Prologue

Mankind’s first contact with extra-terrestrial life was as dramatic and historical as everyone believed it would be.

They were called the Faey, and they came to Earth not as messengers of peace, but as conquerors.

On March 12th, 2005, they arrived in two immense starships and addressed the peoples of Earth via radio transmission, in every major language, that Earth had two weeks to surrender to the Faey Imperium or face war. They did not use any show of force or destroy anything to prove their might, for the images that Earth telescopes gave of their two vessels was all the show of force anyone needed. They were two miles long and nearly three quarters of a mile across, two sleekly designed monstrosities that were so massive that when they entered into Earth orbit, they affected the tides.

The next day, a lone Faey emissary descended from the vessels above to address the United Nations with the Faey demands, and the global news coverage of the arrival of the emissary caused its own confusion. The Faey representative, a high-ranking military officer, was a breathtakingly lovely human-looking female with light blue skin and pointed ears. She did not look like a warlike alien, she did not even look particularly dangerous. But when she addressed the United Nations, in English, it became quite apparent to everyone watching the globally broadcast event that she was every bit the conqueror. She was arrogant and condescending, and she made it clear immediately that there would be no negotiation. The Earth had two weeks to surrender unconditionally or face war. Earth could either surrender or be conquered, but either way, they would become a part of the Faey Imperium.

Faced with an enemy vastly superior in technology to their own, the nations of Earth met in the United Nations met for two solid weeks and debated furiously, but such a debate had only one ultimate conclusion. That conclusion was reached March 26th, 2005, when the Secretary General of the United Nations, Vladimir Kosparivic, formally and officially surrendered on behalf of all the nations of Earth.

Without firing a shot, without killing a single human being, the Faey Imperium conquered Earth.

And so, Earth became a farming colony under Faey control. The second major shock that the natives—as the Faey called them—discovered about their conquerors was that there was much more to them than first believed. The Faey were a telepathic species, and they used that telepathic power to quickly move in and root out all the resistance movements that had sprung up since their arrival. All Terran governments were dissolved, replaced by a feudalist system where a Faey noble held absolute power over his or her territory. At first, the humans held hope that their conquerors could somehow be overthrown, but it was a feeble one. In two months, the Faey Occupational Forces wiped out every band of organized resistance, leaving the humans with nothing but grim resignation of the lot that had been dealt to them.

The changes were drastic. Human society was allowed to continue to function, at least after a fashion. The Faey meant for Earth to be a farming colony, and that was exactly what it became. All activity on Earth was shifted to farming or offering material or technological support for the farming effort. The verdant belts of Earth, such as the American mid-west, had every single square inch of their land taken over by farming. Entire cities were depopulated and razed to make room for farms, and the middle sections of America became nothing but a vast collection of large collective farms. Every open space became a farm, even inhospitable areas like deserts and tundra, from the northern reaches of Canada and Russia all the way to the southern tips of Africa and South America. The Faey did not cut down forests to make room for farms, and all small-scale civilization that existed within forested areas was evacuated, letting the regions go back to nature to maintain the planetary ecosystem and sending the inhabitants to work elsewhere.

Society continued on much as it did before, but all the humans who had had a job that had either been phased out as unnecessary, or had been replaced by Faey, found themselves working on farms. Every single human who was unemployed suddenly found himself on a farm, and a large segment of the rest of the population also found themselves working on farms, having been assigned there by random lottery that was held every three months. The rest of the human race continued on much as it had before, manufacturing supplies and equipment needed for the farms, maintaining the infrastructure, rendering services and support to other workers. Because of this realignment, lawyers, politicians, stock brokers and bankers suddenly found themselves weeding fields, while doctors, construction workers, and the clerks at the local convenience stores found their jobs to be suddenly secure. For those who avoided being sent to farms, job loyalty became insanely high and performance became fanatically perfect, for being fired or quitting would lead to immediate reassignment to a farm…and once assigned to a farm, a worker was virtually guaranteed to be a farm worker for the rest of his life.

The Faey did turn out to be not quite so heartless as humans originally first believed. They installed a great deal of their own technology on the planet to clean up the environment and converted all human cars and trucks to fuel cells of hydrogen, which burned cleanly. They instituted universal health care for all humans, cured plagues on human kind like AIDS, cancer, and diabetes, and revamped the educational system to start training humans in their technology, so they could maintain the Faey systems themselves. The Faey took over the roles of police, and their telepathic abilities led to the quick capture of all criminals, which in turn led to a drastic drop in crime. They did not interfere with the arts or entertainment, allowing music, movies, television, and even the internet to remain for the enjoyment of the citizenry, encouraged careers in the arts and protected the jobs and livelihoods of those already in careers in the arts, even going so far as to not even bother to censor content, allowing people to express any opinion they wished…for everyone knew that the Faey telepathic gifts would destroy any kind of rebellion before it ever had a chance to begin. Humans were allowed to object to the Faey, even do so publicly, so long as they didn’t actively do anything about it. But many saw these gestures as nothing more than guaranteeing the health and well-being of their slave work force.

Human society slowly and begrudgingly accepted this new order, however, for it was impossible to rebel. Their Faey conquerors were telepathic, and quickly rooted out any attempt to organize resistance and crushed it. Unable to counter either the vast technological superiority of their conquerors or maintain any kind of organized resistance, humans slowly came to accept that there was nothing that could be done. But many continued to try, unable to live under the heel of an oppressor. These mavericks mainly existed within the area formerly known as the United States, which proved to be both one of the most productive regions in terms of farm output, and the most troublesome in terms of defiant troublemakers. The vast majority of these malcontents were squatters who had escaped from farms or had left their jobs and homes, and moved into the unpopulated forested regions of the eastern and western sides of the continent, areas that had been stripped of human population to allow the areas to return to nature. In these lawless forest zones, they eked out dangerous and sometimes violent lives living off the land and preying on one another, living stark, almost primitive lives, but living free. The Faey allowed them to do so, not bothering them so long as they didn’t raid Faey holdings.

And so things remained for two years, a continuous cycle of the indomitable human spirit seeking to organize and resist, only to have their Faey conquerors move in and destroy the attempt before it got started.

Chapter 1

Raista, 9 Shiaa, 4392, Orthodox calendar;

Wednesday, 14 May 2007, Native regional reckoning

New Orleans, Gamia Province, American Sector

He hated heat.

Blowing out his breath, Jason fanned the neck of his tee shirt as he scurried across the campus of Tulane University, lugging a heavy backpack full of assorted things around, just one of the many racing around campus like psychotic ants, trying to get wherever they were going as quickly as possible to escape the withering heat. Why did it get this hot so early in the year down here? Back home in Maine, there would still be snow in sheltered, shady pockets on the ground!

