My blood boiled with barely repressed rage. How dare they send their puppet to threaten my mate and my people? They’d never sent a human before. I’d watched enough sexual videos with my Susan to know that David Lord matched the type of males human females were drawn to. The way he’d looked at and spoken to my mate made no mystery he was trying to seduce her. But she’d put him back in his place, claimed my name as hers, and clearly established she was mine. While pride swelled within me, fury almost superseded it.
Most off-worlder species considered us as inferior. They viewed us as primitive from both a societal and technological standpoint. The barely veiled condescension hidden behind obnoxious smiles made my claws itch with the need to lacerate their faces.
“No illegal business is being run here, and no defamatory or false claims were filed against your Conglomerate,” I said forcefully.
In this instant, I felt more grateful than ever that my mate and sister had thoroughly informed me of all the steps they had taken when filing against the Conglomerate. My Susan had further spent time with me going over the various laws protecting our people, and lands and all the recourses we could take against offenders.
In the past, it had been so overwhelming to navigate on our own. Even my mate had gotten some headaches sorting some of these things out. But she’d cleverly reached out to Kayog, who had put us in touch with a lawyer of the United Planets Organization to validate our assumptions.
“We are the native people of this planet,” I hissed at the man. “We do not need permission to run any kind of commerce on our lands. My Susan is Andturian through her marriage to me. But even without that, as long as we authorize it, any business can operate on our lands. The rest of you are limited to the public market, the spaceport, or the resort shops.”
The human scoffed, as if I’d said something ludicrous. “Whoever gave you that silly idea?” he asked, casting a meaningful glance towards my mate. “That’s not how it works, Clan Leader,” the intruder continued, stating my title with an underlying hint of mockery. “All business is regulated under the same laws.”
“All off-worlder business is regulated under Law E75 of the UPO Prime Act,” I retorted with disdain.
I made no effort to repress my smug smile when he failed to hide his initial shock before regaining his composure. My mate squeezing my hand with pride only pumped me up further. Knowledge was power. I hadn’t known these things before, which had allowed them to bully us. We’d tried to learn more but had always felt overwhelmed with the legal language in Universal and without the guidance of someone who knew more. In the less than two months she’d been with us, my Susan had made my knowledge and understanding grow by leaps and bounds, stopped me from feeling so helpless, and helped me gain the confidence to face the future in these changing times.
“You are forbidden from running businesses anywhere outside of the resorts and spaceport without the express consent of a native species,” I continued, my voice loud and clear for my people to hear as well. “And such businesses may not directly compete with native trade in a disloyal fashion. Your Conglomerate has deliberately misled tourists and customers with your fake and cheap replicas of our goods, and yet labeled them “Authentic, hand-made, Andturian” products in direct violation of Articles 4 through 12 of Law E75.”
“We did no such things!” Mr. Lord said, losing some of his confidence.
“You most certainly did,” my mate countered. “I saw it firsthand—and took pictures—in the souvenir shops at the spaceport. We also have countless testimonies from the residents of the Bosengi villages as well as from the tourist resorts. And it’s not just a complaint that was filed, we’re also suing for all those violations, disloyal competition, and exemplary damages.”
“You think throwing around a series of laws and articles are going to threaten us?” the human male said, going on the offensive. “You have no idea who you are going after. Our pockets are endless, yours not so much, little girl. Your husband there,” he said with contempt while glancing at me, “is on the verge of bankruptcy and of his people starving to death. Even if we let you have the exclusive market to sell your little trinkets, it will never be enough to feed five clans. You playing farm won’t help either. They are first and foremost carnivores. Hard to eat when there is no game to be found.”
“And you wouldn’t happen to have any idea what’s been driving away the herds, would you?” Susan snapped, glaring at the man.
“Why would I know anything about it? Do I look like a woodsman to you?” he said haughtily.
“We have always provided for our clans,” I snarled. “Even with the thinning herds, there are other ways for us to acquire meat.”
“You mean trading the credits you earn by selling trinkets?” the human said with a gleeful malice. “We set the prices for the imported meat being sold on this planet. Making enemies out of us isn’t very smart. You will want to think about that before your lawsuit goes to trial.”
“Is that a threat?” I asked menacingly.
“I’m merely stating facts. Do with them what you will,” he replied with a dismissive gesture. “We tried to be reasonable with you people, we made you generous offers and negotiated in good faith. In response, you are attacking us just so that you can hang on to the most fertile lands in the solar system. But why? You’re letting them go to waste while countless planets are struggling with hunger.”
