A Friendly Caper
Chapter Nine - Helena
"This isn't a decision to make lightly," Talis said. "You'll have to give up any dreams of returning to Earth and living a normal life."
"What's a normal life?" I asked. "Seriously. I don't know what that means."
"Neither do I," she said, smiling as we walked the gardens of Cepheus. "When did you decide to be a girl?"
"When I had no other choice. How about you?"
"I always knew I wasn't supposed to be a boy," she said. "My parents hated me for it, but I'm like you. I had no choice."
"You must have been very young," I sighed. "Was it hard?"
"Aside from dealing with my folks?" She stopped walking and looked into my eyes. "No. It wasn't hard at all, not after I met Christian."
Talis meant her boyfriend, her husband now, and the Royal Consort to the Duchess of Cepheus. I hadn't met him yet. We'd just finished our lunch and Ellicent had arranged to have Iris and Anya scanned, whatever that meant. She'd wanted to scan me as well, but Talis said it was unnecessary. We only needed to talk and that's what we were doing, trading secrets and discussing things I'd never shared with anyone except Monica. I suddenly missed her very much.
"I had someone like that," I agreed. "She was like us. You know, a boy? But you wouldn't have believed it. She changed my life."
"You have the same problem I do," Talis decided, smiling as I narrowed my eyes. "We fall in love much too easily."
"Maybe." I watched her out of the corner of my eye. I was two years older, but she made me feel like a child and I had to remind myself that this Duchess wasn't really a 16-year-old girl at all. I wondered what she'd been like before joining with an alien.
"You do," she insisted. "Orion was the same way. Such a gentle soul. Oh! How I wish we hadn't lost him."
"He's dead?"
"Yes and no," she answered slowly. "He was the first human host for Tristam. He's alive in my cousin's memories, but..."
"It's not the same?" I offered, thinking that was probably obvious. I rather thought the Duchess was speaking metaphorically.
"Once joined, we never truly die," she said. "It isn't just memories, it's deeper than that. Orion will live through you. I can't find a better, easier explanation. I'm sorry."
"I don't know," I said as we started walking again. "It all sounds very strange to me."
"It is strange!" Talis laughed. "I've never been to Cepheus, but I was born there."
"Really?"
"My parents both had Cephean hosts," she explained. "I've walked its fields and swam in its streams. I remember growing up. The sounds and smells, the taste of the sunset on my tongue."
"It's a beautiful place," I agreed, looking around us, but she shook her head at that.
"No. This place is only a painting at best," she said. "The real Gardens of Cepheus would take your breath away."
"Heh!" I grinned at her. "That's happened once already today. I don't think I could do it again."
"Slavers," she spat. "Is there anything in this universe so repulsive?"
"But you have slaves," I said. "You told me that Tristam enslaved his own mother."
"Orion did, yes," she admitted with a giggle. "That boy...And I thought my life was fucked up!"
"Oh!" I laughed with her. Talis didn't swear a whole lot and when she did it always shocked me. She looked so innocent otherwise.
I had to constantly remind myself that she'd been the one who had ordered the attack on Earth. The alien inside her had destroyed Paris and my beloved Prince Ibra along with it. The girl, Kelly Michaels, had joined with Talis shortly afterwards, knowing better than most what had happened. Her friends and family had lived in Los Angeles and only Fate had saved the girl from death.
As Fate was saving me, I hoped.
"That's different though," she continued. "Slavery, the legal kind, is an honorable profession and a great many people want to serve the Empire that way."
"You mean they volunteer to be slaves?" I wasn't sure I believed that, but wasn't that what I'd been trying to do?
"Yes. They do," she agreed. "Is it so hard to believe?"
"I suppose not," I shrugged. "The universe is a big place."
"Bigger than you can imagine."
"But you know I've been a slave," I said. "I've been a whore too. Are you sure you want me to be...What did you say before?"
"You'll be a Countess," she said. "Admiral Sareth Contessa de Pleiades will be your proper name and among other things you'll be the High Marshall of the Spinward March."
"Which means what exactly?"
"You'll be responsible for our internal security," she said. "Ransom and Helena will be your closest advisors."
"The black man and the woman in the cartsuit? I mean, uh...."
"Yeah, her." Talis grinned at me. "They'll also be your closest friends, if I'm not mistaken. Don't let Helena scare you off; Orion loved her a great deal."
"You mean Tristam loved her."
"Same thing," she insisted. "And he still does."
"So I'll have no choice in the matter?" I decided to sit down on a stone bench near a fountain.
The marble was covered with rust colored moss and resembled a serpent spitting water down its scales. Above us the yellow sky was clear and the sun a tiny ball of molten gold. A cool breeze stirred the branches of alien trees and birds sang, except they weren't birds at all, but winged lizards in rainbow hues.
"You'll have a choice," she promised, sitting next to me. "You won't have to love anyone, I'm simply saying the memories will be there."
"So how will I know which feelings are really mine?"
"Everything will be yours," she said, reaching for my leg and stroking me through the silk robes I still wore. "That's the beauty of it, and the trap as well, if you're not careful."
"What do you mean?"
"Doubting yourself," Talis said. "That's what happened to William. His spirit, his soul if you will, was weak and couldn't grasp the truth."