It was almost enough to make him want to be sent to a farm, but with his luck, they’d stick him on one of the rice or sugar plantations they had down here, instead of a nice wheat farm up in New England. It was just ridiculous. He looked at his watch and saw that he was going to be nearly a half an hour early, but he didn’t care. He’d stand out in the hall and wait if only to be in air conditioning. It had to be nearly a hundred degrees! For him, that was outrageous, given back home in Portland, it was a news event if the thermometer hit eighty!

How did these people manage to live down here, anyway? He was sure that they would have melted by now.

The overshirt and backpack didn’t help, but he couldn’t help that. The overshirt, nothing more than a button-up, short sleeve, light blue denim shirt that was worn unbuttoned was a vanity of his. He’d worn shirts like that for so long that he felt naked if he wasn’t wearing a shirt and an overshirt over it. The backpack was roasting his back where it was against him, but there wasn’t much he could do but pull it down and switch to the other shoulder. It was a bit heavy today, but that was because he had today’s project in there in addition to his panel display, the universal computer-like device that all students were issued, that acted as a textbook, notebook, assignment book, and personal computer. His cell phone (which he was required to carry at all times), earphones, several music and data sticks—crystalline devices that looked like little inch-long pencils made of crystal which stored information—and a few good old fashioned paper notebooks were also in the pack, adding to the weight but not about to be left behind.

If only Professor Ailan had let him build a smaller model. His project was for Advanced Plasma Fundamentals, and he had to build a functioning plasma flow model, complete with a plasma power generator, conduit for the plasma to take at least two separate paths, and an ion exchange module at both junctions. The Faey had microscopic versions of what he had in his pack, a massive dog of a device that weighed nearly thirty pounds, but he had to use the supplies that were available to him. It was a ridiculously easy project, truth be told, because all a student had to do was get the parts and put them together. His model had three paths instead of two, because he was the last student to get to the part bin, and had to use the leftovers. Professor Ailan had kept him at the podium on purpose, he privately suspected, keeping him from being able to get the necessary two-path split exchanger and merge exchanger to build the simplest version of the model. He managed to get a three-path split exchanger and two two-path merge exchangers, and used those to build a cascading model where the primary conduit was split into three paths, then two merged, then that joined path merged with the last before returning to the PPG.

Ailan was alright, at least for a Faey. Jason didn’t like Faey, because they were conquering occupiers. It was well known that Jason was an objector, a vocal dissident, but he never allowed his opinions to appear to be anything more than opinions, and he also had the highest grade point average among second semester students in the university. The crux of his attitude towards Ailan dealt with a philosophical position. Because the Faey had stripped Jason of his freedom and rights, he was opposed to their system. But individual Faey were just that, individuals, and often voiced the same objections he himself raised. But since they were Faey, he had a moral obligation to avoid them, and do his best not to like them. That wasn’t easy when all his instructors were Faey, and Faey like Ailan were friendly, personable, and actually rather funny. Ailan was a male Faey, which weren’t often seen on Earth. The Faey was a female-dominated society whose entire core was based on telepathic power. Females tended to have stronger telepathic abilities, so they had emerged as the dominant gender. Females and males were the same size and roughly the same strength, but it was that disparity in telepathic might that made all the difference. Males did have a place in the society, but they were not allowed, by law, to enter into any occupation that was considered overly hazardous or dangerous, outside of serving on the large starships. Male Faey tended to be scientists, engineers, inventors, doctors, and teachers, while females were just about the only Faey that most people dealt with. All military Faey were female, including the occupational forces, who served as the new police. In addition to being military, females were also allowed to enter into any career they could manage to qualify for, and pull enough strings with whichever noble ruled them to manage to get in.

That was one reason Jason got so aggravated with the Faey system. It was a feudal bureaucracy, where every Faey was tested to see where they excelled, and allowed to pursue careers within those fields. The personal choice of the person had nothing to do with these choices, which was why Jason cursed his own role every day. When the Faey took over Earth, the tested each and every human on the planet, tests of intelligence, reasoning, and aptitude. Prior education and training had little impact on these tests, and everyone tried their absolute hardest when taking them. People who scored poorly were sent to farms, and being put on a farm was a fate that every human on Earth who was not already on a farm strove mightily to avoid. In that regard, the Faey system was a great deal like the military. But people who had money or connections could get out of that mandatory placement and go wherever they wanted. They just had to have enough credits or the right lineage. Nobles never served in the military in any role other than fleet officers or non-combat logistics officers for those who washed out of the academy, because they could buy those positions. If Jason had had enough money, he could have bribed his placement assessor to get any job he wanted. Not that it mattered for humans, for virtually all forms of old Earth currency was now worthless except for gold and silver. Some rich millionaires did manage to have enough gold or silver assets on hand to buy themselves out of working on a farm, but not many.

The main reason Jason hated his position was because he scored very high on those tests, high enough to be classified as able to comprehend Faey technology. And because of that, now he was in school to learn their technology. They didn’t consider that a risk because of their formidable telepathy, which would let them catch him long before he tried to use his education in some kind of harmful manner. He would be trained in some kind of Faey technology, and then become a part of the Imperium by serving it. And he hated that. He’d be serving no matter what job he was doing, even farming, but it seemed so wrong to him to be trained in their technology and then work for them. It was almost as if he were betraying the American ideals he had held so dear, cooperating with the enemy.

It was doubly agonizing for him because he was fascinated by their technology. They used plasma as a power source, and had mastered the science of manipulating space itself for use as propulsion, containing the fusion reactions that supplied plasma to power their systems, communicating over the entire galaxy, and had even learned to use it to breach the spacial boundaries and allow ships to jump through artificial wormholes…the closest thing to teleportation that had been devised so far by any race. They used plasma for everything, from lighting their homes to the energy of their weapons, and had learned techniques to alter the nature of plasma to make it safe for commercial and residential use. They used the manipulation of space as propulsion, as a means of travel beyond propulsion, and had even learned a way to form micro-wormholes that allowed communications to pass through, giving their Imperium real-time communications over their vast empire of nearly seventy star systems. It was all so incredibly fascinating, and yet he felt he was violating his ethics and morals by enjoying his education. He hated the Faey, and yet was learning to be a productive member of their society. He hated being nothing more than a slave, yet his was the gilded cage, for they had put him in a place he loved to be.

Too hot. He had another half a block to go. Tulane and another university called Loyola had existed side by side here in the Garden District of New Orleans, but Loyola had been dissolved, its buildings taken over by Tulane to form a single campus. Not that it was Tulane anymore, it was simply called Tulane because that was the university whose buildings were still standing. Officially, it was the Basic Technology Academy, Gamia Province. His next class was all the way on the other side of the campus, in a brand new facility that had been built where the centuries-old Loyola building had once stood. Scornful of the rich history of that venerable institution, the Faey had razed the building to the ground and in its place built their five-story nightmare of glass and synthetic plastic-like material that was stronger than steel but lighter than aluminum. It was called the Plasma Dynamics building, or what the students called the “Plaid” due to the checkerboard appearance of glass and dark plastic that formed the front façade of the building, and it was where all lab-oriented Plasma courses were taught. How did these people deal with it? And it was only May!

