Part 1 (2/2)
Right, she told herself uneasily. She reached for the door latch... just as the door slid open on its own.
”Ferna?” Maggie stared with surprise at the tall Kindred girl with dark green hair who stood in the doorway. Normally she looked amazing-perfect and beautiful and regal. But now her sleeping clothes were a rumpled mess and her face looked as green as her hair. ”Ferna?” she asked again.
”M-maggie,” the girl gasped and put a hand over her mouth. ”I'm so sorry. I...oh!” She turned away and staggered down the narrow, short hallway that ran down the length of the s.h.i.+p.
Concerned, Maggie ran after her. She wanted to ask what was going on but just then Ferna practically dove through the bathroom door and began noisily throwing up in the small, practical toilet in the far corner of the tiny room.
”Oh dear...” Maggie hung back, uncertain of what to do. She always felt so awkward in these situations. At last she came forward, wedging herself into the little bathroom with the Kindred girl, and helped to pull Ferna's long hair away from her face. There was a washcloth lying by the miniscule sink and Maggie got it damp and pressed it to Ferna's forehead when she finally sat up.
”Thank you...” She looked up at Maggie gratefully and wiped her mouth with a trembling hand. ”I'm so sorry...just came to say...to tell you...”
Her words were interrupted by the sounds of retching coming from the other side of the s.h.i.+p.
”Oh dear.” Maggie peered down the hall, concerned. ”Is that Ratner?”
Ratner and Ferna were a mated pair of Kindred-both scientists and both extremely kind, if a little distant. Maggie was happy to be working with them although she did wish the Kindred pair was a little more approachable. Of course, she thought, watching as Ferna bent before the porcelain throne once more, this is a little more approachable than I actually had in mind.
”Yes, it's Ratner,” Ferna said at last, wiping her mouth again on a swatch of toilet paper. ”We're both...indisposed. It must have been the varla slugs we had for last meal. They've made us both very ill, I'm afraid.”
”Yes, I can see that.” Maggie wet the washcloth and rung it out again before wiping the Kindred girl's sweating face once more. She was glad all over again that she'd turned down the helping of slimy, green slugs the Kindred couple had offered her at dinner. If they looked that disgusting going down, she could only imagine what they looked like coming up. ”Are you going to be okay for what we have to do on Yonnie Six?” she asked, trying not to think about it. ”We're almost there, aren't we?”
”Yes.” Ferna pressed the damp cloth to her face and took a deep, trembling breath. ”In fact, we're in orbit now. That's what I came to tell you-Ratner and I can't go deliver the Hurkon collar.”
”You can't?” Maggie looked at her in dismay. ”I mean, I can see that you can't now but maybe in a day or two...”
Ferna shook her head. ”The appointment has been made and it must be kept. These people-the Yonnites-are strictly punctual. It's considered very rude to keep them waiting.”
”So...what are you saying?” Maggie asked warily.
”You'll have to deliver it. I'm sorry, Maggie...” Here Ferna paused to retch some more although Maggie was positive she must have already gotten up everything that she had ever eaten and then some. ”I'm sorry,” she repeated when she finally stopped being sick. ”But it has to be you.”
”Me? But...I don't know anything about the culture here. In fact, I was told specifically to stay on the s.h.i.+p and away from this planet,” Maggie protested. In fact, she had been warned several times and by several people that Yonnie Six was bad news. To hear Lissa-who had come here on a mission-tell it, the place was a freaking snake pit. Not a good environment for an accident p.r.o.ne girl like Maggie at all.
”You can manage,” Ferna told her. ”I'm sorry, Maggie but you have to. Of course you have no male to act as your body slave so we'll have to make up a story about that-”
”Wait-what?” Maggie frowned. ”Body slave? What are you talking about?”
”Yonnie Six is a world ruled by females. All the females of rank have body slaves-male slaves that wait on their every whim and need. Ratner was going to pose as mine but unfortunately...” Ferna turned green and started retching again.
”Oh dear...” Maggie held her hair again. She didn't know what made her feel worse-seeing the nice Kindred girl so horribly sick or knowing she was going to have to take her place down on the surface of Yonnie Six.