"The truth?"
"That everything he felt, everything he loved and hated, was his alone. The illness he suffered comes from within, Sareth."
"I don't understand," I sighed.
"Don't think of it as a joining," she said. "Imagine awakening to a life that's been yours since the very beginning of time."
"Reincarnation?" I rolled my eyes and giggled, but Talis took no offense.
"Sure. Why not? This is the dream," she said. "When you wake up, everything will suddenly make a lot more sense."
"Promise?"
"Yeah." She smiled at me. "I promise. You're the one, Sareth. I can tell. The alien inside me can smell a suitable host from a mile away."
"Maybe I just need a bath," I joked, but the truth was that I believed her.
Every word that Talis uttered seemed to fire something inside me, a gut feeling that this couldn't be coincidence. My life had been engineered to bring me to this moment and I already knew what my answer had to be.
"If you're angry, this is the time to talk about it."
"What?" I looked up from her hand on my thigh. "Angry about what?"
"Your Prince?" she said, lifting her eyebrows. "Paris, New York, all those cities..."
"Oh." I took a deep breath, but didn't say anything.
I wasn't sure how I felt about any of it. The destruction of so many places and people was an abstract thing. It hadn't been on the news. I'd seen no pictures. I hadn't even known anyone who'd died except my Prince and I felt more regret than anger simply because we'd been arguing when last I saw him.
"Do you know how much the alien paid for me?" I finally asked, and Talis shook her head. "Food. A lot of food, tons of it, that's why I was sold. They're starving down there."
"We're working on it," she said. "It takes time and in this case the local customs are working against us."
"Now you really sound like an alien," I decided. "The local custom is called Islam."
"Alright. I'm sorry," she sighed. "You're right and that's another reason I want to keep you with us. I need an understanding voice in my ear, Sareth."
"You're over-estimating my experience, I think."
"Maybe," she shrugged. "Earth is going to be united under a single government in the near future, in all likelihood one based on the Western concept of democracy. My question to you is: How will the Muslim nations react?"
"You're asking me?" I smiled at her. "Don't you guys have like a CIA or something?"
"Or something," Talis agreed lightly. "I want to know what you think, in your gut."
"I don't know," I sighed. "There's no separation between church and state, there can't be, so...Unless the whole planet converts to Islam, I think you're going to have a war."
"Hmmm...." She seemed to consider that for a minute. "What if we give them a planet of their own?"
"Seriously?" I blinked at the girl. "Mecca is on Earth. It can't be moved. Qom, Jerusalem...No, it's all about Faith, not land. The Faithful would die first."
"Yeah," she nodded. "That's our basic assessment as well."
"What are you going to do about it?"
"I'm not sure yet," Talis said, and I wondered if I hadn't caught her first lie.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Ransom," I breathed, calling out before I'd even opened my eyes to see him standing next to my bed.
"I'm here, my Lady," he answered. "How do you feel?"
"I need a locksmith."
"Oh, I don't know," the Lady Helena of Cepheus said. "I think you should keep it like that."
"Will you sleep better at night?" I teased her, taking Ransom's large, black hand and letting him pull me upward on the bed.
"No, Countess. I'm saying that it lends a certain....aesthetic to your otherwise lovely appearance."
"I see," I said with a smile, turning my head to look at the woman and I did feel something stirring deep within my heart.
"Whatever you decide, my Lady, I'm quite sure I'll sleep soundly now that you're feeling better."
"I don't believe her," Ransom whispered loudly, and we shared a smile as Helena frowned.
It was both strange and familiar, sparring with Helena and being wrapped inside Ransom's protective presence. He was my closest friend and she my closest advisor. I'd known both of them for many years and in many guises. I was Tristam's fourth host in as many months and my smile faded as I caught sight of the lifeless, tragic William on a nearby bed. He'd been the wrong choice for many reasons, not least of which was his weak soul. Talis had been right about that and much of what she told me now made perfect sense.
My body was unchanged as I sat completely naked, but not my mind. I had memories, so many of them, good and bad and stretching back over thousands of years. Tristam was old and he'd had many different hosts, both male and female, but I was unique and I could sense his pleasure. Our pleasure as I looked down at my large, firm breasts and flat tummy, my round hips and smooth thighs, and my penis pulled downward to cradle my smooth, silky scrotum.
"Everything is me," I whispered, and I understood the truth that Orion had embraced and Billy rejected.
"My Lady?" Ransom cocked his head.
"I'm Tristam," I said. "Admiral Sareth Contessa de Pleiades."
"Yes you are," he agreed slowly, sharing a look with Helena. "Are you sure you're alright?"
"Never better, my old friend," I promised. "Where's my uniform?"
"What about William?" Helena cleared her throat. "Is he gone?"
There was no answer I could give that she would understand and I only shook my head. My previous host had gone mad with the Chimera and he'd hurt Helena more than anyone else. She was still frightened of him, but I remembered how Billy had come closest to unlocking her secret passions.
Helena.
