“You look good in Shil’vati finery by the way,” Hela murmured as she took his arm. “Exotic and familiar all at once.”

Jason turned his attention away from the massive mansion he’d been admiring. “Talking to me now, are you?”

The ride over had been almost entirely silent. He hadn’t even been able to get out of the car when it rolled to a stop in front of Hela’s hotel. Instead, the woman had clambered in, barely sparing him a glance before she pulled out a data-slate and started tapping away at it.

Not that Jason had a problem with that. If anything, it had been rather disarming. It had just confirmed in his mind that he was here as an exotic showpiece for the woman. Nothing more. Nothing less. Compared to fending off the woman’s advances all evening, a little casual dismissiveness was hardly an issue.

Or at least, that had been the case until now.

“Would you have listened?” Hela said, even as her eyes roamed analytically over the other party goers. “I’m not in the habit of wasting time and energy.”

“Didn’t stop you on our first meeting,” Jason said as they started moving up the steps of the mansion.

“An oversight on my part,” his companion admitted. “I made the mistake of treating you like a Shil’vati male.” She eyed him. “I won’t make that mistake again.”

Jason scoffed. “And what makes you think I’ll be more amenable to your advances now?”

“Advances?” This time it was Hela who scoffed. “This is conversation, dear. And while you might have humored me for a bit of it in the car, you wouldn’t have actually engaged me. I would certainly know. I do much the same thing when my first husband starts complaining about his friends at court.”

The pair of them stepped past the governess’s guards at the front door – both Rakiri, strangely enough – and into the mansion’s main foyer.

It was a hell of sight.

Dozens of priceless looking chandeliers floated about the ceiling. Quite literally floated – which suggested to him that some form of Shil’vati anti-grav trickery was in play. And though they bobbed and weaved like diamond jellyfish above the party goer’s head, they never once collided.

Something to do with air-currents? he wondered as Hela guided him forward.

Drawing his eyes down, he noted the thick marble pillars spaced in even rows marching down the foyer, as though beckoning visitors towards the entrance of what he assumed was a ballroom – or some other kind of rich person room. Delicately sculpted purple filigree, of some kind of plant he’d never seen before, wrapped about the pillars, the vivid leaves standing out against the ivory marble background.

Almost as interesting were the people who occupied the place. Shil’vati nobles and merchants wandered about in twos and threes, all wearing clothes that subtly imitated armor of one kind or another.

As was the Shil’vati custom when it came to finery.

Now that he was actually thinking about it, he realized why Hela’s outfit felt so nigglingly familiar. The merchant’s outfit imitated that of a roman legionary, though her breastplate was made of starched fine white silk and her ‘helmet’ was much the same, wings of delicate gold jutting from the sides, as if to imitate a bird in flight.

“Very clever,” he said.

Hela smiled and took her own eyes off of the crowd to glance at him, eyes dancing with mirth behind the slats of her ‘helmet’. “How so?”

“I’m dressed up like a Shil’vati legionnaire. You’re dressed up like a Roman legionary.”

“Colcary legionnaire,” Hela corrected. “If you’re going to give my outfit the regional denomination, please do the same to your own.”

Jason rolled his eyes. “Does it matter?”

“To the people around us? Lots.” Hela’s expression sharpened. “And you would do well to remember that. While my presence provides some small shield, that only exists while I am present. And a man without backing can ill-afford to alienate many of the people in this room.”

Jason nodded at the woman’s not-so-subtle reminder that while she might have described the people around them as ‘country bumpkins’, they were still the movers and shakers of an entire solar system. And while Gurathu was the only inhabitable world in the system, there were still a number of other worlds and asteroid fields that had a not insignificant mining presence.

Which meant that while most were considered small fish on the Imperial scale, by the standards of Earth they were veritable titans of industry. And as he noticed the eyes of the many women around him roaming over him consideringly, he reminded himself that he was basically a nobody. A guy whose main allure was that he was a guy whose species was the flavor of the month.

Surrounded by people who could ruin him at a whim.

“That’s why I chose now to talk, by the way.”

Jason glanced sharply over at her as they stepped past another set of guards and into a ballroom.

“I’ve done a bit of research on you humans since our last meeting,” she continued, “and I believe the phrase you use is ‘any port in a storm'. And make no mistake, this party is a storm.”

