Commander Zerk’k Arkti
I stood and straightened my uniform, taking a deep breath before heading to the holding cell where the females were being kept. I had waited all night to lay eyes on my human again.
Before I reached the entrance, however, Jerd ran in front of me, his face flushed. He doubled over panting before he was able to speak.
“Commander,” he breathed heavily. “Supreme Leader Aloitus forbids bringing the Earth females out with their clarity.”
“What? Why?” I frowned. I had been so looking forward to seeing the clear eyes of the human female again. It seemed they were the very heart of her, somehow.
“There were problems with the other human females…when moving them into the camps, I’m afraid. He won’t allow them to march of their own accord. We haven’t the resources for any more hysteria.”
“I understand. Thank you, Jerd.”
Jerd nodded and returned to his post. I leaned against the door and peered inside. Despite the darkness, I could see perfectly. Ten rows, ten women per row. But they were all so far away that I couldn’t distinguish them. Ten was a sacred number to the Thressl’n. I hoped it would bring us luck to have females numbering a thousand. Ten tens was supposed to be a good thing.
I groaned in frustration. I wouldn’t be able to see her. Not yet. But that was okay. I was home now. There were other things to attend to.
“Jain’la, please release the gas,” I said into my communications device.
“Understood, sir,” her voice returned to me. It was surprising how much smaller and much less powerful than the voice of Jerd was. I usually only spoke to him through the communications device. He issued my orders to the rest of the crew.
I stared into the chambers as the human females began to groan and protest. They knew the gas by now and were unhappy to be under its influence. I couldn’t blame them, and found myself wishing as vehemently as they were for their conscious entry to my planet.
Soon, the protests were muffled, and the women were limp against their platforms. All but one.
I was shocked and peered in through the window in disbelief. One woman was holding her breath, fighting and struggling against her restraints. It was the female from the rooftop.
Without thinking twice, I immediately opened the door to the chambers and ran to her aid. I removed the straps holding her in place and lifted her over my shoulder. The other females took no notice; the gas had worked on them immediately. But this woman displayed a strength I had never witnessed in a female before, and for some reason, I felt it paramount to honor that.
She struggled feebly against my body; the gas had weakened her significantly. And yet, her eyes remained open and alert; her small fists balled as they pounded against the broad side of my back. Luckily, none of my crew was present as I carried this woman down the long hallway toward my private chambers. I’m sure they would have had plenty to say about it.
“Wh…” she murmured.
I was surprised. I had never heard a human speak before, except on the satellite broadcasts that were intercepted by several different races throughout the galaxies. The Thressl’n had thought the primitive broadcasts were wildly amusing at first, until we began to see the war and destruction that the humans were propagating on their planet.
“Who…?”
She turned her dazzling eyes onto me and squinted, as if trying to make out what it was she was seeing. The gas must have affected her somewhat, because she closed her eyes tightly and frowned.
“Put me down!”
There was no bite in the demand, and she was soon limp in my arms.
“I’m thirsty,” she whispered.
I was able to type in the code to my doorway with surprising deftness despite the bundle in my arms, and entered the room, unsure of what to expect. She was resentful despite her grogginess, and I wondered if maybe I should give her the formula that counteracts the gas. We used it on occasion to interrogate our enemies before executing them. I was pretty sure I had a supply of the elixir stashed away with my weapons.
I laid the limp female on my bed and studied her for a moment. She was trying to fight the strength of the gas in her lungs, and I felt a surprising surge of pity toward her. Pity wasn’t something my kind were prone to.
“You really don’t want to be asleep, do you?” I asked her, not bothering to hide the amusement in my voice. Despite her exhaustion, she was sitting upright. Her eyes were closed, but her eyebrows were furrowed in determination.
I was silent, waiting for her to finish the thought. Instead, she clammed up, and with a great effort, she opened her eyes. The look she fixed upon me was one of pure fascination. I imagined it was how I’d looked during my youth when I was being trained to climb the ranks and fulfill my duties as second in command.
“What’s your name?” I finally asked once it became clear that she wasn’t going to continue speaking.
The female’s eyes drooped closed again, and with that, her speech ended.
I sighed and crossed the room to rummage through my weapon’s chest until I found the elixir.
“Open your mouth, Doctor.”
She seemed agitated by the command and pursed her mouth shut tightly. I sighed. It appeared I would have to inject her.
“Don’t be afraid,” I said quietly, and penetrated her skin with the needle.
The formula would take about fifteen minutes to kick in. Until then, the gas would continue to work itself throughout her system. It usually put our foes into a deep sleep before waking them up with perfect clarity. Somehow though, the female doctor sat up tall, clenching the sheets of my bed, and kept her eyes squeezed shut, as if determined to remain aware of every single thing that happened to her.
