She tries again, one measured step at a time. Her movement lacks discipline.
“Better. Now stand there. Hands behind your back. Lift your chin.”
I get up and walk over to her. I circle her once, slowly, as if evaluating. “Posture is power. When you bow, you bow as if every goddess in the galaxy is watching. When you speak, you speak for us. When you stand silent—” I pause behind her, close enough to see the fine hairs on her neck rise, “—you are still ours to see.”
“I understand, Sovereign.”
I return to my chair. “Again. From the door. Bow. Walk. Present yourself. Each time will be more perfect than the last.”
By the fifth repetition, each bow is deeper and every step more measured. She obeys, but her large brown eyes betray her; they reflect her uncertainty. Questioning whether or not I’m being professional. And at this point, I don’t even know myself, but I am enjoying watching her walk and the way her hips sway. And overall, the knowing that, for the moment, I have her under my control.
“Good,” I say. “But one more element remains.”
“Sovereign?”
“Kneel.”
Color floods her cheeks in that sweet human blush she’s prone to.
“In Imperial and Reima Two culture, subordinates kneel before their betters if asked to. When you present an offering or pledge devotion, you will kneel. It is protocol.”
Eve lowers herself, slowly and hesitantly. Her knees are resting on the floor, her back is straight, and her hands are resting lightly on her thighs.
“Look up,” I command.
She obeys me innocently.
“Stay like that.” My hand flexes against the armrest of my chair. “Next time, you will kneel without hesitation when asked to. Now sit.” I motion to the chair across from me.
She rises and settles into the chair opposite me.
“Before we begin,” I say, letting the silence settle, “you deserve to know how I intend to train you.”
I lift my IC so she can see it. The display shows her biometrics: heart rate, hormone curve, and stress index. “This controls your Venus Lock,” I tell her, matter-of-factly. “And I will use it to direct what your body is allowed to feel and when.”
I expand the screen between us so the pale bands of data glint over her face. “My protocol is simple. Correct answers earn stimulation. Wrong answers earn denial and discipline. The goal is twofold. You will retain complex material under pressure, and you will learn to hold yourself in check when your barbaric base desires try to take over.”
I let that land, then add what matters most. “I tried credits and promotions with the humans before you, Yasmin and Denise. But they followed their sexual desires, not money. So, Lorian and I have decidedto train you with the only lever that works on humans—orgasms,” I say, watching her face for understanding. Instead, I get defiance. She stares at me like I’ve just insulted her species—which, in a way, I have.
“Sovereign,” she says carefully, “may I speak?”
“You may.”
“With respect, you’re wrong, Sovereign.”
“Really? I am quite confident this will work because from what I’ve witnessed so far, you are highly motivated by orgasms. On the Imperial ship,Igo,the doctor pleasured you with his instruments and then a human companion brought you to orgasm in front of all the officers. And just last night, you made a scene taking off your clothing in the hopes that Lorian and I would grant you an orgasm from your Venus Lock. So it seems that orgasms are your currency, and we are prepared to pay you in it.”
“You think that’s all I am? You think orgasms are my only weakness? You think you’ve already seen everything that drives me?”
No human has ever challenged me so I will allow her to finish. “Enlighten me.”
“You’re reducing humans to only what you can measure, like we’re mindless animals. We are not. Just becauseIam aroused byyoudoesn’t mean that all humans would welcome your attention or deserve to be collared.” Her pulse is beating fast against her throat, but her gaze never falters which reflects her bravery. Even men are known to cower before me. “You touch a human body and call it control, but that’s merely a reflex, it will never be true loyalty. Give me autonomy and I will show you that I can do my job without your Venus Lock and your orgasmic control. Then you will have my loyalty. Sovereign, it may surprise you to know, humans do a lot of other things besides chase sex, although it may seem like that because of what men on Earth have chosen to use our technology for. But I swear, humanity is so much more than just chasing orgasms; we fight, build, and die for things you can’t quantify—love, pride, fear, curiosity. You may call thatprimitivefrom where you sit, being born into acivilization that is a millennia ahead of humanity, but I call it complex.”
For a brief moment I say nothing, letting the silence sit between us to see if she’ll continue to speak after making her point, but she doesn’t.Impressive for a human.“Unbridled complexity without control is chaos. Everything on Earth is driven by humanity’s need for sex and greed. This isn’t my own observation, Eve. This is a galactic observation after centuries of Imperial study.”
“Great accomplishments can be born out of chaos,” she says, but even I hear the doubt in her voice. But it’s admirable that she still defends her species in light of everything she has seen.
“Sometimes. But rarely do highly-charged emotional endeavors, that just happen to end well, substitute for calculated planning and order. Make no mistake, humanity is not behind technologically because of lack of time.”