Jason scoffed.

“You’re hoping I’ll latch onto you to escape a bunch of pushy aristocrats?” He laughed, playing off his sudden bout of nervousness as the woman’s words came startlingly close to his own thoughts.

The merchant just shrugged. “Better the Deveel you know and all that.”

“Devil,” Jason corrected. “And you’re just full of little human idioms tonight.”

Hela smiled. “What can I say? Thoroughly researching the opposition is a vital part of negotiating any trade deal.” Her arm tightened around his own as she leaned in to whisper in his ear. “And I do hope to seal the deal tonight.”

Jason barely managed to stop himself from jerking as the woman’s tongue slid lasciviously across the top of his ear.

“Hela!” A voice called out. “I’m glad you could make it.”

Hela straightened up, turning towards a woman that looked like a knight of some description – if that knight were clad in more gold and jewels than good taste might suggest.

“Lady Governess!” Hela smiled, as if she hadn’t just been about to probe his ear with her tongue. “Do you mean me… or my date for the evening?”

Gurathu’s governess, who had short spiky black hair and skin so startlingly pale it was almost a pastel purple, grinned gregariously as her eyes roamed over him. She was also significantly bigger than any Shil’vati he’d seen yet. Not in height, but in width. It was honestly a bit of a relief to know that Shil’vati could get fat. A race entirely comprised of amazonian supermodels just wasn’t fair. Still, even with the woman packing a few extra pounds in her gut, he had to concede that she carried it well.

“Why not both?” The woman laughed, pounding Hela on the shoulder with a large meaty fist. “Though I have to admit, when you claimed you’d be bringing a human with you, I had some cause to doubt.” Her eyes roamed over him in the same manner all Shil’vati seemed to do when seeing him for the first – or fifth – time. “I honestly hadn’t even known we had one tucked away in our cold little corner of the Imperium.”

Hela smiled back, though he thought he saw a little irritation in her eyes at being essentially clobbered over the shoulder by the bigger women. “Have I ever not come through before, Lady Governess? When the Helrune Dynasty makes a promise, they deliver.”

“I suppose they do,” the Governess allowed, her good natured smile turning decidedly plastic.

Jason had no idea what history the two women shared, but he doubted it was anything good given the way metaphorical sparks were flying between them.

“Private Jason, ma’am.”

The governesses eyes widened slightly as she broke off her impromptu staring contest with his ‘date’. In the same moment, she almost belatedly seemed to realize that she hadn’t greeted him or introduced herself.

“Ooh, where are my manners?” the woman said. “Mari Gelf, Governess of Gurathu.”

Jason nodded. “It’s an honor to meet you, ma’am.”

The woman’s face split into a wide grin. “So polite! Though I must say, that’s a fascinating accent you have. Do all humans sound that way?”

Jason resisted the urge to shrug, instead adopting the slightly cocked head that Shil’vati used. “I imagine it depends on the region they come from. Earth had yet to adopt a universal language prior to the Imperium’s arrival.”

He nearly said ‘invasion,’ cutting back at the last second.

“Oh yes, I had heard they come in different shades,” Mari said, turning back to one of the nearby women who had quietly snuck over during his introduction. In fact, a relatively small crowd had gathered. Though whether it was out of a desire to see the ‘human’ or ingratiate themselves with the governess, he didn’t know.

Maybe both.

“Like Rakiri, Lady Governess?” the woman, whose garb looked like an ancient Greek hoplite, tittered.

“Very much so.” The woman responded, before launching into all the types of humans she was aware of.

Jason stood still, keeping a placid smile on his face even as irritation built within him. He’d come to this event prepared for it, but the way the people around him talked about him and his race like he wasn’t there still grated.

He could ignore it though. He wasn’t in a position to do anything about it and that wasn’t why he was here. He was here to fulfill his end of the bargain with Hela so that he could get his message sent. Nothing more, nothing less. If that meant dealing with some elitist bigotry for the evening, he could deal.

“-though I’m led to understand albinism carries little in the way of status. More of a medical condition than anything else. A bit of a difference to how your people see it, eh Kelu?”