”It'll be fine,” Ferna gasped, sitting up again at last. ”Just...do exactly what I tell you and you'll be off the planet in no time. All right?”
”I...I guess so,” Maggie said doubtfully. ”If you're sure it's safe.”
Ferna nodded. ”As long as you follow directions and don't do anything you're not supposed to do. Also remember not to mention the Kindred.”
”Why?” Maggie frowned.
Ferna ran a trembling hand through her hair. ”The Yonnites don't like us-don't like any society where males penetrate females.”
”Um...okay.” The whole penetration thing made Maggie's cheeks get red-it wasn't normally something she'd discuss with a colleague-but she nodded earnestly.
”I was going to pose as a buyer and seller of antiquities,” Ferna continued. ”This female you're meeting with-Lady Pope'nose-has a number of historical doc.u.ments from the Kindred home world which were stolen and sold to her some time ago. They are the early history of our people and the Kindred would like them back. Lady Pope'nose has agreed to trade them for the Hurkon collar you're going to be bringing to her.”
”Okay.” Maggie nodded again. ”So I just go in, swap the collar for the doc.u.ments, and come right back to the s.h.i.+p?”
Ferna looked troubled. ”Well, it might not be quite that easy. The Yonnites have unusual ideas about hospitality. You may have to agree to have dinner with her or even spend the night.”
”Spend the night? On a strange planet?” Maggie squeaked. Not that she didn't like to see and experience new things-she was, after all, going to a whole new world the Kindred had discovered to study its flora and fauna. But she preferred her alien experiences to be of the scientific variety. And she was much more comfortable studying new and exotic plants and animals than being thrust into a whole new culture-especially a hostile, man-hating one that had views on who should penetrate who. Or was that whom? And if the males didn't do the penetrating then how...Never mind. Maggie didn't know and she didn't really want to find out.
”You'll be all right,” Ferna a.s.sured her. ”You got your translation bacteria back on the Kindred Mother s.h.i.+p, right?” Maggie nodded and she continued. ”Then you'll be just fine. All you have to do is nod your head a lot and agree with whatever Lady Pope'nose says. Just avoid giving offense and stay out of trouble, all right?”
”Sure,” Maggie said with more conviction than she felt. ”Just stay out of trouble-how hard can that be?”
Except trouble seemed to follow her everywhere.
No, stop thinking like that, she ordered herself. Everything is going to be just fine-won't it?
Maggie certainly hoped so but she had a bad feeling about this. A really bad feeling.
Chapter One.
”So very pleased to meet you, little Mistress.” The s.h.i.+rtless man bowed stiffly to Maggie. ”I am the personal body slave of Lady Pope'nose.”
”Uh, nice to meet you.” She started to bow back and then remembered she wasn't supposed to. Women were superior to men here so she should be courteous but distant-at least, that was what Ferna had said.
The s.h.i.+rtless slave frowned. ”But where is your body slave? Forgive me, but I was told to expect a person of rank.”
”I am rank. I mean, of rank,” Maggie corrected herself hastily. ”But I, uh...my slave got sick on the way here. Actually,” she went on, hoping to make her story even more convincing, ”He died.”
”Oh!” The man bowed low. ”My condolences, Little Mistress. Had you owned him long?”
”Oh yes, ten years! He was a...uh...a birthday present for my fifteenth birthday,” Maggie said. ”I'm heartbroken over it, really. He had the...the uh, purple spotted chicken mumps.”
The slave frowned. ”I'm sorry-the what? That disease is not known here.”
”Never mind.” Maggie waved airily. ”It's not contagious but it is deadly once contracted. Anyway, I thought it was better to continue here and give you the Hurkon collar in exchange for the historical doc.u.ments as we agreed. So, uh, here.”
She held out the black velvet pillow which contained the strange device. It had multicolored lights all over its black wire surface, reminding her of some kind of bizarre Christmas wreath. But there was nothing Christma.s.sy or cheery about it. Frankly, just holding the thing on the cus.h.i.+on gave her the creeps although she couldn't say why. She was more than ready to get rid of it and the little remote control that went with it.
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