I couldn’t believe what I saw.
There was a twin sized bed, a sink, something fairly recognizable as a toilet, and a large round cylinder spanning the floor to the ceiling which I presumed to be a shower.
I blinked in disbelief with my mouth hanging open.
“Is this my room?”
“Just for now,” Whore said in an especially annoyed tone.
“You’ll eventually share quarters with Lord Elentinus.”
He gestured to the door beside us.
“This is his room right here, so don’t make a racket.”
I hugged myself and stayed planted where I stood in the corridor.
I hated the thought of being locked in that little prison cell.
“I thought you were bringing me to the kitchen?”
Whore made his grumble while rolling his eyes.
“Are you really hungry?”
“No,” I admitted, “but I’m not ready to go to bed either.”
Whore pounded his finger on some keys in the wall panel.
“Damn it!
I don’t have time for this!”
“Yeah.
I know.
You’re all crazy busy here.
I’m sorry kidnapping me and destroying my life is such a huge inconvenience for you.”
Whore turned to look at me very slowly.
His eyes had narrowed to angry slits.
I cringed back, and my heart started racing a mile a minute.
What the frick was I thinking?
I’d completely forgotten about the choke chain this asshole had around my neck.
“You may speak this way to me,” he said with slow angry words, “but don’t you
ever
take such a tone with my master.”
I swallowed a lump so hard it hurt my throat.
“Sorry.”
“Hmph.”
His face returned to normal and I let out a sigh of relief.
“Isn’t there someone else who can take care of me while you do your job?”
“You, I, and Lord Elentinus are the only people on this ship.”
Another secret door—no, more like a hatch—opened halfway down the corridor.
One of those robots I’d seen before whirred out on his feet wheels.
He glided over to us.
“These are called Domestics.
It knows what parts of the yacht are off-limits to you.
It will take you to the kitchen and wherever else you’d like to wander.
Bear in mind that it’s monitoring you for me.”
He started speed-walking away from us down the corridor and spoke without looking back.
“If I get the feeling that you’re looking for an escape you will be punished.”
There went my idea of exploring.
I didn’t know how paranoid Whore was, but I wasn’t about to test him.
If I really was on a spaceship over 2,000 years in the future, the thought of escape was ludicrous.
Where the Hell would I go?
How the Hell would I get there?
But, then, I guess the other wife had ‘run away,’ so there was some justification for his threats.
I looked at my new host’s cylinder head.
“Um…are you…able to…communicate?”
“Yes, mistress,” he said, in English, but with a weird marbles-in-the-mouth kind of accent.
“I am at your command.”
I liked the polite thing at once.
“I guess we’ll go to the kitchen, then.”
That was the one place Whore had given me permission to go.
“Of course, mistress.
Please follow me.”
He started rolling down the hall.
For a second I thought he was going backwards, because I assumed the side I’d been talking to was his front.
Both of his sides were identical.
He went too fast for me to keep up, but then slowed down and modified his pace to match mine.
We went into the elevator.
“Are you able to tell me about my situation here?”
“Please make a more specific inquiry, mistress.”
“Like, can you tell me stuff about the Dak-Hiliah?”
The elevator opened and the Domestic led the way out.
“I have extensive information on the Dak-Hiliah, mistress.
Please make a more specific inquiry.”
“Ah.
Okay.
I will.”
I took six steps out of the elevator and realized how weary I felt.
I didn’t know where the kitchen was, but the Domestic was heading towards the far end of the lobby.
One of the seating areas with the plants to the side called to me.
I stopped walking and the Domestic stopped in front of me.
I thought it would turn around to look at me, but,
duh,
it was already looking at me.
“Maybe I can find the kitchen some other time.
Can I just go relax over there for a while?”
“Of course, mistress.”
I plopped onto a nice cushy couch and sniffed a fern leaf.
“Would you mind bringing me something to drink?”
“That would be most acceptable, mistress.
What would you like?”
I blinked a few times.
“Uh…yeah.
How about a diet Coke?”
“That beverage is not available here, mistress.
May I bring you something else, instead?”
I knew it was futile, but I just kept going.