Tristam had always liked her, as much for her wit and political cunning as anything else, but he'd been an old man for most of Helena's life. Orion had certainly fallen in love with the woman and those feelings had been corrupted. Poor William, so much potential wasted. I suffered none of his anger; the disease had been arrested early enough to save us all from madness. It would take time to rebuild trust with my friends and comrades, however, but that was something we had to contend with every time Tristam changed hosts.
"You don't have to worry about him," I told her. "We need to make arrangements for his funeral, though. He has a family on Earth."
"Of course," Helena agreed, already scratching away at her notebook.
"We'll discuss the details over dinner."
"Dinner?" She looked up sharply.
"Will you dine with me tonight?" I asked without smiling. "We have a lot to talk about."
"Yes, um...My Lady," she nodded, licking her lips nervously. "My apartments?"
"You've read my mind," I said, just as my uniform arrived. "Ahhh...I hope this fits. They've got you delivering laundry these days, Seyasesa?"
I clucked my tongue and the blue nurse smiled, blushing prettily to give her cheeks a lavender hue.
"I don't mind, my Lady," she breathed, teasing me with quicksilver eyes and the delightful swell of her breasts. She wore a white tunic and trousers, the uniform of nurses everywhere it seemed, with her silver hair pinned neatly atop her head.
"I don't either," I said, reaching for her face rather than my uniform. "I'll have to find some way to thank you, I think."
"Would you like me to make a note of that?" Helena asked with feigned innocence, and I'd missed her dry wit greatly.
"No, I think I can remember," I said, stroking Seyasesa's cheek. The woman seemed much more attractive than I remembered for some reason.
"Now that sounds like Tristam," Ransom decided. He was plainly happy to see that I was relatively unchanged where it counted - on the inside. Tristam had always been a terrible flirt.
"Someone is feeling better, I see." Doctor Yes had arrived just behind his daughter, Seyasesa, and I felt no shame.
Not just for hitting on the girl in front of him. I'd done much more than that as Billy, fucking the nurse's face while the good doctor had fucked my girlfriend - Orion's girlfriend - Marcia. He'd fucked me as well, I recalled, and Orion had a great affection for the man. So many memories flooded me all at once, but I didn't fight them. Everything is me, that had become my mantra. Even so, however, the experience proved somewhat disorienting at first.
I wasn't shamed by the presence of the two men, Ransom and Dr. Yes, that's what I mean. I should have been, being female in my heart, if not in body, and one of the Faithful children of Allah. I felt quite the opposite though and rather enjoyed showing off my body. I certainly wouldn't be walking around covered from head to toe the way I had in Riyadh. My thoughts were jumbled and for a moment I was confused by the realization that I couldn't serve my Faith and the Empire both.
Talis had tried to warn me, but such a thing was impossible to grasp until after the joining. Tristam and his kind had no need of religion, being very nearly immortal. A part of me believed we'd evolved beyond such a silly device as God, but my humanity rebelled instinctively and therein lurked the danger. Negotiating my feelings on this subject would be like walking through a mine field.
Thankfully, I had plenty of other things to worry about. Like getting Prince Ibra's padlock off. I briefly wondered if I shouldn't leave it as Helena had suggested, but no...I was going to be needing the full use of my body in the very near future. While Orion had fallen for Helena, the real flame burning in my breast was for Ellicent. I might have been surprised by that, but Tristam's memories were mine and the Rivean vampire and I had shared a torrid love affair once.
I wanted her again.
"Don't cut it," I said. "Just pick the lock."
As silly as it sounds, it isn't easy finding a locksmith aboard a ship where mechanical locks are unheard off. It turns out I needed a surgeon more than I did a locksmith.
"What's that?" I asked, eyeing the thin, needle-like instrument in his hand.
"A vascular spoon," he said. "We use it to regulate blood flow in veins and arteries "
"You use a spoon for that?" Ransom smiled and looked at me.
I shrugged. "It doesn't look like a spoon."
"The spoon will mold itself to the empty space inside the lock and stiffen."
"So it'll turn into a key," I said. "Excellent. Get on with it."
"Does it hurt?" he wondered. "I've never seen anyone bound quite this way before."
"Like a pinch," I replied impatiently. "Are you done yet?"
A barely audible -snick- was my answer and my cock immediately took its more rightful position, half-erect and falling over my left thigh. My balls felt better as well, now that they were no longer tightly cradled in the loving embrace of my manhood. I felt damp down there, however, and sticky with sweat. I needed a bath.
"Would you like me to remove the rings as well, my Lady?"
"Leave the one in her nose," Helena said. "It's interesting."
"Leave them all," I decided, reaching down to fondle my cock.
The smallish ring just under than glans wasn't painful, nor the one behind my scrotum. They were good memories and it didn't take much effort to reach full erection. I pulled gently, squeezing a clear drop of precum from the tip and rather enjoying the way my girlish fingers looked and most especially felt wrapped around the heavy shaft.
"What do you think?" I asked Helena. "Not bad for a girl, huh?"
She didn't reply, but only licked her lips and I noticed a bit of color rising in her cheeks. Cepheans have two hearts and green blood, and much lower body temperatures than humans for some reason. I'd never had much interest in biology, but I'd always been a student of physical response. I'd struck a nerve with Helena and I wondered if she didn't actually prefer me this way.