Two Faey females in that strange form-fitting body armor came across Saint Charles Avenue, their rifles slung over their shoulders. He wondered how they could even breathe in those things. They were truly form-fitting, showing off all those lovely curves for which many human men secretly pined. Faey women were very lovely, all the military women were athletically thin, and most of them were curvy and very appealing. Jason had a feeling that the tight fit of the armor had something to do with its protective aspects, since it didn’t hinder their movement in any way. If there was no void space within it, there would be no jostling inside the armor. He once saw a Faey soldier get hit by an SUV that had to be going about fifty miles an hour back when they first arrived, before they got the hang of crosswalks and realized that traffic wasn‘t just going to stop just because they stepped out into the street. She got thrown about thirty feet after the impact, then she got up and simply dusted herself off. The SUV was completely trashed. The armor was more than just showing off their forms, it was a powerful protective shell that surrounded them. These two had their helmets off, slung by small cords over the barrels of their rifles. They were patent Faey, high cheekbones, large, almond-shaped eyes, small, pert little noses, full lips, and that strange bluish skin. The taller one had gray eyes and auburn red hair cut short, combed over one side of her head, which seemed odd with her blue-hued skin, and the shorter one had blue eyes and hair so blond it was virtually white, short and straight as straw. Both had black armor, which denoted them not as regular army, but as Marines. They were the ones that a human had to watch out for, for they were rough, impatient, and tended to hand out very harsh punishments for the most benign of offenses. They resented their jobs as police, and took it out on the people they policed. Jason rushed past them, head down, not glancing to either side, his mind carefully neutral, betraying nothing.

And there it was. He’d come to be very familiar with that brushing sensation against his mind, the touch of a Faey who was using her telepathy against him. Jason had a very organized and controlled mind, thanks to his father. His father had been an Air Force fighter pilot, but resigned after his mother was killed in a car crash to spend more time with him. His father had been a fanatical practitioner of martial arts, and had taught his son Karate, Aikido, Kendo, and Ninjitsu, which gave him a very structured and strong mind. He still practiced, but not as much as he had before his father passed away. That mental training gave him the ability to control his mind, present to the world a repetivitive train of thought which the Faey couldn’t seem to penetrate without being very serious about it, an upper layer of sorts that concealed the true thoughts beneath it. And they all tried, damn them. Every single Faey he came into casual contact with probed him within ten seconds of coming close to them. It was automatic, and he had come to expect it every time he came within twenty feet of a Faey. Some of those brushings were light, as this one was, some were strong, and sometimes the Faey abandoned tact and literally attacked his mind to break down his defense of repetitive thought and get at the true thoughts beneath. No matter how light or strong the touch, Jason never failed to feel violated at those touches, violated and offended that they would strip him of the most private of all private domains, his own mind.

The thought he used against most Faey when he was feeling petty, as he was now, was an image of the Faey involved, stark naked and in a rather provocative pose. Except for a pair of army boots. The boots were rather important. He wasn’t sure which one it was doing it, so he decided to use the redhead. She was cuter. He had several stock poses that he used, but given that this one was a but more buxom than the usual Faey, the good old cupping breasts image suited her rather well.

It was a dangerous game to play with a Marine, but it was worth it. One had to fight one’s battles where and when one could. Ruffling a Marine’s feathers would satisfy his sense of necessity.

From behind, he heard a startled gasp, and then then he felt a second brushing. That was proceeded immediately by uncontained laughter.

He knew he had about three seconds to make himself scarce, before that redhead got over her sense of moral outrage and got mad. He quickened his step as he heard the second one continue laughing, and he managed to get in with a group of other students moving towards the Plaid.

“Hey!” came a sudden call from behind. “Come back here!”

Jason ducked his head and broke out in front of the other students, who had stopped and turned around to see who was being addressed. They melted out of the way when they saw two Marines, one of them with a dark expression and the other trying her best not to start laughing again. Jason just barely managed to duck into the Plaid before the Marine spotted him, and he quickly got out of sight. He felt several more brushings, but instead of presenting an image of a naked Marine, he instead made his mind like smoke, empty and presenting little more to the outside world than a plastic plant would. He slipped into the broom closet between the bathrooms as he heard the sound of the Marine’s boots on the tiled floor, then controlled his breathing and remained centered on nothingness, surrendering thought to the zen-like state of nothing but silence within and without, the serenity of a meditative mind.

“I know you’re in here, human!” the Marine boomed in English, and she sounded quite miffed.

“Calm down, Jyslin,” the other said in a reasonable tone. “I thought it was funny.”

“It was funny, Maya, but do you think I’m going to let him get away with that?” she shot back, obviously miffed, because she was still speaking English. “Oh, no, not until I strip him and put him in a pair of those ridiculous high-heeled shoes the human girls wear. Now shut up and help me find him.”

Jason stayed in the closet for several moments as brushing after brushing slid over him, very strong ones, as the two of them used their telepathic gifts to try to find his mind. He remained serene, allowing them to see nothing but emptiness as his mind worked beneath that misdirecting shell, curious as to why they couldn’t find him. At that range, with as much power as he could sense in their probes, they should have punched right through his defense and locked right onto him. He could hear them not ten feet outside the door, for their armored boots clacked on the floor every time they moved. That close, they should be able to smell him, because he could certainly smell that strange copper-like smell that the strange metal of their armor exuded.

He heard them chatter at each other in their musical language for a moment, as the redhead’s voice seemed to get agitated, then the blond’s voice got quite serious. What was the matter with them now? She thought it was funny. What had the redhead said that changed her mind?

He heard their boots clack away, then from the sound of it, they went up the stairs. He quickly pounced up from his crouch and cracked the door open, and indeed saw them just as they turned and went up the steps, disappearing from sight.

Quick as a cat, Jason darted from the closet, his sneakers making no sound, and he rushed down the hall, his mind racing. They couldn’t find him. Their telepathic power should have found him easily once they got serious about it, but they hadn’t. Maybe it was the door. It was made out of metal, and some people on the internet speculated that their telepathy couldn’t pierce through heavy metals, like lead. If the door had a steel sheet, then maybe that was enough to weaken their probes to the point where it would keep them from finding him.

It was the only plausible explanation.

He rushed through the door of his classroom, closing the door behind him and peering through the small window. Had they heard him? Did they see him come out of the closet? He should have waited.

“Well, so glad you could join us, Mister MacKenzie!” the voice of Professer Ailen boomed across the room, followed up by the laughter of twenty others.

Jason whirled around and put his back against the door, surprise making his face flush, and found all of them looking at him. Had he been in the closet that long? When he zoned out like that, he couldn’t keep track of time.

“Well, since you wanted to make such an entrance, why don’t you step up and show us your project?”

He drew a blank. Project? What was he talking about? Oh, his project. “I have it right here, Professor,” he said, taking his pack off his shoulder and approaching the table which Ailan used as a lectern and a desk. “Sorry I’m late.”

