Dead Star Dockyards

Titanyana began to wake up a little later than normal. The events of the previous day had exhausted her, Donovan's demonstration and the probing of Petunia's knowledge being the primary places her energy was spent. She did little during those events, but they were tense, and she had to think a lot more than she normally would. Those were monumentally important moments.

Groggily rubbing her eyes open, Titanyana noticed that the door to her room was ever so slightly ajar. Normally she would have panicked, the privacy of her personal space having been compromised. Instead, Titanyana looked to the corner of the room. Sure enough, Petunia was slumped over in the chair, lightly sleeping with a box in her hands.

Titanyana didn't, or rather couldn't, blame Petunia for her protective disposition towards her Queen. At the moment, she was the only one of her subjects in a position to protect her, though Titanyana did not for a moment believe that someone would try to do her harm. There was nothing to gain from it. Her people had been involuntary isolationists, they didn't really even know who she was, much less what they might gain from eliminating her. Petunia didn't understand that, at least she didn't understand it yet, so Titanyana didn't feel like she had a justification to tell her off.

That didn't mean Titanyana's opinion hadn't soured though. One event in particular had given her plenty of reason to hold a grudge, and there was every chance that Petunia didn't know it. 

"Mgrr." She made a slightly annoyed growl as she stretched, not that she intended it to come off as such. Regardless, Petunia had heard it and opened her eyes.

"Ah! Good morning my Lady." Petunia attempted to hide the fact she had been dozing off.

". . ." Titanyana did not respond, she didn't know how. Every part of her wanted to confer some form of punishment upon her maid, but how could she possibly show anger at the one who raised her? An outburst seemed improper, and she seriously doubted how effective a glowering look would be. Instead, she settled on giving Petunia the silent treatment for the time being. Based on the results from yesterday evening, it seemed to be working well, probably.

"Would you like me to get you breakfast?" Petunia continued as if Titanyana had silently acknowledged her greeting. 

". . ."

"How about I prepare your clothing and ready the bath? Would that satisfy you?"

". . ."

"M-maybe you would prefer some silence? I understand that today is a rest day for you, so could you possibly prefer to get some more rest?"

". . ."

"M-my Lady?" Titanyana noticed Petunia's ears drop out of the corner of her eye.

". . ."

". . ." A shift in Petunia's arms suggested she was nervous. Titanyana couldn't see it, but there was a good chance Petunia was stopping herself from holding her tail.

". . ."

"P-please tell me what I did wrong." Petunia finally submitted to Titanyana's silence. For someone sworn to dedicate their life to their liege, being ignored by them for a perceived slight was incredibly nerve-wracking.

"It wasn't your right to propose a-" Titanyana stopped herself. She wanted to say 'a marriage', but she didn't know if Petunia had the right or not. It was customary for the parent to propose a marriage on their child's behalf, but Titanyana didn't have parents anymore. Did that mean the right fell to the child's guardian? Or was it conferred to the child themselves? She hadn't been taught much beyond the basics, her father likely expecting to fulfill the role himself. She needed to reword her statement. "I didn't want you to propose a marriage!"

"I-" Petunia stopped herself from responding in error. "Was it not a good idea to do so? They are to be the people we live under, so I thought that securing our position with ties of blood would be preferable in the long term."

"N-no!" Titanyana wanted to sound stern, but she didn't come off that way. "I didn't want to, um, I didn't want to. . ."

"What didn't you want to do?" Petunia displayed a modicum of concern. "Is there something about him I should know? Is he a worse person than he appears to be? Is he not an honorable man?"

"No! No. It's not that. He is . . . he is perfectly fine. I just, I just . . . " Titanyana brought her knees up to her chest, and tugged the covers to hide her reddening face. What should she say? Should she tell Petunia the truth? Should she lie? Could she lie? She couldn't think of a reasonable justification for her previous outburst that didn't involve her telling the truth. Did Petunia deserve to know the truth? Could she be trusted to keep it a secret?

Despite the flattening of her ears, Titanyana could hear Petunia's breathing quicken. Petunia was genuinely concerned for her wellbeing, just as she always was. If there was any person who needed to know who her crush was, it was Petunia.

"I just don't want to be rejected." She teared up at the proposition, the imagined scene of Donovan flatly rejecting her advances driving a stake through her heart. The idea of Donovan accepting her out of convenience hurt her just as much. "And I don't want to force him to love me either."

"M-my Lady, what are you saying?"

