“Wear it if you think that’ll liken him to you. But he’s a fighter and middling class, if I were you, I’d wear something with more color or something,” Tamsin said. She was wearing a navy-blue dress with a purple sunset that fell as she moved around the room.
“Come with me and help me choose?” Ellie asked.
Tamsin smiled and closed the door to her room following Ellie into hers.
Ellie walked straight to her walk-in closet and to the section of formal dresses of which she had at least twenty.
“You’ve never been to an Assembly, but you have all these formal dresses?” exclaimed Tamsin in disbelief. Maximum class formal dresses were expensive even by Alliance standards.
Ellie shrugged, “I’ve trouble understanding and deciding what is acceptable and until now, I didn’t have another human to figure it out with. Now what do you think?” Ellie said pulling out a grey dress with yellow flowers.
“No, definitely not that one,” Tamsin replied thumbing through her dresses, then she sighed. “Give me that one you had on before and the scissors.”
“What are you going to do?”
“You have the most beautiful back. We are going to copy my sister-in-law’s dress. It’s an Alliance dress but with a human touch. I guarantee it will draw your man to you.”
Ellie returned with some scissors and handed them to Tamsin.
“What’s this?”
“Scissors, well, Alliance scissors. It’s a small laser. Here’s the power button and you toggle this up and down for big or small cuts. It’s meant for tailoring clothing by yourself.”
Tamsin took the device and turned it on. Then held the dress, “You hold the other end. I don’t want to cut through both the front and back with this device.” Then she began slowly and laughed, “This is amazing. It is sewing it as well. Did you know that?”
“Yes, I thought everyone in the galaxy knew about this,” Ellie replied.
“Did you have one of these on Earth?” Tamsin asked wondering for the first time how wealthy Ellie’s home on Earth had been compared to hers.
“No, but your brother is a captain of a cargo ship I thought you would have known about these things.”
“No, I only know a little about ships and cargo related technology, nothing for everyday life on an advanced planet.” Once the back of the dress was removed, she found a colorful red ribbon and attached it down the middle of the exposed back of the dress.
“It’s red,” said Ellie cautiously.
“So?”
“Red is a very avant-garde color here. Jei may not like it.”
“You told me he said we could wear whatever we wanted as long as it was Alliance. This is still Alliance. It meets all the requirements,” Tamsin said with a smile, holding up the dress to Ellie. “You’re going to have to take off your bra, probably your underwear too. It is going to go very far down in the back. I will probably be able to see the shadow of your crack.”
Ellie smiled while she removed her undergarments, “That’ll save me some time in the shrine before we go then.” She slipped on the dress and asked her room’s computer to open the mirror. Then she turned around and looked at her naked back with the red ribbon holding the dress up. There was no way she could wear underwear with it. “This is beautiful, but I don’t know…”
Tamsin found her IC and brought up a picture of Jade from opening night at Human Food and handed it over to Ellie, “She did it. Don’t you want to be like Jade? I certainly do. She’s amazing. She’s showing the Empire how humans can make this all better.”
Ellie handed the IC back and replied softly, “Yes, I do want to be like her in some ways.”
“She’s got three husbands and a successful business in the Empire. I definitely want to be like her.”
Ellie laughed, “Three husbands?”
Tamsin smiled, “Well, no not that part really. I think one will be enough. Jei made me sign a contract promising to marry only one maximum class man from his House. It seems a little incestuous, but I agreed and had to smile at the, ‘only one’ as I assumed that was added after Jade married three men.”
Ellie gave her a small smile, “It’s a large House with lots of men. I’m sure you will find your true other half here.”
“Oh, I’m not really a romantic, just someone I can laugh with is enough for me. Now look at the time, we should go so we aren’t late.”
Tamsin and Ellie left her room and quickly walked down the large stone corridor towards the front entrance. They smiled in delight. Their bodies already filled with the anticipation of the victor’s reception. The women met Jei’s guards in the foyer who bowed and then escorted them to one of the House Rega transports.
It was a short ride flying from the House Rega compound to the Grand Assembly Hall of Alba. As they circled the building, Ellie said, “Look at those gardens. Do you think I’ll walk with a man in them tonight?”
“You mean with the victor? I don’t know for sure, but I would say you’ve a better chance than most with that dress on,” Tamsin replied. “But I guess the real question is, will you recognize him with clothing?”
Ellie laughed, “I think so.” But the truth was his naked body was burned into her memory and she didn’t know if she could find him by just his face. “I know his name anyway, it’s Val.”
“Strange name for an Alliance man. It almost sounds human. Which House? Which Planet?”
“I don’t remember,” Ellie replied as they landed. The truth was that she was half-drunk when she was trying to figure it out and unlike the other competitors it wasn’t there, just his title so she had given up and chatted with Tamsin and others instead of furthering her investigation. “I’m sure we will find out everything tonight.”
The guards escorted the women into the Grand Assembly Hall. The place was teeming with Alliance people of all classes dressed in formal garments and a few off-worlders here and there dressed in the latest galactic fashions. Everyone was talking in the massive stone room with a skylight that beautifully displayed the night sky and the not-so-far-away Capital Planet in it. The walls were bare stone except for the statues of the gods and small torches burning in front of them.
Ellie did a quick check to see if her mother’s statute was there and was tensed when she saw it. She gazed at if for a few seconds and then was pleased when Tamsin touched her arm.
“Did you hear me?”
“What did you say?”
“It’s so difficult to tell the men a part with their clothing on,” she smiled, “Do you see your victor?”
Ellie scanned the room for the victor but couldn’t find him in the crowded hall, “No.”
Tamsin said, “Maybe he’s in the garden. Don’t worry you’ll find him. I’m sure there is going to be an awards ceremony or something here too. A blessing by the gods, you know some Alliance stuff then you can stalk him after that. Let’s get a drink.”
Valentin was looking at himself in the mirror as he adjusted his formal clothing in his quarters on the Song. It had been awhile since he had worn it. His first officer and best friend, Lon, watched him with a smile.