“And just who were you hiding from?” he asked with a sly smile.

“You don’t want to know,” he answered as he put his pack down by his chair, closest to the door, and pulling out his breadbox-sized plasma system. He felt a brushing from Ailan, and he was careful to keep his mind tightly focused on the project in his hands. Males didn’t have the raw strength of the females when it came to telepathic ability, but they knew many tricks and subtle nuances that actually made them much more dangerous to him. Ailan had a policy of not probing his students, but sometimes, like right now, when his curiosity was piqued, he just couldn’t help himself. The first time Ailan had used his power on Jason, he had used his standard smoke and mirror trick to conceal his thoughts, and he felt Ailan immediately probe around the edges of it, trying to find a way through. Ailan had known that it was nothing but a defense, that his true thoughts were lurking beneath that misdirection. No female had ever managed to detect that, at least not that he knew of. Because of that, Tarrin had to use more crude but no less effective techniques, such as repetitive concentration on a single thought, which drowned out everything else. Ailan could only see his focus on getting his project set up and running, and for as long as he felt Ailan brushing up against his mind, he could think of nothing else. But after a few seconds, the tentative brushing stopped, and Tarrin dropped his repetition and got down to the business of checking the seals on his exchangers before powering up his PPG.

The incident with the Marine was brushed into the back of his mind as he displayed his working three-path plasma system, then sat down and watched as the others displayed theirs. All of them but one worked perfectly, and that one failed because of a faulty PPG, which wasn’t the student’s fault. Jason had the luck of being in a class of other smart people, for they had all been shipped into New Orleans to attend this particular school, which had the best instructors. Jason had already had a year of school up in Boston, but when he aced his final in Basic Plasma Systems, they shipped him here, to Tulane, where the work was more challenging and the washout rate was tripled. This was the school where they sent the humans that they thought might have a knack for the work, and pushed them hard to see how quickly and completely they could embrace plasma technology. The Tulane campus was the M.I.T. or Northwestern of the Faey upper level education facilities, where the brightest students were sent.

No one in this school wanted to wash out. They all knew that the further they got in this school, the better of a job they qualified for once they were placed, and thus the more money they could make and the more secure they would be in their new careers. The goal of any student at Tulane was to get at least to pass Advanced Plasma Applications, the benchmark requirement for plasma systems technicians. Anything above that was good money and solid job security. Many of them, once they got to that level, slacked off, washed out, and ended up getting placed, but they didn’t care. They’d reached the promised land, and it didn’t matter what job they got, because it was a safe job.

After a bit of lecture after the presentations, Professor Ailan glanced at the clock on the far wall and gave a little start. “Good grief, I’m holding you guys over,” he announced. “I hope nobody has any classes ten minutes after our class ends, cause you’ll be late.” He clapped his hands. “That’s all, people. Read chapter nine and do the scenario questions for tomorrow. Remember, we have a test on Thursday. See you tomorrow.”

The room was filled with the low buzz of chatter as the students picked up their panel displays and other assorted equipment and started stowing it in packs. Jason had to close up his spiral and stow that, for he was the only person in the class that took notes on paper in addition to the notes he typed on his panel. He preferred writing it down, because writing it helped him commit it to memory much better than simply typing it out on a computer. He finished packing everything up as Ailan started disassembling the projects they did, his hands moving quickly and surely as he unannealed the components from their metal backing, using a little device that caused molecular structures of two different objects to mingle along the border, in effect “welding” them together. He was using the “separation” mode, which caused to disparate materials to unfuse, sliding it along the base junction where the components were annealed to the backing with a quick and steady hand. He watched for just a moment, then slung his pack over his shoulder and filed out the door.

“Not so fast.”

Jason froze at the sound of that voice, for it was the redheaded Marine! He whirled around and saw her leaning with her back against the wall near the door, the sole of her left boot flat against the wall, her arms crossed below her breastplate and her head slightly bowed. Her rifle and helmet were missing, probably being held by that other platinum blonde Marine who wasn’t around.

He was busted. He wasn’t going to run away like a coward, but he wasn’t going to blubber like a little girl either. He drew himself up erect and looked over at her with a neutral expression.

“You thought that was funny, didn’t you?” she asked, then she chuckled. “Well, so did I. You have more backbone than most of these sheep. But you got it wrong.”

“What?”

“We tan, just like you do,” she told him with a strange smile. “I’m much lighter than that.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said carefully, then he took a step back.

“Don’t even,” she said quickly, coming off the wall. “Just because I thought it was funny doesn’t mean you’re getting away with it.

“There’s nothing in the laws against picturing a Marine naked,” he said bluntly.

“True, that’s why I’m not hauling your happy ass down to the barracks,” she told him. “You put me in a pair of boots, so I’m going to put you in a pair of high heels. For real,” she told him with a wicked little smile.

Jason got very defensive at that point, his eyes going flat. “Try it,” he said dangerously.

“Oh, you think you can take me?” she asked with a laugh, then he felt her brush against his mind. He focused his thoughts behind a mask of utter blankness, a wall of nothing that would not allow her to find its edges and slip inside. His sudden defense made her eyes go wide, then she gave him a sudden respectful look. “That’s quite a trick there, human,” she told him. “That’s how you got away from us before. How do you do that?”

“Practice,” he answered honestly.

“Well, that’s fairly impressive,” she admitted. “It’s going to make this a little more difficult, but that’s alright. I live for challenges.”

“The only way you’re going to get me out of my clothes is over my dead body,” he warned in an ugly tone as several students passed by, giving him wild looks.

“And not let you enjoy the experience? I think not,” she winked. She winked at him! “I might have to knock you out, but I’ll make sure you wake up to enjoy it.”

Immediately, Jason balled up his fists.

She laughed. “Well, I tell you what, human. I’ll actually take you on hand to hand. I won’t even cheat. If you can beat me, I’ll leave you alone. If you lose, you walk home wearing nothing but high heels.”

Jason sized up this Faey. The armor hid her body, but he knew from experience that Faey soldiers were deceptively strong. But it was their speed that one had to watch. They were lithe, graceful, and very fast. The soldiers were extensively trained for combat, and that included hand to hand. They were solid opponents, and he had to respect both her speed and her training. She was expecting him to be like any other human of his size, rather strong, maybe well coordinated, but without any kind of basic training in self defense. And since she couldn’t probe him, she couldn’t find out that he was in fact very well versed in self defense. He knew what to expect from her, but she had no idea what to expect from him…or more to the point, she would draw the wrong conclusion. That gave him all the advantage he needed.

He could take her.

“You have a deal,” he said confidently.

“Come on then,” she told him with an eager smile.

“Now?”

“Sure,” she answered, walking past him, towards the outer doors. “There’s plenty of room outside.”

That suited him just fine.

