Orbital Academy 12

"Of course I will," she responded with a smile, leaning forward to kiss the Prince on the forehead. When he smiled, the expression was so anxious and tense that Alex wondered if she had made a huge mistake.

***

When the bag was removed from her head, it took Alex a few moments to re-adjust to the lights. When she did, her stomach dropped. She had hoped she would be taken to some small and comfortable room, somewhere private where she could perhaps work her seduction on someone with actual power. This was as far removed from those hopes as possible. The room was small, but it was also ornate and official. In front of her sat a large wooden table, three austere older men sitting behind it and watching her with serious expressions. They seemed representative of the three colors she had seen throughout the Terran's world, one with faded blue hair, one with mint green, and one with lavender, all staring at her inscrutably. The table between them was empty, except for a large silver bowl that shone with multicolored light. To the right of the table stood what she assumed to be three princes, Ashahosta among them. On the left a spindly, thin man with a small stone tablet was watching her with a startling intensity, as if he was ready to take notes if she so much as scratched her nose.

"Please take one of the spheres and eat it," the thin man broke the silence. Alex glanced at the bowl on the table. On closer inspection, she could see that the source of the light came from a collection of glowing spheres that filled the bowl. They were small, and looked like glass with tiny fires trapped within, fires of green and blue and purple. *If nothing else, they're consistent with their color schemes,* Alex thought, reaching forward and selecting one. She chose purple in honor of the man she had come to think of as 'her' prince, and vaguely wondered if she was passing or failing a test with her color choice. When no one said anything at her selection, she popped the sphere in her mouth and bit down. The sphere crunched and her mouth was full of grainy powder; it clearly didn't just look like glass, it was made of glass. Alex spat it out and gazed at the impassive three across from her. Did they really think she would simply kill herself as they all calmly watched?

"These spheres are hideously expensive in both time and manpower," the thin man said calmly, "if you waste any more of them like that, you will guarantee your execution." With the threat of death, it took a moment for Alex to process the significance of what he had just said.

"Did you just say multi-syllable words without charging them?" She asked. The thin man made a sour face as he responded,

"I am one of the few who has bothered to learn to speak the tongue without magic. It is quite distasteful, but on those rare occasions when it is needed, it makes me invaluable. Now please, the sphere. It will not kill you." *Magic? They think their technology is magic? What kind of backward creatures are these Terrans? Did they get their tech from someone else, so they don't understand how it works?* Alex took another purple sphere, trying to ignore the gritty crunching as she ground it in her teeth and swallowed. Instantly she felt a fire burning in her stomach, along with a vaguely unpleasant pressure. The older man in the middle nodded as if satisfied, the action sending his tuft of mint green hair wobbling. The thin spindly man spoke again.

"Exile. You have been brought before the Dukes of the three great tribes to answer their interrogations. While your safety is not guaranteed, if you cooperate the fate of you and your companions will be better than if you do not. As you seem unable to speak normally, I will be acting as translator between you and the Dukes using low speech, speaking to you by tongue and to them by mind."

Alex nodded her understanding. The pressure in her stomach was uncomfortable. The translator paused for a moment, not taking his eyes from her, and then spoke again.

"We are informed that your name is Alexandria. Have you ever attempted to kill one of our number Alexandria?"

Alex opened her mouth to protest, and although she could feel her lips shaping the word 'no', her voice rang in the small room,

"Yes, when they came for us in the tent I tried to shoot one of you in the head." She covered her mouth with both hands, eyes wide, as the pressure and heat instantly dissipated from her stomach. The translator simply nodded his head and waited, clearly conversing with the three men behind the table in his mind.

"Please eat another sphere," he said finally. *This is unfair,* Alex hesitantly took a blue sphere and slipped it into her mouth, *I can't lie, can't even spin the truth...what kind of compound is this?*

"How many of your Exiles' moons now orbit about our planet?" The translator's voice seemed dry and lifeless, and Alex was reminded of a ventriloquist's dummy. She focused on the exact wording of the question. *I've never been exiled anywhere, so I don't consider myself an exile,* she reasoned, *and since a moon is a planetary body, technically the orbitals don't count as moons.*

"There are five of them, we refer to them as 'Orbitals'," Alex's traitorous mouth seemed to move without her permission, and even as she felt the pressure in her stomach lessen, a knot in it was growing. *I'm giving away everything....anything they could possibly ask...I'm helpless...* even as the panicked thought crossed her mind she kept on talking, against her will, "their names are Academy, Techrider, Minera, Pivot, and Basura."

The translator carefully made notations on his tablet with a thin writing instrument, and Alex felt more nervous and helpless than she had ever felt in her life. *I can only pray that they don't ask the right questions.* At the translator's indication, she took another sphere, but this time she held it under her tongue and pretended to chew and swallow.

"What is the goal of your balls of death and lightening? For what purpose do they attack?" Alex opened her mouth to answer, but the translator cut her off sharply, "please swallow the sphere before answering."

Defeated, Alex swallowed the ball. There was nothing left to do. A thin sheen of sweat made her skin feel sticky in the too-hot room, and she could feel the Prince's semen dripping out of her to dampen her pants. She regretted her decision to make him happy as she shifted uncomfortably, her mouth running on autopilot.

"The drones find a location where Terrans are situated, then clears the village out. Pockets of crysium can always be found just underneath the village, and the miners in Orbital Minera can harvest the crysium from orbit, as long as there are no Terrans in the way to interrupt the mining drones and beams. We've also found that a successful attack against a village will delay the next Drake attack by a few months." Even through the feelings of helplessness, Alex could tell her words surprised them. Until then, the old men sitting across from her hadn't changed their expression, but their faces now registered surprise. Maybe that could be capitalized upon.