“Gatorade?”
“That beverage is not available here, mistress.
May I bring you something else, instead?”
“Orange juice?”
“How much orange juice would you like, mistress?”
Bingo!
“Um…a big one.”
He took off at what looked like thirty miles per hour.
I watched where he went in case I had to find the kitchen on my own someday.
He disappeared through an arch and then emerged five seconds later with a glass of orange juice the size of a tall vase.
I wondered how I was going to lift the thing to my mouth.
When he set it down on the little table in front of me I realized there was a straw.
What I tasted was honest to goodness orange juice.
It might have been a little sweeter than it should have been, but it was close enough.
After the first sip I realized I was intensely thirsty.
I downed half the thing before settling back into the cushions.
My host hovered next to me.
I tried to sort through all the questions I wanted to ask in my mind.
All of them presumed I took everything at face value, but I still wrestled with the implausibility of my situation.
Exhaustion started to hit me.
I hadn’t felt it around Whore because that creep kept me so on edge.
With him gone, I might just have been ready for the prison cell after all.
Then again, maybe these things only came when Whore called them.
Maybe they’d ignore me if they didn’t have his orders.
I had to take advantage.
“Who’s Lord Elentinus?”
“Lord Elentinus holds the 3
rd
seat on the Ruling Council and is the overseer of Earth.”
“What’s the Ruling Council?”
“The Ruling Council is the seven member body of government who rule over the Dak-Hiliah empire.”
“What?
So he’s like a king?”
“Lord Elentinus was appointed to the Ruling Council by the druid in the holiest seat.
All seven members of the Ruling Council have equal voting powers.”
“Ohh.”
I slipped off my shoes, which had been comfortable enough for me not to notice them before.
“Sounds like he’s a big-shot.
Who are the druids?”
The Domestic’s volume lowered (making my brow rise).
“The druids are a sacred and holy order who ensure the will of the gods.
They use their powers to aid the Dak-Hiliah Empire.”
“How so?”
“They shared a vaccine to prevent infection from a parasitic race called the Instajants.
Their most recent contribution to the Dak-Hiliah Empire was the gift of time travel.”
“Huh.”
I put my feet up on the couch.
The druids sounded like scientists to me.
“The druids dictate the rules by which Dak-Hiliahs must conduct themselves in their private and spiritual lives, mistress.
By obeying the druids, Dak-Hiliahs exalt the gods and win their favor.”
“It sounds like they have as much power as the Ruling Council.”
“It is said that the druids rule you in private and the council rules you in public.”
I nodded and shrugged.
That was about all the Dak-Hiliah trivia I could stand for one day.
I scooted my butt so my head was on the large armrest and closed my eyes.
Minutes passed.
I was still hugging myself, but at least I wasn’t in panic mode anymore.
I was ready to put it all aside for now and go to sleep.
“It is not acceptable for you to sleep here, mistress.”
I groaned without opening my eyes.
I felt comfortable enough around the machine to get whiny.
“It’s such a long walk back to my room.”
“Would you like me to carry you, mistress?”
Now I opened my eyes.
The offer was tempting.
“Carry me how?”
His hand extended to the floor to grab my shoes.
He set them on my stomach, and then his arms went into a forklift position.
He shimmied them under me and lifted.
Once I was up, his hands flattened against my hip and shoulder to hold me securely.
Then he zipped off towards the elevator.
It was 30 miles per hour again.
My hair blew.
It was kind of fun.
My steed set me on the bed in the tiny room.
It felt pretty comfortable.
“Thank you.”
“You are very welcome, mistress.”
A panel similar to the one beside Elentinus’ door lit up red.
“If you require my assistance again, just press the button.
This also controls your door.”
I managed a sleepy smile.
“Do you have a name other than ‘Domestic’?
Like something that identifies you, specifically?”
“I am Domestic 946, mistress.”
He said the numbers in the alien language.
It sounded like ‘sha-kang-shoon.’
“I’m going to call you Kang.
That was the village next to the one I lived in back in Botswana.
Can you be my Domestic, Kang?
Will you be the one to come whenever I need something?”