The students on campus realized something was going on when the Faey came out of the building, her partner standing by the door with her helmet and rifle, then backed out onto the grass and crooked a finger tauntingly at a human that came out behind her. Jason dropped his pack by the sidewalk and ventured out onto the grass, cracking his knuckles and fixing the Faey with a cool stare. “Want me to take off my armor?” she asked with a teasing smile.

“No,” he answered in a calm, almost serene manner. “You’ll need it.”

That made the Faey laugh delightedly. “I’m really going to enjoy walking you home, human,” she promised. She spread her feet and raised her hands in a guard stance. “Come on then, Rambo,” she taunted. “Show the big bad Faey what you’re made of.”

It had to end fast, before she realized he was much more dangerous than he looked, and he knew exactly how to approach her to make that happen. He skittered in with his fists raised in a boxing stance, then flicked a few ineffective and intentionally clumsy jabs at her unprotected face, baiting her. She laughed mockingly as she danced back a few steps, evading his erratic blows, then whipped her hand out to grab his arm as it came at her.

Which was exactly what he wanted.

With lightning speed, Jason opened his fist and snapped his arm outwards, grabbing her by the wrist. He stepped in towards her and levered that arm in an Aikido lock, forcing her to move the way he wanted her to move or risk getting a broken arm or dislocated shoulder. Her armor would not protect her against that. He jerked her to and fro for several seconds as she gasped in pain and tried to disengage herself from his grip on her even as she surrendered to his force and moved where he bade her. He got her off balance by making her weave back and forth in ever-widening circuits, until she was all but stumbling around as he moved backwards and to each side, forcing her to come along with him or get her arm broken. Just as she dipped down to follow a sudden yank on her arm, Jason pivoted and let go of her, spun in a complete circle, and then delivered a wicked spinning roundhouse kick squarely to the side of her pretty little head just as she was rising up from his pull, completely unaware of the incoming attack. The outside of his foot went satisfyingly numb as it impacted her skull, and the raw power of the blow swept her right out from in front of him. His foot swung down easily to again stand on the earth, and the Faey Marine crashed to the ground in a boneless heap.

Jason stood there for a long moment to utter, complete, stunned silence from the growing crowd that came over to see what was going on. He watched for several seconds, until she groaned and rolled over on her stomach, then shakily started pushing herself up onto her hands and knees. He thought about saying something to rub it in, but it was best not to tempt fate. He beat her, he beat her fairly, and something told him that he’d better pick up his pack and be somewhere else by the time she got her senses back. He turned his back on her without a word, then paced over and picked up his pack. The blond--what was her name? Maya? Maya, that was it. Maya gave him a look of profound surprise, then she gave him the strangest smile, all cheeky and amused. She put her free hand to her upper chest and gave him a little bow, some kind of weird Faey custom, he supposed. He put his hand in his pocket, held onto the strap of his pack with the other, then strolled away as if nothing had happened.

But as soon as he turned the corner, he ran like hell.

He knew that there were going to be repercussion for what happened. He was sure of it. A human had kicked the piss out of a Faey, and not just any Faey. A Marine. It worried him enough to make it hard to study, and that was a very bad thing.

He leaned back from the desk in his tiny room, putting his hands over his face. It was a truly spartan affair, with a narrow bed that wasn’t long enough for him in the corner, and a tiny stand with a small television sitting in the other corner. A small window facing the brick building across the alley was set in the middle of the wall, by the television. His desk was a the head of his bed, which left just enough room to open the door, which banged up against the bookshelf on the opposite wall, behind the desk, which was why he had little more than a walkway in the middle of his room. His panel was sitting on the desk on a stand so he could read the screen, like a monitor, displaying video it had taken of his calculus class he took after the fight, a class he didn’t even remember. At least he had the wherewithal to set the panel to record the class, because he was completely distracted.

Distracted? More like mindlessly worried. Professor Zalda, his aged female Faey calculus teacher, seemed amused by his state, and hadn’t pressed him during class. He couldn’t remember getting there. He couldn’t remember a single word spoken during the class. Hell, he didn’t even remember leaving and walking back to his room, which was two blocks from the campus in a dorm built for the students. It was all a jumbled blur of worry over what had happened. In a way, he started thinking that maybe he should have let that Marine strip him and make him walk home naked. At least then, he wouldn’t be eaten up with an almost panicked fear of what the Marines were going to do to him in payback.

He knew all about that. His father had been in the Air Force, so he knew all about how they were going to gang up to pay him back for what he did to one of their own.

He blew out his breath and looked at the wall over his desk, under the shelf that was mounted to the wall, where a picture of his father was pinned. He’d been dead for five years now, and in a way, he was glad he didn’t live to see the subjugation. His father would have invaded a base, stolen a fighter, and got himself killed, or ran off into the forest with the other squatters who were out there now. He died of cancer, and after he died, a seventeen year old Jason Fox found himself alone in the world. But instead of going into a foster home, he got emancipation and just kept going, like his father would have wanted him to. He sold his family house and moved into a dorm when he got a scholarship to play football at the University of Michigan. He played for two years as a third-string free safety and special teams cover player, never making it to the starting lineup, but he really didn’t care. He was there on scholarship, and he used that scholarship to get a free education…which was what he was after. He majored in electrical engineering, focusing on digital electronics. He hoped to get a job designing computer hardware somewhere after college, working for a place like Motorola or IBM. But then the Faey came, and all his plans were tossed out the window. Because he was in college, he wasn’t shipped off to a farm, allowed to remain in school and continue with his classes until he was tested.

Not that he did much schooling in that year between their arrival and the day they tested him. He was stuck in a holding pattern, as was everyone in school, just waiting and going through the motions. It was a very nervous time, and it gave them enough time to find out from others just what happened in the testing, and what happened if one did poorly. They tested him, then shipped him to Boston for a year of preliminary--what they called remedial--education, then he had his first semester of plasma courses. He did so well that they shipped him down here to New Orleans a few months ago to start the semester at Tulane, and so far, he’d been doing rather well.

Jason chuckled humorlessly as his father’s green eyes laughed from the photograph. His father had always been so jovial, so light-hearted, so much different from his sober and serious son. But they did look something alike. Jason has his father’s straight blond hair, his piercing green eyes, and the same tall frame. His father was but a half an inch from being too tall to be a fighter pilot.

There was a knock at his door, which startled him nearly out of his chair. “Yo, Jason!” a man called, and he sighed in relief when he realized it was Tim. Tim was one of his students in his only extra-curricular activity, an Aikido class he taught on campus. He had nine pupils, and so far, they all seemed to be doing rather well. Jason taught them Aikido and Tai Chi, exercise for the body and the mind to help them deal with the tremendous stress that school put on them.

“It’s open,” he called, and the door opened immediately. Tim came in wearing a tank top and a pair of running shorts, and he was coated in sweat. Tim was a tall, dark-haired, rather handsome broad-shouldered young man that at twenty-two was a year younger than him, but was in the same semester as he was. They only shared one class, their Physics class, and that was enough for them to strike up a friendship. It was Tim that talked him into starting an Aikido club, and was one of his most eager pupils.