I knew she had a female slave, I'd purchased the primitive creature myself as a gift, and Helena had taught her some interesting tricks. I wasn't privy to everything, but I'd seen the love bites on my assistant's breasts and thighs. A woman with a real live functional penis might be just what Helena had always dreamed of...Wouldn't that be interesting?
Unfortunately, the woman wasn't about to give her secrets away so easily. Certainly not in front of Ransom and the others. The women of Cepheus, as a general rule, were very private about their sexuality and notoriously difficult to break, but they made the most voluptuous whores! Helena's sister had been ruthless with her lust, a paragon of depravity as they say, but Lady Constance paid for it with her life too...Much as an Arab woman would have, I realized.
"I have work to do," Helena finally said, breathing the words as she turned quickly and left the room.
I couldn't help but admire her small and exceptionally pert, round ass on the way out. Her traditional leather bodysuit hid nothing of her charms and I'd long held the opinion that Cepheans were basically a race of professional cockteasers.
"She's repressed," I sighed.
"She's something, my Lady." Ransom had been watching Helena as well, but I knew my giant friend had no real interest in her.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Wulbraith," I said, smiling sadly at the alien. "Do you have any idea how many laws you've broken?"
"You?" His yellow eyes widened, but his Arabic remained flawless. "What are you doing here?"
"My Lady." Chief Inspector Reyt bowed her head. "The accused has made a full confession. I was just about to pronounce sentence."
The creature's confession had been pulled from his mind by a scanner, a species capable of reading the memories of sentient beings. There were other methods available. A warlock, for example, could slice into a man's mind with psionic scalpels, dissecting every thought, every emotion, until nothing remained. Likewise, there were all manner of drugs and monitoring systems with which to expose a truth and evaluate its relevance, but that was less reliable simply because there is often a marked difference between truth and fact.
"He was trading foodstuff?"
"Yes, my Lady," she agreed. "Low grade produce from the Marajel Sector. We've already recovered his ship, a Grejian bulk carrier."
"Who are you?" Wulbraith wondered. The last time he'd seen me I'd been locked in a stasis tube.
"How much?" I asked.
"The manifest is here," Reyt said, gesturing for a hologram. "How accurate it is, we can't be sure yet."
I watched as the freighter's cargo scrolled past. Ten thousand tons of qoerl, a grain much like wheat. Twelve thousand tons of jume fruit. Five thousand tons of milled loask. Thirty thousand tons of processed protein. And more. A lot more, as the ship was rated at a quarter-million tons and Wulbraith had apparently decided to fill his holds completely. That wasn't unusual for a slaver. He knew what Earth needed and he'd only wanted to make one run, a very profitable one at that. He'd traded for over a thousand human slaves, all female, all from the Middle East.
"Have the slaves been returned?"
"As we speak," Ransom said. "What do you want to do?"
He meant the freighter, of course, and I smiled. "We will honor the agreement," I decided. "Make arrangements to deliver the cargo. Inspector Reyt, you may proceed with sentencing."
"My Lady." She bowed, turning to look at Wulbraith. "For crimes against the Empire, under authority of the Protectorate of the Spinward March and her Mistress High Marshall, I hereby sentence the accused to death."
"No! Wait..." he started to protest, but the Chief Inspector had already given the signal.
Beheading doesn't work on all of the Empire's many races, of course, but it worked well enough in this instance. I almost regretted that I hadn't kicked him in the balls, but we do not practice cruelty in the search for justice. It was enough to see the slaver's head roll across the floor.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
I had paperwork to do. A mountain of it. I had meetings and conferences, budgets to review and approve, personnel issues to examine, operational plans and briefings. My office was a large one. I had deputies and assistants, commissioners, chief inspectors, and a police force that rivaled the Imperial Order of Janissaries in sheer numbers. The High Marshall didn't police mere planets, however, but entire systems and all the empty space between.
With a single notable exception -- Earth. A planet quite incapable of policing itself for the time being.
"Have you decided on a ruler yet?" I asked Talis. Not my first meeting of the day, but the most important one.
"We intend to elevate the Canadian Prime Minister," Ellicent answered. "Of our limited choices, she presents the most favorable in terms of political reliability."
"I'll invest her with a Barony," Talis said. "Everybody likes Canada."
We shared a smile, but no one else in the room understood the comment. Madame Linda Faye Cormier was a mature, handsome politician who had found herself in the unenviable position of being Canada's Prime Minister when the aliens had arrived. Doubtless she'd imagined herself at the pinnacle of her profession, but in a few weeks she'd find herself the titular ruler of Earth and the Sol System.
She would need a lot of help and the fact was that for the next fifty years or so Earth would be governed from this room. The Baroness and her successors would be preoccupied with establishing their authority and learning how to do what men like Alexander had only dreamed of...Rule the Earth and its people.
"I've appointed Chief Inspector Reyt to oversee Earth security," I said. "She'll make the necessary arrangements to assume tasking from the military."
"The Inspector who let Wulbraith slip into the system?" Ellicent pointed out.
"The slaver slipped past everyone," Helena said. "Reyt is the one who caught him."
"I'm sure the Chief Inspector will reflect efficiently upon Lady Sareth's good judgment," Talis decided, but that's why she was the Duchess.
