"Because I am the second child. The spare. The one that is only around in case something happened to my older sister. She is the valuable one. She is the leader who is trying to make this peace happen and end the war. I am here to assist her in any way I can. Defend her and protect her."
"That does not sound useless."
"Well, I am." She rocked her head back and forth.
"Why did you lie?"
"Because if they thought I was my sister, I might have had more leverage with them because of the name."
"And if they had killed you?"
"Then they would have not killed my sister, and she would be safe somewhere else."
"You would sacrifice yourself to protect your sister."
She nodded. "My sister is all I have. And she is all the Terran Empire has to defeat my father. So would I die for my sister? Absolutely I would."
"And for yourself?"
"I would do what I had to for survival." She took a step toward him and crossed her arms. "And you need to tell me why kissing me was pointless."
"Back to that," he sighed.
"Yes. And I want a straight answer."
"You are not pointless." He took a step toward her. They were getting closer again. Though he did intend to engage in more primitive acts, the Craving roared to life, just being closer to her again. He would need to learn how to tamper these feelings down to continue to be around her.
"We call our primitive side the Craving. The Craving is usually pent-up sexual frustration that needs to be released. Hence the visits to the pleasure women on Disguised Serenity where we trade." That was not the only reason they went. The pleasure women had their purpose. Some were helpful when it came to information as well.
She did not give him time to explain. "So you get horney. What does that have to do with anything?"
"I am trying to explain."
"Well, you're doing a crappy job with it."
He gritted his teeth. She was frustrating! Obviously, she was not used to high-stress situations. Perhaps she brought out his own frustrations.
"Well, you are." She climbed up on one of the beds. "Oh wow. This is, uh..." She started to sink into the top, it sculpting around her. "Wow."
"It shapes to fit you."
"Obviously." She wiggled a little, and the bed was reshaped to match her. It seemed to almost swallow her up. She took a few moments to get settled and looked back at him. "Go on. You're horney. Cravings. More info."
"The Cravings remain, regardless of the programming the builders worked into our systems. They had strived to get rid of all of our primitive urges, including the need to mate." Mating was a lost prospect of their people. The Orlicians had made sure they could not mate without any assistance from them.
Hence now, they had no future for their people.
"Why would they stop you from mating?"
"There was not any value in it."
"Except children."
"Except for having offspring."
"So what do you do now? Do your people just not have urges with each other?"
"The Craving does not work that way most of the time."