Tuning back into the conversation, just as he felt more than heard a figure step up behind him, Jason almost jumped as he realized a massive black furred Rakiri had stepped up behind him.

Unlike the Shil’vati around her who wore clothes imitating armor, the rakiri’s garb was incredibly simple. Little more than a cream loincloth around her waist, and a sash across her chest that barely managed to cover her rather large breasts.

“While I am unfamiliar with this ‘albinism’ that affects humans, I can understand why it might be seen as a negative to those afflicted.” The woman said, carrying the same cultured tones Yaro used. “While my people consider white fur to be a blessing to those born with it, I imagine that sentiment might change if it carried negative repercussions.”

The woman’s head turned to him, piercing green eyes regarding him. “Perhaps the actual human amongst our number might provide more clarity on that matter?”

While Jason was thankful that the black furred woman had thought to include him in the conversation, he felt more than a little uncomfortable as all eyes in the impromptu gathering turned toward him. Nor did he miss the way Hela’s grip on his arm tightened slightly as she openly glared at the Rakiri.

“Well, I honestly can’t say that I’m too familiar with albinism,” he said, struggling not to show any hints of his nervousness. “It was pretty rare before the Imperium showed up, and I can imagine that gene treatments have only made it rarer since.”

He didn’t miss the way large chunks of the room smiled at that, as they mentally patted themselves on the back.

“I’m pretty sure that it made people afflicted sensitive to sunlight though,” he continued, stifling the irritation that threatened to overpower his nervousness – and good sense. “Really sensitive.”

“A shame,” the Governess said. “I would have liked to see one of these ‘albinos’. Though if the affliction was as bad as you said, perhaps it is for the best that the Imperium’s arrival has spared you of it.”

Jason gave her a fake smile before she turned to someone else and began chatting, her dismissal clear. Almost instantly he felt himself being yanked away.

“You did well,” Hela said through gritted teeth. “Though I would have preferred if you hadn’t monopolized the governess’s limited attention span like that. I had hoped to bring up a new trade deal with her.” She glanced back, to where the woman was animatedly talking about something to her gathered lackies, making large hand movements as she did. “Little chance of that now.”

“Sorry?” Jason said.

The merchant glanced at him, before nodding in what he imagined she thought of as a reasonably magnanimous manner. “What’s done is done, I suppose.”

Jason had little to say to that, so he said nothing as he was summarily dragged around the room. He had little to say in the conversations that followed. Not that it seemed to be an issue in his date’s eyes. It was just as he expected. He was little more than an accessory for her and most of the people he spoke to. A conversation piece that allowed her to lead into other more important topics.

It was a state of affairs he’d come prepared for, and played his role as best he could.

Still, around three hours into the evening, his patience was wearing thin.

Which was why he’d contrived to escape from Hela long enough to ‘catch his breath’ behind the cover provided by one of the room’s pillars.

“Are you hiding as well?” A voice said from his right.

“I guess I am,” he responded turning toward the newcomer. “Though I’m apparently not doing too great a job given that you found me.

Bio-Luminescent Dark Elf, were his first thoughts as his eyes settled on her. With horns.

She was just a little shorter than himself, and looked as if someone had taken a Drow from Dungeons and Dragons, given them horns, and then painted them all over with wide sweeping arcs of glow in the dark ink. The woman’s skin was so black as to verge on blue, but the sweeping arced tattoos that roamed across her form glowed a variety of colors. Purples, to greens, to blues. The sorts of colors he imagined you might find in certain types of deep-sea fish.

“It’s natural,” the woman said, her soft, semi-amused tone, causing Jason to flush as he realized he was essentially staring down the woman’s low cut black dress.

Forcing his eyes up to meet her own, he found that even her eyes glowed, though more as a result of the fact that her pupils were a reflective silver than through any light of their own. Said eyes creased in amusement as she regarded him.

He also realized that she was what might have been described in layman’s terms as a ‘MILF’. He felt bad the moment he thought it, but that was what his mind immediately leapt to as he took in the woman’s tantalizing curves and almost motherly aura.

“A form of symbiotic algae that my early ancestors adopted when we were still living in caves,” she explained, bringing up an arm to trace a long delicate finger over the intricate rounded markings that covered it. “To ward off nocturnal predators.”

