Candidate (Selected Book 4) (24 page)

She took the brush from me and told me to turn around. And then she began using it on my hair. I thought she was about to fill me with Wookie fur, but if she did, I didn't notice later. She brushed for a while until my hair was straight and tamed, and then the brush disappeared, and she pulled me from the shower.

Waiting for me was a camisole and undies.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding," I said.

"What? This is what human mating candidates wear."

"Funny."

"It's more than I'm wearing," she pointed out. And then she looked me up and down. "Besides, we just spent the last 90 minutes without you wearing a single thing."

"So we have," I said. I pulled them on.

She sat me at a table and disappeared for a few minutes. She then made multiple trips to collect plates, silverware, and platters of food. Finally she sat then lifted the covers from the food.

"Everything is human," she said. "We can both eat this, although I don't know if it is to your taste."

It was entirely vegetarian.

"I wouldn't have expected you to be vegetarian," I said.

"I'm not, but we can't eat the same meats. I wanted a meal we could fully share." And then she served first my plate, then her own.

Then, before I could pick up a fork, she took my hand and closed her eyes. I set my other hand on top of hers and watched her. She was still for several moments then opened her eyes and turned to me.

"Thank you for sharing this meal with me, Andromeda."

"Thank you for inviting me, Soft Rain."

We ate quietly for a minute, then I asked, "What is your world like, Soft Rain?"

"It is beautiful," she said. "It is a blue and white planet, rich in water and green with life."

"So like Earth?"

"It has a single moon, which pulls on the tides and has had significant effects on the entire nature of the planet and the resulting evolution."

I cocked my head.

"And it is peopled by this species of creatures, much smaller than me. They are soft and delicate and beautiful."

"Soft Rain."

"Earth is my world now, Andromeda."

"That's sweet," I said. "And I'm happy you're here. But that's not what I meant."

"I know. I wanted to make a point. In actuality, our home worlds are not so different. Mine is slightly cooler on average, but it has less tilt, so the northern and southern polar regions are much larger. There is only small variation from summer to winter, and when you travel much further north than about your home, it is permanent tundra."

"Is that why you have so much fur?"

"Probably. We have never been archaeologists, so we have never explored our history the way humans have. We've now settled much of the planet, at least the regions with ample water that can support life. My brother and I are actually from a region that could be considered the equivalent of your south pacific islands."

"With all this fur?"

"Well, all this fur also holds a great deal of water, so when it is hot, a quick dip in the pool can keep us cool for hours. Our homes are designed to be tolerant of wet Wookie."

"Oh, I suppose they would have to be."

"I can show you video sometime. You may find it difficult to tell our worlds apart."

"I'd like that."

"But this world is my home now, when I am not in space."

"Oh, I hadn't thought about that."

"It is my turn to ask a question. I am confused by something. A number of things, actually, but something in specific."

"I can try to help."

"I was given to expect..." she trailed off.

"Expect what?"

"Well, something different."

I looked down. "I'm sorry. I didn't want you disappointed."

She leaned forward and set a hand on my arm. "I am not disappointed. I thought you would hate being with me."

"Oh." I looked up. "Why could I hate being with you? You are very sweet and gentle, and have I mentioned how much I love your voice?"

She rumbled. "Once or twice, perhaps."

"I would not have volunteered to come here," I said. "I had a life." I shrugged. "Had. I lost my job, and then the aliens took me."

"I know."

"So I don't know what life I lost. If I were being treated like the other women, I'd be very, very angry, especially if they tried to give me to a male. But I get to meet different people, and I really like some of you. I will have a choice, or so I am led to believe. I'm happy to be here with you, Soft Rain."

"You aren't at all afraid of us?"

"I am intimidated at how little control I have, and Jasmine Brighteyes goes out of her way to remind me from time to time. But I'm not afraid of any of you."

"You're so..." Again she trailed off.

"Friendly?" I asked. "Forward?"

"What does it mean to be forward?"

"Well, putting your hands on my breasts was a little forward," I said.

She rumbled. "Yes, that is what I meant then."

