When Allan awoke, he was encased in voluptuous flesh. Some of it was the familiar curves of Aly, and the supple strength of Jalla and Tillia. The rest of it, however, was rougher. It was still soft, but there was a hardness to it. He knew that it had to be the princesses that they had taken on.
Allan groaned and rolled to the side, careful not to roll on top of anyone. Allan stood and walked to the bridge, stopping off at the mess hall to get a glass of water. As he got to the bridge, a familiar sense washed over him. Standing at the console of the ship was the Goddess Elunitra, and next to her was Xulgra, God of Death.
“Oh, well, hello.” Allan said, wishing that Elunitra would choose to come sometime when he wasn’t naked or involved in combat.
“Hello, Allan.” Xulgra said, his tone neutral.
“Xulgra,” Allan said, nodding first to Xulgra and then Elunitra, “Elunitra, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Allan’s tone indicated that he thought it was anything but a pleasure.
“You were visited by one of the higher beings, weren't you?” Elunitra said, cutting straight to the point of their visit without the usual pomp and circumstance.
“If by higher beings, you mean the eldritch horror which came with the fucked up ship that we explored. Yes.” Allan said.
“You should show us what you took from the ship and anything it gave you.” Xulgra said, and Elunitra nodded.
“Why?” Allan asked, wondering if this was where he would decide to give the Gods a lecture on censorship.
“You and your clanmates are the second group to have ever seen them other than we Gods.” Xulgra said. “You have my word that none shall take anything you acquired.”
“Alright, well, can I at least put some clothes on?” Allan asked, and the gods nodded. “Cool, I’ll meet you down in the main cargo hold.” The gods nodded and vanished.
Allan quickly ran back to the sleeping chamber and grabbed his clothes. He looked at the heaving mass of breasts, limbs, fur, and hair that had been his bed earlier and wished that he would have just stayed asleep. He grabbed his clothes and left the sleeping chamber, stopping out in the hall to pull his pants, boots, and shirt on before finishing the walk to the main cargo hold.
Allan walked past Xulgra and Elunitra to where he and the others had stashed their finds from the strange encounter in one of the larger storage closets that were built into the wall. Allan entered the code to the closet and swung the double doors open wide, with both of the gods standing with apparent apprehension.
First, Allan showed them the crates of gold coinage. Then the crates that they had scooped up from space after the ship and its strange attendant had departed. Xulgra reaffirmed what Allan had thought in that he had three tools of unknown usage and several other miscellaneous objects. The last thing that Allanshowed them was the piece of paper that he, Aly, Jalla, and Tillia had assumed was the native language of the people who had built the ship.
“What the…” Xulgra said and switched into a language that sounded as if it was garbled. “Elunitra jzon, ik na la uzal ni keshka’ma.”
“Keska’ma uzal?” Elunitra said, and then she and Xulgra read the paper as they spoke so rapidly in the strange language that Allan’s head began to hurt.
“Um, excuse me, English, please.” Allan said, clutching his head.
“Oh, sorry.” Xulgra said, switching back to English.
“Why does my head actually hurt listening to whatever you were just talking in?” Allan said, working his jaw as if he were trying to pop his ears.
“Subsonic and Hypersonic frequencies.” Elunitra said distractedly as she reread the note.
“Yes,” Xulgra said, “as to why we were speaking in our language is that the note that was left here is addressed to Elunitra and myself and is written in our language.”
“What does it say?” Allan asked.
“It says a lot, but it says that the higher beings seem to find you entertaining and that there is something coming that they wish for you to be prepared for, everything that you were able to take as well as the things that they left you, they believe that you will need them.” Elunitra said to Allan.
“How did they know that you and Xulgra would be here to read it?” Allan wondered out loud.
“That is complex; the simplest answer is that time is just another dimension. If you exist on a plane above the dimension of time, you can see all of the time of an object.” Xulgra said, clearly trying to simplify something that was infinitely more complex. “So the moment that the note was written, they were able to see that it would be Elunitra and I that came to investigate.”
“Okay. So then what should we do with it?” Allan said, looking from the note to the crates of gold, to the crates he had not even figured out how to open yet.
“We will take the note if you are fine with it, but the rest is yours and belongs to the Jushintorg clan. To be honest, most of this will, shall we say, disappear if it falls out from under the control of the Jushintorg clan.” Elunitra said, looking over the crates seeming to understand what they contained.
“That's good to know. If we reverse engineer any of this tech and sell it, are any of the gods going to actively hunt us down?” Allan asked, looking at the strange cargo moving platforms.
“No, though you may find it incredibly difficult to do what you are suggesting.” Xulgra said. “Very well, Allan. Thank you for your time. That is really all we came for. I did want to tell you thank you for doing everything that you have been doing.”
Elunitra surprised Allan, then stepped forward, pressing her lips to his forehead and speaking quietly in the same garbled language she and Xulgra had spoken in before and then switched to English. “My blessing be upon you, Allan. May you and yours be guided and protected in my name.”
Elunitra stepped back and gave Allan a stern look. “You will tell no one of that.” she said, waiting for an answer.
“I have no secrets from my wife.” Allan said the look he had telling Elunitra that there was nothing that she could say to change that.
“As it should be.” Elunitra said. She turned to Xulgra and smiled. Xulgra vanished after nodding to Allan. Elunitra turned back. “Allan, there is one favor that I would ask. Tell your bride something for me. Tell her that if she is willing, I would ask for Hivelt Je’Natora. She will know what it means.”
Elunitra turned as if to leave. “Ohh, and one more thing Allan, I would recommend that you get this box and this box,” she pointed at the two largest crates which had been left in space, “open as soon as possible.” Elunitra vanished.