The novel and exotic sight managed to quiet his libido enough that his scientific curiosity took over. “I’m willing to guess it’s not contagious?” he ventured.

“No more so than any of the other organisms that live on and in any other species,” she said. “And to you, even less so. They’re rather specialized little creatures and can’t quite survive on anything that isn’t one of my race.”

At her gentle prompting, he ran his finger over the woman’s arm, and found that he couldn’t feel any change. Just the sensation of smooth unblemished skin beneath his fingers.

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“Fascinating,” he said, reluctantly pulling his hand away. “Do they move?”

“Over the course of many years,” the woman admitted. “While they naturally form these rather pleasing shapes, they do have a tendency to wander.” In fact, her smile turned impish. “I’ve got one that’s been migrating down…”

The woman started to slowly pull aside her low cut dress, revealing the more and more of the soft round curve of her breasts…

Jason looked away.

“Moh,” she pouted. “I guess the rumors are exaggerated. From what my sources have told me, you were supposed to jump all over me if I did that.”

“Time and a place,” Jason said a little stiffly as he found his image of the person across from him as a gentle matriarch shattered.

He waited until he heard fabric sliding back into place before he looked at her again. He couldn’t help but notice that her impish smile was still in place as she gazed up at him, glowing eyes crinkled.

Which was a little odd. It had been a very long time since a woman had to look up to look him in the eyes. The difference was minor. The alien was essentially the normal height for a human woman. Still, it felt odd to him.

He also belatedly realized that just like the Rakiri had been earlier, she wasn’t dressed in the Shil’vati style. Instead her dress was more akin to what he’d consider a kimono if he was on Earth. Obviously, it wasn’t a one for one recreation, but it was close enough that the black garment immediately reminded him of one.

“Alanis Urin,” she said, placing her hand over her heart in the Shil’vati fashion. As she did, Jason caught a hint of her perfume. It was heady and strong, with a hint of spice.

“Private Jason Linford,” Jason instinctively responded in kind. Then he frowned. “Do you often flash others before introducing yourself?”

“Only when they’re cute boys.” She winked, leaning forward.

Jason laughed despite himself. It really wasn’t funny at all, and he’d heard cheesy lines like that from dozens of Shil’vati since he’d been ‘drafted’, but coming from the not-elf opposite him, it actually made him laugh. He supposed it was more a matter of her delivery than anything else. It was totally at odds with her soft tone and – mostly - gentle manner.

…Or perhaps he’d been steadily stockpiling tension since the evening began, and even a bad joke was enough of an excuse to vent some of it with laughter. Either way, Alanis’s smile only widened as she stared at him, one finger coming up to press daintily against her cheek.

“So what brings you my darkened little alcove?” he asked finally.

“Aside from the cute boy hiding in it?”

Jason rolled his eyes. “Aside from that.”

“The same as you, I imagine.” The woman shrugged. “An escape from the gazes of our contemporaries.”

As she spoke, she gestured to the many Shil’vati milling about the room. While there were other ‘aliens’ present, they were few and far between.

“Though I imagine the eyes aimed in your direction are far more appreciative than those sent in mine,” Alanis continued. “Nighkru are rarely popular in Shil’vati space.”

Jason slowly felt the pieces coming together in his mind. “You’re a trader? Or a diplomat?”

“Why not both?” The woman smiled in a distinctly predatory fashion. “I suppose I should have introduced myself properly earlier. Let me correct that now.”

One arm behind her back, and the other in front of her, she bowed at the waist, through her eyes remained on him all the while.

“Alanis Urin of Urin Acquisitions.” That same predatory smile remained on her face. “Though my current vocation is that of a diplomat employed by the United Trade Coalition.”

Jason found himself looking at the quirky matronly woman in a new light. While he hadn’t heard much about the Trade Coalition, what little he had wasn’t good.

He also had to wonder what a diplomat from the Coalition was doing on a backwater like Gurathu?

“Oh, don’t look at me like that,” she tittered, straightening up. “You seem like a smart boy. Don’t let the Imperial propaganda machine color your perception of my home.”

Jason cocked his head. “So the stories about slavery aren’t true?”

Perhaps it wasn’t the most diplomatic question, but he wasn’t the world’s most diplomatic guy. At least, not when his life and livelihood weren’t on the line. And ironically, the woman in front of him was likely one of the few people in the room he could offend without consequence.