"I didn't mean to embarrass you," I told her.

"I wasn't embarrassed, but I'm confused."

"To be quite blunt, I wanted to find out early what your intentions were. I won't do it again, Soft Rain."

"So you don't want me to touch you in that way?"

"I don't want you to feel you need to touch me any way you don't want to touch me."

"Weren't you inviting me to take you as my mate?"

"Not exactly. I was offering to let us explore our bodies together. Humans don't equate that type of touch with being married. Yes, if you're married, and it's a good marriage, you touch that way. But you can touch that way without being married."

I shook my head. "I can't believe I just said
any
of that." I grabbed my water glass and hid behind it as I drank. Soft Rain rumbled.

"Open honesty between disparate species is important," she said. "We will not understand each other otherwise. So you weren't offering to become my mate."

"You don't know what you want yet," I said. "I was perhaps offering to help you decide." I smiled. "The first taste is free."

"Excuse me?"

"It's a joke. Imagine I were selling illegal drugs. I might offer to let you try it for a while to get you hooked before I made you pay me for more."

"Are you upset I didn't take your taste?"

"No, Soft Rain. But I made the first move this time, and you turned me down. I won't offer again. If you decide you want a taste after all, you're going to have to woo me for one."

"I have offended you."

"No, Soft Rain. But I'm not going to throw myself at you more than I have."

"Oh. I understand." She looked down at the rest of her meal and ate quietly.

So I set a hand on her arm. "At least for a while, I won't say no if you ask. But you'll have to ask, and because we are different species, you will need to be clear."

She didn't look up, but she nodded.

* * * *

We talked for another hour or so. And then she told me the guards were coming for me. I thought the evening ended far too early, but I collected a hug and told her I'd had a nice time.

I don't know if I was offended. But I was definitely disappointed.

I waited in my cell. I was due for my challenge with Cherish, the Tutor.

She hadn't met with me when I swam that morning, and I hadn't heard from her. And I didn't have any clothes, and the guards weren't there for me, either.

But when I checked, she was still on my schedule.

I'd spent a portion of the morning with Jasmine, reviewing what I had learned about the women. We'd talked, and then I'd talked to Clover about the two that were hers. I got hugs from her, with tentacle, so that was nice.

I helped with only one event in the afternoon, a final challenge. Of course, the alien had won, but the woman didn't seem too upset. Nor did she seem too accepting. At the end of the event, he asked for physical affection, but she turned away from him. At least he didn't push it.

I didn't talk to her, but I thought she was going to be a tough nut for him to crack. They weren't mated, after all. She only had to give him a chance. Jasmine assured me no one produced pheromones as well as the Octals did, so the outcome wasn't a given, if the woman kept a cold heart.

I then spent an hour in my office then had returned here. But I'd been waiting an hour, and we were already twenty minutes past our start time.

I tried contacting Dark Skies, but the call was instantly declined. I couldn't tell if she was that fast or if she was in do not disturb mode. My visor didn't have such a setting, but I bet whatever she had could do that.

And so I sat and wondered if I were being stood up.

I worked myself up into a lather, and we were an hour late when the nook opened. I stared at it, not moving right away, but then got up to investigate.

I found simple clothing: undies, camisole, and a robe. At least there was a robe. I pulled them all on, and the guards appeared only moments later.

They surprised me. Although I was shackled for the walk, they removed the shackles and set me into a chair. And then they left. The chair didn't attempt to swallow me. The visor brightened, and I saw Cherish watching me.

I looked around. We were in a living room, and we were alone. I looked at her for a moment or so, trying to calm my mood. I was able to find a smile. "Hello, Cherish. I thought we were having a challenge."

"We are. We will negotiate the nature ourselves. I hoped you would let me choose."

"Will I have a fair chance?"

"I believe you will lose, but it is not decided."

"Tell me what you want."

"We have a game. It is a game of concentration. The game itself is exceedingly simple. It requires only minutes to learn, and there is little strategy."

"Okay," I said slowly.