“You look like shit,” Tim told him as he came in, unable to close the door because Jason was blocking his entrance into the room.

“I feel like it,” he grunted, leaning back in the chair and looking up at the ceiling.

“You realize that you missed the meeting,” he said. “Since you weren’t there, we just threw each other around for a while then went home.”

Jason chuckled ruefully. “Sorry about that, but I’m a little distracted. I‘ve had a bad day.”

“We heard. Heard that a student kicked the shit out of a blueskin, and everyone in the club knew it was you when you didn‘t show up,” he said with a sudden laugh, using the rather derogatory term humans had of the Faey. “What happened?”

“It’s a bit involved,” he answered, then he related the tale to him, telling about how his image of the Faey ultimately led to the challenge, and the short fight afterward.

Tim laughed. “I’ll bet she’s kicking herself for not wearing her helmet,” he surmised.

“Probably,” Jason agreed. “She never thought I could be any kind of threat.”

“She broke the first rule,” Tim said sagely, the first thing Jason taught his students. Never believe that your opponent can’t beat you, because the instant you do believe that, he will beat you. “So, what happens now?”

“Now, I walk with one eye over my shoulder and ready to run like hell any time I see black armor,” he answered honestly. “If she doesn’t do something about it, the other Marines will. Military people like that don’t let their own get beat up by a native. They’ll come after me.”

“They might,” Tim admitted. “But then again, they could just zap you.”

“What would that prove?” Jason asked. “No, they’ll beat me up the old fashioned way. That way the don‘t feel inferior.”

“How did you do it?” he asked.

“I’ve seen Faey soldiers move,” he answered. “I’m familiar with them, but that Marine had never seen me before, and she just assumed that I was like everyone else, that I had no training. I had the advantage, and she thought that she did. She got cocky, and it cost her.”

“And she got her ass kicked,” Tim laughed.

“Actually, it was my head,” a voice called from outside the door, which made both of them snap their heads to look, even as Jason’s stomach sank. He knew that voice. It was the redheaded Marine, and she had tracked him back to his room! She was alone, and much to his surprise, she wasn’t wearing her armor. She was wearing a plain old gray tee shirt with a pocket on the left side and a pair of faded blue jeans tucked into dainty black leather boots, very human clothing. The only thing about her that looked out of place was her blue skin, pointed ears, and the plasma pistol holstered on her belt. Even off duty and in civilian clothes, Faey soldiers did not go around unarmed.

Tim turned absolutely white, backing up against the door and giving the redheaded, blue-skinned woman a strangled look.

She stepped up to the door, and Jason couldn’t help but stare at her. She was gorgeous out of her armor! Her hair was neat and groomed, still combed over the left side of her face and head, and there was no visible sign that she’d been walloped in the head. No scab, no bruise, no knot. The armor made her look harsh and intimidating, but in a loose-fitting tee and jeans, she was very feminine, and quite pretty.

“Well,” she said, glancing at Tim. “I thought for a moment that there was someone else here, but I think I was mistaken. It would be a shame if I turned out to be wrong. After what I thought I heard that other person say, I just might have to do something about his attitude.”

Tim hugged the wall as he slipped around her, then he fled down the hall shamelessly. And Jason didn’t blame him one bit.

Jason watched her as she strode into the room, then leaned her shoulder against the door. He was totally at a loss here. He had no idea what to say or do, and fear rose up like bile in his stomach as her stormy gray eyes looked down at him without expression.

“Well,” she said, with a slow smile creeping into her features. “I don’t need the Gift to see that you’re quite at a loss. Didn’t think I’d come here like this, did you?”

He shook his head mutely, staring at her like she was a cobra about to strike.

“Calm down,” she said with a wink. “I’m not here for a rematch, and you don’t have to worry about my squad coming down here to give you a party. I got whooped fair and square, and I can respect that. I underestimated you, and I paid for it. And that’s that.”

“T-Then why are you here?” he managed to stammer out.

“Because you interest me,” she said frankly. “I’ve never met a human male that could beat me in a fight. There’s that, and there’s also the fact that your mind is closed to me. I can’t simply look at you and hear every thought in your head. I don’t know how you do it, but you keep your mind closed so it doesn’t broadcast your thoughts for us to hear. Only a handful of humans can do that that we know of, humans with highly trained minds. You’re a mystery, and Faey women just love mysterious males. They pique our curiosity.”

Jason got nervous. He did not like the way this was sounding like it was headed.

“There’s that, and there’s also how you hid from us,” she continued. “I’ve never heard of any human that could do that. Somehow, you blocked our talent when we searched for you, hid your mind from us in a way that made us miss you. That’s pretty remarkable, since you don’t have any talent yourself. I want to know how you did it.”

“I just presented an empty front,” he said quickly. “Meditation, no thought. I learned a while ago that if I’m not thinking, then Faey can’t use it to find me.”

She pursed her lips, then she laughed. “Well, actually we can, but we don’t bother using those approaches when we’re looking for humans. It’s easy to just look for thoughts, and since I never dreamed that you could hide your thoughts, I never bothered to look for you any other way. That’s damned clever.” She cocked her head at him curiously. “How do you know how to do that at all?”

“You damn Faey stick your noses in my head all the time,” he blurted in irritation before he caught himself. “Every single one I meet tries to probe me with telepathy. They do it to me so often I’ve even learned how it feels when they do it. That’s how I knew when to put that image out where you’d see it,” he continued, having no idea why he was telling her, but unable to stop himself. “Why don’t they ever leave me alone?”

“It’s because we can’t hear your thoughts passively,” she said after a few seconds of thought. “If you were any other human, I could stand here and hear every thought that crossed your mind without having to actively touch you. But I can’t hear what you’re thinking, so I’d have to actively reach out and touch your mind. If you’re looking for who to blame for why we always probe you, look in your mirror,” she told him with a wink. “Faey women adore mysteries, and a human with a closed mind is the only mystery we have on this rock.”

Well, that did explain quite a bit. He rocked back in his chair and pondered on it briefly. If she was right, then he was partially to blame for all those Faey who violated the sanctity of his own mind, if only because his thoughts weren’t out where they could hear them.

“So,” she said, getting his attention again. “Now that I got the answers to my questions, want to go get some pizza?”

“What?” he asked in utter surprise.

“Do you want to go out and get some food?” she repeated. “I haven’t had anything since breakfast, and I’m starved. I’m rather fond of pizza. There’s this place on the West Bank called Mo’s. It has the best pizza in the city.”
He was quite honestly startled half out of his wits. She was asking him out!

“Well? Don’t sit there like an idiot,” she grinned. “I know it’s a shock that I’m asking you out, but it can’t be that much of a shock.”

“Oh yes it can,” he managed to blurt as he tried to recover his wits. He hadn’t expected this. Anger, yes, maybe even spite, but not a date. What the hell was he going to do to get out of this without getting her pissed off?