If anything went wrong, the blame would fall squarely on my shoulders. If things went well, she could take the credit. The Empire had been built on such politics and it surprised none of us. Whomever I'd appointed to enforce our laws on the planet below, Ellicent would have found fault and thus protected her Mistress. Helena did the same for me a hundred times a day and while Tristam understood that instinctually, I was getting my first lessons in real politik.
"Eugenics," Lady Pel'nyth said. "In this case, the selective sterilization of a targeted population."
My humanity rebelled at the idea and I listened in silence as the xenobiologist outlined her plan to reduce the Muslim population by an estimated 94% over the next century. The generation born within the next year would be the last. Those who remained would be members of small, mainly ethnic communities residing in high density urban centers. Another way of saying there might be a mosque in San Francisco with a hundred Faithful, but they would be the exception, their activities and growth continually monitored.
In fifty years the Middle East, along with parts of Africa, Indonesia, and Asia Minor, would be populated with nothing but old men and women, living without children, practicing a dying religion. All for the good of the Empire. The plan would work, as it had in other times, in other places. We did not fear religion as a whole, but only combated ruthlessly those ideas and beliefs which were counter-productive to the social revolution Earth would necessarily endure.
"You will support my decision?" the Duchess said, and it wasn't really a question at all.
"What is the difference between us and Adolf Hitler?" I asked, looking at the table and my hands clasped upon it.
"He lost," Talis replied. "You have a different solution?"
"No," I admitted, standing stiffly and bowing my head. "I am your loyal servant, Cousin, in all things. If you will excuse me."
"Of course." She offered me a sympathetic smile, humorless and barren of joy. I had little doubt that Kelly suffered for the inevitable, just as I now would.
"What now?" I asked, leaving the Chancellery for my apartments.
"Execution orders for the past 72 hours," Helena said, trying to push a holographic print into my hands.
"Approved," I said, waving her away. "I'll see you for dinner. I'd like to rest now, if you don't mind."
"My Lady," she agreed, doing an about face and returning to her private offices. I'd worked hard since joining Tristam nearly eight hours previously, and my assistant was content for a change.
"Are you well?" Ransom wondered, falling into step as he replaced Helena at my side.
"As well as can be expected," I told him. "You're going to talk about Windham, aren't you?"
"Preparations have us spread thin, my Lady."
"Tomorrow," I decided. "Let me have the afternoon in peace, my friend."
"Aye," the giant nodded. "There will be little enough of that in the days ahead."
"Requisition that lieutenant from Seventh Shock," I said as we entered a busy thoroughfare. "What was her name?"
"Lieutenant Corvalis."
"She performed well. I want her squad standing by for a mission Earthside."
"Your mother?" Ransom grinned at me, but he didn't know all the particulars of my life.
"A young woman named Lilith. You won't find her in the catalogue. She'll either be in residence with Prince Faisal bin Saud, or he'll know where to find her," I explained. "Either way, you'll have to go through Lord Chasse."
"The Middle East?"
"Saudi Arabia," I agreed. "We'll have to go in hot."
"I'll get the ball rolling," he said. "When do you want to go?"
"Before she's sterilized would be nice."
"I understand."
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
My seraglio had a pink marble floor covered with Persian carpets and dozens of silk pillows scattered about in a pleasing array of shapes and colors. Marble columns stretched upward into a beautiful alien sky, warm and rosy with a red sun peeking through lavender clouds. Brass braziers hung from long chains, burning smokeless charcoal which was never consumed, but filled the air with a melodious, soothing scent. Silk veils billowed in the breeze. Around us, plants whispered their secret language, winged Sirrilian lizards sang softly, and the ornaments of a thousand conquered worlds rewarded my senses.
A small palace of my own and within, a selection of pleasure slaves that no Prince could have imagined. Tristam hadn't intended to start a harem. It had happened quite by accident with a gift from the Duchess and her Consort, but even now my collection continued to grow.
"Sareth!" Alya saw me first, but Iris was close behind as they ran across the large room.
The twins wore simple cotton shifts, white and thin enough that I could see their dark nipples jiggling. Coltish legs flashed smooth and dark as the material was slit on either side, exposing their naked hips. They'd brushed their thick, black hair and painted their fingers and toes with golden lacquer. They'd overdone their makeup, as fifteen-year-old girls so often do, but their natural beauty was irrepressible, coming as it did from within.
"Come back here!" Srah demanded, and behind her were my slaves and servants, naked in a line with their eyes down.
The lovely alien, Srah, wished to formally present my household, but Alya and Iris were spoiling it. The twins hugged me tightly, quite unaware that I'd joined with Tristam. They only knew their Mistress had returned and they were trembling with relief.
"It's alright," I told Srah, smiling as the two girls put their arms around my waist, walking me towards the others.
"When are we going home?" Iris wanted to know, that and a hundred other things.
"I don't like it here," Alya confessed. "It's too cold."
"I'm sorry, Mistress," Srah whispered. "They're not very well trained."
"They're perfectly trained," I said. "How do you feel? What does the doctor say?"
"She doesn't like us," Alya whispered.
"She gave me a spanking," Iris told me, frowning.