"But it is a difficult game, because you can only perform well if you can concentrate and ignore distractions. You play the game nearly entirely with your mind."

"This sounds intriguing," I said.

"We actually have many games like this," she said. "They are our form of computer game."

"I'm going to get my ass handed to me."

"I do not know this expression, but I think I understand you anyway. I will play with a handicap. Perhaps you will let me show you, and if you do not care for this game, we can attempt something else."

"It does sound intriguing," I repeated.

"Wait here," she said. She rose to her feet and disappeared into another room. She returned very quickly carrying a metal case. She set it on the table and opened it.

Inside rested four, well, they looked a little like crowns made of metal. Cherish selected one and then moved to me.

"That goes on my head."

"Yes," she said. "Do not be frightened."

"I'm not. Do I remove the visor first?"

"No. Your visor is required." Then she reached over and set the crown on my head. It, well, it moved, wrapping itself in place and making itself at home. It felt a little weird, but when it was done, it felt more like a very strange hat than a crown.

Cherish collected another of the crowns and set it atop her own head. It settled in just like mine did. She collected her own visor and put it on. Then she sat down in the chair facing me. "The game is in your head, but the playing field is projected through the visor. There should be an entry in your gaming menu."

I didn't realize I had control of the visor, and I didn't -- not full control. But I had some, and I found an entry called simply, "Concentration". I selected it.

My vision went blank, and then I was in a computer-generated world. Cherish entered a moment behind me. We were both seated in our own chairs, although somewhat further apart than we had been.

"I will show you," she said. "The game is simple. Between us you see dark globes."

I did. They were lined up midway between us.

"The goal is to pull the dark globes to you. Like this." Then I watched as one of the globes began moving towards her. It came to a rest touching her feet. Then another, and another, and they each clung to her, climbing up her body until she looked like she was surrounded by a bunch of balloons.

And then they all disappeared. A moment later, they reappeared in the center again.

"The winner is the one who collects them all," she said. "Or we play until a time limit."

"That seems simple," I said. "How do you make them move?"

"Look at one," she said. I did, and the visor highlighted it as if it were a button I could press. "Select it." I did, and it began to pulse. "Now, you must form a pure thought. I can be any thought, or no thought at all. Think about one thing as hard as you can, or think about nothing at all, but that is much harder."

And so I did the simplest thing. I thought about the orb itself. It twitched. I thought harder, and it began moving towards me, not smoothly, but towards me. I concentrated until it touched my feet.

I did it again with three more orbs, and it grew easier the more I did.

"Very good," she said.

"You said there would be a distraction."

"Ah, yes. It can come in two forms. First, even if I capture an orb, you can steal it. And I can steal from you. Or we can fight for the same orb."

"Okay."

"But we can also offer distractions."

Then my screen changed, and along the side were a list of options.

"You can select a distraction from the list, and then when you concentrate, you are offering the distraction to me. If you break my concentration, I can lose control of my orb, and if you keep me distracted long enough, those I have captured will reset. Once you use a particular distraction, it is used. You only get to use them each once."

"Got it."

"I am going to demonstrate a distraction to you," she said. "Try to pull an orb to you."

I did, concentrating, and when it was halfway to me, my hands began to tingle. Still, I pulled on the orb, and the tingling moved up my hands to include my wrists, and then up to my elbows. A moment later, I lost my focus and began scrubbing at my arms. My orb snapped back to the middle, but still the tingling continued. And it got worse.

"Oh god," I said. "Make it stop."

She didn't make it stop, not right away, but I began scratching at my arms and lost any remaining focus. The orbs I had collected snapped away, and a moment later, the tingling stopped.

"Okay, that's just mean," I said.

She didn't answer right away. "You don't want to play."

"I didn't say that," I said. "But you're going to be disappointed in how poorly I play."

"I am happy if you play with me, Andromeda," she said. "That's what matters to me. Please."

I thought about it then said, "Of course."

"I have only a little more to show you. There are several defenses to the distractions I offer you. The first is to ignore it. They grow in intensity, but they don't last forever, and if you can ignore it, you can acquire several orbs while I am attempting to distract you."

