He stroked her hair and rubbed her shoulders. “How did I get so lucky?”
“You’ve got it backwards. I’m the lucky one, times three.” He took her hand. “Stand up, baby.”
She did. He sat, then pulled her into his lap and she comfortably curled up against him.
“Is this showing you?” he softly asked.
Emi slipped her arms around him. “Absolutely.”
Aaron was healing, slowly but surely. All the men were, but Aaron’s wounds ran especially deep. She suspected many of them were thickly scabbed over and in need of debriding. In subtle ways she worked with all of them, indirectly, with her empath skills as well as good old psychology, combined with the most effective mental medicine of all.
Love.
She loosely scheduled alone time with each man every day, even if only an hour, although they might not have realized she did. Several times a month she tried to spend as much of a full day with one of them as she could. It helped.
It was during one of these alone times that Emi was on the bridge with Ford. They’d been talking when his attention suddenly drifted from their conversation as he stared at the command console. He quickly checked several settings.
“Shit!” Ford yelled from the command chair.
Emi flinched, startled, and turned in her seat. “What? What’s wrong?”
He shook his head, his face grim. No time for questions, that look said. His fingers flew over the console and he punched the com.
“Aaron, to the bridge. Now.”
Emi got up and looked over Ford’s shoulder. He was working too fast for her to make any sense of what he did, but from the blinking red warnings on one screen, she imagined it wasn’t good.
He was stressed, but it was more disgust and irritation than fear, so that reassured her whatever the problem was, it wasn’t life-threatening.
She heard Aaron’s pounding footsteps before he ran onto the bridge. “What’s wrong?”
Ford pointed at the console. “Jump engine relay’s burned out.”
“Aw, shit.” Ford slid out of the command chair and Aaron took his place. “Let me guess.”
“I bet you do,” Ford said.
Caph jogged onto the bridge. “What’s wrong?”
“We lost the jump relay.”
“Crap.”
Emi didn’t want to interrupt, but she couldn’t stand not knowing.
“What’s wrong?”
Ford grimaced. “One of the spare parts we don’t carry is the jump engine relay. They normally don’t go bad, and it’s not considered a critical or life-support part. But without it, we can’t jump.”
“Where do we get one?”
“I don’t know. We’ll have to figure it out.” Caph slid into his seat and looked it up. She watched as his entire body language changed. He tensed, defeated. “Tay-Dax’n. Four days away at normal speed.”
Aaron sat back and shook his head. “No. We’ll put in an order for one and ask them to deliver it. How long?” Caph looked it up. “At least three months, probably six.” Emi held up a hand. “Whoa, wait a minute. Why can’t we get it at this Tay-whatever planet?”
Caph shook his head. “Tay-Dax’n. And no.” He looked at Aaron and Ford. “I’m voting no.”
Aaron agreed. “No. Ford?”
“No.”
Emi seethed at not getting a say in the matter. “You guys don’t get to vote on something like this without me hearing the whole story.
What the fuck?”
Aaron set his jaw. “We aren’t going to Tay-Dax’n, and that’s final.”
“No, Aaron. You don’t get to pull captain rank crap on me like that. What’s up with this planet?”
The twins remained silent, knowing better than to challenge their captain.
“Em,” Aaron said, “it’s a Class 2-A treaty race. Do you know what that means?”
She thought back to her lessons. “No. Enlighten me.”
“It means free trade, but we have to abide¯fully¯by their customs while dealing with them.”
“And that tells me nothing, Aar.”
He took a deep breath. “They’ve got a dress code that’s not like ours. We would have to abide by it.”
“What, man skirts? Plaid with polka dots? Horizontal stripes?
Quit beating around the fucking bush and tell me, dammit!” Ford took over. “They have very specific views on women and their role in their society. While they’re considered goddesses, in effect they are property of their men. They are not abused. In fact, it is illegal to touch or even talk to a woman unless you ask her permission first. They have the lowest incident of assaults and crimes against women anywhere.”
Crossing her arms in front of her, she directed her ire at Ford.
“You guys are being a bunch of pussies, you know that?”
“I’m getting there, Emi.” Ford glanced at the other men. “Women are worshipped, literally. And their dress code tends to favor showing off the female form.”
She snickered. “You’re afraid of looking at a few naked women? I won’t get jealous, I promise.”
The men shook their heads, and she knew she hadn’t heard the whole story yet.
“Emi, you would have to walk around dressed like them. They allow for very sheer skirt-type garments called t’apaurs, but women don’t wear any other clothes.” He couldn’t meet her gaze any longer.
“They also wear collars identifying who their man is.”
“Fine. I’ll stay on the ship.”
Ford let out a deep sigh. “You can’t. When a non-local ship arrives, even just at a docking station, the entire crew must meet with the controlling magistrate. Dressed the way the locals dress. The men dress enough like human men. But the women…” It finally sank in. “I’d have to walk around pretty much naked and with a collar on, that’s what you’re saying?” The men nodded.
Aaron sat back in his seat and scrubbed his face with his hands.
“Now do you see why we all voted no?” They were genuinely worried for her. It both touched and pissed her off.
“So you’re saying I don’t get a vote in this?”
“What?” the men parroted.
“Me. Vote. Don’t I get one?”
She’d managed to shock Ford into silence, a rare occurrence indeed. Caph spoke first. “And how would you vote?”
“It’s stupid to hang around wasting that much time when we can have the flipping part in a few days, all because you guys don’t want other guys seeing me naked. Hell, I run around the crew area nearly naked half the time, and you aren’t complaining about that.” Aaron frowned. “It’s not that. Em. We aren’t going to put you through something like that.”
“Something like what? All the other women are like that, right?” The men nodded.
“So what’s the problem? You said it’s safe. Get me a freaking collar and let’s do this.”
She’d stunned them all into silence.
“You’re not serious?” Caph asked.
“Fucking A I’m serious. We’ve got a job to do, boys. I’m willing to take one for the team, so to speak.” Incredulous, the men stared at her.
“I vote we get the part from Tay-Dax’n.” She raised her hand.
“All in favor, boys?”
Caph, then Ford reluctantly raised their hands. She waited, and Aaron finally nodded. “All right. I don’t like making you do this.”
“You aren’t making me do anything. I appreciate your concern, really. It means a lot to me that you care that much, but it’s okay.” She winked. “I’d be willing to bet I keep all y’all’s interest up while we’re there.”
The men laughed.
Despite her bravado, Emi was scared shitless and thanked the gods the boys weren’t empaths. They docked and made arrangements for the part while Ford went out shopping with a special preliminary debarkation pass from the local magistrate. The silver collar he brought back was engraved with beautiful, intricate filigree and her name as well as the men’s names. He’d taken her measurements before going out, and when he put it on her, it fit perfectly.