Chapter 24 Your Formal Introduction, Eve
YOUR FORMAL INTRODUCTION, EVE
The rest of my shift passes in a blur of alien guests and unfamiliar protocols.
My mouth is dry. I swallow. “Yes, if that’s allowed.”
“I can walk with you to the door,” she says.
We walk through the Grand Lobby and then take a private elevator that requires Lira's biometric scan. As we ascend beyond the public floors, the lighting shifts to a cooler spectrum that makes my skin look pallid and alien.
“Remember,” Lira says as the elevator slows, “bow from the waist and keep your eyes down. Don't speak until spoken to. And be sincere about everything. Nothing is private here, and you will be punished if you’re not honest.”
The elevator doors open to reveal a corridor with nothing but massive doors emblazoned with the Celestial Spire's emblem at its other end. Two guards flank the entrance; their grey skin and uniforms mark them as members of the Umbral Cohort, Sovereign Lorian’s private military.
Lira stops several paces from the door. “This is as far as I go. When you're finished, they'll have someone escort you to High Table. You can’t be late as it’s always more formal in the evenings.”
I want to grab Lira's arm, to beg her not to leave, but I maintain my professional composure knowing they’re probably watching me even now. “Thank you.”
As Lira retreats, one of the guards presses his palm to a scanner beside the door. “Eve Eden. Receptionist and human liaison. Cleared for entry.”
The massive doors part silently, revealing a vast conference chamber. I fight the impulse to stop and push myself to keep walking in.
The Executive Conference Chamber looks like a conference room in space with wide floor-to-ceiling windows showcasing the cosmic expanse beyond.
A massive conference table dominates the center of the room, its surface displaying real-time holographic data from across the galaxy, and at the head of the table sit two identical executive chairs, and in them, the legendary twins of the Ascendant Alliance.
I had seen images of the twin brothers, but those did not do them justice.
The men in front of me almost seem godlike in an alien way that makes me feel simultaneously drawn to them and terrified at the same time.
Their grey skin is luminous under the chamber's lights, and they’re wearing impeccably tailored suits.
Rafe is in deep charcoal with silver accents, his mandarin collar done up to the top.
Lorian is in midnight blue that seems to shift as he moves and is open to his navel, showing off his grey muscular chest.
After half a second of gawking at them, I remember to bow deeply, keeping my eyes on the polished floor. My heart is beating so fast and even faster when I remember they have access to all my body’s functions, including the Venus Lock between my thighs.
“Eve Eden from Earth,” Rafe's deep voice fills the chamber. “Welcome to the Celestial Spire. You may rise, approach, and speak.”
I straighten and walk forward, stopping at what feels like the appropriate distance.
“Thank you for this opportunity, Sovereign Directors.”
“Your records from Terra Sanctum are exemplary,” Rafe continues, studying holographic displays that materialize in the center of the table. “Particularly your attention to detail and discretion with high-profile guests.”
“Have you found your position here satisfactory so far?” Lorian asks, his voice carrying the warmth Rafe’s lacked.
“Yes, Sovereign. Everything has been…illuminating.” I didn’t expect them to ask me how I felt. No one has ever asked me how I felt about anything before.
Lorian's lips curve slightly. “Illuminating. An interesting choice of words.” His silver eyes focus on mine intensely, and I remember Lira’s warning not to lie. “What exactly has illuminated you during your time in our paradise?”
The use of the word paradise stuns me for a second, and the memory of the dream I had last night resurfaces. My cheeks begin to burn.
Did they watch my dream?
I quickly tell myself it doesn’t matter, and I pull myself together and answer, “I've been illuminated by the diversity of life forms visiting the Celestial Spire, and by customs in the galaxy I wasn't familiar with on Earth.”
“Such as?” Lorian asks.
Images of mutilated humans on display for the Sapien Spectacle come to my mind, and I take a deep breath. “The human companions,” I say. “I’m not altogether sure they’re companions voluntarily.”
“Of course they're not voluntary,” Lorian replies. “They're property. Entertainment, status symbols for their owners.”
“By hiring you legally, we're trying to accelerate change in the galaxy,” Rafe adds. “You are aware of the law granting humans equal status in the galaxy?”
“Yes, Sovereigns.”
“Good. I know that when you first arrived, you were disturbed by what you saw. That’s fine. You can still have empathy and be our liaison. In fact, it’s better if you do have empathy,” Rafe says.