"I'm well, Mistress." Srah ignored the girls. "Your egg is healthy. I mean...Orion's egg is..."
"What's she saying?" Alya asked, narrowing her dark eyes suspiciously. The twins spoke nothing but Arabic, of course. I shushed her with a finger to the girl's lips.
"No." I smiled at Srah. "You're right, that's my egg in your belly. We have to take care of it, don't we?"
"Yes Mistress." She nodded quickly, giving me a knee-buckling smile and cradling the barely noticeable swell of her tummy.
Srah was incredibly attractive and if I hadn't already been prepared by the joining with Tristam, I would have had a difficult time doing anything but stare at the sexy creature. Hers was a hermaphrodite species, one prized not only for their physical beauty, but for the genuine pleasure they took in the service of others. She'd been born into voluntary slavery and would understand nothing else. Even if I wanted to set her free, to educate and prepare her for some other role in life, Srah would have rejected the idea completely.
In that way, I suppose she most closely resembled my Lebanese twins, but to an almost unimaginable extreme. The fact that Orion had impregnated her the night Srah had surrendered her virginity only made her that much happier. She'd assumed the matriarchal position as the head of my household, rather like a first wife, and in that circumstance I counted myself lucky.
And I did love her greatly. Srah. Orion's memories, and to a lesser extent William's, were fresh in my heart and mind. Talis hadn't lied to me, all of Tristam's previous hosts were alive inside me.
"You must do as Srah tells you," I told the twins, gently unwrapping their arms from around my waist. "This place is our home now."
"We don't even know what she's saying," Iris reminded me, being somewhat petulant.
"I know," I said. "I'll have her teach you Low Imperial, that's what they speak here."
"Like English?" Alya wondered.
I found it easier to agree than try to explain how and why the Empire had three distinct languages, and countless others unique to each sentient species.
"You'll learn English as well, I promise." I turned to Srah, explaining what I wanted.
It would take only a few hours to implant the knowledge in their heads. My twins would not only learn Common and English, but social custom as well. Whatever else they needed to know, Srah and the others would be able to teach them by example, if nothing else.
She obediently dipped her bald head, for Srah hadn't a single hair on her body, only thin, arching eyebrows above her glittering eyes. That oddity diminished the girl's beauty not at all, and I admired her toffee complexion and large, upturned breasts beneath her shift. I wanted her, but there was so much to do. My duties had been largely neglected since the assassination attempt on Orion.
Alya and Iris took their proper places, standing in a line with the others behind Srah. I would have to speak to each of my slaves individually, of course, but only when I could afford the time. My harem was growing and I did possess a fine collection, and quite by accident, really. Srah had been a gift and I'd purchased Troy, a magnificent young woman of incomparable beauty. Bambi, Orion's mother, had been enslaved deliberately, but hardly against her will.
The others had been delivered by Fate alone. Esya, my beautiful blue boy, was absent. The GenTechs were playing with his body, transforming him into a thirteen-year-old shemale, for lack of a better word. I intended to make a gift of him to Helena in any event. Marcia had been Orion's closest friend on Earth, perhaps even his girlfriend, and she'd given herself to me out of love. She'd also been close to William and her ignorance had brought about his tragedy.
Lady Preston, Trista, was my daughter, the only child of Tristam and his Ephorian wife -- My wife, the Countess Rowena. Trista's mind had been erased after her attempt to kill Orion, an act not born of her own free will. She was a beautiful woman, but with the mind of a child for the moment, and in his madness, William had done his best to corrupt her.
And Swan, my beautiful Dysrosian nymph. She alone knew the deep, dark secret that Talis and Tristam had murdered Duke Hern. William had found, perhaps even rescued the vagabond whore in that ancient butchery, the Harlequin Stanch. We're all haunted by the ghosts of our past, Tristam more than most, and Swan belonged to me now. A girl without a past, it seemed, for she existed nowhere except in this room.
"I am Admiral Sareth Contessa de Pleiades, Mistress High Marshall of the Spinward March," I told them. "You may address me as Sareth. I'm also Tristam, Orion, William, and a hundred others. That which you loved remains unchanged. As we have loved you in the past, I shall love you now. That much I promise."
It was a simple speech and one I'd delivered previously, but how well my household regarded those words, I had no idea. We were pleased, Tristam and I, with our formality. It's difficult to express in words, but suffice to say that our union lent itself well to a certain dedication that my position required. Orion would have made a wonderful and effective Imperial Lord, of that I had no doubt, but even he lacked a singular enthusiasm for his office, if only because of his youth.
Sareth, on the other hand, had been looking for purpose all her life, and now we'd finally found it.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
She wore her crimson catsuit, although that isn't a word in any language but English. Cepheans call it "duime da" in their tongue, which translates, oddly enough, into "second skin" and that's a very apt description. The leather comes from a snake-like creature found in the great Cephean Sea, although the quality varies according to one's social standing.
Helena, being the youngest daughter of the Margrave, the planet's ruler, enjoyed only the finest in traditional Cephean fashion. The leather encased her completely from the neck down, from the tips of her fingers to the tips of her toes, and everywhere in between. She wore nothing else but black leather boots, also traditional, and so I rather enjoyed her every curve and dimple, each muscle and tendon as she moved gracefully through her apartments.