Maybe…

Which was fortunate for him, because for the first time since he’d met her, Alanis’s eyes flashed with a hint of very real anger.

“It’s not,” she gritted out. “That is a blatant lie disseminated by an obsolete and ancient ruling class to blind their citizens to the true meritocracy that the Coalition champions.”

Jason chuffed, a little amused at getting under the woman’s skin. “Not a fan of the nobility then?”

The woman shook her head, her features smoothing out. “Not one bit. How a nation managed to reach the stars while still carrying the yoke of such an outdated class system, I will never understand.”

Jason very carefully kept his features neutral, even if he wholeheartedly agreed with the woman’s sentiments.

“So, if the Coalition doesn’t have slaves, why does every Shil’vati I meet seem utterly convinced that you do?” He raised a hand to forestall the Nighkru’s heated response – while also drawing some guilty amusement at getting the older woman so worked up. “I don’t know much about the greater galaxy, but if nothing else, the last few months have taught me a lot about Shil’vati, and I can tell you now that they don’t lie much.”

Well, that wasn’t strictly true. They lied. They lied a lot. They just didn’t tend to do it overtly. When a Shil’vati lied, it tended to be a result of exaggeration or understating. He didn’t know whether it was some kind of cultural quirk, and to be honest, he didn’t care. All that mattered was that every Shil’vati lie always had just a hint of truth to it.

Which meant, if they said the Coalition trafficked in slaves, then there was at least something ‘slave-like’ going on there.

“I have no idea,” the woman said primly, all hints of humor gone. “Freedom is a founding cornerstone of the Coalition. Every sapient has the right to advance themselves, no matter their origins.”

“Though the capacity to advance oneself does not always, or even usually, translate to it being likely.” A new voice chimed in. One Jason had already heard once this evening.

“First Pack Master Kelu,” Alanis said, a mask of politeness forming over her features even as she turned to face the massive black furred Rakiri. “How nice of you to join our private conversation.”

The Rakiri just stared back at the Coalition diplomat. “I might have stayed away, if it weren’t for the fact that you were singing sweet lies into the ears of this young male.”

“Lies? I have no idea what you are referring to?”

“I am sure,” the rakiri said, moving round until she was standing behind Jason’s shoulder, a move that bewildered him. A sensation that only got stronger as she placed a clawed hand on his shoulder.

…Is she staking a claim here?

He was so bemused by the totally blatant power move, that he didn’t think to brush her off. Instead he watched with some amusement as Alanis stared venomously at the offending hand. An amusement that only grew as she moved forward to grab his arm, burying it in her décolletage.

The sensation was… quite nice.

He knew he should have stopped them – to assert that he wasn’t a toy to be squabbled over, if nothing else – but watching the two aliens obviously posturing was amusing enough that he didn’t want to. Perhaps it might have been different if they were both Shil’vati? But being two new species made it just new enough that it was novel rather than offensive.

“The Coalition may not have slaves as defined by law, but they employ other means to get to the same end.” The rakiri rumbled behind him, the growl in her voice translating through the air with enough intent that he felt the vibrations in his chest. “Debt is their weapon of choice.”

“Debt is an inevitable economic factor,” Alanis scoffed.

“Yes,” Kul allowed, “but none wield it so skillfully as the Coalition. Nor so freely.”

Alanis rolled her eyes, though Jason didn’t miss the fact that his elbow was snuggling ever deeper into the woman’s plunging neckline. “Debt is not slavery. It can be dispelled through time and effort. Once it is, a member of the Coalition has all the same rights and opportunities as any other. All are equal beneath coin. From the High Chairman to the lowest menial. Something the Imperium, with it’s outdated notions of ‘nobility’, will never have.”

The woman sounded genuinely proud of her people, as if she was speaking from the heart. Whether that meant she was speaking the truth, or was simply an incredible liar, he didn’t know. Likely some combination of both, given that she was both a diplomat and merchant.

Kelu’s ears flipped back irritably. “Sound in theory, but we all know that behind those sweet words is a tasteless reality. No amount of effort can offset a poor enough beginning. And the Consortium ensures that a great many start poorly.” Jason almost winced as the woman’s hands unconsciously tightened on his shoulders. “Those kidnapped from their homes by ‘acquisitions’ companies least of all.”

