Page 13 of Volunteer 4711

I lead her into my bedroom and show her my military pins. “These must be removed from my uniforms daily and placed here before you go and clean the uniforms.”

“I understand,” she says, then adds, “How many?”

“There should always be eight pins,” I reply slowly.

I show her around and explain the rest of her duties. I could have let one of the other servants show her, but I wanted to do it myself as a ‘thank you’ to her for saving me and also to make sure she fully understands. And also, because my other servant is annoyed at having to take on some of Volunteer 4711’s duties as she cannot yet do them all herself because of her lack of language. But as I lead her around my quarters, I think,Her language will come along quickly, she’s already learned a lot without any formal instruction, which is again another sign of her intelligence.

After we finish the tour of her duties, I say, “Now, you take off your clothing.”

She moves towards me, and I step back, realizing she has misunderstood. “You take offyourclothing.”

I can see that she is confused.

“I must check the doctor healed you. You are my responsibility, Volunteer 4711.”

When she points to herself, I can sense fear in her.

“I will not harm you,” I say. And then I motion to my eyes. “I only want to see you.”

I can tell she is still worried I will harm her, but she clearly doesn’t have the language skills to understand me, so I mark this as her bravery. She takes off her valet uniform and undergarments and stands in front of me with her head bowed. I look over her body, similar to a Silver female’s, but different. “Turn around,” I say, and when she doesn’t immediately comply, I add, “In a circle.” Then she understands and does as I say. “Lift your arms.” Once I am satisfied that my doctor healed her completely, I instruct her to put her clothing back on. When she is dressed, I tell her sincerely, even though I know she probably won’t understand me, “As my valet, I am responsible for your health, and I take that role very seriously.”

I look into her eyes and know she doesn’t really understand. I make a note to add the vocabulary word ‘health’ to her language program. Then I say, “Now, I will change, and you take my uniform.”

Without hesitation, she moves toward me and begins unfastening my uniform at my collar. I expect her to do it faster now she knows how and that she knows I’m not going to hurt her. I’ve no idea what the farmers told her about me, but I know it couldn’t have been good as I heard the word ‘bad’ thrown around one too many times. It’s clear that I made the right choice in bringing her here, even if she doesn’t realize that yet.

When I’m completely naked, she looks up from the floor, crouching by my shoes, and asks, “Do you have other clothes?”

It takes me a minute, and then I realize she is trying to say the word ‘clothes’ I remember from before this word is very difficult for her, she cannot get the right tone. “I have otherclothesin the wardrobe. Let me show you.”

I walk towards the wardrobe, and she follows with my uniform in her arms. “You can put that down while you do this.” Then I point to a light white set of pajamas, a loose tunic, and trousers. “These.”

She stands on her tiptoes, takes down the pajamas, and begins to help me into them, then suddenly stops. “Nothing under?”

“Nothing under,” I say. I find her demeanor satisfying. Already she is naturally falling into this role. Water people, especially Water women, are the new fashionable slaves of the galaxy, and now I see why.

Volunteer 4711 continues dressing me, and then I show her my slippers which she gently puts on my feet. Afterward, I remind her to take the pins off my uniform, she does, and then I tell her she can go.

She bows to me, as she ought to, and says, “Goodnight, Commander.”

I purposely wait a few seconds to make sure she knows she must stay until I release her. And she’s studied well because she waits without any questioning eyes. Finally, I say, “You may go, Volunteer 4711.”

She turns, leaves, and I get into bed.

However, just as I’m almost asleep, I receive an urgent message. I know that it’s not really urgent because it’s my best friend, and he always marks his communications as ‘urgent’ when it’s never urgent. He thinks it’s hilarious. I answer it anyway from the computer on my bedside table.

“Yes,” I say, looking into my friend’s thin blue eyes. “I was just about ready to go to sleep.”

“Is it true? You took a Water woman to your ship? You didn’t tell me this when we spoke earlier.”

“Yes,” I reply. “She saved my life when those pathetic farmers would have watched me die. She deserved to be saved from that squalor.”

“What’s a Water woman going to do on your ship?” he asks me as if I have brought a mythical animal onboard.

“She’s serving as my valet part-time. She can’t do all the duties yet, but so far, so good, and she seems keen enough,” I say.

“Have you seen the news, though. They are saying you stole her,” my friend says, sending me the front page of the most popular newspaper from the Home Planet.

“Well, I didn’t. I told the farmers it was their punishment for almost letting me die. The doctor who officially owns her wasn’t even involved, so as far as I’m concerned, she was discarded property.”

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