The Iriduan’s Mate by Susan Trombley

Three

Molly’s legs trembled, threatening to fail her as she watched the Iriduan leave the waiting room and make his way through the crowded dock area. She noticed how everyone gave him a wide berth, making certain to be out of his path when he passed them. He barely turned his head to scan his surroundings, but she suspected he didn’t need to in that armor. His wings twitched, outspread at his sides as if he prepared to take flight at a moment’s notice, which told her he remained aware of the danger on all sides of him.

She’d gotten the feeling from him that he would fight before he’d take flight, and she had no doubt he’d win most, if not all, of those fights.

“Shit,” she whispered beneath her breath.

“You think he’ll speak to his superiors about a deal?” Jenice asked, her voice suddenly rasping in Molly’s ear from the communicator tucked inside it.

“I’m coming back there, Jen.” Molly sucked in a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “We’ll speak in a moment.”

She glanced at her bodyguards, Mogorl and Grundon, and they nodded in unison, stepping aside for her to pass into the office, before closing in behind her.

She rushed through the luxurious outer office without seeing it, then through another door to the inner sanctum where soothing music played, and a pleasing floral and citrus incense burned to chase away the stench from the docks. She didn’t linger there, either, though her bodyguards settled onto the seating crescent in front of a screen array to play video games.

She continued through a hidden door into a more utilitarian chamber outfitted with screens displaying feed from secret cameras that scanned the entire docks and even some of the other tiers.

Jenice spun around on her chair to face the door as Molly walked in, still covered in goosebumps from the encounter.

“Well?” Her cheeks bunched as she smiled toothily. “Do you think we’ll get Ma’Nah’s business? I had Rokoi throw in a free transport of the cargo to the dreg to kiss up a bit more.”

Molly slowly shook her head, unhooking the slave collar to toss it onto one of the security desks before collapsing gratefully into an overstuffed office chair patched in multiple places. “I’m having second thoughts about doing business with Iriduans.”

She didn’t want Jenice to know how much the encounter had unnerved her. Something about that particular Iriduan had all her senses on alert, and she’d learned to trust her senses. He posed a threat to her, and she wasn’t certain what type of threat that might be, but she feared it wasn’t a physical one.

She could handle physical danger. She didn’t think she could survive an emotional threat.

Jenice nodded quickly, her short curls bouncing around her heart-shaped face. “I understand your concerns, but they have a shit ton of money up in that dreg, not to mention goods we can’t get anywhere else on this rock. Hell, if we make the right connections, we’ll have a line to some of the rarest goods in the galaxy, right from Iridu itself! Ma’Nah is our way in. If that company legitimizes Zaska’s Docking and Shipping, the other Iriduans will see us as a viable option to their overcrowded docks.”

“You heard him say he won’t deal with slavers.” Molly still felt surprised by that revelation.

Everything she knew about Iriduans told her they were the bastards of the universe and that there wasn’t a single atrocity they weren’t more than happy to commit.

Jenice held up a finger. “No, he said he doesn’t like slavers and slave owners, not that he won’t deal with them. He left the waiting room without a definitive answer, so he could still take the offer to his superiors.”

Molly sighed, smoothing her hand over her bound hair to touch the bun high on her head, prickling with ornamental pins and jewels. “He was… not what I expected.”

She’d planned on meeting some arrogant masked bastard in fancy robes surrounded by a full escort of armed guards. Instead, a single Iriduan in full armor and far larger in size than she’d anticipated had shown up, stalking through the deadliest dock tier in the column as if he owned the place and feared nothing.

Given their reputation, most Iriduans probably didn’t fear much. That armor he wore was some of the best in the galaxy. The pistol on his hip had been imperial military issue, which meant it probably fired multiple kinds of ammo, not to mention ammo with multiple devastating effects.

She also got the impression that he felt more than comfortable with combat since he moved in the armor like it was as familiar to him as robes were to most of the uptight Iriduans.

“Mm,” Jenice said noncommittally. “It’s a pity he wore a helmet. I’ve seen pictures of Iriduan males, and they’re ridiculously good-looking, even with all those bizarre skin colors.” Molly chuckled at Jen’s ironic tone as she pointed to Molly’s dyed skin.

She shrugged with far more nonchalance than she felt. “Sure, they’re handsome, if you like that pretty boy type, but we need to focus on what matters here. The Iriduans aren’t stupid, Jenice. We’ve played this game well with the lowlifes and scumbags who live and work down here but branching out to the upper tiers could end up screwing us, big time. Especially with a species like the Iriduans.”

Jenice waved away her words. “Relax, Mol. Sha Zaska terrifies everyone, and his reputation has spread throughout the column. Hell, I’m pretty sure it’s spread throughout all Za’Kluth. No one is gonna mess with his minions or servants.”

Molly leaned forward, propping her elbows on her knees as she tapped her fingertips together. “Yeah, it’s just too bad that we can’t produce the boss himself if anyone gets too nosy and starts investigating.”

“Well, no one with any intelligence will delve below the vents to see if he’s real or not. As long as people keep disappearing off the docks and so many slaves go missing, no one—not even an Iriduan—is gonna want to risk messing with Sha Zaska.”

“Speaking of which,” Molly leaned back in her chair with a heavy sigh, “how many slaves were you able to smuggle off world in that last shipment?”

“We got seven in the crates bound for Pelin Jumpstation docks. Our contact there will see they get onto ships bound for Akrellia.”

Molly tapped her knee with nervous fingers as she pondered the situation. “Just seven, huh?”

