Act I - Part Three
Gold, however ill-gotten, still glitters.
Philippa wrapped her arms around the girl’s shoulders, pulling the girl against her and looking into the holographic mirror. Dressed in only a black silk slip and decorated with gleaming golden chains draped across her body, the girl was a vision. But an Orion, no matter how pretty, is still an Orion – no amount of gold nor jewels could make them Terran, just like Philippa can never be anything more or less than who she is.
Not that any of that matters at this moment. They may be in her old quarters on the I.S.S. Shenzhou, as bland and uniform as when Philippa was the captain of this ship, but it will have to do for now. With an adequate amount of alcohol, Qo’noS can rival Risa; with the lights turned to five percent and an animal woman, she might be able to forget that she regrets assigning the Enterprise to Pike. Reality is overrated, as an ancient playwright has written: all the world’s a stage. It is the performance that matters.
“Dressed up, you look just like one of those ladies at court.”
The girl stilled. She met Philippa’s gaze in the mirror and caught her breath trying to keep it. “But I will never be Terran.” She whispered, turning her head to look at Philippa directly.
“Oh, I’m not sure about that.” Philippa drawled, clicking her tongue. The girl tried to pull away, but Philippa had her firmly locked in place.
“You know it’s the truth, Emperor.”
“Is it?” Humming, Philippa spun her around and pushed her onto the bed. “And what, exactly, does that have to do with me?”
The girl looked up at Philippa standing over her at the foot of the bed. “I know what you Terrans do to the Vulcans and the Kelpiens – what you would do to me.”
“Vulcans need to learn to stay in their own lane sometimes.” Philippa rolled her eyes. “And it is a mercy to free the Kelpiens from the limitations of their biology.”
“And what about the Orions?” The girl sat up. “What do you have to say about that?”
What is there to say about them, they may be an inferior race, they don’t have the same taste nor texture as the Kelpiens, nor do they resemble human house pets like the Caitians, but some are too pretty to just be wiped off the face of the universe. As gratifying as it may be, it is too wasteful to kill off resources simply for the sake of killing.
Twisting her lips into a smirk, the girl yelped when Philippa shoved her back down onto the bed, straddling her and pushing her shoulders down onto the mattress.
“The Orions are thieves and slave traders who tried to invade our space.” She shrugged matter-of-factly. “We simply showed them who is superior.”
She reached out to brush a lock of hair away from the girl’s face, raising an eyebrow at how the girl squirmed below her.
“What else is there to say?”
"Did you mean it,” the girl turned to Philippa, who was reclining on the bed, reading Lorca’s most recent log entry on her PADD. “When you said that I could be Terran?”
“Why would I lie?” Lies are for achieving power – she already has it. “I’ve never been fond of lying.”
“They’ve told me that all Terrans are deceitful, it is in their blood.” As soon as the girl realized what she had just said, she froze.
Somehow, all their conversations always end up this way. An innocuous question – this time, bringing up something she had said almost a month ago – and a simple, if evasive, answer. But unlike the other Orions that Philippa has been with, this girl always pushes back.
Green skin may not be as much of an issue as the lack of tact certainly would be, even Lorca, as delusional as he could be, would never let an insult like that slide.
“And do you also believe that your kind are all horny barbarians?” Philippa shot back, looking up from the display device, smirking as her gaze dropped down to the girl's body for a moment. “There’s certainly some truth to it.”
“Forgive me, Emperor.” The girl lowered her head and quietly muttered.
“If it were anyone else,” Philippa would have struck her. “I’d have them begging on their knees.”
Instead, she just tossed the PADD aside – Lorca's proposal to secure Mintaka III for the Empire can wait, Philippa already has a plan anyway – and held out her arm for the girl to join her. No matter her hesitation or resistance, the girl is not defiant, at the end, it only takes a simple gesture to bend her to Philippa’s will.
The Orion’s pale green skin clashed with the golden silk sheets as Philippa tugs the girl down into bed and onto Philippa herself. Alien and Terran. Slavery and liberty. Savagery and monarchy. Fussing over these binaries is a waste of time, any ruler would seize pleasure in whatever form it comes in while they can. But before she could get carried away by her thoughts, the girl leaned down and pressed her lips against hers.
“But not me?” The girl pulled away, only for Philippa to draw her in again for another kiss. The girl’s lips soft and yielding against her own, she slips her tongue past her lips. When she finally pulled away, Philippa couldn’t help but take her bottom lip between her teeth.
“I’m sure you’d look very pretty when you beg.”
And it always ends with the girl beneath her. Resisting, writhing, back arching beneath her. It ends when the girl passes out with her skin covered with teeth marks and bruises, enough to require a dermal regenerator. Pain and pleasure, it seemed like that’s how it always goes and how it would always go.
Except it wouldn’t.
“I’m leaving tomorrow.” Sighing, Philippa brushed her thumb across the girl’s bottom lip, now marked from the bite. She’d rather not spend the night bantering nonsense when she’ll be doing plenty of that soon enough, with no ending in sight, ever, until the end of time.
It won’t all be so grim, though council meetings would surely be much less enjoyable than being in the company of a young and pretty Orion. The Empire never sleeps, so neither should its Emperor. But Philippa will return to Qo’noS, that much is certain.
“Will you come back for me?”
Philippa only pulled her closer and, without saying anything, kissed her.