“If interplanetary hunger and good faith negotiations had been your goal, you would have proposed alternatives, such as renting their lands for farming,” Susan interjected. “But you didn’t offer that because this is about fattening your wallets. Renting would subject you to too many ethical and best practice rules that would affect your bottom line. You’re like a swarm of locusts. You want to acquire these lands, exploit them until the soil and local environment is exhausted and ruined, and then you’ll move on to greener pastures. It’s not going to happen here.”
David Lord shook his head at my mate with disdain and then at me with pity. It took every ounce of my willpower not to beat him into a pulp.
“This woman will be your ruin,” he said with false empathy. “I tried to reason with you, but as you will clearly not budge, I have no choice but to proceed with the Board’s decision. As of this instant, the price offered by the Conglomerate for your lands has been reduced by 15%. And that price will continue to go down by 5% every week.”
“Spare yourself the trouble of revising it every week,” I said with contempt. “I’ve said no before, and that will never change. As for your lawsuit, bring it on. Our lawyer from the UPO is eagerly awaiting to have a conversation with yours. Now, get the fuck off my lands before I throw you out. And don’t ever show your face here again.”
The human’s face visibly grew paler. I’d never seen this on my mate. But considering the fearful expression that flashed over his features, I was glad my Susan had never blanched like this. Mr. Lord opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, as if trying to find a good, stinging reply but gave up. After one final glare at my mate, he turned on his heels, and hastily marched to his shuttle.
We stared at him until his shuttle took off and became a small dot on the horizon.
“You totally kicked ass,” my mate said, hugging me.
“Only thanks to you, my Susan,” I said, my heart swelling with the growing affection she stirred in me. “Without your guidance and insights, he might have fooled us.”
“He can’t harm us?” Kuani asked timidly behind us.
I turned around to look at my clan. The same uncertainty and worry could be read on all of their faces.
“No, he cannot,” I said reassuringly. “Those threats are meant to frighten us into submitting to their will. Everyone, gather at the Great Hall. Round up the ones still off on play day. We will tell you what my Susan, Luped, and I have been working on to put an end to the Conglomerate’s abuse.”
It took a bit of time to gather everyone. Then, for nearly an hour, the three of us gave extensive details to the clan of the legal steps we had been taking and why we felt confident they couldn’t harm us. It was incredibly empowering to have answers and to feel competent giving them. Our people felt it, and their worry not only evaporated, but their admiration grew. As much as my clan loved me, my leadership had been increasingly questioned since the beginning of our troubles. But it now felt stronger than ever, thanks to my delicate wisp of a mate.
It didn’t solve our meat problem. The human had struck a nerve with his comment about the scarcity of game and the fact that they could regulate the price of the meat sold on their markets. It had been one of our backup plans, although not the first. Thankfully, we still had more time before that potentially became a problem.
When the meeting ended and the people scattered, we sent messages to the other four clan leaders to warn them of what had happened in case Mr. Lord tried to bully them as well. As a matter of fact, the dirty worm had arrived just moments prior at the Inosh Mountains Clan, making the same threat about the reduced offer for the lands. The Conglomerate had been hammering hard on Surtas. That they knew his clan hurt the most only reinforced my belief that they were somehow involved in the vanishing herds. But we simply couldn’t find proof of their wrongdoing, and especially not how they were doing it.
However, Surtas was in awe of my mate. He believed she’d been personally anointed by the Spirits themselves and then sent to us. As we’d kept the other clan leaders apprised of our legal efforts, he wasn’t taken unawares by Mr. Lord’s comments. Surtas gladly kicked the human out of his lands with the same threat of not coming back.
Now, we only needed to make sure we continued to find ways to thrive. Business at my Susan’s store had exploded in the three weeks after the public market. She was selling out on both days the store was open per week. Some of the Gatherers that mostly took care of cooking were showing growing interest in preparing some of the cooked products my mate had begun selling or was considering to. But we couldn’t depend on my mate’s work to keep us afloat.
“Honey, do you have a minute?”
Susan’s voice pulled me out of my musing. She’d taken to giving me all kinds of strange names. It had thrown me for a loop at first before she explained they were affectionate names humans gave people they loved. It did something funny to me to hear her say that word. My female wasn’t in love with me, but the tenderness, respect, and deep friendship that kept growing between us was undeniably leading us there. It didn’t hurt that we had incredible passion and chemistry on top of it.
Still, honey was a strange name. I liked its sweet and soothing connotation, but it seemed awkwardly mild for an apex Hunter such as I.
“Yes, my mate,” I said, sitting on one of the benches in the Great Hall and pulling her onto my lap. “Before we got interrupted, this afternoon was supposed to be just you and me.”
She smiled and caressed my cheek. “When that idiot was talking shit, I suddenly got an idea that I wanted to run past you.”
