“Bloody hell, what happened to your eye?” Beatriz grabbed my face to get a better look.

  “Ow ow ow, stop that. It’s not that big of a deal,” the girl wasn’t being especially gentle with the swollen and bruised tissues around the cheekbone.

  Sure the eye was blood shot and there was a little bit of red in my vision with that eye, but it was fine.

  “Did someone hurt you?”

  “No no… I just fell out of my bunk. That’s all,” I lied.

  “You’re a boy, you can’t be getting hurt like this…,” she poked and wiped at the bruise like she could clean it off.

  “It’s fine, please stop,” I whimpered as she inadvertently tried to scrub off my skin.

  “I’m talking to the Sergeant. I think you need medical attention.”

  “Beatriz, it’s fine I can just-”

  * * *

  “A mild vitreous hemorrhage. If it gets any worse you will need surgery. As it is, it should clear up in a few days. But do come back if it gets redder or you go blind in that eye or anything,” the nurse checked an old battered copy of a booklet titled “Just put some ice or damp cloth on that bruise and it should go away on its own.”

  “Cool,” I replied, unimpressed.

  “I see, you are marked down as an abused husband, on your file?”

  “Jesus fucking Christ… Can you remove that mark?”

  “No,” she explained. “I am however legally required to schedule you for an immediate psychological exam. And to tell you that it is mandatory.”

  * * *

  Virginia lounged in her chair behind her large wooden desk. She had a little smile as she inspected her clawed fingers.

  I sat in the uncomfortable metal chair.

  She flexed back. Aggressively luxuriating in her chair. Seemingly content to let the moment linger.

  I shifted a little and the metal of the chair bit into my back.

  “Tell me Jack. Do you mind if I smoke?”

  I blushed a little and looked away, remembering what nip did to the jags. “Go ahead.”

  She lit a cigarette and took a drag. “Tell me Jack. Now, now that , what do you know about the jaguarine?”

  I swallowed. The words were specific. She stressed those words. She knew. She knew, exactly.

  “It’s not how it was supposed to be. You weren’t made to live… without humans. I still don’t know what happened to them.”

  “Oh, nevermind that, it isn’t important,” she tapped the cigarette against the ashtray. “Now that , how does the responsibility make you feel?”

  There were lots of answers. Scared, terrified, trapped but I answered, “Overwhelmed.”

  “A fair answer. What if it wasn’t overwhelming? How do you think it would… feel like then?” she leaned forward intently. The smell of burning mint filled the room.

  “It would have felt fine, I guess,” I admitted.

  “Only fine? Not better? Not like it was made for you?” Virginia sneered, her emotions rising.

  “What… No, you’re-”

  “Nevermind that, it isn’t important,” she leaned, taking a relaxed drag from her cigarette. I could hear her knees spreading behind the desk. “Have you thought about how you can execute your duty to the Dominion?”

  “I’m signed up for military service.”

  “Military duty can mean a lot of things, really. It’s not all combat drops and fire fights. There are photo ops for posters and recruitment drives. It all needs a face on it. The prettier the face the better,” she looked at me pointedly.

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  “I am a man. A human man. Not some pampered pet,” I spoke the words. Reminding myself. The words becoming true as I spoke them.

  “I suppose. Do you think we could fit just a few photo ops in between your heroic adventures? I know we can put you to some proper use and you would be well compensated,” her tone insistent.

  “I suppose,” I conceded.

  “I guess that will do for today. Good progress all around. I wouldn’t want to keep you from where .”

  My left eye twitched slightly at those words.

  * * *

  With the visit to medical and the psych exam I had missed morning training, but I tried my best to make up for it through the afternoon training.

  I still felt like a slacker when I got to the barracks and the increasingly familiar smell of hot sweaty cats. I pressed a damp cloth against my cheek.

  I had to talk to Eva.

  My left eye twitched.

  I had to talk to her soon.

  I’d done the ritual a few times before. I’d gotten into fights or just things had happened. People got hurt and then there was the bad blood. It had to be dealt with.

  And you had to choose.

  Only you could choose.

  The ritual began.

  Eva was in her bunk. She was exhausted. Her fatigues stained with sweat. Her eyes closed as she panted into her pillow.

  I glanced over at my locker. I knew the cutlery box was there. Where the steak knife was stored. I could easily go get it.

  I had the energy advantage and the element of surprise.

  Killing Eva would be simple. Trivial.

  I looked at her. Her tall slender build. Her dark spots. The curve of her hips.

  I thought about her. That first kiss, passionate and desperate. A girl filled with resentment. But beneath that… I didn’t know anything about her.

