Chapter 9
nine
Callie
It had taken me an hour and a half to feel clean again. I’d even washed my hair again because there was no way I could have waited a week. I know, I know. The trash didn’t actually touch me, just my armor but nah. The logic didn’t work.
I’d stepped into the shower with my armor still up, unwilling to retract it while it was covered in garbage sludge.
It helped. The clothes I'd been given were simple linen of an undetermined type in a cream color that bordered on tan. The pants slit up the sides like two narrow leaves sewn together, the shirt was sleeveless and short enough to expose my belly button. Simple but comfortable black slippers in my exact size had been waiting for me in my room, sitting on top of sensible white underwear and a bra. I was surprised to find the underthings. It didn’t seem like something Rathal would have given me.
I figured he’d have given me a G-string and some tassels.
God. I was an idiot.
What if I never got away? He said he enjoyed the chase. What if he always caught me at the last second or let me escape just to swoop in and re-capture me. I was in one of those horrifying looping nightmares where you think you’ve finally woken up but nope, surprise! You’re still in the bad dream.
Fuck.
I crouched down beside the bed, my fingers pressed hard against my lips and breathed through my nose to try and avoid the impending panic attack.
I had to get out.
There had to be a fucking way.
The twins didn’t bother warning me with a chime this time, barging into my room with irate growls.
I didn’t mind though. Their interruption pulled me out of my spiral.
I jerked to my feet, blowing out a breath and gave myself a few light slaps to both cheeks before pulling my shirt down.
I nodded at the twins before proceeding them out of the room.
They grumbled a bunch under their breath about naughty, bad mannered humans.
I kinda felt bad, but not enough to stop trying to escape.
The new clothes made me feel a little more gracious, so when I saw Rathal again as we entered the Center, a bustling roundabout filled with shops and street food vendor stalls, I gave him a small smile as we approached him, the twins falling back so that they took up guard behind me.
That smile widened when I saw that he’d changed.
I couldn’t help but shake my head at his feather boa, this time in orange, that was sewed into the collar of yet another sheer crop top.
This one was made of finely woven orange and silver metal, each piece a diamond shape that glittered and sparkled in the artificial sunlight.
His pants were still the poured on black leather from earlier, but he’d exchanged the ruby belt for a wide bronze one that hugged his hips and tried valiantly to draw my eye to his still on full display dick.
It was like one of those social experiments where someone body painted clothes on a model and then sent them out to walk around a mall.
Impossible to look away from, but damn did I try.
He’d changed the color of his claws too, something I noticed when he held out his hand for mine. They were bright neon green and glittery.
“What’s with your outfits?” I asked, deciding to play nice and gave him my hand.
His palm was warm and dry, and felt like the soft pads of a cat's paw.
This close I could smell the nuances of his scent.
Warm spices, and a little like fresh turned dirt.
There was also a strong current of musk that was all male and had me wanting to take my hand back and rub it nervously against my pants.
It was too late though, Rathal had me firmly in his grip. My fingers curled around his hand, brushing against his fur which was soft like a rabbit's pelt.
His chuckle pulled my gaze to his face, where I found him looking down at his outfit. He ran his free hand down his front and gave me a chiding look. “This body deserves to be on display, my prize. A pretty display that draws all eyes to me. I deserve to be admired, don’t you think?”
He stroked his hand from his neck to where his pants dipped low on his hip, snagging my attention on his gold belly button piercing.
It had a bright green jewel dangling from it.
My mind couldn’t help but drift to how shiny and soft his fur looked or what it would feel like everywhere else as well, since his hands were so soft.
I mentally slapped myself and zoned in when I realized he’d continued talking.
“—didn’t used to be here. It took forever to talk people into trying out other species’ food. But eventually we got there. Beware the Orook’s stall. Their noodles could melt the coating off a shuttle.”
We passed the stall in question, and a wide bodied alien with pale yellow fur looked up from his openfire grill to grin at me with a double row of triangular teeth, like a shark.
The scent coming off the pot over the fire made my eyes water and my nose burn.