It was then that I realized that I wasn’t dealing with the typical female. In fact, no other being in the galaxy had ever proven to be more stubborn than the human in front of me. I wasn’t sure whether to be concerned or impressed. Stubbornness in females was highly frowned upon in my culture. We were all to know our roles and carry them out. They were predetermined, chosen for us from birth, and we spent our lives understanding exactly what was expected of us. A stubborn female meant a world of trouble.
“Commander!” Jerd’s voice suddenly rang out from my communications device. I picked it up at once. He sounded concerned.
“What is it?”
“You must come at once. Supreme Leader Aloitus is demanding your presence.”
“Of course,” I said, glancing over at the female. I was reluctant to leave her alone in my chambers, but if I locked her in and secured my weapons, it probably wouldn’t pose a problem.
“Water,” she whispered.
Of course, I realized. We had made a serious miscalculation. The human females were highly dependent on water, and we had deprived them for all this time. Quickly, I fumbled through my cabinet until I retrieved a small vial of the stuff. Thressl’n had little need for water, though it was present on our planet.
“Here,” I said, offering the vial to her. She made no move to take it, she was far too weak, so I held it to her lips. She drank deeply.
“Thanks,” she mumbled.
She was still staring forward, her eyes fluttering and drooping as if she were making a huge effort to stay awake despite the fierce drugs circulating in her system. I shook my head in awe and then locked the storage facility where my weapons were kept.
“Don’t touch anything,” I said as if she could have moved if she wanted to. It was taking an unbelievable amount of willpower to simply sit up and look straight ahead. If I hurried, I would be back in time to see her safely to the camp with the other females. Hopefully the meeting with the Supreme Leader wouldn’t take long.
***
“Peace and prosperity to you,” I said with a small bow when I reached the Supreme Leader’s office.
“Commander Arkti,” Supreme Leader Aloitus said, a frown deepening on his face. My stomach dropped. From his expression, I could tell that this meeting wasn’t going to be one of praise. “Have a seat.”
I lowered myself into the small, elegant chair opposite his broad desk, and Supreme Leader Aloitus moved his shimmering robes aside so he could sit down across from me.
“I understand that we were able to secure a thousand humans for the camps.”
“Something like that,” I said.
“Was that number your idea?”
Of course it was my idea. I was the second in command. But he always liked to toy with me before a good berating.
“Yes, sir.”
“I had trusted your judgment, Commander Arkti. I assumed you would take our planet’s resources into consideration. You do realize what a monstrous plague the humans have become, even on their own planet. A thousand barely covers a city block.”
“I thought it best to be thorough,” I said, prickling. In fact, I had recalled Supreme Leader Aloitus pitching that number during a meeting we’d had about the breeding crisis, and thought replacing Thressl’n females with human females would be a good way to decrease the deficit.
“You understand what could happen to Jenal’k if the human tendency to self-destruct infects our people. I’d been hoping to use the humans as simply a trial…not a replacement for Thressl’n females.”
“I understand, sir,” I said, biting my tongue. I wouldn’t have brought so many humans back if he hadn’t approved my proposal, but he had. My guess was that he had been crunching numbers while I was away, and he was unhappy about the expense of supporting so many human females.
Supreme Leader Aloitus was a greedy man, one I hoped never to be like. Even if something happened and he had to retire from his position, I liked to believe I would lead our people with more pride than self-interest and focus less than he did on the material aspects. There were so many other things that made our planet great, and yet Aloitus chose to favor plans and proposals that lined the pockets of the government workers.
“I’d like you to give a speech to your people outlining the potential risks that your decision has endangered our planet with. Inform them of everything you know about human females and what your plans for them happen to be. Let them know that these humans are in no way going to be assimilated into our society. They will remain in the breeding camps and are only to be used for breeding purposes.”
“Yes, sir.”
I was proud of my ability to hold my tongue. It was lucky that our kind knew just how important it was not to step out of line. We had to be able to welcome our destiny, no matter what that entailed. I turned away from Supreme Leader Aloitus and began to see myself out when he called my name. I looked back at him, bracing myself for more berating.
“Make sure the people know who to blame if this little problem gets out of hand, will you? I don’t want anybody asking me for handouts because you messed up.”
“Of course, sir. As you wish.”
I left the office with my hearts pumping wildly. If I were a different type of man, I would have struck Aloitus long ago, back when we were in the academy together.
***
“You have to do what I say, or you’ll get executed!”
Aloitus used to tell that to all of the young men in our class. The academy had been difficult for all young Thressl’n males, in particular, those chosen for the ruling classes. The females didn’t have it much better, though their rites of passage were kept secret from us. Our planet was heavily reliant on the ancient values; our sexes being considered very different and adept at specific types of tasks.
Unfortunately, these differences and our society’s way of dealing with them led to the gender disparity that I had been assigned to navigate. It tended to be that the male children were chosen for occupations full of danger and adventure, as our muscular structures were superior to most races in the universe. Thressl’n men were strong and brave, with great instincts for battle and how to use our powerful bodies.