  That felt unfair.

  I weighed her life and chose.

  “Eva?”

  She flinched a little, like she didn’t know, couldn’t imagine why I was talking to her. “Jack,” she muttered into her pillow. One eye looking up at me.

  My left eye twitched. I was more scared of her now then I had been last night.

  I held out my hand.

  She looked confused. Maybe they did the ritual differently in the Dominion. I should have asked Beatriz.

  She took my hand. I gave it a firm pump.

  “We’re good,” I said with a nod.

  There was a pause. She looked away, unable to meet my gaze.

  “Yeah,” she eventually replied.

  The ritual was completed.

  I went back to my locker and grabbed my data pad before coming back.

  “You mind if I sit here?” I motioned towards the edge of her bunk.

  “Sure,” she replied. Her exhaustion slowly fading.

  I sat down.

  It felt awkward being this close to her. But it was important. I had to stop my brain from forming an association, or I would be cringing around her forever.

  I read Sarah’s messages. Asking how training was doing and if I was okay.

  Eva shifted, stripping off down to her boxer briefs in short order. I tried not to look. A hot paw pad of her foot pressed into my side.

  I messaged Sarah back. Telling her it was going well and that I was fine.

  “Who is that?” Eva was pointing at my pad.

  “Girlfriend.”

  “Is she…” Eva looked at me suspiciously.

  “Human, from Last Eden.”

  “You have a human girlfriend?” she didn’t sound like she approved.

  “Yeah.”

  “What have you told her about me?”

  “Nothing…”

  “Alright, that’s it,” Eva grabbed her own data pad and pulled me into a hug. She held the data pad out and…

  Dropped it. It clattered to the floor.

  “Fuck…” The largely nude woman scrambled around looking for her data pad.

  I leaned back and looked under the bunk. It was right there, so I grabbed it.

  “Found it!” I passed the pad back to Eva.

  “Th-,” Eva stumbled over her words as she took the pad. “Thank you.”

  There was an awkward silence.

  “What were you doing?” I asked with some confusion.

  “Right,” she put an arm around me and pressed me into her side. “Put the head right here,” she pressed my head into the side of her breast. “Tilt like this,” she turned my head to the right. “And big smile!”

  She took the photo.

  She grinned happily, tapping away at her data pad.

  “Here,” she held her pad towards mine and made a gesture.

  My pad loaded a page. Some kind of social media site.

  I was vaguely aware of social media from history classes back in Last Eden. Social media being listed as a forbidden technology.

  It was a group called the Lost Girls.

  At the top was the photo. Eva, grinning, holding me to her breast in a possessive way, my battered eye on clear display. The words “Guess what I did last night!” formed the caption.

  I felt a drop in my stomach and immediately realised exactly why social media was forbidden.

  Comments arrived: Wow! Hawt. Wish I could do that. I bet he deserved it. Of course he deserved it, he’s a human. I love it. We have fucking Corporal Esther, reborn over here. I wanna see you do his other eye. I hope you made him cry.

  My stomach turned in revulsion.

  Eva was grinning to herself, watching her screen. Approval, congratulations and general support washed over her.

  I tapped the description of the Lost Girls. It read: A community for girls without boys and no hope for boys. Let’s do our best even though there is no point. No boys allowed. Fuck humans. Fuck them for making us this way.

  Ah.

  They had built a pit for bad blood to pool and fester.

  More comments arrived: She has a boy. It’s a human, it doesn’t count. Nuh uh, it double counts. She has a boy. No, she forced him. No, look at the photo, she broke him. She can’t be here. She has a boy. It’s good and I’m happy for you, but you can’t be here anymore. I’m going to miss you. She has a boy.

  Eva wasn’t grinning anymore. Her smile fading away to nothing.

  Eva flinched when I hugged her. Resisted weakly as I pulled her head into my lap and prying the pad from her fingers and put it screen down on the bunk.

  “It’ll be alright,” I stroked her head.

  “What do I have to do to get some of that?” Sonia interjected.

  “Never you mind,” I replied.

  “It’s all your fault,” Eva muttered into my lap, wrapping her arms around my waist.

  “Sorry.”

  “I fucking hate you,” she squeezed tighter.

  “I know,” I gently stroked her head.

  * * *

  I was standing in line for dinner when I got a message on my data pad from Sarah.

  It read: Jack, Mathew isn’t back yet and there are new notices up. The jags want us to have babies and they want to give us something so we have more. And they want to buy boys. This can’t be happening. Jack, talk to me.

  Yeah… That sounded right.