Alien Slave by Tracy St.John

years ago. Even though they have been free of us for
millennia, the damage Kalquor did remains to this day. We offer our
regret any time we encounter their people.”
    “ They seemed embarrassed by
the gesture.”
    Wynhod nodded in agreement. “The
Joshadans are a tolerant race and have officially pardoned Kalquor.
They are not people to take advantage of others’ shame.”
    The Kalquorians had bowed as deeply to
Dani when she’d first encountered them. She’d thought they’d been
displaying old-fashioned Earther courtliness for her benefit, but
now she wondered. Had it been an apology for Earth’s
destruction?
    Whatever. Bows didn’t make up for all
she’d lost. Dani was nowhere near as forgiving as the
Joshadans.
    Despite the renewal of her anger, the
feast before her demanded she swallow her pique. Dani peered at the
assortment of bite-sized fare before her. “It smells
good.”
    Krijero plucked a purple and green
tidbit from the platter and held it before her mouth. “Would you
like to try this?”
    Amused by his intention to feed her,
Dani replied, “Sure.”
    She accepted the morsel from his
fingers and moaned as it fairly melted in her mouth. Creamy and
rich, reminding her of goat cheese, it was a little bite of heaven.
She decided not to ask what it was. If it was some gross part of an
animal, Dani didn’t want to know.
    Gelan offered her another delicacy,
this one marbled pink and red. Dani snickered as he fed it to her.
It crumbled in her mouth, a crusty, savory bite. Wynhod waited to
serve her yet another bit of food.
    Before she let him, Dani giggled,
“Who’s going to fan me and rub my feet?”
    Gelan smiled his puzzlement.
“Pardon?”
    “ Nevermind.” They were the
clients, yet they insisted on serving her the meal. Far be it for
her to correct their mistake.
    Gelan swallowed a mouthful of his own.
“Tell us about your life on Earth,” he invited.
    Dani shrugged, speaking between bites.
“I worked for my dad after I got out of college. I wasn’t ready to
be tied down as a wife though he pushed me to marry and be
respectable. Then he ran into some legal trouble, and we all had to
be really careful after that.”
    Krijero offered her something that
tasted like chocolate. “Trouble of the lewd variety?”

    She rolled her eyes at him. “You know,
Earthers can find more kinds of trouble than just sex. Obviously
that’s our biggie, but no, he had to resign his post over a fraud
scandal. He was in Philadelphia on trial when Armageddon
hit.”
    Philadelphia had been one of the cities
that went up in a poisonous mushroom cloud. No
survivors.
    Krijero brushed her cheek with the
backs of his fingers. In a low voice, he said, “I am sorry for your
loss. What of your mother?”
    The mouthful Dani swallowed stuck in
her throat for a moment. She forced it down. “The old lady was in
Philly too. She was a long-time resident of the Psycho-Druggie
Hilton there.”
    Wynhod frowned. “I’m not familiar with
those terms.”
    Dani scowled. Why don’t I just pull off
all my clothes and dance the Charleston on top of the table? It
would be less humiliating than this conversation.
    Dani tried to keep her tone flat, but
anger managed to ooze in anyway. “My mother was institutionalized
for mental illness and illegally self-medicating. I barely knew the
woman. She was a drug addict for as far back as I can remember.”
Before they could ask any further questions, she snapped, “All my
family is dead, okay? All vaporized because your people invaded
Earth.”
    Gelan sat very still next to her,
contemplating Dani with an expression she couldn’t read. Finally he
said, “Even before the invasion, it sounds as if you had a hard
life.”
    She didn’t want their sympathy. Drawing
herself up with stubborn pride, Dani informed them, “Not really. I
had money and status, and most of the time when my brother and I
got in trouble, my dad paid our way out of it.”
    The Kalquorians looked at her, their
eyes soft.