Page 21 of Volunteer 4711

The next morning, I enter the Commander’s quarters as usual. I dress him and try not to stare at his penises, but now that I have this fantasy of him watching me masturbate, it’s difficult not to. I only hope he doesn’t notice.

He says nothing out of the ordinary and leaves for his post. I take the sheets off his bed and his pajamas, all to be washed. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel them to see if there was any residue of dried semen. Any indication that he might have touched himself thinking of me last night, but I could find none. After I visit the laundry room, I return to my room to continue with my language study. As I’m practicing, quite out of the ordinary, the Commander buzzes me. I immediately go back to his quarters, my mind racing.Is he unhappy with me? Have I done something wrong?

I enter, bow, and wait. He’s at his desk, and after he finishes whatever he is doing, he looks up and acknowledges me. “Come here. You must now learn to take over the rest of your other valet duties. Before, another was doing this for you, but now that your Silver language skills are good enough, you are more than capable. I have also added a cultural program that will aid you in these tasks.”

“Thank you,” I reply and move to stand behind him.

But he stands and motions for me to sit at his desk. I’m hesitant after setting the alarm off the first time I was here.

“It is okay. Sit. You will not set off any alarms now. Your DNA is also coded to this screen. You have earned this privilege.”

His words make me feel proud. It’s an acknowledgment that I didn’t realize I needed for all the hard work. I sit, and then he leads me through a series of personal communications. I’m surprised because a lot of them are birth announcements and promotions of Silvers he knows on the Home Planet. I didn’t imagine the Silvers doing the same things that humans did to celebrate these milestones in their lives.

“You must manage these messages. These are acquaintances, and they require gifts to be sent or ‘thank you’ messages to be written. Your cultural program will teach you what to give and what to write. Today you have two messages to reply to. I expect these tasks to be completed before evening. Understand?”

“I understand,” I say. I’m almost overwhelmed with the responsibility. I look at the computer and watch him leave in my peripheral vision; I’m so focused. Once he’s gone, I can’t help but wonder if I can access anything else on the computer, as other crew members can and do. I know Silvers have books and a kind of television entertainment from the Home Planet. I’d love to relax with anything like that, but at the moment, all I do is work and study. But after a minute of contemplating whether I dare to search for entertainment, I decide not to try, not on my first day anyway.

As the Commander instructed me, I can also access my language and cultural program from this computer. I study the messages he wants replying to. One should be a ‘thank you’ message for a gift sent to him. Judging by the message he received with the gift, I don’t think he knows these people well; the message seems very cold—possibly a company. The second message is a reply to a birth announcement. Again, I don’t think he knows these people well, as the message contains nothing more than the announcement of their son’s birth. There’s a picture, and I’m curious because it’s of a little Silver, but his hair is black. I thought they all would have white, blonde hair from birth, but who knew?

I access my cultural program and decide to work on the birth announcement first. I learn that the Silver culture is a patriarchal one. I almost laugh, as if I hadn’t figured that one out already, and that firstborn males are highly prized, not only to carry on the family name but it’s seen as good luck. I roll my eyes as my cultural program continues discussing the importance of male children in Silver families. None of it is that different than human society, and I wonder if there’s any life form in the galaxy that values females equally. My cultural program lists a variety of gifts that can be given for a birth announcement based on rank. This becomes particularly interesting to me because I still don’t know too much about Silver society as a whole. I assume my Commander has a very high rank to be commanding this nice ship with what I think is a small fleet. He’s definitely doing better than the farmers slash pimps I was with before. However, what I don’t know is if there’s a whole society of movers and shakers somewhere in a big cosmopolitan city on the Home Planet that are miles more important than he is. So now I have to access the cultural program about class.

And you could have knocked me over with a feather, ten minutes in, I learn that my Commander isn’t a part of the Silver military at all. He’s a “PIRATE!” I shout the word in English because it’s so ridiculous. And he isn’t just any pirate, but a notorious pirate that’s so famous he’s mentioned as an example of the kind of pirates that exist outside the social hierarchy of the Silvers. Apparently, the Silver government puts up with him because they have to. He is too powerful for them to stop his illegal activities in the sector.

“So yeah,” I say to myself. “I’m on a pirate ship.” And then it all starts making sense, why the farmers would have let him die in the transport accident and why they said if he dies, I die and what they were probably really saying, but my language was too bad at the time was, ‘If he dies, we all die.’

I unpause the cultural program and continue learning, fascinated by this new information. I find out that the Silvers are considered a mid-range civilization in terms of economy and military in the galaxy and are most respected for their honesty and kindness. This surprises me, and then I’m surprised even more when they mention the Commander and mention that his fleet is so powerful because he treats people with honesty and kindness. And some even speculate that he would’ve been a great man in Silver society had the government not changed. Fully engrossed, I say out loud, “What do you mean? What government changes?”

I then search my computer programs for the Silver history. I need to know how the government changed that made the Commander become a pirate. Still, I’ve no access to anything historical that isn’t just a sentence explaining a cultural practice, so after an hour, I give up looking. I assume my Commander is purposely keeping this information from me as he is the one who sets my culture and language programs.

I stare at the screen, taking all of this in. Finally, I look at the baby announcement again. I double-check the message I’ve drafted with my language program and send what I assume to be the appropriate gift from the Commander, a high-ranking pirate. Why people would be sending him birth announcements is a mystery to me. All I can think is perhaps they’re pirates now turned farmers.

For the first time since I moved to this side of the galaxy, I wish I could tell people back home, ‘Yes, I have this great new job. I’m a personal assistant to a galactic pirate with two penises but don’t worry, he’s known for being kind and honest.’ I smile at the thought.

Then, I move on to the next message. Now I see it isn’t just a gift; it’s a bribe. I draft an acknowledgment that is neither cold nor friendly and run it through my language program to ensure I’ve made no mistakes. I’ve managed to pick up the written language faster than I thought possible, but then again, I’ve been surrounded by it with nothing else to do for months now, and I don’t think Silver brains are that different from human ones.

Once I’m finished, I close the Commander’s computer and go to the servants’ canteen for some tea and to process everything I just learned. I cannot believe I am on a pirate ship.

CHAPTER12

COMMANDER

Volunteer 4711 has gonebeyond my expectations. When I gave her the rest of her duties as my valet, I expected her to make some mistakes or be too nice in her correspondence. However, she has proved the opposite. All her work is meticulously correct, and she is a bit on the cold side, which is better for me and my correspondence. But I cannot give her all the credit. I have purposely kept her from knowing anything about these people’s ranks so she cannot be influenced by them. To her, this is work, like cleaning my uniform.

When she enters this evening, I want to reward her for her good work. As she undresses me, I say, “You’ve done excellent work taking on the rest of your duties as my valet.”

“Do you think I’m better at correspondence than cleaning your uniforms and sheets?” she asks. I would never permit one of my crew to speak to me this way, but she is different. And I have been a different kind of master for her as I have had to educate her in Silver ways, which has brought us closer.

“You do both equally well, but I would say you probably enjoy the correspondence more,” I reply.

She looks up from unfastening my shoes and gives me a small smile, a human response.

“I want to reward you for your hard work,” I say, and I am pleased to see this gets her attention.

“Yes.”

“But I do not know what you would like?”

She looks up at me, considering. “I want information.”

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