Thressl’n women, on the other hand, were superior creatively, and were most often chosen as engineers and architects who created a most beautiful world for us to live in. It was thought that they were our most valuable resource, and one we must protect at all costs. Otherwise, I knew many a female who would have loved to go to battle alongside the males. They also had strong instincts, and generally leaned toward creative endeavors such as organizing philosophical seminars for the community and cultivating the land and food. Because our bodies and instincts were so different, we were reasonably divided and taught in different ways how to utilize our skills.
Unfortunately, the job pool that was available to Thressl’n men appeared far more glamorous than the job pool for Thressl’n women. Around the time of my birth, power hungry men were jailed for murdering their newborn females in the hopes of bringing power to their family name through a son. Females during that time were considered less precious and more of a burden to men who craved control over Thressl’n society.
When it came time for my birth, my father was chosen to draw my future occupation. I was born the same day as Supreme Leader Aloitus, and it just so happened that our families had long histories with the government of Jenal’k. That meant our chances of receiving leadership positions were greater, though not guaranteed.
Aloitus was chosen to become Supreme Leader, and I was chosen to be his second in command. What many people neglected to see, however, was the depth of his greed.
One day, a young male decided that he’d had enough of Aloitus’ bullying, and he raised a fist at him during our lunch break.
“Hold it right there, Kremm’lak!”
We were all frozen in fear. Aloitus had already been appointed bodyguards, one of which was my own uncle. He would have pummeled me without a second thought had I stood up to Aloitus and his bullying.
“I’m sorry…” Kremm’lak stammered. But it was too late. He had already shown violence toward the future Supreme Leader. And nobody would ever be allowed to harm Aloitus. Not until his term was up….150 revolutions of Planet Jenal’k around the three suns, which roughly translated to 45 Earth years. Aloitus had been throwing his weight around his entire life. Just because I was second in command, due to take over his reign if the people voted him out of power, didn’t mean I was allowed to fight back. In my opinion, the whole system was flawed.
“Did you see what happened to Kremm’lak?” Aloitus laughed, thumping me hard on the back the next day. My father had told me to be kind to the future leader. If I could stay in his good graces, then there were potential benefits for me and my family. But sometimes, keeping my mouth shut around Aloitus was the hardest thing to do.
“Yes,” I said, trying to keep the glumness out of my voice. Kremm’lak had been one of my best friends. And watching my uncle rearrange his face and send him to the holding chamber, where he was probably still awaiting release all these years later, made my stomach knot.
“He really got what he had coming to him,” Aloitus said, grinning. He broke a piece of his sacred bread in half and handed it to me.
“I can’t accept this…” I said fearfully. “What if someone sees?”
“My word is law around here,” Aloitus said, smiling kindly at me. “If I want to share with my friend, I shall.”
Ultimately, I shared the sacred loaf with Aloitus, and although it was the most delicious food on our planet, it felt heavy in my stomach. And so that feeling had remained for the majority of my time under Supreme Leader Aloitus.
But what was I to do about it? I knew my place. And if everyone else was smart, they would learn theirs as well.
***
“Good evening, my fellow Thressl’n,” I said as cheerfully as I could muster. My chest was still on fire from my meeting with Aloitus, but I was determined to do as I was commanded.
“Welcome back, Commander Arkti!” someone in the crowd shouted. Soon, everybody was cheering and applauding. I bowed, unable to keep myself from smiling. Even though the Supreme Leader could make me feel like hell, the people of Jenal’k were as loyal to me as they were to him. I could feel their praise and acceptance coming at me in waves. It was a nice change from the oppressive atmosphere of Aloitus’ office.
“Thank you. Hopefully, I will not need to venture back to Earth for quite some time.”
I paused as the crowd cheered once again, and finally held my hand up to silence them.
“It has come to my attention that perhaps too many Earthlings have been brought to the planet Jenal’k. This could pose a danger to our planet, and so it is paramount that the human females only be visited for breeding purposes. Your schedules will be handed out by the Supreme Leader when the time is right. Until then, it is important that we don’t try to assimilate humans or their culture into our society, as they are not only a danger to themselves, but to those around them as well. Because of this, they will be housed in the camps on the far side of Mount Zennith, and are only to be visited upon clearance from the Supreme Leader. We appreciate your full understanding and cooperation.”
I hesitated. I always wanted to leave my people with more than just an order, the way Supreme Leader Aloitus did. It seemed such a cold way to lead a nation.
“Thank you again for your warm welcome,” I finally said. “It is good to be home.”
The crowd cheered again, and I turned my back to the noise.
There was something burning in my mind. A certain female who had been trapped in my private chambers for the better part of a rotation. And now that I was free of my duties as Second in Command, I could hardly keep myself from sprinting back to my ship and seeing to it personally that the female I had abducted from Earth made it to the camps safely.