Allan looked around and resealed the storage closet, making a mental note to get those crates open. As he finished, he turned to head back to bed and came face to face with the oldest Jeglithin princess staring mouth agape at Allan, clearly having seen Elunitra vanish.
Several hours later, with the planet still blocking the light of the system’s star, Allan and all of the women who now inhabited the ship were seated around one of the larger tables in the mess hall.
After seeing Elunitra vanish, the oldest princess had demanded that Allan reveal everything that had happened, and Allan had politely yet firmly told her to shove off. This had not sat well. As Allan had headed back to the sleeping chamber to go back to bed, the princess had sprinted ahead and woken the entire room. Now they were all groggily eating food as the oldest princess demanded over and over that they all be told of what had transpired.
Allan was calmly ignoring her, as were Jalla, Tillia, and Aly, and even most of her sisters were ignoring her. The only one who looked as if she had something to say was the one who had commented on Allan and Aly’s ‘mixing of the bloodlines’ the day before.
“Tell us what happened.” The oldest Princess said, continuing to pester Allan while her younger sisters ate. “We deserve to know, at the very least, tell Aly Jushintorg, as it was her god!”
“Oh, you talked with Elunitra again?” Aly said nonchalantly, but Allan could tell that she was eager to hear all about it.
“And Xulgra.” Allan said, trying to decide if it was still worthwhile to go back to bed. “They gave me some pointers on the crates in the storage closet and took that note we could not figure out. Elunitra also left a message for you, but I will tell you later.”
Aly nodded, and Allan turned back to his food, ignoring the almost pleading looks of the princesses who wanted to know more.
“Well!” The second oldest princess said, her tone that of a person who was used to getting their way. “Tell us what happened!”
“Nope. Don’t have to.” Allan said.
As he made to continue eating, Allan felt two small hands grip his head and turn him to face the second oldest princess. “You will tell us! We are the Princesses of the Jeglithin people. Such low-class people as yourselves should do as we ask with thanks in your heart!”
Allan looked a the princess, who was still holding his face. It was the same one who apparently had an issue with Allan and Aly being together. He smiled a cold smile and reached up to grasp her wrists and gently, yet forcibly, remove her hands from either side of his face.
“Allow me to clue you into some things about humans.” Allan said, his tone indicating that he had had enough of the young women and their attitude. “Firstly, touching us when we do not know you or are not in a relationship with us is not advisable. Many of us, myself included, tend to take that as a sign of aggression, especially when accompanied by the tone you were using. Secondly, I do not care if you are a God or a shit shoveler. You address me with the amount of respect that you wish to receive. And lastly, humans have done away with most of their royalty, usually in very bloody and aggressive fashions, so please don’t tempt me to end your family line here and now.”
The looks of shock that played across the faces of the princess and her sisters were enough to tell Allan that they had gotten the message. “We have agreed to your demands, and as soon as we get a new communications AI, we should be underway fairly rapidly. If you think that retaining our services has somehow entitled you to boss us around or to know every single little thing that happens on this ship, you are dead wrong. Do you have any questions?”
The seven princesses shook their heads, and Allan spoke once more. “Good. Now I have a question for all of you. What are your names? Because frankly, I can barely keep who is who straight when people give me their names.”
The princesses quickly explained that among their people, you did not receive a name until you either came to what they called the naming age, roughly 35 years old or were married regardless of gender. As none of them had married, only the two oldest women had names. The oldest princess was Kallanna, and the second oldest was Ivathi.
Allan was still speaking with them when Aly and Tillia said that since they were done sleeping, they were going to go and see about getting the new AI as well as stocking up on the other things they would need traveling to their destination.
Allan nodded and continued speaking with the princesses. He hoped that they would realize that while he was fairly hardline, he still wanted to speak with them and learn what they wanted for their father’s tomb and hear about their world and their people.
Allan, Jalla, and the seven princesses were putting their cups and bowls away when an alert was sounded, indicating that someone was requesting access through the cargo doors.
Allan walked down to the cargo hold, the princesses following after him. Jalla, who had gone to the sleeping chamber, rejoined and handed Allan his gun. Allan pressed a button, and a small monitor showed four Jeglithin wearing red armbands and holding strange pole-like weapons.
The collective inhalation of the seven women behind him told Allan that the other shoe had dropped. “I take it that these are not friends of yours?”
Kallanna spoke. “You wanted me to tell you what was going on. Well, the short version is that these men are trying to kill us so that their employer can take the throne rather than myself and whoever I marry.”
“Is there more that I should know?” Allan asked, sliding the slide of his Glock back slightly to make sure there was a round in the chamber before sliding it into his belt at his back.
Allan looked at Kallanna, and the pained look on her face told him that there was a lot that he should know but little that she wanted to tell. “Welp, let's go play stupid games for stupid prizes. Jalla, if anyone makes it past me, feel free to do what you want.”
Allan hit the button to open the cargo doors. The doors opened rapidly, and Allan noted the eyes of the four men outside the ship instantly lock onto the princesses. Allan stepped forward to where the door jamb was. “Gentlemen, how is your morning going?”
The four Jeglithin with red armbands looked at him in confusion. “Oh right, no communications AI to translate.” Allan said to himself, then turned to Kallanna. “Please translate for me.”
Kallanna nodded and spoke to them, relaying their responses.
“Our day is well, our target near.” The apparent leader said. “Give us the princesses, and no trouble will befall you.”
“Ohh, see, I can’t do that.” Allan said, feigning concern. “When we were hired, the princesses' safety was assured, so I must inform you that if you move to attack them, I will use all force needed to stop you, up to and including killing you. But by all means, do what you have to.”
“Your conditions are acceptable.” The leader said via Kallanna and then hefted his strange staff and ran forward to meet Allan head-on.