I sneezed three times in a row while Rathal laughed and dragged me away.
I looked up at him blinking my watering eyes.
“Holy shit, what is that?”
He laughed louder, tugging me through a maze of stalls and vendors calling out their wares. “I have no idea. Don’t try it.”
There was so much to look at. A medley of vendors with a riot of colorful aliens until it all blended together like a melted wax picture in my mind.
The smells were mouthwatering… once I got away from the hellfire cook.
There was a cook holding up a small cage filled with fluttering glowing beetles.
I stopped to watch someone approach his stall to buy something and recoiled in horror when the vendor took a handful of bugs and mashed them roughly with the side of his fist and then rolled a roasted piece of meat in the chunky paste, stuck it on a stick and handed it to the customer who happily shoved the bug covered meat into its mouth.
“Oh, that’s not right.”
Rathal leaned over me, his jaw brushing my temple. “A delicacy. Don’t be squeamish, darling.”
When he made to grab a bug kabob, I squealed in protest and jerked his arm down. Rathal’s laugh rose above the din of the market and I walked away from him grumbling to myself about disgusting assholes. When he got himself back under control enough to catch up to me I was browsing through the gems.
“Do you enjoy jewels?” Rathal asked, stepping in close behind me.
I moved on, brushing past him to a frilled female alien’s spice stall. “What will you give me if I answer?”
He hummed behind me as I leaned over the little baskets filled with aromatic and colorful powders. “How about news from the front?”
I straightened, my heart dropping into my stomach. “What news?”
“Jewels first.”
I whirled to glare up at him. “Yes. I like jewels.” I wouldn’t take a bowl of spice and throw it into his eyes. I was civilized.
He nodded and brought his wrist up to my eye level.
He turned his hand until the inside of his wrist was facing up and a small orange hologram ball floated up from his skin.
Once it got about three inches high the ball flattened into a line and then popped up into a square.
I leaned in close when images flashed into life.
It took me a second to understand what I was seeing, but when it clicked my breath froze in my lungs.
“Is this the inside of a Unity ship?” I asked quietly, the noise of the market fading into the background as I hyper focused on the image in front of me.
The ship's interior was incredibly similar to the Solus, though on a smaller scale.
Black clad soldiers moved around the room within the camera's view.
“Yes. The Rokaris. A Dreadnaught. They are planning an assault on one of the Out planets in the same quadrant as Korsal. I suspect they are planning on making this planet, a planet simply designated PX445432, a staging point. But don’t take my word for it, darling. Watch.”
I squinted. The camera panned up, to a holoscreen opened above the center console on the bridge.
Some very important looking Unity officers stood around it.
They pointed at a galaxy with fourteen planets orbiting their stars.
Korsal was the tan planet fourth to the left of the twin suns.
The holoscreen zoomed in on Korsal and magnified again.
The orbital station Anu had been building was completed, its white rings rotating lazily while dozens of ships floated around it, waiting their turn for a dock.
The aliens gestured wildly at the orbital station’s many, many guns and the massive black Dreadnaught docked on the uppermost ring. The Solus.
“Is there sound?”
“No. I tried, but every time I tap into their audio feeds it trips a silent alarm. They aren’t planning on attacking Korsal, Callie.
They are trying to strategize if they could, theoretically.
But Anu’s station is a good deterrent for now.
The Unity is spreading itself too thin. As far reaching as their power and as large as their military forces are, if you attack enough planets within the same timeframe, you are bound to start feeling the strain. ”
I tore my eyes away from the bickering Unity officers to look at him. “Why the hell would they do something so dumb?”
“If you were an empire who hadn’t fought a serious war in roughly a thousand years, would your military tactics be very good?
Oh sure, they’ve squashed rebellions that have cropped up here and there.
A few of those battles have even been significant, but a true war?
No. Not in a long time. Plainly speaking, they’ve grown fat and lazy.
Academics, most of them. They discuss and study past wars and plan theoretical battles.
There are simulations for them to play their war games, but this war with Ohem and Jack and their allies was thrust on them before they were ready. ”