Her vulva was on display, the size and shape of her alien sex, which wasn't very different from a human female's. Likewise Helena's small, firm breasts. They would have best suited a budding fourteen-year-old girl back on Earth, but on her home world Helena was considered very well endowed. Most Cephean women have the breasts of a pre-pubescent boy, which is to say none at all. She was tall, nearly six feet in her boots, and thin with boyish hips and the most amazing ass I'd ever seen on a woman of any species.
The only part of her I could fault, physically at least, was Helena's severe countenance. She had a lovely face, blessed with oriental eyes, high cheeks, and thin, pouting lips...But it could be so difficult to make her smile. Orion had done it during their brief time together, twice in one day, as I recalled, but that was the exception. William had gone even further, getting the woman not only to smile, but to gasp with pleasure. I grew stiff with the memory of her lips on mine, her fingers wrapped around my cock, and how close I'd been to stealing her precious virginity.
That wasn't something she would readily part with, not without a lot of strings attached. We'd discussed it previously, the strings, I should say, and I'd loved Helena dearly, but what did I feel now?
"My Lady," she lowered her head, hiding almost shyly behind a veil of fine red hair.
"No servants tonight?" I wondered, following Helena out of the large anteroom and towards more personal quarters.
"I've sent them off on a shopping expedition," she said, smiling over her shoulder. "They're like children."
"Needing to be spoiled," I agreed. "A library. I don't think I've been here before."
The room had the shape of an oval, longer in length than breadth, but spacious and intimate all at once. The entire wall consisted of a grand, curving bookcase. We'd even entered through a hinged section and once shut behind us, I thought the door might prove difficult to find again. Thousands of books were arranged from the floor to a vaulted ceiling ten meters above, decorated with bas relief, mythical creatures blackened over the ages with soot from torches now absent from their stanchions.
"It's from my grandfather's winter palace," she said, finding a bottle of wine and two goblets already prepared. "Frightfully expensive to move, but I loved this place as a child."
"Surrounded by books." I nodded. "I remember your grandfather well. He would be happy, I think."
"I'm certain I wouldn't know." She gestured with a sweep of her arm. "Make yourself comfortable. Please."
In the center of the room there were chairs and couches, tables and lamps and rugs. The place looked comfortable and well-used, and several books were scattered about in careless fashion. I might have had a glimpse into Helena's thoughts, but determining deliberate from accidental would be a difficult proposition at best.
"Wine, my Lady?"
"Thank you," I replied, turning my head to examine a volume bookmarked with a scarlet ribbon. "The Art of War?"
"It's very interesting," she said. "You should read it."
"I wasn't aware you were becoming so familiar with Earth."
"I'm hardly familiar," she admitted, "but my curiosity is piqued."
"Like mine," I said, smiling.
"Oh?"
"You found William attractive." I accepted the wine, briefly touching her fingers. "May I ask your opinion of me?"
"You may ask," she replied, teasing me. "To your health, my Lady."
"To the Empire," I agreed, taking a sip. "You're wearing your sword this evening."
"Only in your honor."
"Oh? Such an effective chastity belt," I said, only half-joking. "I thought perhaps in yours."
"I would place my trust more eagerly in your good judgment, my Lady, than in my meager skill with a blade."
"Now I know you're teasing me," I sighed, turning away with my wine to browse her library.
I felt a desire for her, but it wasn't consuming the way it had been for William. Orion's interest had reflected Tristam's to a great degree, and I was left with the curious knowledge that I didn't love Helena as I'd first imagined. My feelings were my own, but it wouldn't be so difficult to fall in love with such a woman. She possessed many qualities I admired, her loyalty most of all, but she required something in return.
"We should talk," she decided, but Helena was rarely so direct. "Are you familiar with someone called Mozart?"
"I'm from Earth," I reminded her, running my fingers along the weathered spines lining the shelves. Paper was a luxury at the edge of the Empire and found the texture comforting.
"He's quite brilliant," she continued, lifting a hand as music began to play. "Piano Concerto Number Nine. Are you familiar with it?"
"Not really," I admitted. "It's lovely."
"It's perfect," Helena decided, closing her eyes and clearly enjoying the piece. "There's no hesitation in the composer's voice. Every note has a purpose, every chord speaks with authority. Do you hear it?"
"Yes."
"It reminds me of Tristam," she whispered, fixing me with her emerald eyes. They were steady, but her confidence feigned.
"I'm here."
"Are you?" she wondered. "With all you've suffered, I wonder if I really know you at all, my Lady."
"Then know this..." I said, softly as I touched her lips with mine.
Her lips parted carefully for the tip of my tongue. I felt that warm tension tugging at my heart, the strings of desire grown taut as my fingers went into her hair. We were in love and my wine spilled with my other arm careless around Helena's waist. Her tongue played across my own, her left hand reaching for my face. I felt her fingers, the leather cool and buttery as she stroked my cheek. My cock ached with arousal as I pulled her hips against mine, pressing my trapped erection to her barely concealed sex.
"Orion would have taken me for his mistress," she breathed. "William wanted me for his whore. When I realized what the Duchess intended with you..."
