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She’d had crushes, but she’d never been engrossed so quickly in anyone.Threeanyones, no less. They had an appeal beyond the all-important love for music: sweet, enthusiastic Jemi; rough, protective Rusp; intent and occasionally authoritative Sherv.
“I shouldn’t see them again,” she whispered to herself. If Dolores or Donald discovered she’d spent hours alone with them…
Fausto spoke in her head. “We die anyway. Why should we fear taking chances?” He’d said it often when he was gently remonstrated by Irene or others…not so gently by Valentina…for his attentions to women, which teetered on the edge of acceptable behavior. He lived with gusto, but he was the beloved Fausto.
Irene was Irene. A woman. Despite her growing recognition in opera circles, she couldn’t attain the liberties of the company’s star. Even Valentina, famous in her own right, kept herself reined in for the most part. When she couldn’t, it was Fausto’s interventions that kept her safe, rather than her own celebrity.
It had been stupid to go to the club to watch Certain Death perform, cataclysmically asinine to spend hours on their ship in their company, no matter how innocent their interactions. Irene had pushed her luck to the limits. If she had an iota of sense, she’d avoid Sherv, Rusp, and Jemi from now on.
Yet she felt something in her coming to life. It was a spark she’d thought had died when she’d been taken from her parents to live in New York for the pleasure of the government and Church, to develop the talent she’d been born with. It was an unfurling of a bloom closed to protect its fragility once she’d learned what meant everything to her could be ripped from her in an instant.
It was mostly the music, the amazing discoveries of new sounds with Clan Sherv…but there was also the precious kinship she’d found in likeminded souls. The combination was a siren song, deadly but irresistibly calling forth the impulse to live dangerously, to take the ultimate chance.
* * * *
“After last night, how can you look so grim, my Nobek?”
Rusp looked up from his computer’s holographic display, wavering over the device he’d brought to the dining table to peruse as he’d eaten his breakfast.
He glanced from Sherv, who was sorting through the meal options in the cooling unit, to check the time. It wasn’t breakfast but lunch, if he went by the clocks of those who didn’t make their living at night.
Jemi wandered in, shirtless and yawning. “Last night was fantastic. Do you think there’s any chance Irene will join us tonight? Hey, you know what I’m going to do today? Study English. All day long, so don’t expect anything else out of me. When she shows up, I’ll be able to say stuff that makes sense.”
“I wouldn’t bet on seeing her again. If she’s smart, she’ll stay the fuck away from us.” Rusp turned his attention to his monitor and the awful information he’d discovered.
He was a Nobek, tougher than tough, but what he’d found made him sick. His half-eaten meal churned uneasily in his guts.
“What are you talking about?” Sherv closed the cooler and joined him at the dinette. After a moment, Jemi did as well.
“Remember her talking about being killed if she was caught with us? That’s only the beginning of the story.” Rusp shut off the monitor and looked at his clanmates. “Her government wouldtortureher to death if she was caught.”
“But…why?” Jemi looked more confused than horrified by the revelation. Disbelief protected him.
Rusp wasn’t surprised. What he’d learned after researching why Irene might have made such a claim was damned near unfathomable.
“Their religion is in charge of the government. Their Church has a strict moral code, especially for women. And by strict, I mean fucking fanatical.” When Sherv and Jemi appeared more perplexed, he spelled it out for them.
“In their religion, women are the source of sin. If a man feels lust for a woman, it’s because she’s tempted him somehow. If he rapes her, it’s her fault. If she has sex besides her clanmate…what they call ‘marriage’…even if it’s forced on her, she’s convicted of lewd behavior. If she’s only suspected of having an affair, she might be tortured to admit her guilt, then she’s sentenced to a forced labor camp where she’s beaten and worked to an early death.”
For a few seconds, his clanmates simply sat there, their expressions frozen in disbelief. Dismay crept over Sherv’s features first.
“Are you sure? I mean…how is it possible? Women are lifebringers. They give us our existence. They have the qualities of Dramok, Nobek, Imdiko, and beyond. What madness would see them as less?”
“Maybe it’s because women aren’t rare on Earth? Which brings me to the other danger Irene faces hanging around us.” This part was easier for Rusp to talk about. “I did some digging. The reason Earthers tend to keep clear of Kalquorians is because our government asked theirs about the possibility of testing for breeding compatibility.”
Perhaps an inability to comprehend the earlier news was why gentle Jemi focused on this piece of information. “They think our species are that similar? But if our scientists and doctors are asking about breeding with another species, then we’re in real trouble. As in extinction.”
“What I want to know is how it impacts Irene.” Sherv wasn’t one to shy from bad news.
Rusp licked his lips. “Earth rejected Kalquor’s request. Not only did they say no, but they made it criminal for their people to approach us. Their government has been churning out a huge propaganda program ever since, labeling Kalquorians as evil products of a malevolent supernatural being called adevil.”
“You mean like a spirit? Like the creation force, the Mother of All, but bad?” Jemi was struggling to understand.
“The religion part doesn’t matter. What matters is, if Irene’s people discovered she’d visited us in the club...never mind coming back to the ship…she’d be arrested and tortured. Probably executed.”
“I can’t comprehend this.” Sherv’s sickened demeanor said he understood all too well.
It was Jemi who couldn’t wrap his mind around it. “But Irene did nothing wrong. It isn’t like we had sex. Sex isn’t bad anyway, if she had. It’s just…sex.”