“I, uh, I have too much work to do,” he said, motioning at his panel, which was still showing video of the class he’d sort of lost in the haze after their short fight. “I have a test tomorrow in calculus, and I’m not ready. And I have homework in about four different courses, and two tests Friday. And since I’ve been worrying about what happened between us since it happened, I haven’t been able to concentrate on school since then.”

She chuckled ruefully. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you like that,” she told him. “What’s your test in on Friday?”

“Advanced Plasma Fundamentals,” he answered immediately.

She made a face. “I hated that class,” she said.

He gave her a startled look.

“You think I want to be a Marine forever?” she said in a challenging tone. “I’m just going through the mandatory conscription. Every Faey woman has to do five years in the military. I’m pretty strong in talent and I’m a good shot, so I was put in the Marines. But I’ve been taking classes to try to get into engineering on one of the starships, as soon as I serve out my two-year initial assignment.”

“And if you had money, you could have bought your way into that engineering job,” he said with a growl.

“I see you understand the nuances of Faey society rather well,” she said in a sarcastic kind of manner. “I’m a commoner. I have to work my way where I want to go. Where did you learn so much about us?”
He pointed at his panel. “They don’t censor the old internet, and I‘m not restricted from CivNet,” he answered, referring to the earth-based Faey computer information network, which was connected to the Faey “internet.” “If you know where to look, you can find all sorts of information.”

“Ah.” She looked at the screen, then stepped up and waved her hand in front of the panel’s sensor. That triggered an automatic reaction which caused the device to project out the keyboard. Jason still wasn’t used to that thing. It was a holographic projection that had real substance, an illusion that he could touch, and it acted just like any other keyboard. It was customizable, so Jason had set his up to mimic a standard human computer keyboard. She looked at it a moment, then nudged him with her hip to give her space and started typing at the terminal window that popped up over the running video playback.

“What are you doing?” he demanded as she quickly brought up his calendar, which listed all his due assignments.

“Just looking for a place where you can squeeze me in,” she answered with a sly smile down at him.

“Did it ever occur to you that I might not want to go out with you?” he asked acidly.

“Why not?”

“You’re a Faey,” he declared in a blunt manner.

“So? Faey go out with humans all the time. You‘re actually an attractive race to us, and I know we‘re attractive to you. Our physiologies are virtually identical, and we’re even genetically compatible. Faey and humans are nearly the same race. There‘s nothing wrong with us going out. It‘s not like I‘m some kind of scaly alien.”

“Your government conquered my world and made me a slave,” he told her in a strong manner, which made her stop typing and look down at him. “My principles won’t let me go out with a Faey. You’re the enemy.”

“Oh, you’re one of those,” she said with a chuckle. “Well, I’m not the government.”

“You’re a Marine. You very much are the government.”

“Hey, I may be a Marine, but that doesn’t mean I like what the Empress does,” he told him. “I was placed, the same as you. I’m as much a slave as you are, if you want to look at it that way. I just do what I’m told, the same as you, and work to try to improve my lot. You and me, we’re insignificant little cogs in the vast machine.”

He was surprised that she had such a strong grasp of English. He was equally surprised at her reasoning, and he often forgot that the Imperium treated the Faey the same way it treated the humans. She had been placed, just like he had, put in the Marines because that’s where they thought she would do best, and she was working to get out of the Marines and move on to something she wanted to do. The only way to do that was to show the Imperium that she could do the job through tests, then wait for a position to come open. Until then, she’d wear her armor and tote around her rifle and play policeman, because she had no other choice.

But still, she was Faey, a member of the conquering race. By principle, he couldn’t be friends with her, the same way he kept his distance from Ailan. Because, just like Ailan, this pushy Faey female was starting to grind down his defenses. She was smart, sassy, a little pushy, and she had a sense of humor. Those were attractive qualities in a woman to him.

“Well, this cog doesn’t mingle with the other cogs,” he told her tartly, pushing her hands away from his keyboard. It was the first time he had ever touched a Faey skin to skin, and in that touch he felt a strange buzzing behind his eyes.

“You like me,” she announced with a laugh. “You object to me out of a philosophical position, not personal preference. Well, it’s nice to know where I stand.”

He glared at her, realizing that she had somehow breached his defenses and had looked inside his mind, violating his privacy in the most grievous manner possible. He jumped to his feet and got nose to nose with her, his anger all over his face, which made her uncertain and nervous. “Stay out of my head, and get the hell out of my room,” he said in an ominously low voice.

“Hey, that was your fault,” she told him quickly. “You touched me, and I wasn’t expecting it. When we touch, it focuses the talent, makes it easier for us to see deeper into a mind. When you touched me, I was inside your mind before I realized it.”

“The one thing I know about your talent is that it takes intent,” he said in a savage hiss. “Now get out!”

“Alright, you got me,” she admitted. “When you touched me, I took a peek. But that’s because I wanted to see how you really felt about me. If you didn’t like me, I would have simply left. But I know that you do like me, Jason Augustus Fox,” she said with a slight little smile. “I’m sorry I did that. I didn’t know how much you objected to sharing your thoughts, and I won’t do it again. So, I’ll go and let you calm down, but don’t think that you’ll never see me again. I’ll show up around every corner, and I’ll hound you until I get what I want from you.”

“You think you will,” he growled.

“I know I will,” she told him easily, holding up three fingers. “I don’t want anything other than three dates, Jason, three chances to get to know you better and solve the mystery of you. And I’ll be your worst nightmare until you give in and go out with me,” she promised. “Our first will be a real date, where we both dress up in nice clothes and go to a nice restaurant, then we go to an opera or a play, something cultured and classy.”

“There’s no chance in hell that’s going to happen,” he declared.

“We’ll see,” she said with a narrow-eyed smile. “You underestimate my resolve.”

“You underestimate mine.”

“Well, if you want to make a challenge out of it, then I’ll be happy to oblige you,” she said brightly, turning and taking the two steps necessary to get out the door. “But I’ll warn you right now, Jason. I play to win,” she warned, reaching in and grabbing the handle. “Oh, and I cheat,” she added with a chuckle, then she closed the door.

Growling several low curses, Jason sat back down in his chair. If she thought she was going to get him to go out with her, she was totally crazy. He might have considered it before she stuck her nose in his mind, violated him in the one way he could not stand to be violated. He spent several minutes trying to compose himself. He looked at the screen, saw that his calendar was still up, and he saw that she had added a few items to it, next Friday:

16 May 2007, 7:00pm: Go out with Jyslin Shaddale.

16 May 2007, 11:15pm Strip naked and wear high heels.

16 May 2007, 11:20pm: Strip Jyslin naked and make her wear combat boots.

16 May 2007, 11:24pm: Discover that Faey girls have the same equipment as human girls.

16 May 2007, 11:27pm: Have mind-shattering, nearly religious sexual experience.

Despite it all, he blurted out a chuckle after reading those last three lines. This Jyslin certainly did have a sense of humor. He may be pissed off at her for her invasion of his mind, but he could appreciate her humor if nothing else.

