Galactic Standard Date: 152,323.06 AE
Earth: Sata’an Forward Operating Base
Lieutenant Kasib
Lt. Kasib
Lieutenant Kasib rubbed the satisfied warmth in his belly, the taste of porridge made from local grains and a dried fruit called 'dates' still upon his sensitive forked tongue as he made his way back from the mess hall. Amorite traders, a group who had allied themselves with the Sata'anic nation builders, led a sizeable herd of human females across the central plaza, future brides for whichever worthy male the powers-that-be decided to gift them to. Unlike Sata'anic females, who viewed their induction into the Female Finishing School with eager anticipation, these females trudged despondently and sobbed. As he watched, an Amorite shoved one onto the ground and kicked her.
“Hey!” Kasib shouted in broken Kemet as he broke into a trot. “Don't hurt her!”
Kemet was the language of trade on this planet. As soon as they'd started setting up a Forward Operating Base, General Hudhafah had ordered them to learn it. Annexing a planet meant the locals were expected to cast off their primitive tongues and speak the civilized language of the Empire, but there was always a period of transition.
“Clumsy piece of goat shit!” the Amorite snarled, nervous he'd drawn unwanted attention. “She's been deliberately pretending to trip and fall the entire way here! Trying to engineer her escape, no doubt!”
“I'm sorry,” the female sobbed. She lurched to her feet and stumbled back into line, bruises visible on her cheek from previous beatings. The other women closed rank, protecting her even though Kasib’s presence terrified them. General Hudhafah had ordered them to stay back and not overwhelm the females until they became acclimated to seeing other species, but the Amorite's treatment was unacceptable.
“I'll take over." Kasib tasted the air with his forked tongue and immediately regretted it. The stench of unwashed bodies made him want to retch. He gave the Amorite a look of disgust. “Go report to Lieutenant Abdul-Ghani to get paid.”
The Amorite stalked off to the payment office without as much as a ‘thank you.' The women huddled together in fear, but they appeared to understand that Kasib objected to the slavers rough treatment of them.
“You won't be harmed." Kasib had to focus to not slip an inadvertent ‘hiss’ into his enunciation. “Over there. That tent with the yellow flag. That will be your home until we prepare you to meet your new husbands.”
The females went meekly, without protest. Many had torn clothing or visible cuts and bruises. As they moved towards the tent, the female who had inspired the entire incident tripped and fell to the ground a second time.
“I'm sorry!” she cried. The other women glanced fearfully at Kasib and the other Sata’an guards.
“I'll do it!" Kasib reached down to help her up. Her skin felt warm, like his, not cold blooded like his Marid comrades-in-arms. It felt … soft.
Although she was not Sata’an, this was the closest he'd ever been to an unrelated female who was not a sister, half-sister, or one of his sister's sister-wives. Shay’tan kept strict control over females and how much access unrelated males got to them. It was disrespectful to look at an unrelated female, but there were no fathers, brothers, or husbands to bring the women to the crude female finishing school Hudhafah had set up to train them. A father, brother, or half-brother would have cracked the Amorite's skulls.
“Thank you,” she said. “I'm so clumsy. It won't happen again.”
As she spoke, even though he averted his eyes downward as was proper to address an unrelated female, Kasib noticed she didn't make eye contact. That was … unusual. Humans didn't have the same prohibition against inter-gender eye contact that civilized races did … yet.
“That’s okay." Kasib watched her without being obvious, a skill all Sata’an males learned to overcome the prohibition against looking at a female's face when looking was the only way to tell if you'd offended her. She focused not towards his eyes, but the sound of his voice. While the other females stared, owl-eyed at his Sata’anic features, flinching every time he twitched his tail, this one didn't appear to care.
“We'll help her." Two females came forward and guided her back into their huddle. The young woman stumbled again. It clicked.