"What have you done?" I narrowed my eyes, knowing Helena too well. She'd been nervous only a few minutes before, even frightened, but no longer.
"Only what a woman must," Helena told me, taking my cup and setting it aside with hers. "You asked for my opinion, my Lady?"
"Yes," I whispered, embracing her again.
"I shall give you more than that." She kissed me, deeply and with breathless desperation after so bravely seeking my decision. She'd been wounded by William and doubtful of Sareth, fearful of rejection the way all of us are in the face of love.
We banished that fear, with our eyes open and our senses alive while we kissed. I held her ass with both hands, perfectly tight and firm, the leather seemingly painted upon her glorious flesh. Helena tore my tunic open, ripping the buttons away in her haste to expose me to her lust. Her tongue moved from my lips to my neck, and finally to the tops of heaving breasts. She lapped at my skin and kissed my swollen nipples, gently biting my tits while I pressed my face into her hair, drinking the sweet scent of cinnamon into my lungs.
"I have to save my virginity until we're married," she whispered, loosening my trousers with one hand while the other reached between her thighs.
"Married?" I closed my eyes, tilting my face upward and drawing a deep breath.
"But there are so many other ways you can have me," Helena continued, smiling as my erection fell into her hand. "I won't say no to any of them."
She was hardly expert at giving head, nothing like the slaves Orion and William had collected, but Helena didn't need to be. The mere fact that she took me willingly into her soft mouth was a pleasure beyond reckoning. My fingers were in her hair as it fell around my hands like liquid silk. Her emerald eyes turned upward with her carefully painted lips wrapped around the shaft of my erection. She used her delicate tongue like a novice, but there was none of the hesitation I might have expected from a true virgin.
Helena took half of my cock, no more than that. When I felt the urge to pull her closer and find her innocent throat, I let her go instead. I shrugged out of my tunic, giving her my female form, my taut belly and firm breasts. That's what she wanted, the reason for this change of mind, if not her heart. I played with my nipples, pinching and pulling them while Helena watched. She squeezed the back of my thighs and slid her hands upward to find my ass through my trousers, keeping her mouth on my cock all the while.
"I'm going to cum," I breathed, biting my lip as I tried to hold my orgasm back.
She pulled off then, unsure of herself at the moment of truth. For just an instant I saw Helena's thought pass unguarded across her face. Desire and something else, an instinctive sense of revulsion perhaps, clouded her eyes. No man had ever shared his ejeculate with Helena. She'd never tasted semen, human or otherwise. I could have forced her acceptance, she wouldn't have refused despite her naive trepidation, and the desire was great. To feed her the raw passion that Helena aroused in my heart would please me to no end, but I did love her too much.
"Look at me," I whispered, letting go of my breasts and taking her hair in my fist.
My other hand went to my erection as I jerked her head back, tilting Helena's beautiful face upward. She arched her spine and I found my orgasm, loosing my semen onto her flat chest. I aimed my spurting cock lower as she spread her thighs and thrust her hips forward to present me with her cunt. I spent most of my energy there, staining Helena's crimson vulva with my milky spend. Not a drop had touched her naked flesh, but to a Cephean noblewoman there could be no difference. She would wear her duime da until my semen dried, until it became stiff and brittle with age, and she'd lock it away forever.
Such were the customs of her curious kind.
"I carry your scent," she said, breathing the words as she examined her sex. "You could have finished in my mouth."
"And break tradition?" I smiled at her, fixing my trousers as I pushed my cock out of sight.
"I forget sometimes how well you know me," Helena sighed, returning my smile as I took her hand and helped her to her feet.
"I know your world," I said, "but that's all."
"Hmmm..." She didn't really believe that, but the words made her happy, as I knew they would. "Have you spoken with Ellicent?"
"Privately?" I rearranged my sword, tugging at my belt, but left my tunic open. I'd lost my buttons in any event.
Helena waited patiently for an answer, following my swollen nipples with her eyes, but I had none to give her. The topic had to come up sometime and I'd been avoiding it as much as possible. It hadn't been an issue, Tristam's history with the Riavian, because she'd been at Delphi and William had been mad, lusting after Helena in Ellicent's absence. But now she was back and Helena demanded my devotion, leaving me to sort out one of the galaxy's great puzzles - Tristam's love life.
"I'll speak with her," I finally agreed. "What of Wren?"
"He hasn't returned yet," Helena said. "I'll require an answer before he does."
"And your father?"
"I never sent the letter," she admitted, carefully. "I wasn't sure how you'd feel about it."
"About you?" I asked, knowing it was more complicated than that. Until Talis had selected Tristam's new host, Helena couldn't be certain of anything, least of all her own feelings for me.
"Yes, my Lady," she replied, once more the cool, calculating Helena I depended upon.
She possessed a marvelous capacity for dispassion, something Tristam had always enjoyed, but never understood. Ellicent, was quite the opposite in many ways, but tempered her passion with an exquisite patience. They were both predators, and rivals for much more than Tristam's affection, and only a fool would underestimate their ambition...as I had just done with Helena. I thought I'd been seducing her; too late, I realized she'd placed me upon the chessboard.
But that didn't make this day different from any other, did it?