“Yes, my beloved.”
Karina sighed and looked deeply into his eyes. “However, oh mountain of manhood, while you are not now a widower, or a bigamist, but instead have become a properly divorced man, you have nonetheless had your wicked way with me under the guise of a false marriage. I was never a legal wife and so now am only your concubine, your plaything, your-”
He looked back into her eyes, but his hands itched to make the contact more than visual. “A grave matter indeed, my sumptuous slave of scintillating salaciousness. One we should discuss immediately, perhaps, in our bower aboard the ShahrazaSi”
“And shame me further before all of these good people?” she breathed, but took a step backward. “Oh, master, you are too cruel.”
He snapped his fingers and the planet’s administrator, Rafik, and the ship’s captain all came running. “I wish to remarry my wife at once. Captain? Administrator? You will say the words.”
“We’re not on board at the moment, sir,” the captain said. The administrator quickly stepped forward and said, here is a ring’
Karina slipped off her amythest wedding ring and gave it to the man, who said, “By the power vested in me, I pronounce you man and wife.”
“So it has been said, so it will be written, so let it be done,” Hafiz said. “You are satisfied, my flower of feminine virtue?” “Not yet,” she breathed and gave him a wink worthy of Yasmin during their heated youth. “But I expect I will be when we return to the ship.”
Hafiz responded by kissing her hand repeatedly, his kisses going higher and higher, up her sleeve and onto her shoulders, portaging the wisp of fabric that covered the shoulder until he ended at her neck, at which time they were called to dinner.
The community hall was not quite large enough for all of the settlers who came from miles around to enjoy the party, so tables were set up outdoors. The weather was ideal for such alfresco dining, thanks to the manipulations of Dr. Ngaen Xong Hoa.
“Useful, this weather wizardry,” Hafiz said, scratching his beard.
After a bit of preliminary table hopping, Hafiz, Karina, Mercy, and Rafik took one table, and were soon joined by Dr. Hoa and the planet’s administrator. However, some matter or other required the administrator’s attention and he was called away.
Dr. Hoa leaned in and spoke confidentially to the three members of the House of Harakamian. “I wish to go with you, Mr. and Mrs. Harakamian. My work is done here and indeed, I have repaired all of the damage I was forced to do while I was a prisoner aboard the Haven. My only wish now is to retire to a place where I will not be asked to exploit my discovery any further.”
Before Hafiz could speak, Rafik raised his hand, palm out, to stop him, and said, “Uncle, I have known for some time of Dr. Hoa’s wish to leave here for a place where he and his discovery will be safe. He wishes to go-where you are going, and regretted that he was not able to accompany our mutual friend there when the first opportunity arose.” Rafik, of course, was deliberately employing vagueness and circumlocution in the event that the conversation was overheard. “Therefore, I took it upon myself to inform him of your destination.”
“So long as he is the only one, nephew,” Hafiz said with a nod to Dr. Hoa. A long journey with the man might provide Hafiz with the opportunity of convincing the doctor to allow the House of Harakamian to market some small portion of his enviable discovery. “Dr. Hoa is of course always welcome in my home, whether it be on land or in the cosmos.” “You are too kind, sir.”
“In fact, I have been pondering a certain dilemma that has occurred due to the tender sensitivities of my wife and me for the beliefs of our dear little Acorna and her people. Perhaps you will be able to advise me.”
Dr. Hoa nodded, though he looked a little wary. Hafiz, however, felt certain that the simple homely solutions he was beginning to envision to his security problem would not be offensive to Dr. Hoa’s beliefs, any more than they would be to those of Acorna s people.