Page 12 of My Human Wife

g.“Yes. I want you to infiltrate his palace and steal a teleportation suit.”

l.“How will I do that?”

g.“Allow yourself to be sold at Gala and charm him as his human pet.”

l.“No. I’m not doing Gala again. Ask anything else and I’ll do it for my freedom. But not that.”

g.“It’s the only way.”

l.“There must be another way.”

g.“Kamos only buys his human pets from Gala. He only trusts one specific trader and that’s because that trader never does private deals on the side or takes bribes. Everything is always business in the open with pets’ provenances.”

l.“Slavery isn’t a just business.”

g.“I didn’t say it wasjust. I said it was ‘business.’ Lara, please. Think of the other humans at Gala right now, as long as the IGC refuses to uphold the law and allow people to use loopholes, humans will never truly be free. So we must use whatever means necessary to return them to Earth while the law about returning, whichisenforced, still allows.”

l.“Iamthinking about them. I can’t get the memories out of my mind becauseIwas one of them.”

“Docking,” a computerized voice says.

g.“What else are you going to do? Live out the rest of your days at the Fertility Temple until an Agnorrian picks you and you die from his poisonous penis sending toxins through your body over two days which I’m sure the abbess would film every gruesome moment of and sell for a tidy sum? Is that what you want as your legacy?”

l.“I’m a human. I don’t have a legacy.”

g.“I’m giving you an opportunity to make one. If not for you, for others who want to be free.”

l.I slap him out of frustration. “I want to be free.” I look at my hand. It stings. I’ve never slapped anyone before. But I don’t take back my action. More than anything I want to be free, but I still remember the horrors of Gala.

g.I’m glad she hit me, but I won’t frustrate her more by smiling.She’ll do perfectly for this mission.“Here we are. My ship theSisu.”

l.I scrutinize the large ship as we dock. I see numerous guns on its portside. “Is that an Imperial word?”

g.“No, it’s from Earth. It means ‘grit.’”

l.“Why not just call your shipGrit?”

g.“Because ‘sisu’ means more and sounds better. It’s Finnish. Look it up in the database and the history of those people. Humanity needs sisu if we are ever going to survive as equals in the galaxy.”

l.“You’re only half human,” I point out. Immediately I wish I could take the words back when I see the look on his face. But the emotions I saw are gone in a flash.

g.“That’s true. But given how I was brought into the galaxy, I don’t recognize my Imperial heritage as legitimate. And even if that weren’t the case, I’m a moral man. Slavery is wrong and I’ve made it my life’s work to stop it.”

l.“The laws have already been changed,” I say even though I know this is ridiculous. “But, those laws haven’t done me any favors.”

g.“They have and you’ve already benefitted from them.”

l.“How? I haven’t. I should’ve been granted freedom when Lord Juo died according to the new laws.”

g.“The new laws allowed you to propose marriage to me. And now you have a husband.”

l.I want to ask him again if we arereallymarried, and what that entails, because his answer before was ambiguous. But the transport doors are opening and fierce-looking Imperial people are waiting to talk to him, no doubt some of his crew.

Gael

We land and are met by my first officer and doctor. Both, like me, look Imperial with grey skin and black hair.

“This is my first officer, Seo, and my doctor, Hela.”

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