“Those individuals are liberated from radical elements,” the Nighkru argued.

“Radical elements?” Kelu’s voice certainly had taken on a slight growl now. “Say what you mean. Pirates, raiders and thieves. Hired and supplied by the Coalition. To kidnap and enslave.” She leaned forward and Jason could feel the woman’s fur tickling the top of his head as she stared directly into Alanis’s eyes. “…To then be bought by the Coalition.”

The ashen skinned woman stared back, her eyes glinting dangerously, even as her features remained totally placid. The whole situation felt more than a little surreal to Jason as the two women glared at one another, and he had a sneaking suspicion that they’d forgotten about him in the midst of their rather passionate argument.

“Liberated,” Alanis enunciated slowly. “By the Coalition, as part of our rescue efforts.”

She leaned forward, and the two women were almost nose to nose. “Though I understand why you might be confused. I know the Imperium is happier to blast both hostages and hostage-takers into atoms unless some noble’s offspring happens to be amongst the former. Then you negotiate.”

Alanis waved a hand dismissively. “We do the same. We just happen to have widened our rescue efforts to include those people who weren’t lucky enough to be born into privilege.”

“Allowing the criminals to continue,” Kelu growled. “Emboldened by their success and richer for their effort.”

“But with the hostages alive and safe!” Alanis shot back. “Killing pirates and raiders solves nothing. More spring up to fill the vacuum. Always have, always will. The best we can do is live with and attempt to regulate them.”

“Yes, that all sounds very noble. Almost reasonable. Until one remembers that the Coalition government garners a handy profit from those they ‘save’.”

Alanis gritted her teeth, which Jason was only just realizing looked rather sharp. Not unlike a shark.

“The Coalition incurs a debt when they rescue those people.” The woman spoke slowly, as if to a child. “A debt that needs repaying. We are a government, not a charity. No one gets a free ride. Individuals rescued by the Coalition need simply pay off the debt incurred in their rescue. Thereafter they may do as they please. That is not slavery. That is simple economics. Currency for goods and services.”

“Slaves. Bought and sold. Stranded on an alien world with debts they will never pay off.”

Alanis opened her mouth to argue when Jason felt something begin to vibrate. The woman looked down, and belatedly realized that she was still holding onto him. And that he was present.

“Uh, your breasts seem to be vibrating?” he said.

The sudden stiffening from the rakiri behind him seemed to suggest that she had also forgotten he was present and that his words had caught her off guard.

Still, the look of surprise on Alanis’s face only lasted for a moment, before she let go of him. Her face shifted seamlessly into the same teasing smirk she’d greeted him with as the older woman made a show of slipping a hand into her ashen cleavage, palm sliding delicately across the glowing tattoo that ran across the top of her breast. Staring, despite himself, Jason caught just a hint of something light grey, before the woman’s hand retreated, what looked like a cellphone in her hand.

Glancing at the screen she sighed.

“I’m sorry, I have to take this.” She glanced at him as she walked away. “I look forward to talking to you again soon, private.” Her eyes shifted to glare at Kelu. “Hopefully somewhere with less nosey eavesdroppers.”

Kelu bared her teeth in a positively canine fashion as the Nighkru walked away.

“…So, uh, you going to let go of me anytime soon? Or am I going to have to solder closed some holes in my suit?” Jason asked.

Kelu glanced down in surprise, suddenly releasing her hold on his suit. Which was fortunate, because her claws looked like they were about to punch right through the relatively thin and flimsy bronze material.

Which was even more fortunate, because it would have been awkward to explain to Tisi if she asked why he needed a replacement for his parade uniform. There were already enough rumors about him and Yaro flying around, without him saying that his bronze suit was punctured by a territorial Rakiri.

“Apologies,” Kelu said quickly, backing off with a haste that was almost unseemly coming from someone who spoke and acted just like Yaro. “I let my… passion get the better of me.”

“I’ll say,” Jason chuckled. “I thought Alanis was a few seconds away from getting a good clawing before her phone went off.”

“I wouldn’t,” Kelu said. “No matter how richly that slaver might have deserved it, I would never despoil a gather of pack leaders by shedding blood.”