"I-" Titanyana took a deep breath, steeling herself to speak her feelings aloud. "I love him."

- - - - -

Petunia felt as though she had been struck by a hammer. Titanyana? In love? The little girl she raised and cherished? The Queen of the Nekh and niece of her lover? That Titanyana had fallen in love? Petunia had to wonder if she even knew what love was! She lived almost the entirety of her life in the palace, and was nowhere near experienced enough with people to really say what love was. Yet here she was claiming to be in love! And Petunia believed it.

'Love' meant something different to the Nekh than it did to almost every other race, at least when it came to the women. 'Love' was almost a bodily function for them, a fundamental tool used in the survival of their species, one they had little control over if any at all.

See, the Nekh had a problem, one that had persisted over an extremely long period of time. The problem in question was extremely low fertility, no doubt a result of their dying star. The problem wasn't necessarily that the sperm and ovum could not meet and create a new life, but that the unborn child would not be given enough split to survive to term in the womb. When there were only one or two eggs released per menstrual cycle, the chances that intercourse would result in a successful pregnancy approached almost zero. This was a problem for them, one they couldn't necessarily fix. 

Fortunately, a mutation arose and spread in their genome through generations that 'fixed' this problem. Instead of releasing one egg once per month, they would release many, increasing the chances of a sperm/ovum pairing that was strong enough to survive the dearth of split in the womb. There were still problems with this though, the biggest being that the women did not have an increased number of eggs. Instead of reaching menopause in their forties, the women would become barren in their early to mid twenties, meaning that they did not have much time to have children, and the maximum number of children they could have would drop substantially as a result. The total number of children would naturally end up being greater than before, but a fairly large number of Nekh women would die earlier in their lives from childbirth, their bodies still too undeveloped for the task.

As if in response to this, yet another mutation arose, one that placed limits upon their period, one that changed it from a periodic cycle to activation upon exposure to male pheromones. More specifically, exposure to the pheromones of a single male, their 'lover'. The mind did little to control the selection of this individual, it was almost entirely up to the body. In some sense, the woman's body ran a test for compatibility, selecting completely independent of her opinions of the person.

This involuntary selection process formed the basis of their marriage structure, and there were strict cultural codes in place for both men and women to ensure that young females who had still not 'decided' on a mate would not select for a man who had already been taken by another, and to ensure that the women would not waste their precious few ovulations outside of 'mating time'. Once a woman's body had decided on a mate, on their lover, they would accept no other, often forming an intense emotional connection to that individual as a result. 

The Nekh did not yet know that amount of detail about their reproductive cycle though. Their understanding stopped at around the idea of 'pheromones', a smell or odor they associated with activating the response, and 'love', their idea of which stipulated that the mind and body were unified in their choice.

"Are you saying that he's the one?" The Strappers were often the exception to the rules that applied to most of the Nekh when it came to their biology, a collection of oddities the Nekh recognized as proof of their right to rule. This aspect was no different, however in the case of 'love' it was not necessarily to their benefit. For the Strappers, even the males recognized a mate. "Y-you've chosen him as your mate?"

Titanyana nodded in confirmation underneath the bedsheets, an action which damn near gave Petunia a heart attack. She had almost messed everything up! Petunia had thought that, while they were close, Titanyana had not yet gotten attached enough to the point of 'love'. Had that been the case, a rejection at that point wouldn't have been particularly damaging. Petunia and Titanyana could have taken precautions to ensure she didn't recognize him as a mate.

Now armed with the knowledge that it had already happened, Petunia could see the disaster that had been so narrowly avoided. If Donovan truly didn't express a desire to take her as a mate at the very least, then it would have been over for the Strappers, for their royal bloodline. Titanyana was all they had left now. If she couldn't have children because she had fallen in love with the wrong person, then the Nekh would be left without their ancestral line of leaders, they wouldn't know what to do with themselves!

Petunia shot up from her chair and started pacing back and forth to the side of the bed, tail swinging furiously. She was thinking, both about what she had done wrong and what actions needed to be taken to remedy this situation. The obvious answer was, well, obvious. Donovan and Titanyana needed to copulate at least once. One child was all the Nekh truly needed to remain a cohesive polity under the Terrans. It didn't matter how it happened, Petunia needed to get the two of them in the bedroom together somehow. 

The big question was 'How?'.

The most palatable option was marriage. That path would provide benefits aside from a child, and was most likely what Titanyana herself wanted. Concubinage was also on the table.

