Tamsin looked at her gravely, “Who’s Valentin? I thought his name was Val.”
“His Alliance name is Val and his human name is Valentin. He told me to call him Valentin.”
“It suits him in a kind of medieval Italian seducer kind of way,” Tamsin commented. “And how do you know when you will receive your fine? I thought for sure the Empire would have timing on these things even if they weigh certain criteria out.”
“Well, it’s complicated because it will go to the Head of House first. Admiral Jei will receive it.”
Tamsin just looked at her for a minute trying to think of something positive to say, “At least you got the most romantic kiss of your life out of it.”
Valentin was in his quarters onboard his ship. He was lying in bed thinking about Ellie. Trying to think of ways he could get her to marry him without being killed by Admiral Jei. His IC interrupted his thoughts. It was a chime he was unfamiliar with, so he picked it up. It was a message from the Imperial High Council. He opened the message and laughed, and said out loud, “That little minx lied about her age.”
Val, Commander of the Nage Horde, Outcast from the Alliance Empire, Fines for the 7th day of the 1st week of the year 18907:
Alliance Planet Two, Alba, The Grand Assembly, Yoli Victory Celebration, inappropriately touching an underage woman of maximum class at 18:57
Fine: 250 UC
Alliance Planet Two, Alba, The Grand Assembly, Yoli Victory Celebration, kissing an underage woman of maximum class at 19:06, 19:08
Fine: 200 UC per citation
Alliance Planet Two, Alba, The Grand Assembly, Gardens, Yoli Victory Celebration, kissing an underage woman of maximum class at 19:14, 19:16
Fine: 200 UC per citation
Alliance Planet Two, Alba, The Grand Assembly, Gardens, Yoli Victory Celebration, inappropriately touching an underage woman of maximum class at 19:22, 19:25
Fine: 200 UC per citation
Total: 1500 UC
Disputes can be made publicly only.
Fines are doubled for one party being underage and again for one party being an outcast of the Empire.
Alternative methods of payment can be made at the Alba Main City Temple on Alliance Planet Two with the High Priestess in her private punishment rooms.
Valentin looked at the fines and smiled. He activated his IC, “Pay 1500 UCs to Imperial High Council. Then he put his finger to his IC to finish paying. He put is IC down and then a thought occurred to him and he took up his IC again, “Find fines for Ellie Ward of House Rega.”
The High Council computer replied, “There are no fines for Ellie, Ward of House Rega.”
“Why not?” Valentin asked.
“Admiral Jei, Head of House Rega and Admiral of the Alliance Fleet settled Ellie, Ward of House Rega’s fines 17 seconds ago,” the computer answered.
“Oh,” said Valentin unnecessarily and ended the connection. “I’m sorry Ellie, I was too late to save you from that,” he said to an empty room. He looked at her fine and thought, Despite your colorful human appearance, you don’t need saving. You’re a strong woman and I’ve no doubt you can more than adequately defend your actions to Admiral Jei. He smiled at the thought of Ellie giving her candid thoughts to the illustrious Admiral just as she had done to him. Despite these musings, he still couldn’t resist the urge to send her something to make up for not being able to pay her fines and at the same time, hopefully, encouraging her belief that he would come back for her and that she would welcome his return.
Ellie woke up the next morning to a slave walking into her room. The slave placed a small black box on her bedside table.
“This is for you and it didn’t come from the Earth Store. You must have caught someone’s eye last night,” the slave said and waited for Ellie to open it.
Ellie propped herself up and took the box, then looked at the slave, “Are you going to watch?”
“It has a code on it only you can open so I couldn’t open it up beforehand.”
“Do you open all my packages?” Ellie asked already knowing the answer was probably ‘yes.’
“Of course,” said the slave nonchalantly. “Life is boring enough as it is, and your life is my life, as deemed by the gods,” the slave replied devoutly. When Ellie just looked at her without opening the gift the slave insisted, “Come on, I’m curious. It’s a saucy riddle.”
Ellie shook her head in disbelief and then looked at the silver latch on the box, sure enough there was a question engraved there. It read: “How many times did I touch your bare bottom last night?”
Ellie smiled at the thought and hit the number one on the virtual keypad that had appeared as she held the box. Her heart was racing now because she knew that this gift was from Valentin. The black box slowly opened. Inside was a new Alliance ID necklace, but it was slightly different than the one she had had before, it read, Elloisa Ward of House Rega and underneath the inscription was an illusion of words moving across it with the light, that read, Admired by Valentin Commander of the Nage Horde.
Ellie smiled and put it over her head immediately.
The slave peered to look at the necklace lying between her breasts, “Do you want us to call you ‘Elloisa’? It’s an exceptionally long name and not very Imperial sounding.”
Ellie was surprised that that was all she asked rather than commenting on the Outcast who had given her the necklace or the question of a man touching her bare bottom in public. She looked down at it and realized that the moving words, Admired by Valentin Commander of the Nage Horde, couldn’t be seen anymore. She picked up the necklace between her fingers and suddenly she could see the ‘admired’ part again. She quickly removed her fingers and then they disappeared again. She looked up at the slave who thankfully had not been paying attention, “No, Ellie is still fine.”
“That’s strange as you must have said to someone you wanted to be called ‘Elloisa’ or else why would they give you this?” the slave questioned.
“I don’t know. I met some men last night and I lost my ID necklace, maybe they looked me up in the GC database and made this for me,” Ellie wasn’t good at lying, but most of this was the truth. “My birth name was Elloisa, but no one has ever called me that before.”
The slave shrugged her shoulders, “You should be more careful of your ID necklace.” Then she left, clearly disappointed that this wasn’t any known jewelry from a potential suitor.
Ellie laid back in her large bed as the sky became dark blue indicating daytime on Alliance Planet Two. She played with her new ID necklace for half an hour, touching it to reveal the hidden message and then not touching it to show a plain ID necklace. She noticed that it was only activated with her fingerprints, not her hand or anything else. She assumed it must have been made by using the Alliance’s record of her prints. Her kittens Prue and Piper also joined her on her bed playing with her new ID necklace and she absently wondered what other personal things Valentin had collected from her last night.
Then her IC chimed breaking her wistful thoughts of Valentin and the comfort company of her kittens. Ellie took a deep breath. She knew it was Jei’s notification. She hesitantly answered while she sat up.