Crystal

"Iam Zika," the bright green Kosta announces as he closes the door on Drelix. "I am here to dress you."

"I need dressing," I reply, floating gently in the swirling hot water. "Definitely need dressing," I add.

Yes, I'm still somewhere up in the stars. If I thought intimacy was something I'd never experience again, I didn't reckon on Drelix. His vulnerability gave me an agency I thought I'd lost somewhere along the way.

"Are you getting out?" the Kosta demands, stood, rather unwisely I feel, at the edge of the big bath.

One of their assistants, a dark red Kosta even smaller than Zika, steps forward with a towel.

"Do I have any choice?"

"We're not going anywhere," Zika says, sticking his green chin in the air.

There was a Kosta tailor on Station X42 who regularly used to parade through the market areas on their way to a docked ship, all bright colors and snooty attitude. They are stubborn to the point of ridiculousness.

I swish my way through the water and climb out of the pool, grabbing the towel and wrapping it around myself.

"Finally," Zika huffs. "Get her measured."

At the risk of losing my towel, I have to let the rest of the dark red cohort whisk me out of the bathroom and into the biggest bedroom I've ever seen. Which also contains the biggest bed…

Before I have a chance to look around, I'm bundled into what can only be described as a mobile cupboard and the towel whipped away.

"Hey!" I complain as the door is closed.

"Stand still," someone says from the outside.

A bright blue light streaks over me, and the door is opened, my arm caught, and I'm unceremoniously jerked out and wrapped again in another towel before being deposited on the edge of the bed.

"Hair! Makeup!" Zika snaps.

"I don't need either!" I retort.

The Kosta marches up to me. Sat on the bed, we're just about eye to eye. They glare at me, lips pursed.

"I think you'll find you do, lady. Given you look like you've been dragged here by an oslich bird."

"No, by a Sarkarnii, but it's about the same thing." I snort.

Zika is not to be moved, or amused, or deterred from their mission. They snap their fingers, and I'm surrounded by the cohort once again being poked and prodded while across the room the portable cupboard, looking very much like the Tardis, hums and whirrs as Zika punches code into a panel on the side, looking over at me occasionally, eyes narrowed.

Finally they beckon me over and press a button on the cupboard, and it slowly opens up to reveal a rack of clothing. Zika holds out an arm to stop me stepping forward, and they carefully peruse the contents, humming and hawing as they pull out first one garment, then another.

They hand off the clothing to the gaggle of helpers, and I'm towed back to the bed. At this stage, I've given up completely. Any concern about being naked around these creatures is long gone. I let them remove the towel and help me into underwear, including what has to be an upgrade on the corset I've been using as this thing cinches tightly to me, containing, to a degree, my somewhat ample bosom. Then a floaty, light, dark-green dress is carefully dropped over my head and long tan boots fitted to my feet.

Zika snaps their fingers again and the dark red Kosta stand back as if jolted by electricity. They walk up to me, around me, one hand on their chin, three black eyes taking in every detail. They twirl their finger to indicate I should move around, which I do, because this is quite insane.

"You'll do," Zika pronounces.

"As what?" I say because I'm in that sort of mood.

"As the Sarkarnii's mate," Zika replies without irony. "Reveal, please," they add.

The cupboard spins, and I'm face to face with myself. My auburn hair is curled to perfection, and the dress I'm wearing is amazing, the silk-like fabric sheening like Drelix's scales. One of the cohort hands me a butter soft jacket in some sort of animal hide and I pull it on. It fits like a glove.

"Fine!" Zika claps their hands. "The rest will be sent up here once I'm done."

"That's it?" I query.

"I am a Kosta," Zika snorts. "Do you think I have all nova-day to spend with you? I have many clients. The rest of your clothing will be sent on."

"How do you know what I want? What I need?" I fire out, finding their attitude is starting to grate on my mood.

"I know what Tatatunga requires and that is all you need," they respond, sweeping out through the bathroom as the cohort folds everything away and follows them in a very practiced movement.

"Your mate is with the others," the last of the dark red Kosta's tells me as they follow in a long line. "Have a good nova-day, my lady."

Outside the bedroom, there's the sound of snarling which sets every part of my being on edge. Snarling is not good, not even with a tame dragon alien. Probably tame…maybe tame.

Of course, my dagger is on the floor somewhere in the rest of the suite, so I have no weapon, and as much as I'm sure Drelix can defend himself, after he fell for the oldest trick in the book with the drugged drink, I know I have to protect him from himself.

Even if he has managed to present as the somewhat sophisticated feral dragon since we arrived on Trefa. And yet, even though I feel warm and gooey inside, I don't know where this is leading, other than I'm simply following in Drelix's wake.

I wanted to get off Station X42, but I didn't exactly want to jump from the frying pan into the fire.

Scanning the room, I see there are a couple of items which could serve in a push as weaponry, so I pick up a carved statue which has too many limbs and eyes. I couldn't do with it staring at me anyway. With statue in hand, I advance on the door, noting the snarls have abated.

I take in a deep breath, exhale, and burst through.