“You're blind!” He couldn't believe it! A blind female without war injuries? Such a thing was unheard of in the Sata'an Empire! Most blindness was cured via surgery or prosthesis. Shay’tan was cheap, but the old dragon realized skimping on health care or education was more expensive in the long run.
One of the females stepped in front of him to shield her from his view and said in broken Kemet, “leave her alone!"
Despite the fear in the bold one’s mahogany eyes, she was as regal as a queen. Like a first-wife chosen to be the anchor of a high-ranking male who had grown accustomed to ruling her children, sister-wives, and their children with a firm hand. In fact, all three females bore a strong resemblance to one another, although to Kasib, all humans looked alike. Sisters? Or cousins? They were not supposed to take more than two sample females from each area until full annexation had been achieved. He would need to report this to General Hudhafah.
“I'll not hurt her,” Kasib said. “The rest of you … into the tent with the yellow flag. You … come with me. I want our physician to look at you. Your sisters may come as an escort.”
Five guards herded the larger group into the yellow-flagged tent. Kasib ordered the two females he'd asked to stay to lead the blind one over to the medical tent. Calling for Doctor Peyman, the base physician, he apprised him of the situation.
“This one is blind,” Kasib hissed in his own language. “Hudhafah is adamant that the Amorites only gather healthy, unattached young females of marriageable age, and not all from the same village or family. These three females are related.”
“Up here, young lady,” Doctor Peyman said in Kemet, patting the top of the examination table. “What is your name?”
“Taram,” the young woman said. “Please don't hurt my family! It's not their fault.”
“Your sisters may stay to protect your modesty,” Doctor Peyman said. “But Lieutenant Kasib will need to step outside.”
Kasib did as ordered. After almost an hour, Doctor Peyman came out.
“They are Khurrites,” Doctor Peyman said. “One is a sister, the other is her cousin. Acceptable according to the parameters Ba'al Zebub has set out. The blind one, however, is not acceptable. I have contacted the payment office and ordered them not to render payment for this one. The Amorites know better. They told her that if we found out she was blind before she got shipped off, they would kill her.”
“How would we not notice she is blind?” Kasib asked.
“She's not completely blind,” Peyman said. “She can see shadows and colors. She claims she can perform the tasks expected of a wife.”
“Isn’t there anything you can do for her?” Kasib asked. “If she can see shadows, her illness should be curable.”
“If we were in the Hades cluster,” Peyman said, “or if I had more time to study their physiology so I could engineer a cure, maybe. But under these conditions? Until we bring a civilizing hand to this planet, she will have to live with her disability.”
“I overheard the General say that the Alliance hybrids are desperate for any female they can reproduce with,” Kasib said. “Rumor has it that's where the first few groups are headed. I believe the hybrids would accept her, flawed or not.”
“Our orders are clear,” Peyman said, his expression serious. “She needs to be returned to her family.”
“How will we do that if the Amorites threatened to kill her?” Kasib asked. “Look at the bruises!”
Doctor Peyman tasted the air, scratching his head behind his ear-hole. “I didn't have a good feeling about the last two I rejected. I suspect the Amorites abandoned them in the wilderness to die. I'll list her as having expired in transit and leave it up to you to come up with a solution.”
“What am I going to do wi
th an unattached female?” Kasib asked. “It's disrespectful for her to even be in my presence! No self-respecting male will accept a female with loose morals!”
“Your options are limited,” Peyman said. “Either hand her back to the Amorites and hope they do the honorable thing, or deal with it on your own. Which will it be? Rejected for medical reasons? Or officially dead so there is no trace of her in the system?”
“Officially dead…” Kasib said. “I'll think of something. I didn't get to be Hudhafah’s personal assistant by not being able to figure out how to get things where they need to go.”
Peyman nodded. He went back into the medical tent to break the news to his patient. Kasib scratched his ear holes in wonder. How in Hades had he just gotten himself saddled with transporting a blind human female back hundreds of miles to an unknown home?
Chapter 54