At least, not intentionally, Jason thought as he delicately rubbed the area where the woman’s claws had been so close to punching through his armor.

An action that didn’t go unnoticed by the black furred woman across from him.

“Again, I apologize for being so… familiar.”

“Yeah,” Jason nodded. “ I can’t say I’ve ever had anyone grab me by the shoulders from behind like that.”

If the woman could blush, he was pretty sure she would be right now. “As I said, I let my passions get away from me. My instincts as well it seems.”

“Instincts?”

“When the pack alpha wishes to ensure she is heard, she will hold the males shoulders like so. To show that she speaks… with his voice.”

Jason was pretty sure that was a polite way of putting it. If he were to describe it, it would be more along the lines of: ‘this is my male, if you want any, you better do as I say’.

…Of course, he could be totally wrong and leaping to the crassest conclusion imanable, but the idea stuck in his mind regardless.

“So you were speaking for me?” he asked, a hint of the irritation his amusement had buried rising to the fore. It wasn’t a large thing, and he buried it quickly, but the presumption annoyed him. Especially when it came from a total stranger.

“I meant nothing by it,” Kelu said, bowing her head slightly. “It was a result of a lack of thought rather than a deliberate motion. I apologize for the presumption.”

Seeing the woman giving him a genuine apology, Jason couldn’t really hold onto his irritation. He wasn’t even that annoyed to begin with. If he had been, he would have put a stop to it sooner. Bemusement was a salve for his pride.

“It’s fine,” Jason said. “Please raise your head.”

He felt more than a little awkward with the massive alien bowing to him, especially when he was pretty sure that she was kind of a big deal. At least in Rakiri circles. If she wasn’t, she wouldn’t be here.

Alanis had called her ‘First Pack Master’. That sounded pretty important to him. Important enough that she really shouldn’t have been bowing to a marine private.

Finally, the woman raised her head, and he let out a sigh of relief.

“I just now realize that I have not introduced myself,” she bowed again, though this time in a purely cursory manner. “Kelu, First Pack Master of Gurathu.”

Jason figured it best to imitate her, lowering his slightly. “Private Jason Linford.”

The alien smiled. “I am aware. You are very much the talk of the party.”

“An exciting novelty, I’m sure.” Jason sighed.

Kelu flicked her ears, a motion he’d learned from Yaro to be the Rakiri approximation of a shrug. “I cannot deny that.”

Well, it wasn’t like it was an issue for him. He’d known he was coming because he was an exciting novelty.

“So, did you come over to my little corner to see what all the fuss is about?” he asked.

“At first,” Kelu acknowledged. “I had initially intended to wait for you to come out of your burrow first.”

“But then you saw Alanis?” Jason finished.

“Smelled her,” Kelu corrected, a hint of a growl in her voice, though one that thankfully didn’t seem directed at him. “The woman’s perfume is as overpowering as it is offensive. You should not trust her.”

He didn’t. Not out of any particular enmity towards her, but because he didn’t really trust anyone present. Besides, while what Kelu and Alanis had said didn’t sound great, there was a lot of room for shades of grey in that conversation. If he’d learned nothing else since the Imperium had occupied Earth, it was that no situation was entirely black and white.

Yes, the Imperium was an expansionist Empire with frankly backwards social structures, but it also had surprisingly robust infrastructure and welfare systems for all its citizens. While the place was hardly a utopia, no one could claim that the Imperium did not care for its people.

Even if it was aggressive in acquiring those people.

By those standards, he sincerely doubted that the Coalition was the corporate hellscape most media sources he could access painted it as.

…Maybe.

“I don’t trust her,” he said, omitting the fact that he didn’t particularly trust the woman in front of him either. It was nothing personal, but as he thought, he didn’t trust anyone here. Perhaps it was cynical of him, but he found it hard to believe anyone present and thus this high up on the social totem pole could be entirely on the up and up. Especially if they were paying attention to a nobody like him.

Which was a shame, because Kelu seemed quite genuine in her interactions with him.

“You seemed pretty angry though,” he pointed out. “It almost sounded almost personal.”