And she certainly wasn’t intent on hiding her motives, that was for sure. He knew some about Faey, but not much about their culture or their society. He knew how they treated men, but not how they acted in social situations. Was this bold forwardness a simple part of Faey custom, or was she being intentionally dirty to get his attention? As far as things went with this particular Faey, anything was possible, of that he was certain. Jyslin seemed to be a very intelligent woman, much smarter than she seemed, and she was dealing with a human that liked her personally, but objected to what she represented, so that meant that she had to be creative, get his attention, make him think. And those remarks about getting him bed had certainly done that.

Jyslin was going to be a problem, he decided. But it wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle. So she was a pushy woman. He could deal with that. All he had to do was wait her out until she lost interest, and make her as unwelcome as possible along the way.

Yes, that would work. Feeling much calmer, he killed the terminal window without erasing her little joke. He’d leave that there to remind him. Then he rewound his calculus lesson and started studying in earnest.

* * *

He figured that Jyslin was going to come around every once in a while and tease him, pester him, and then her duties would force her to return to work, more or less leaving him alone.

He could not have been any more wrong.

Jyslin and her partner, the blonde, were standing out on the sidewalk when he came out of the building, standing by one of the Faey’s hovercars. They were sleek devices with no sharp edges, and they skimmed above the surface of the street using spacial resistance drives. This one was a military model, armored and with flashers on its top, for use in policing the city.

“Good morning,” she said brightly, coming up off the vehicle, her black armored boots clacking on the sidewalk as she walked towards him. “Ready for school?”

“What?” he asked in uncertainty.

“School,” she said with a wicked smile. “We don’t want you to get lost along the way, so we’re going to escort you right into your classroom. And when you’re done there, we’ll make sure you find your next class, and then your next class, and then your next one. We’ll make sure you have no trouble going anywhere you have to go today. We’ll be right there behind you every step of the way. Won’t we, Maya?”

“Of course,” the blonde answered with a clever little smile.

“Don’t you have a job?” he asked acidly.

“You’re our job today,” she said with a nasty smirk. “You see, we told our watch commander about a certain human who just might get into trouble because of a certain fight he had yesterday. You know, we wouldn’t want him suffering from harassment from the occupational forces because he beat up a Faey, or gods forbid, retaliation from the Marines because the Faey in question was a Marine. So the watch commander assigned us to the task of making sure nothing happens to you today. Tomorrow, a new pair of Marines is going to escort you around, who will make life as unpleasant for you as possible without actively getting in your way. And another pair the day after that, and another the day after that, and on and on until we report back to her that the threat to you has disappeared.”

Jason gave her an unholy glare, which she answered with a light, amused smile. “I told you, Jason. I cheat.”

Jason took an aggressive step towards her, then he put his hand in his pocket absently. “You rushed out before I could tell you something last night, Jyslin.”

“Oh? What is that?”

“I cheat too,” he answered in a cold voice, then he whipped his hand out of his pocket, holding a small cylindrical object. He pointed it at her and unleashed his secret weapon, a small canister of pepper spray, and she took the full brunt of it right in the face. She gasped and gave out a hacking sound, flinching away from the small cloud of irritating mist, putting her gauntleted hands to her face. But the metal of her gloves wouldn’t wipe away the agent, leaving her at its mercy.

The blonde, Maya, gave him a startled look, but he just gave her an evil smile, put the canister back in his pocket, and strolled towards school as if nothing untoward had happened.

That stroll turned into a sprint when Jyslin’s outraged voice reached him. “You’re digging your own grave, human!” she boomed. “Now you’re going to be wearing a maid’s dress along with those high heels!” He glanced back to see that Maya had fished a towel or something out of the hovercar for her, and she was wiping the pepper spray off of her face. Pepper spray wasn’t like mace in that once it was cleaned off, it had no lingering effects. It was only to distract and incapacitate a moment, long enough for someone to escape from an attacker.

If she wanted to be an obnoxious little ass, then he’d be happy to meet her on that level, immature stunt for immature stunt.

He managed to get to school before Jyslin got organized enough to follow him, ducking into the Plaid and looking out the large pane windows to either side of the door nervously. It was nothing but a delaying tactic, for he was certain that she had a copy of his class schedule and thus could position herself outside the door and wait for him to come out, but it bought him enough time to try to come up with a strategy for losing her after class.

That wasn’t going to be easy. He’d used up his pepper spray, and now that she had an idea how ruthless he could be, he wasn’t going to get an easy shot like that on her again. She’d be much more careful next time.

He went to his classroom early and sat down. It was unlocked, as all the classrooms were, mainly because the security system in the classrooms would catch anyone stealing anything. Every tool and piece of equipment in the classroom had an ID chip that broadcast to a central receiver. If anyone tried to steal a tool, it would set off an alarm as soon as he stepped out the door. He pulled out his panel and his notebook and went over yesterday’s notes, and Professor Ailan ambled in a little bit after he arrived.

“Ah, Jason,” he said amiably. “You’re here early.”

“I’m avoiding someone, Professor,” he replied as he made a few refinements to the sketch he’d done of a plasma power generator’s internal working diagram. Jason had a talent for art, and could draw, illustrate, and paint fairly well, almost good enough to be paid for it.

“That Marine, eh?” he said, then he chuckled. “She sent to me to find you yesterday, looking for anyone who came in late. What’s she after you for?”

“A date,” he answered truthfully.

Ailan gave him a look, then laughed heartily. “My boy, you’ve done absolutely everything wrong,” he told him.

“What do you mean?”

“Faey women like mysterious men, and what’s more, they go absolutely wild when mysterious men play hard to get. You have a closed mind, an oddity among humans, and that makes you very mysterious. And since you’re obviously trying to get away from her, you’re playing hard to get. She’s going to come after you ten ways to peel a goran, until her curiosity is satisfied. The only way you’re going to manage to do that is to just go out with her. She won’t stop until you do, because Faey women chase Faey men who say no. It’s a cultural trait.”

“Then how does a man say no and mean it?” he asked.

“Men don’t,” he replied honestly, pulling up the chair beside Jason’s and taking a seat. “Remember, my boy, the women are the dominant gender, and there are customs that go back thousands of years at work here. Men don’t say no because long ago, we weren’t allowed to say no. Even though men aren’t owned like they were back then, you have to have noticed that the Faey are not nearly as progressive as humans when it comes to gender equality.”

Jason nodded, leaning on his hand and listening to Professor Ailan quite attentively.

“When a man wants to assert himself, he has to do it indirectly. Just flat out saying no is actually a form of flirtation. I’m sure the Marine knows you don’t know Faey customs and you’re not flirting, but she can’t help but see it any other way, because I get the feeling she’s attracted to you.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because when she broadcast to the instructors in the school, she described you as ‘a handsome human male