“We need more ships and more shipments, Mol,” Jenice said, her tone all business now. “We can’t launch half-empty cargo haulers without bringing attention from the city bosses. That’s why we need companies like Ma’Nah to fill our holds with enough cargo that we can run more slaves out of here without arousing suspicion.” She pointed to the decrepit waiting room of the dock office visible on one screen. “We could also use the credits. Our ships all need an overhaul, and the dock’s forcefields are due for maintenance. You know how much that shit costs.”

Molly stared at the screens, not really seeing the images depicted on them.

“You know,” Jenice said thoughtfully, tapping Molly on the forearm to get her attention, “that Iriduan didn’t exactly slap your hand away when you touched him.”

Molly shot a quelling look towards Jenice. “We’re not at the seduction stage yet, Jen. I don’t want to push it with the Iriduans. They’re… weird when it comes to sex and mating.” Though she had no personal experience with the males of that species, she had heard odd and conflicting rumors about their sexuality and mating habits.

Jenice grinned. “It wouldn’t be the worst assignment to seduce one of them.”

Molly’s stomach fluttered as she recalled the deep, impatient, sometimes even growly voice of the Iriduan. Normally, she only pretended to be frightened and submissive, but his species truly did unnerve her, and his size and commanding voice had made her act much easier—and much closer to her real feelings. It had been an impulsive and, in retrospect, dangerous decision to touch him, and she still wasn’t certain what had possessed her to do so. A “dyed flower” shouldn’t be so aggressive and obvious in their seduction attempts. They were supposed to seem elusive and delicate. Something to be pursued. That elusiveness and reserve had saved them on more than one occasion from having to engage with repellent creatures.

She also knew enough about the Iriduans to understand that attempts to seduce them rarely worked. They apparently imprinted on a single female in their lifetime, so casual sex wasn’t normal for them. Conversely, she’d heard other rumors that unmated Iriduan males could have sex with females they hadn’t imprinted on, but she had no idea how true that was, as the males from the dreg didn’t visit brothels openly. Rare as those rumors were, they sometimes implied that things could get ugly and violent in those encounters with unmated males, some tales even claiming they behaved in an abnormal fashion in brothels, as if they were high on drugs.

Sometimes she and the other “flowers” used their bodies to close deals, though they always tried to avoid taking the seduction all the way if they could. Molly had been in positions where she’d had to follow through with one or another of the unpleasant creatures she’d seduced in her role as one of Zaska’s flowers, but it was a rare enough occurrence that she could live with it.

She wasn’t in a brothel anymore, so at least she had more control over who touched her body.

“Hey!”

Molly jumped when Jenice suddenly waved a hand in her face.

“You okay, sweetie?”

She nodded quickly. “I’m fine.” She sucked in a hard breath. “I think I’ll avoid the seduction route with the Iriduans though. I don’t think that’s a winning strategy. We’ll court their business in a more professional manner.”

Jenice grinned. “You mean bribe the captains of the cargo haulers to deliver more of their stuff to our docks?”

Molly nodded with an answering grin as she stood up to leave the office and Jenice to her voyeuristic work. “Damned right,” she said on her way out the door.

The okihan pirate captain who had delivered Ma’Nah’s smuggled cargo had owed Zaska a favor, and Molly had cashed it in when Jenice suggested they find a way to court the wealthy Iriduan business, even though she had her misgivings about the plan. She still wasn’t sure how she felt about their decision.

When she’d invented Sha Zaska, it had been an act of desperation. A work of propaganda to keep nosy and intrepid explorers out of the under-vents where she and other escaped slaves had hidden and scrabbled to survive on what scraps fell through the vents from the base-level tier.

The other slaves had helped her create the effects and sounds in the under-vents to begin the spread of fear, and over time their whispered rumors on the docks spread it further. That was when Molly realized they could use the myth of Sha Zaska to their advantage, and with the help of some of the savvier slaves, like Jenice—who’d been a successful businesswoman before her abduction—started helping slaves to escape the docks and smuggle them into crates on outbound ships. Then they’d tell tales to whoever would listen that the thida naf living below the vents had pulled them down through the vents and eaten them.

Fake slave collars, fake gang marks, even fake tentacles, along with very real guards—most of whom genuinely thought they were serving Sha Zaska—helped the former slaves move back above the vents to take over the docks.

Now, their operation had grown far beyond Molly’s wildest dreams, but it was still too small to help every human slave she encountered, much less the many other species that lived in slavery on this hellish world. Former slaves like Mogorl and Grundon, who now served her loyally, rather than the mythical boss they knew didn’t exist.

Molly hated having to walk by the suffering victims of this criminal world, unable to free them all. She tried to tell herself it was enough that she managed to free some to return home to their own worlds, or find a haven where slavery wasn’t tolerated.

Her own memories of the brothel haunted her nightmares. The patrons hadn’t been the worst part about the place, and most had treated her well enough that she even found herself taking comfort in the physical intimacy, since she’d been deprived of any kind of kindness or comfort from the owners of the brothel.

She barely remembered her life prior to being sold to the brothel. She’d been very young when aliens had abducted her. She’d never even seen the ones that took her from Earth. She only recalled waking up in a slave market as a small child. From there, she’d been purchased by a colonial construction company and used for various labors in tight spaces where even their mechs couldn’t fit. Once she’d grown too big to fit into those spaces, the company “recruiter” sold her to a brothel. She had no idea what her age had been then, but she doubted it was older than twelve.

As for what her family had been like on Earth, she couldn’t say. When she’d finally had the freedom to return to that world if she wanted to, she hadn’t bothered. She figured she had a greater purpose here, helping others to find their way back home.