CHAPTER TWELVE
AIDEN
Cole’s phone call and the subsequent meeting we’d had with Rohinavon, the Vangravian woman, had been shocking, to say the least. Vangravian society was a staunchly matriarchal one, and by Alliance standards, it was at the very dystopian end of the spectrum.
It wasn’t just that the women led the society.
Rather, they’d decided that males were completely worthless, aside from the handful of them they kept for breeding purposes, and so all male Vangravian babies were sold to the Eumadians to be trained as slaves when they were only a day or two old.
Rohinavon wanted to change that, and so she’d pulled off a daring escape from her home planet and was now requesting that the Alliance help her to set up a colony where we could raise some Vangravian children, and in about twenty years’ time, prove to the whole galaxy that Vangravian males were just as capable and valuable as Vangravian females.
The meeting had been tense, but very informative, and now I needed to explain the entire shit-show to the Alliance Parliament, to find out whether they thought it might be a realistic possibility or not.
But first, I was going to have to brief Henderson, since he’d be handling a lot of the local outworkings of the project if it went ahead, and before that, I needed to get something to eat. And probably a strong cup of coffee.
I debated whether or not I should go and collect Jai first, and that one extra decision was one too many. My brain froze up right there in the middle of the hallway. There were too many details to figure out, too many risks, too many possible outcomes…
“Sir?” Kade prompted me, when I just stopped in my tracks. “Are you all right?”
“No, I just… Shit, I’ve got too much going on at the moment,” I muttered, rubbing my eyes.
“We need to get something to eat, but I’ve got to collect Jai as well and finish explaining who I am and what the hell he’s doing here.
Running off right after he’d bonded with me was a fucking awful thing to do, and I don’t want to ignore him for even longer, but right now, I can’t even think straight… Fuck, this is the worst timing!”
“If I may make a suggestion, sir?” Kade ventured. “Perhaps we can collect Jai, then we can all eat lunch together, and then you can finish his orientation afterwards. Or if you need to see Colonel Henderson urgently, then I could explain some of Jai’s role to him instead?”
Stars above, I loved having Kade around.
He had a way of just cutting through the clutter and making things simpler.
“Yeah, that would be fantastic,” I said.
“Hold on, I’ll find out from Soka where Jai is.
” I sent her a quick message and got an almost immediate reply.
“Well, that makes things simple. They’re already in the cafeteria.
” We headed in that direction, and it was easy to spot Jai and Soka as we came into the room.
Jai was still maintaining his jet-black colouring, and that was another thing I needed to talk to him about sooner or later.
I waved at them, then Kade and I headed to the counter to choose something to eat.
When we sat down at the table, I managed a weary smile for Soka.
“Thanks for looking after Jai. And I’m really sorry for running off right after we’d just met,” I said to Jai, knowing he’d likely be confused by the apology, but I wanted to say it anyway.
Masters did not typically apologise to their dimari. “Have you eaten lunch?”
Jai stiffened at the question. “Yes, master,” he replied, looking suddenly fearful. “Soka said…” He trailed off, glancing apprehensively at Soka.
“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 meeting urgently.
“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 almost angry about 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 to have 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, well in 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.