He’d mean the last part as a joke, but the Rakiri chuffed humorlessly. “Gurathu used to suffer regular ‘pirate’ raids.” She glanced around the room angrily, as if searching for Alanis. “Many packs were carted off into cargo holds, never to be seen again. My pack-husband amongst them.”

Pack-Husband? He thought. She doesn’t look that old? Though it’s kind of hard to tell with Rakiri.

Of course, he immediately felt like a cad that those were his first thoughts in the face of the woman’s loss.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” he hastily corrected.

The woman just smiled. “Thank you, but I have mourned and accepted his loss. It may sound callous, but we did not know each other long. It was an arrangement. In some ways I might consider that a blessing.”

Jason nodded warily. That was practical. A little cold, but practical.

Again, he reminded himself exactly what sort of people he was dealing with.

“The pirate raids have stopped now though?” he asked.

Assisse said she hadn’t seen anything even remotely related to combat in the two years she’d been stationed on the Whisker, which meant that there hadn’t been an attack in that long.

Kelu nodded. “There was a shift in fleet patrol schedules. Plus Gurathu received a permanent posting from the Interior.” The black furred Rakiri scowled. “Though what purpose the woman serves beyond stirring up trouble, I cannot fathom.”

Having met the woman in question, Jason couldn’t exactly argue with that.

“We never caught the sky-ships doing the raiding though,” Kelu continued, her claws slipping slightly out as her irritation grew. “They stopped the moment the patrols shifted.”

“Perhaps they had some kind of sensor?”

He felt stupid the moment he said it. If it was possible to pick up waiting or incoming ships on the other side of an FTL jump, the Whisker wouldn’t be spending weeks at a time hanging around an otherwise worthless gas giant.

Which meant…

“I suspect a leak,” Kelu said, confirming his suspicions. “Probably the result of bribery.”

There was no missing the anger in her voice. To be honest, it made him feel a little guilty. After all, he was here as a means of ‘bribing’ Hela. It was a silly thing for him to feel, given that the two situations weren’t even remotely the same. Still, he couldn’t deny that he was benefiting from the same bribe based culture that likely robbed Kelu of her vengeance and closure on the ships that had been victimizing her people.

“At least it’s over,” he allowed, for lack of anything else to say.

The rakiri’s scowl only deepened, before she glanced at him and seemed to force herself to relax.

“You would imagine so,” she said quietly. “Yet there have been a few…”

“Jason!” A loud voice nearly made them both jump.

He turned to see Hela storming over to her.

“There you are,” she huffed. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”

“Just taking a break from all the excitement,” he smiled mirthlessly.

Something the merchant didn’t miss as she rolled her eyes. “Well break’s over. I need you back near the front of the hall.”

She didn’t wait for his answer, before she grabbed him by the arm and almost bodily tugged him away. Something he doubted he could have fought even if he were so inclined, given the size difference between them.

He turned to belatedly wave at Kelu. “It was nice meeting you.”

“And you,” the woman responded, though he couldn’t help but notice that she was staring with bemusement at the way he was being essentially dragged.

The sight made him smile a bit himself at the semi-absurdity of the situation. Of course, that smile fled from him the moment Hela opened her mouth. “Honestly, I don’t know why you were wasting your time with that fluffed up furball. There’s plenty of important people here and you immediately honed in on the least important. Honestly Jason, the governess only invited her to be polite. Majority Rakiri populace and all that.”

Jason found his carefully schooled features twisting into a frown at that. Did that mean the same was going on for humans back on Earth. Important politicians invited to the High Governess’s court ‘just to be polite’?

He hoped not, but his cynical nature refused to allow him to believe it could possibly be otherwise.

“So why’d you pull me away?” he asked.

Hela glanced at him. “Other than to get my money’s worth on the date I’m paying for.”

This time it was Jason’s turn to roll his eyes at the woman’s melodrama. This ‘date’ was costing her peanuts.

“The governess is making an announcement and I already know what it is,” Hela continued. “And I think you’ll come in handy.”

With that suitably mysterious statement, Jason found himself pulled to the front of the room where most of the other party goers were gathering. He even found he didn’t get stared at – much. Most everyone’s eyes were on the front of the room, where the Governess stood alone, a number of tables piled high with something hidden by a bunch of very fancy looking sheets.

Despite himself, he was interested.