The less desirable option was a transactional exchange, the promise of a child in exchange for something. Donovan was a male, so he would not have to contribute much to the process aside from the initial insemination. The only question was what they would ask for, the Nekh had nothing left to give.

The final option she could think of was ra-, er, 'an involuntary forfeiture of his reproductive fluids'. Petunia didn't believe that Titanyana had the heart to perform that particular act by herself, but it was something that some of her female ancestors had been forced to resort to. Petunia could probably facilitate it with a sufficiently powerful drug or enough alcohol, though he likely wouldn't maintain a good view of her. She was willing to accept the risk of execution if it meant the continuation of the Strapper bloodline.

"D-does he know?" Petunia needed to confirm that part. He hadn't asked about how they reproduced, so there was a fifty-fifty chance he didn't know about Titanyana's plight. Titanyana shook her head in the negative, barely poking her reddening eyes above the covers. Petunia didn't know whether that was a good or a bad thing. 

On the one hand, his actions would not be dictated by the knowledge that Titanyana fancied him. That could be detrimental should he have a mean side. On the other hand, he would not be incentivized by any sort of duty or conscience to give Titanyana what she desired of him. To let him know would be opening the door for manipulation either way.

"Do you want him to know?" Petunia could not make this decision on Titanyana's behalf. She couldn't even provide her with advice. There were benefits and detriments either way, so the deciding factor had to be what she felt about the matter.

"N-not yet."

"Why not?"

"B-because," Petunia hated this Titanyana, it was far too different from the detached but sweet soldier princess she was used to. She hated it not because Titanyana wasn't supposed to act like that, but because it reminded her she was growing up. Titanyana now had to deal with being a woman in love. "I don't want him to hate me. He's in love with Diana, and she's in love with him, and I don't want to get between them. I don't want to break their relationship apart, and I don't want to be a drag on them. I-I want him to love me on his own. I want him to be happy marrying me without the pressure of p-politics and authority. I don't want to pressure him into a marriage because of any obligation to my body. I want the only reason he marries me to be because he loves me."

Petunia's shoulder's sagged. For better or worse she had adopted the disposition of her father, one of the lucky few Nekh who had found 'love' naturally and meaningfully. Her uncle also held that disposition, as did Petunia herself. Titanyana had been surrounded by people who wanted love to be 'natural', people who encouraged it despite their better judgement. Now they were having to pay the price. The one time Petunia wanted, needed, Titanyana to act with general indifference towards something, she developed strong emotions.

Petunia couldn't even bring herself to scold Titanyana or tell her off, she had done the exact same thing. How selfish would she be if she admonished Titanyana for pursuing something she herself had waited a lifetime for and achieved? How could she tell the Queen who had suffered so much from the expectations of others that she could not choose how she courted her mate? 

". . . I think we should speak to Lady Diana about this matter."

"!?"

"I understand your desire to court him on your own, but I cannot leave the future of the Strapper bloodline up to chance. Lady Diana appeared to be open to the proposition at the very least, and I think she may be able to provide you with advice and recommendations on how to proceed. She would know best, wouldn't she?"

cakeonfrosting The Nekh are the spiritual/biological counterpart to the Terrans.

The Nekh are the answer to the question, 'What if we took life used to having access to Split and gradually deprived them of it?'

The Terrans are the answer to the question, 'What would happen to life if it never had access to Split in the first place?' 

The following is a meta/background explanation which I do not plan to bring up in the story. Certain elements may be mentioned, explained, or become points of interest in the story, however only one of these is of any real interest to progression:

The Nekh are one of a precious few peoples that have experienced a race-wide mutation, others never experiencing that 'problem'. They are the only one to have experienced mutations more than once. Naturally they were spurred by the lack of Split, but they were also influenced by Split itself. You can think of it sort of like a guided form of natural selection, the Zeitgeist (remember this word in the future, it will be important) of the Nekh recognized a problem, low fertility, and the Split of their planet responded by generating and propagating a mutation that 'solved' the issue. This happened many times and covered a variety of different parts of their body, the responsiveness of the Zeitgeist to their desires being a direct result of their cultural and societal uniformity - a problem affecting one individual was likely affecting every individual.

I am not memeing when I say that the Nekh are built different. Much like the Terrans, the Nekh are different from the standard 'human' in ways that are noticeable and appreciable, they had to be in order to survive their environment.