"What is so funny?" Harbin asked.
"I thought I may get to satisfy my desire to fight today."
"You're Craving?" Harbin asked.
He nodded. "Can you blame me? They're as pretty as the pleasure women."
Both Harbin and Bahran stared at him.
"What? They are."
Harbin shook his head. "Do not tell them that, Jedriek."
"Why not? The pleasure women are pretty. So are they." What was wrong with telling the princesses that? Did females not like hearing they were pretty? The humanoid females on the space station liked hearing about it. Were Terran females different?
"Their appearance is not important," Bahran said. "But do not tell them they look like pleasure women."
"Why not?"
"They will take offense," Harbin said. Though he almost growled it. He sounded annoyed, which Jedriek didn't really understand.
He was confused about compliments. Females were always so strange about them. Sometimes when he would compliment a pleasure woman, she would smile and giggle. Other times, they would get angry.
He didn't think all the females were that way.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes," both Harbin and Bahran said.
It always fascinated him when Harbin's brow started to get that pinched spot in it, right between his eyes. Surely the nanites would fix that.
"Jedriek, be nice. Kind to them. But do not treat them like you do the pleasure women. They will be very upset if you do."
"If you say so."
"I do."
Jedriek glanced at Bahran. "He acts like he already knows how they are."
Bahran smacked him in the arm. "He met one when they came to inspect their quarters. He spent the entire day with her. He gathered a great deal of intel about them and how they respond to things."
"Oh?" He had not realized Harbin got such close inspection of any of the Terran Ambassadors already.
"So yes. I do know what they are like. And if you tell one she reminds you of a pleasure woman, she will likely smack you. They may leave and never finish the peace treaty."
"It's that important."
"Yes. It's that important."
"Fine then," Jedriek said. "I will not tell them that they look like pleasure women."
Even if they do in all those big fancy clothes.
* * *
Cyborgs or not,the Rhimodians were still humanoid. It was unusual, Jedriek had always thought, how they could depend on Master System and their biomechanics, but they still managed to have emotional connections. He didn't really understand how it made sense. According to Master System, they were not the only species to embrace cybernetic enhancements. Many used enhancements to strengthen their people.
Something that Rine had said stuck with him.
