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5. Axl

“I’m not your friend. I’m your husband, Georgiana. And I will call you Georgiana.” I let the long name slip through my mouth like a well guided whip. It’s not a bad name, but I’m trying to imagine if I would be able to call that name out during the ecstasy of sex. I look into her brown eyes and try to envision it. Yes, it suits her well actually. I reckon she’d be feisty during sex given her demeanor now. Not that I would ever be intimate with a human, but given the situation I can’t not consider it in my mind’s eye.

“What’s your surname?”

“I don’t have one. In the Empire we are only associated with Houses.”

“Since we married in secret, am I part of your House or did you keep me locked away in the dungeon with my human name?”

“I would have kept you in my House and bribed people not to say anything. It would have been in their best interest too as it would have reflected badly on our entire House if I had married a human.”

“Oh, a little bit of racism sprinkled in with the world-building?” She says with too much sarcasm for my liking. But before I can explain, she backtracks, “Never mind, I guess it makes it more believable.”

I feel slightly guilty that she doesn’t think this is real, but for the moment it suits my purposes and maybe it’s better if she thinks this whole thing is a game made up by rich humans. She might even be more convincing to the Alliance Force that way.

“What else should I know?” she says just as much to herself as to me. “What’s your favorite food?”

“I don’t have one. And I don’t think the Alliance Force is going to ask those kinds of questions.”

“Why not? How else are we going to prove we’re married if not by how well we know each other?”

“What’s your favorite sexual position? That is something they are more likely to ask.”

Her brown eyes widen and her mouth opens.

“You’ve had sex before, right?”

“Of course I have,” she says defensively and crosses her arms. “But now I’m worried this is a weird pornography thing? I’m not into that. I don’t care how much money you’re offering me.”

“Absolutely not. We don’t have such barbaric practices as pornography in the Empire.” I had come across human pornography, it was impossible to miss. I found it cruel. “I would never treat a woman, especially my wife, in such a way. But if we are married…” I trail off and then make my tone softer, “Do you have a favorite sexual position?”

She doesn’t answer for a few seconds. “They aren’t going to ask that if they are decent.”

I decide to leave this question for later. Hopefully, the Alliance Force won’t ask her anything about our fictional sexual relationship because I’m concerned this young woman is not sexually experienced. Twenty-six years old is incredibly young. “Do you want children?”

“You mean do we want children. Of course, why not have seven?”

I’m momentarily stunned. “Why did you choose seven?”

“Why not? It seems like a respectable number for a fictional family.”

“Seven is the sacred number.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“No, it’s just…people use that number sparingly because it’s auspicious.”

“You’re really going wild on the world-building. I’ll try to remember all of this. Seven sacred children.”

I close my eyes trying to unhear what she just said. My faith wavers. Unlike most, I have never believed the goddesses grant or take away from mortals for the words they use, but in this scenario, to hear her say ‘seven sacred children,’ makes me think she is either my destiny or it’s a warning to abandon this plan entirely and openly admit my guilt to the Alliance Force. Putting my fate in their devout hands. I open my eyes and make a request of Georgiana, “Please don’t say it like that.”

“Okay,” she says with a slight smile, not quite believing me and why would she? She believes this all to be a game.

I stare at her face for a moment. deciding. There’s something about her which makes me want to continue, despite already showing signs that she may not be the best candidate for this charade.

“Did your parents know about me? Did they approve of you secretly marrying a human?”

“They knew. They didn’t approve. And your parents never knew.”

“That’s an easy one. My parents died when I was young. Family members passed me around until I was an adult.”

“I’m sorry,” I begin, but she waves a hand at me to stop talking.

“It was a long time ago. I was lucky I had family who could help. It’s expensive to raise an unplanned child that’s not your own. They did the best they could.”

“That was a convenient answer for, ‘It could have been much better, but it also could have been much worse.’ Are you still in regular communication with any of them?”

“Not really. The occasional phone call.”

“So they would not have known about our marriage?”

“I wouldn’t have gone out of my way to tell them especially if I was on the other side of the galaxy with the love of my life,” she says, ending her sentence on an upbeat note.

Georgiana is of strong character; I make a mental note of it. “I’m sorry for your lack of support, but it’s good to know and fits our narrative.” I get out my IC and begin scrolling through my list of questions that I had prepared for courting. I haven’t looked at this list in years. But suddenly I want to know everything about Georgiana. But I think I feel this way only because of the pressure of us having to fool the Alliance Force and nothing more.

“What’s that?”

“It’s my personal communicator.” I lift it up for her to see if that’ll make any difference. “I’m going through my courting questions.”

“Courting questions? Are you sure you’re not a time traveler? Who calls it ‘courting anymore?’”

“I am an alien and on my planet, in my culture, yes we still call the practice courting and it’s quite formal.”

“You just randomly have that on your phone?”

“I like to be prepared.”

“Do you plan everything?”

“Yes,” I tell her, looking through my questions again. “As much as I can. Don’t you?”

“I try to but I’ve found that it doesn’t matter what I plan, there’ll always be unpredictable changes. Like this,” she says the last sentence quietly and a wave of guilt passes through me.

“You’ll have the money when we succeed,” I remind her.

“When do we have this interview with border control?” she asks, changing the subject. “Or are we just going to show up unannounced?”

“We are going to call them to us. My ship was destroyed. I need them to come and get us.”

“Okay. I’ll play along with this too,” she says, trying not to smile. “How was your ship destroyed?”

“That’s classified.”

“I’m your wife.”

“But still, the less you know about me and my work the better.”

“Is that what you always tell me, Axl?”

“Yes,” I say casually, and I can’t help but like the way she says my name.

“And do I listen?”

I cock my head to the side. “Rarely.”

“What is your profession? I should probably know.”

“I work for the government in a flexible capacity.”

“Are you a spy?” she asks excitedly.

“I wouldn’t say ‘spy.’”

“Spy!” she points at me, and I physically lean back a little. I don’t know why she’s having this effect on me, but she’s positively charming.

“What’s your occupation?” I ask, shifting the focus away from my work. “Or what was it before aliens abducted you?”

“I work in a bakery. I like making beautiful cakes for people’s birthdays, but my degree is in accounting. But I want to open my own bakery someday.”

“That kind of work would be forbidden in the Empire.”

“Sounds like such a fun place,” she says sarcastically. “Why did we get married again?”

“I rescued you.”

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