But back to our side-trip—I was genuinely interested in the strange planet where the men and women were completely divided. Why and how had they made the decision to permanently split up?
“Actually, I don’t know a whole lot about why the inhabitants of Tangella Alpha-Prime separated in the first place,” Vik’tor remarked, frowning. “I only know that they’ve been that way for a long fucking time—centuries.”
“But…how do they reproduce?” I asked. “I mean, do they all get together once a year or something for some kind of sex festival?”
A planet-wide sex festival actually sounded pretty interesting, but Vik’tor shook his head.
“No—they both reproduce through artificial means. The women’s side has insemination stations where they can go to get impregnated and the men’s side has artificial wombs. Both of them have enough genetic material stored to keep going like that for centuries more. Though thereisa prophecy that someday they will come back together.”
“There is?” I perked up. “That would be an interesting reunion, I bet.”
“You’re fucking right about that, little girl.” Vik’tor barked a laugh. “But who knows if it will even be in our lifetimes? Like I said, they’ve been separated for centuries with the males living on one half of the globe and the females on the other. They may trade natural resources at times, but for the most part, they’re two completely separate societies and as far as I can tell, they’re likely to remain that way.”
“So why do you need me to come with you?” I asked, frowning. “I mean…aside from the fact that you might need a sip of blood?” I blushed a little, thinking of how my body reacted when he drank from me, but I tried to keep my voice even and professional. We were just friends now, I reminded myself—friends and that wasall.
“Well, any male who wishes to deal with the Rainbow Empress has to bring a female to vouch for him,” Vik’tor told me. “Er, I hope you don’t mind doing that for me,” he added, awkwardly.
“Are you kidding—after everything you’ve done for me?” I exclaimed. “You rescued me from a miserable existenceandfrom a gruesome death. OfcourseI’ll vouch for you! I’ll be happy to—morethan happy.”
“Thanks, baby,” He smiled at me. “From what I’ve heard, if the Empress hears from another female that a male has a ‘good character’ and that he treats females right, she’ll be willing to hear a business proposal from him. But without a female to vouch for him, well…” He shook his head. “A male is shit out of luck on the Female side of Tangella Alpha-Prime.”
“I kind of like that,” I remarked. “Especially since so many worlds seem to be male-dominated. I know myowncertainly is,” I added dryly.
“O’nagga Nine is too,” Vik’tor admitted. “Not the Braxian home world though. Females there would fucking put up a fight if the males tried to dominate them.”
“Good for them,” I said, lifting my chin. “Equality is better than anyone having the upper hand.”
Vik’tor nodded.
“Which may be one reason the Tangellans separated in the first place—who fucking knows?”
“Well, maybe we’re about to find out,” I suggested.
We were going to find a lot of things out before we left Tangella Alpha-Prime, but I didn’t know that yet…
THIRTY-FIVE
VIK’TOR
“You’re sure I look okay in this?” Natalie looked down at herself uncertainly.
We were required to dress for our audience with the Rainbow Empress and the outfits we were wearing had been provided to us by the Tangellans when we landed at their palace. In fact, the Royal Costumer had come to see us herself, looking us up and down and nodding to herself as she took mental measurements. She had presented us with the clothing in a very short amount of time, making me think she must have access to some kind of fabric synthesizer.
She had instructed us to put them on and then watched critically while we stripped and did as she said. She then nodded in satisfaction and said we “would do now” before leaving us alone.
I hadn’t realized before, but the Tangellans were a very large people—built on the same scale as Lord Barinthian, the Korrigon who had visited me on O’nagga Nine not that long ago. So even the females were eight feet tall, which had the unusual effect of making me feel short when I’m normally the tallest guy in the room.
Other than their great height, the Tangellans were mostly humanoid, aside from their pastel skin colors. I saw females with pale pink skin as well as light blue, lavender, delicate pale green, and even soft peach. They seemed to come in all shades of the pastel rainbow, and their hair was white or pale yellow.
But back to Natalie and her new outfit—it was fucking stunning. A long, silver gown made of tiny, thin strips of shimmery, metallic fabric which fell from a V-necked collar down to her ankles.
Beneath the gown, she wore nothing at all, which was apparently the Tangellan custom but it was also fucking distracting because the berry-dark points of her nipples kept poking out from between the thin silver strips of her dress and I could even see a flash of her pussy if she moved too fast.
I was tryingreallyfucking hard not to look below her neck, though. The reason being that I was also wearing a weird outfit—if you could call it that—made out of wider silver strips. Mine was kind of a kilt, as Natalie called it, which started at my waist and ended at mid-thigh. Needless to say, if I got tooexcited,the evidence of my excitement was going to come poking out from between the silver strips of fabric, the same way Natalie’s nipples were. And I didn’t need that—especially not when I was trying to conduct business.
So I was trying to keep my eyes off her luscious, curvy body, as I said, when she asked me if she looked all right.
“You look great,” I growled, keeping my eyes on her face.