“I’m listening,” I replied, my curiosity piqued.
“You know how I feel about all of these great farmlands going to waste,” she said carefully. I nodded. “When I told him that if he’d been genuine about good faith negotiations, he could have offered to rent your lands to farm them. Do you remember that?”
I nodded again, this time with a slight frown.
“Wait! Don’t freak out yet,” she exclaimed preemptively, guessing by my expression that I wasn’t too keen on where I thought this conversation was headed. “I will never be in favor of anything that would make the clans lose control in whole or in part of the lands, even if only for a predefined amount of time. But this is our biggest wealth. And that idiot is right: there are many overpopulated planets out there—or others with difficult climates—that could really use the massive amounts of food we could produce here.”
“We’re not farmers, Susan,” I said, a sliver of anger seeping into my voice. “You will not convert the clans. I thought that matter had been settled, and that you understood that now.”
“I do! I promise you, I do!” she said in an appeasing tone. “I’m not trying to convert them. Please, let me finish.”
Still confused and slightly irritated, I nodded, forcing myself to keep an open mind.
“Based on the way the clan has been reacting to me working the fields, they don’t seem to have a problem with people farming using modern methods that aren’t backbreaking and that are both safe and respectful to the environment. It is just not something that they are personally ready and willing to do. Correct?”
I nodded. “Yes, that is correct.”
“So, why don’t we just hire people to work the farms?” Susan asked. “We pay them respectable wages, provide them with lodging, that will all be covered by the proceeds we will make selling the crops off world. I already know a list of serious buyers that would be all too eager to do business with us. And even better, if we failed to fix the disappearing herd issue, we could negotiate some straight up trades of our products for their meat. These lands are perfect to grow wheat that we can transform into flour. Flour is always in huge demand. We’d have no problem finding people to trade us good quality meat for it.”
I gaped at my mate, a million thoughts running through my mind. Although I hated the possibility that hunting might become obsolete, ensuring the prosperity of our clans had to be my main priority.
“But who would we hire?” I asked, refusing to allow myself to get carried away by enthusiasm. “Xecania is considered far too primitive by most species. The ultra-rich come here as tourists to brag about buying baubles from savages,” I added in self-derision. “No one else will want to come here where everything still needs to be built. And even if we find people, how can we be sure they aren’t going to be a threat to our way of life? Like all of the other natives, we are a peaceful species. We don’t lock our doors. We don’t have defensive walls, or—”
“And we wouldn’t need any,” my mate interrupted, her eyes sparkling with excitement. “There are plenty of people who will want to come here. The right people. People like me, with a passion and expertise in farming, but with nowhere to call home.”
My eyes widened as understanding dawned on me.
“Third daughters of Meterion,” I whispered.
“Yes!” Susan said with a grin. “Most of us never get chosen when we try to get matched through mating agencies because we have nothing but ourselves, our skills, and our passion for working the land. If you hadn’t accepted me, I’d be breaking my back slaving away under terrible conditions in a factory in the city, or as a servant to some asshole. If a chance like this had been offered to me, I would have absolutely taken it over mating a stranger.”
I nodded slowly, my heart soaring at the incredible opportunities this presented. “But you are unique, my Susan,” I argued, still cautious. “Assuming other third daughters are indeed interested in coming here, how do we know their personalities will be compatible with our people and lifestyle?”
“Kayog!” Susan said smugly, as if that was self-evident. “The minute he talked to me, he knew you and I would be a great match. We can retain his services to interview the interested candidates and forward to us the ones that his empathic abilities judge adequate.”
“That is brilliant,” I said, staring at my mate in awe. “You have thought of everything!”
“Hardly,” she said, puffing out her chest. “It’s just been simmering in my mind for the past two hours since shit-face left. I’m sure there’s a bunch of things I haven’t thought of yet, but I think this could be a solid plan.”
I chuckled, pleased far more than I would ever admit by all the derogatory words my Susan used to describe the far too pretty human that had come to bully us. I’d never been the jealous type, but I couldn’t bear the thought of my female looking at another male the way she looked at me.
“You are truly a wonder, my Susan,” I said with affection. “Let us discuss this further with Luped and Kayog to see how feasible this would be. They will require work permits, transportation, and lodging. Once here, they may not wish to live according to Andturian culture. In which case, they will need their own little village with the standard amenities humans require, among other things.”
My mate nodded, not daunted in the least by the amount of work this would involve.
“Once we have a clearer picture, we can present your idea to the clans and hold a vote,” I said.
“Sounds like a plan,” Susan said, beaming at me.
“You are my blessing from the Spirits,” I whispered before kissing my mate.