"Why do you Terrans attack us with monsters?" Alex challenged. The surprised looks turned to looks of shock and outrage.

"You and yours have attacked and hounded us for far longer than we have sent Dracori to respond, Exile," the translator spat. He hadn't paused to mentally consult with the three before answering, "are we now at fault for defending ourselves against your blind aggression?" He stopped speaking suddenly, as if he had been silenced, and as he clearly worked to regain his composure, Alex pondered his words. It hadn't ever occurred to her to wonder who had started the war between the Orbitals and the surface. It was simply something that always had been.

"Do you mean that if we stopped attacking...you would stop sending invaders and Drakes to attack us?" She asked carefully. To demonstrate her cooperative nature, she took a sphere and ate it without being told as she waited for an answer.

"The Dukes know that you do not have the power to stop your moons' attacks on our people," the translator answered after a pause, "each of our villages have already attempted peace. It is you exiles that lust for war, not us. Now," he waited until Alex swallowed, smiling quite unpleasantly, "in what way might we destroy the Exiled moons?"

Alex blinked, horror settling in her stomach. She was so shocked by the question that she couldn't even think of the answer, the sympathy that had been slowly building for the Terrans disappearing. *So much for us being the war-lusting ones,* she thought bitterly.

"I....I don't really know," she admitted, relieved that it was the truth, "maybe if you could send up five or six Drakes at once, or if you could get someone already on the inside to infiltrate and destroy the orbitals' inner workings? Terrans can certainly hurt our orbitals, but I haven't seen anything you could do that would bring one down, let alone all of them."

The Dukes seemed very displeased with their answer, and Alex was glad. She took another sphere and popped it into her mouth somewhat smugly, which perhaps was a mistake. The duke with lavender hair barked a question, his dusty voice breaking the silence for the first time,

"Why do you shift in your seat so ONC?" *shiftily, suspiciously, as if uncomfortable or hiding something*

*Shit,* Alex blushed as the pressure in her stomach seemed to force the words through her throat,

"Because I let Prince Ashahosta cum inside me and it's dripping out now."

Ironically, the dukes seemed far less shocked at this answer, although the one with lavender hair glanced to his right at Prince Ashahosta, who was also blushing and looking straight ahead.

"Did you do this to convince him to free you?" The translator asked as if only curious, but he indicated the bowl as well. Alex took one and chewed slowly, her entire face flushed. This was almost worse than before. She refused to meet anyone's eyes as she answered.

"I knew I wasn't going to be freed, I just wanted to see my squadmates and help them be better off however I could," she answered quietly, "And at first it was just about getting something from him, but after a few days I..." Alex struggled hard to stop talking, but whether it was magic or chemicals in the glass pills, it certainly kept her lips moving, "...I actually kind of like him. He's kind and sweet. The kind of guy I'd sleep with even in other circumstances."

The room was quiet for a very long time after that, a mental conversation occurring that did not involve her. Alex processed what she had just said as they carried on their silent talking. It was just as unexpected to her as it must've been to the dukes, but she knew the spheres forced her to speak the truth, even if she hadn't wanted to admit the truth to herself. Glancing over at Ashahosta, she mentally shrugged. Why not? There was nothing wrong with enjoying the seduction of one's captor. At least, she didn't think so...

"The Dukes have decided upon your fate," the translator broke the silence, and Alex stiffened. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest, and she had no clue what the quiet men across from her would decree. The translator didn't say another word, but the door to the room opened and guards entered, clearly silently directed by the dukes. Gently but firmly they each took her by an arm, and escorted her out of the room.

The problems of betraying the names of the orbitals or revealing embarrassing details of her sex life seemed disgustingly trivial as the guards walked her down the hallways. It was the first time that Alex had seen her surroundings without a bag over her head, and she tried to calm the fluttering in her stomach by taking it all in. The halls were the same sandy stone that her cell had been made of, but every few feet there were glassless windows that looked out onto a village. Alex had assumed she was being kept underground since her cell wasn't lit by sunlight, and she tried to catch glances outside at each window she passed. The village was a little smaller than her classes said an average Terran village ran. She could see glimpses of forest on the boundary, but the buildings themselves made a large ring that was clear of plant growth. People milled busily back and forth across the clearing in the middle, and Alex noted that every single one had hair of purple, blue or green. *Are they letting me see all of this because I'm going to die soon?* A small forlorn voice asked in the back of her head. She wasn't entirely sure how to answer.

The guards stopped next to a large double door made of a heavy dark wood. On either side stood two more Terrans, and they glanced at the three with half-hearted curiosity. Alex's heart hammered in her chest as the guard on her right knocked on the door. She contemplated making a break for it, but the Terrans had proved they were a match for pistols and weaponry; they would have no problem gunning her down before she reached the end of the hall. The door swung open slowly, and a familiar voice flooded Alex's chest with relief.

"God damn Alex, who'd you have to fuck to manage all of this?"

"Preston, you fucking douchebag asshole..." Alex was so overwhelmed she couldn't even finish the insult, rushing forward and wrapping him in a bearhug. The other squaddies gathered around to join as she laughed and cried at the same time, and the guards closed the door behind them, leaving the squadmates alone.

The room was huge and comfortable, as far from the jail cells as could be. Each of the squadmates had a small bed covered with furs, although from the multiple furs piled on one indicated that Julia and Tess had decided to share. A separate room contained facilities, including a bath made of a single piece of carved wood. As soon as she could extract herself from her squadmates she closed herself in the room and filled a steaming hot bath, surprised to find running water in the primitive compound. As the room filled with steam and she lay in the water, Alex finally let herself relax, shaking with nerves and wondering what the future would bring for her and the rest of the rookies.