“But the humans I saw in the lobby…”
“It’s not uncommon for owned humans to seek the attention of free humans.
It’s natural,” Rafe says, interrupting me.
“Unfortunately, there’s nothing you can do for those humans now.
Once they’ve been sold into the system, there’s too much bureaucracy, and it’s too lucrative of a market to get them out. ”
I’m beginning to feel dizzy. I don't know if I can do this.
“Speaking of keeping you from becoming a companion on the open market,” Lorian says, his gaze traveling down to where my uniform conceals the Venus Lock, “Dr. Veil reports you've been fitted with the appropriate safeguards. How are you finding the Venus Lock's effects?”
More heat rises to my face at the casual mention of the device pressed against my most intimate parts. “It's functional,” I manage.
“I read that most humans report intense sexual frustration,” Lorian says.
“I don’t know if the doctor told you, but the Venus Lock was created to teach restraint.
It shows you that your body's responses can be controlled, channeled, and directed toward more productive purposes.
Our former human employees, Denise and Yasmin, did not wear them during their employment here, and that was a mistake.
Now, it's standard protocol for all human staff until you can learn to control your sexual urges.”
I open my mouth to refute his implication that I’m a nymphomaniac, but then stop myself. On the Igo, I allowed myself to be brought to orgasm twice by strangers, and then there was the dream last night.
Maybe I do need some help?
So I let that go and use the opportunity to ask, “What happened to Denise?”
The twins exchange a look.
“I assume you would have already heard rumors about Denise and Yasmin. Those we cannot control,” Rafe says carefully.
“But the truth is this: they both became emotionally compromised. A revolutionary group called Terra Ka infiltrated our operations last season, and their leader, Gael the Returner, manipulated our previous human employees’ impressionable natures. ”
“Wait,” I interrupt, my pulse quickening when I realize my mistake of speaking out of turn. I bow immediately, my eyes down, looking at my expensive black alien shoes.
I hear one of them stand. I think by the shadow on the floor it’s Rafe. He walks over to me. I don’t move. I’m scared of what’s going to happen now.
“Usually an interruption would result in a punishment, but since you’re new, I will let this go with a warning,” Rafe says, and then he smacks my ass hard through my uniform, so hard the Venus Lock shifts for a second. “Next time you’ll be stripped and publicly punished. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Sovereign.”
“Now you may rise and continue,” Rafe says, as he takes his seat again.
I stand upright and resist the urge to run my hands over my backside. I’m sure I’ll have a bruise. But it doesn’t hurt as much as it feels…sexy. I have to pull myself together. What is wrong with me?
This isn’t a romance novel.
This is real.
Then I continue, “I've heard of a woman named Lara; they say she was the first human to be truly free. Is she connected to this Gael?”
“Ah, you've done your research,” Lorian says.
“Lara is Gael's human wife, though using the term free is.
.. generous. She was so highly sought after as a human pet that she was even stolen from Kamos's palace. Kamos, by the way, is the same Imperial crime lord who now owns Denise. But as for Lara, Gael abducted her, but laws being what they are now, for Gael to keep her legally, he had to set her free, as it were. Nevertheless, everyone knows the truth; Lara simply has a more attractive cage now.”
“You see, Eve, Terra Ka doesn't free humans,” Rafe says. “They traffic them through different channels. They told Yasmin and Denise lies about liberation while using them to sabotage our security systems.”
“Denise was happy here,” Lorian adds. “She had purpose, protection, luxury beyond anything Earth offered. She was my lover, willingly.” He sounds like he genuinely liked her.
My mind races. Who can I trust? The Sovereigns who admit the system is flawed, but claim to be changing it, Lira, Cal, or faceless revolutionaries I may never meet?
“Thank you for telling me,” I say.
Rafe acknowledges my gratitude with a slight nod, then calls up holographic displays of complex legal documents.
“Tribune Jin Kol, a bureaucrat from the Intergalactic Court, will return in one hundred and fifty days to evaluate our compliance with Court protocols. He is tiresome in his attention to procedure, yet powerful enough to cripple us with an unfavorable ruling. Your job is to convince him that humans at the Celestial Spire are treated ethically and that they have all volunteered to compete in the Grand Championships.”
“What are the Grand Championships exactly?”