"We'll see if that works."

"You can also attempt to distract me. If you break my concentration, your distraction will end, but you can continue mine. I would need to use a new one, and if you have distracted me enough to break my concentration, it is difficult to gain it back."

"Got it."

"The third way is to think of nothing at all. While thinking of nothing at all, your orbs will not reset, and I can't pull them from you. And it will break the distraction."

"I don't think I'll be able to do that."

"Probably not the first time, but with practice, you could."

"You said there would be a handicap."

"Yes. There are a few. The distractions I have for you are considered easier to ignore than the ones you have for me, but they require the same level of concentration to apply."

"Okay."

"You start with more distractions available to use against me."

"I like having more."

"And I have calibrated the game for a new player against an experienced player. It will require less purity of thought for you than it will for me. I do not know if this will be enough for a good game."

"Will you be disappointed if I play poorly?"

"Only if you do not enjoy yourself."

"I'll do my best, but perhaps we should have a few practice games."

"My thought as well. But there is one more aspect to the game you must understand. The orbs themselves are a distraction. One orb is easily ignored and you may not even notice it, but the effect grows."

"Oh no," I said.

"This game has variations. There is the opposite game where I try to stick the orbs to you. I am switching to that variation and setting the game to be between two beginners. Then I will show you."

The game blanked and then reappeared. Everything was as it had been before. "Try to push orbs towards me," she said. "We will not use the distractions."

So I selected an orb and concentrated on it. It began to move towards Cherish. But in the time it took me to move one orb to her, she moved three to me. And then while I was selecting my next orb, it became five.

"My legs are tingling," I said.

"Yes," she replied.

She added more orbs to me, and more, and the tingling climbed higher and higher. I tried blocking it out, and I managed to push five to her, but by the time I was covered almost to my chest, I just couldn't take it any longer. I began squirming badly, trying to escape the orbs. It took Cherish no time at all to finish covering me, and I thought I was going to go insane.

Then the game reset, and slowly I calmed down.

"I have turned down the level of distraction they offer you," Cherish said. "The goal is for it to be difficult to play, but not impossible."

I was sure I was going to lose badly, but really, it seemed like fun.

"So, a practice game?" she asked. "We'll play with half as many orbs and no distractions. Then we'll play another, and I'll add the mild distractions."

"Okay," I agreed.

Half the orbs disappeared plus the list of distractions. Then a timer counted down, and when it reached zero, I selected an orb and began pulling on it.

It took little time before we had collected all the free orbs, most of them clustered around Cherish, but I had a few. We began fighting over the ones I had. She won those fights, but I made her work for each one.

Then when she stole my last orb, I selected one of hers and pulled it away.

"Good," she said. Then she corralled both orbs at the same time and drew them to her. "What do you think?"

"I think I'm bad at this, but this is fun."

"I'm glad you think so. Again, with distractions this time?"

"Like you need to distract me."

"It is the game we play."

The game reset. We both grabbed orbs. I collected two. She collected three. She grabbed her fourth orb just as I grabbed my third. But then a ringing began in my ears. I continued to work on my orb.

The ringing grew louder and then began to pulse in pitch. Then it grew discordant, and I lost my orb. I tried to clear my thoughts to make it end, but all my orbs reset before the ringing ended.

In the meantime, she'd collected three more orbs.

Two could play at that game. I scanned the list and then selected a distraction called Spiders. I could only imagine what that was, but I thought perhaps I'd had a taste during yesterday's challenge.

I began concentrating on it.

Cherish collected two orbs, and there were only two more left, but she wasn't collecting them as quickly, and I saw her computer image was squirming.

Oh, two could definitely play this game!

But that thought broke my concentration, and I lost control of the Spiders. Cherish squirmed a little more, but then she settled down and pulled the orb to her. I grabbed one and she grabbed one.

But then she hit me with a new distraction. At first it was a hint of a scent, but before I could get my orb halfway home, the scent had grown into the worst swamp gas I'd ever smelled.