t know,” he said, “I thought we’d negotiate. I thought some number of you women would be willing to come with us right away, but it seems I’m only getting two?”
Emissary and I looked at each other. Both of our mouths were hanging open. Maybe it was presumptuous of me to talk over Emissary, but she said she wasn’t in charge anymore. “You heard her, Thuliak, we are going to find another colony world. We have to go into exile because our inclinations have been tainted by your biology.”
“Do your laws,” he said, grinning wide, “specify where you must go into exile?”
Emissary Eve’s face had gone completely red, and then it hit me a few seconds later what he was implying. Oroffering. Or maybe he was threatening? I didn’t know this alien man well enough to be able to say for sure what his real intentions for us were.
Something hissed, and we both looked up to see the door at the far end of the hall swinging out and open.
Emissary Eve may not have considered herself still in charge, but she definitely shouted with a voice that said she was still in charge. “Donotstep forward! Back away and keep your eyes closed!”
Whoever it was didn’t listen. She stepped forward, a pulse rifle in hand. It was Weapons Sojourner—I could see her face clearly through her suit’s faceplate—and she managed to get the rifle up and pointed at Thuliak. She only held the gun on him for a second or two before she trembled and dropped it. She fell to her knees.
“I told you to back away!” Emissary shouted, “Goddess! Did you see him?”
Sojourner just nodded. Of course she saw him. Why else would she have dropped her gun? “I thought…I thought you were under duress, Emissary Eve. I thought I read a hidden message in your emergency code.”
“So I get three?” Thuliak said, and it sounded like his voice was pointed at me.
