A Little R&R (Part 3 of 3)

Posted on Tue Oct 13, 2020 @ 4:22am by Lieutenant T'Lul & Civilian 'Key Holder' Yolanthe Ibalin

1,133 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Et In Arcadia Ego
Location: Box of Delights
Timeline: MD10 2230

[PREVIOUSLY]

The bokkai had lifted her drink, but she didn't see it, her mind was away, somewhere in the past. "Someone wanted a... she," searched her memory for the right word. "An Amazon."

"An Amazon?" T'Lul asked, not fully grasping the connotation. "So, would any female of your kind have done?"

"I don't know. But these ones. They'd got to one of our boys, offered to take him off world if he got me alone."

"So, your own male species 'sold you out,' as the human phrase goes." The statement was conclusory but held enough of a question in it that she waited for conformation.

"When I didn't cooperate, they slit his throat. To punish me." Her colours swirled through grey and peach and dark yellow.

[NEW]

"And deprive you of the fun of figuring it out?" Yolanthe glowered and the dark yellow settled into a mustard colour. "And the answer to your first question, is because I wasn't coming quietly."

"Figuring out your colors is an interesting curiosity, I must admit. However, it seems illogical to me to kill the male to make you more cooperative. I would imagine that it had the opposite effect."

Yolanthe sighed. "They threatened him until I surrendered. And then, once they had me down and immobile, they cut his throat." She closed her eyes, remembering that terrible moment. The one when she'd seen any future on her world vanish. Her flesh turned the colour of mist.

"Ah," T'Lul responded, now understanding, wondering if the mist color was wistfulness or melancholy or something else. "So, once they had you, they had no further use for him." She paused thoughtfully again. "Then what happened?"

"They left him bleeding out on the floor, and I got my first experience of a transporter. That was the last time I saw my own kind. And you know the rest." Yolanthe swallowed the rest of her drink in one go.

"I'm sorry that the experience was so painful for you. Do you think that you could ever go back?"

The grey got deeper. "I can't. The boy I was responsible for is dead. I'd get a short trial, and a long execution."

"But you did not kill the boy. That was not your fault," T'Lul countered. "You were placed in a situation that had little chance of a positive outcome."

"Not by the laws of my people. Our men are very very precious. If anything happens to them, the woman looking after them are held responsible. You're supposed to die before allowing them to come to harm. If you don't, the law rectifies that."

"Men are precious? Please explain."

Yolanthe put the glass down. The grey was starting to fade back to a dusky violet. "On my world, maybe one in twenty births is male. We're going to die out slowly. So every male is needed. They aren't... free." A brief hint of peach blossomed and was subsumed by the violet again.

"There are some men here who would describe that as a paradise. However, limiting the freedom of anyone does not sound desirable to me and it seems to bother you, unless I am misreading you."

"I've found that many alien men think that would be fun. Once you point out that we're just as variable in the looks department as any other species, and you're expected to perform nightly, regardless of your own preferences and desires, the sensible ones go off the idea. And I've come to understand that most species are horrified by the idea of slavery."

"Yet you accept it?" T'Lul pried.

"I didn't know any different until I was taken."

"Have your thoughts changed now?" T'Lul asked curiously.

"Would you think me wicked if I said no?"

"No. It is difficult to change the perspective of your upbringing." If only she knew how true that was.

Yolanthe nodded. "And it is so very different. It was something of a shock, to find out just how...backwards... my people are compared to the rest of the galaxy. But I've been here a while now. I've moved on. And in many ways, I would be considered far richer than any of my kind." Her eyes roamed out over the bar, and she nodded towards Rosh Pelin tending the bar, to Rowan and Blake navigating the crowds, and all the other pretty pretty men that worked in her bar.

"So this is why you have so many men working for you," T'Lul concluded. "And what of your ability to mate and have children with any of them?" the Vulcan asked bluntly.

Yolanthe didn't turn to look at T'Lul. "I never mix business with pleasure. But they are easy on the eye." She turned grayer, her hair the colour of ash. "And I can't have children."

"Why can't you have children?" T'Lul asked despite Yolanthe's discomfort.

Sandy yellow flickered across her body, before being swallowed by gray again. "I've had sex multiple times a week, with multiple partners, whether either of us wanted to, between the ages of sixteen and twenty seven, without benefit of contraception. I think if it was going to happen, it would have happened by now." She tried to keep her tone flat and impersonal, matter or fact. She didn't quite succeed.

"Why do you say that? Is there an age where your species becomes infertile?"

"Not till I'm much older. But," Yolanthe did the maths in her head. "Over a thousand attempts with over a hundred partners? I believe the phrase is, 'its not them, its me'."

"Perhaps," T'Lul considered. "But, perhaps not. They could have been on birth control, the odds could not have been in your favor, incompatible DNA, or any number of potential causes. I know we do not know much about the Bokkai, but perhaps you could be examined and the Federation could make some educated hypotheses." The Vulcan shrugged. "I know that the statistics may be daunting; however, that is no reason for hope to expire. Starfleet history is littered with stories of defying extraordinary odds."

"I appreciate the sentiment, but I don't think I've been clear. Our men are breeding stock. Contraception is illegal. There is no choice, for anyone. As for the odds? I had certain privileges that stacked them in my favour, and it still didn't happen." Yolanthe shrugged. "I've made my peace with it."

"I was under the impression that your continued attempts were with beings after you left your planet. My apologies for misunderstanding, Yolanthe," the Vulcan told the Bokkai. "Regardless of whether you are able to conceive or not, I hope that you will live long and prosper."

Yolanthe tipped her glass to the Vulcan. "That, I fully intend to do."

[OFF]

Lieutenant T'Lul
Chief Counselor
DS5

Yolanthe Ibalin
Owner
The Box of Delights

 

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