Real Person Fic - CW: Star-Crossed [Part 1/3(probably)]

[cherie_morte]

He feels a jerk as he crosses the deck. It's no accidental tug-the jolt that goes through his arm is a sharp sensation, starling him into attention, and Jared has only a moment to try to collect himself before the hand on his wrist tightens and the person speaks. "You need to order a stop."

Jared looks down at where he's still being held and sees the pale green skin of the fingers gripping him. An Acklyte, then. A slave. He's never seen one turn green before, but the designs mapping across the creature's otherwise peach-colored skin grow a deeper shade of green with every moment he watches them.

"You dare touch the Captain or speak without being addressed." Sheppard is at his side in moments, and Jared winces, turns his face away, not wanting to see how the slave will be punished. "My apologies, Captain. This one doesn't know its place yet. We only picked it up yesterday."

Jared's nod to acknowledge the man's apology is forced. He doesn't like Sheppard, doesn't like anything about what the man does, and if he had his way, he and his charges wouldn't be on this ship at all. Jared thrives leading these expeditions, thrills in the knowledge derived from the discoveries his exploration unearths, and that's what he's in it for. But he knows better than anyone that his journeys get funded based on the promise that something tangible will make it back to the Empire: new land, new resources.

The most valuable resources he's bringing back this time are alive-not people, not really. Jared turns a blind eye and he tells himself it's okay, they're not slaves so much as animals being put toward a practical purpose. He tolerates the trade, allows the Empire to place some men on board of his ship for the express purpose of capturing natives to bring back to the station. That doesn't mean he likes to see it.

He lifts his head and catches the creature's eyes just as Sheppard begins to pull it off him. The green of the alien's skin is still darkening, nearly black at this point, and he's staring at Jared with eyes that match it. Their eyes unsettle him at the best of times, just a little too big on their otherwise humanoid faces, but something about the way these are imploring him to listen makes him lose his breath for a moment.

Acklytes look almost human, that's what bothers Jared the most about them. He knows-he's been told so many times by people who have studied them more than him-that they're savage, they display no emotion, they aren't intelligent enough to mourn their lost freedom. But aside from the rainbow of their ever-changing skin designs and the too-big eyes, they could pass for human beings.

The one that reached out to Jared appears and sounds male. He's tall with a good build, Jared can see that he'll be very valuable to Sheppard if he's controllable by the time they reach the station. His lips are parted and Jared can't help thinking that they look soft, that the dusting of freckles on the alien's cheeks is almost beautiful.

And for a creature incapable of displaying emotion, this one's big green eyes look terrified.

"We're about to hit a cliff," the slave says, trying to pull away from Sheppard. "If you don't stop or at least slow this monstrosity down, we're all going to die."

Sheppard lifts his arm and Jared catches it before it can come down on the slave. "Let him speak," he says.

"But, sir, we must have the asset understand its place," the slave master insists. "If it isn't broken in by the time we reach the station, there could be serious consequen-"

"If you don't know your place, how can you teach them theirs?" Jared asks. "I'm the Captain on this ship, and I said I want to hear him."

The slave trader opens his mouth for a moment, then shuts it, and the slave tugs his arm away from Sheppard, glaring at him before he turns to Jared.

"If this thing is capable of anti-gravitational flight, turn it on right now. I know this forest. A good deal better than you do, and we're heading for a cliff. Too fast to stop before we go over it, if the size of this awful machine of yours is anything to go by."

"You speak English very impressively," Jared observes.

"Yes," Sheppard agrees. "As I said, it will be a very valuable asset if I'm allowed to train it correctly."

The slave's expression doesn't change-they never do-but the green swirls on his arms begin to change shape, and purple mixes in. "Are you serious?" the creature asks. "That's what you want to focus on?"

Jared's second mate has taken an interest and wandered over and she shakes her head. "Sir, Osric assures me there's no cliff coming up. His mappings say it's geologically impossible for-"

"Your Earth geology doesn't apply here," the alien snaps. "I know this planet better than your radar screens and I'm telling you-"

"It's a trick, I'd guess," Kim says. "If we go into anti-gravity, we'll have to slow. It'll be much easier to attack the ship from the ground. They may have some kind of escape attempt planned."

"How could I have orchestrated a land attack while being chained all day and housed behind bars at night?" the creature asks her, sounding unimpressed. He turns again, continues to only make his case to Jared. There's intelligence in that. It unsettles Jared. They weren't supposed to be capable of it. "Look, this ship is better equipped than half our army, there's no rescue attempt we could muster that you need fear, and you know that. I know that. We all know that. I'm not trying to buy time for some suicide mission. I'm telling you if we don't stop or turn on anti-gravity, we're all dead."

Kim raises an eyebrow. "Oh, and you're just so eager to help us reach the space station, is that what we’re supposed to believe?"

"I would be glad to see this ship and every human on board plummet to their death, believe me," says the slave, tone still as indifferent as ever, but the purple designs in his skin begin to mute, giving way to green again. "Unfortunately, I'm on this thing, too. I'm looking out for myself and my kin."

Again, he fixes his attention on Jared, and Jared is unable to take his eyes off the creature. "Captain," he says, nearly respectful. "If you listen to me and I'm wrong, we take a few hours more to reach your station. If you don't and I'm right, we are all dead. Is it really worth the risk just to keep your tremendous human ego satisfied?"

"Why you little-" Sheppard is saying, but Jared feels a laugh bubble up out of him.

He surprises even himself by nodding toward the ship's navigational tower. "Go into anti-gravity."

"But Captain-"

Jared gives everyone a look that makes it clear he's made his decision, and he says it again, clearer. The ship immediately startles, wheels pulling up from the soil and hover settings taking over. If Jared didn't know better, he'd swear the alien looks relieved, that there's a change in his face that could almost be respect. The markings on his skin begin to fade altogether, the green giving way to the much more common pink color he's used to seeing on Acklytes.

It's only another minute or so before the look-out calls that there's a cliff ahead and they speed on over it. Jared looks down over the edge of the ship, sees that it's a sharp drop. They never could have survived it at the speed they were going if they hadn't changed to anti-gravity.

"Well I'll be damned," Kim mutters to him, coming to stand by his side. "The alien was right."

Jared looks back to where Sheppard is herding his slaves back into line. The one that saved them is still watching him, at least until he gets a jab in his back from Sheppard, and Jared hears him order them to move it along.



He asks that the Acklyte be brought to him later that night in his dining chamber, and by the time the alien arrives, Jared has the table covered by the crude maps he and his crew have created over their previous expeditions.

They've been bothering him for months. The scientific readings Osric and his team have done have produced highly technical renderings of the lands they’ve surveyed, but there have been subtle mistakes none of them have been able to account for when Jared has tried to match their maps up to the ones he's created from memory. He's been inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt, to take it for granted that his mind can't hold up against the technology and he must have just remembered things wrong.

But he loves this planet, can't imagine forgetting a single detail about it, and what happened today has him rethinking his reliance on their machines.

The alien knocks at his door and Jared looks up, smiling when he sees the faint glow the pink markings on his skin give off. "Hello again," he says. "Come in, come in. Take a seat if you'd like."

He's pleased to see that his request that the slave be brought with minimal restraints was respected, despite Sheppard's protests that the creature wasn't ready to be trusted unbound. He has only one chain binding his wrists and feet, and the length is long enough that it doesn't seem to be impeding his movements.

With as much of an air of refinement as can be mustered in chains, the Acklyte takes a seat. He says nothing, but he holds his head high.

"You must be someone of importance to have been taught such fluent English," Jared observes. "Groomed to be a diplomat."

The creature doesn't shy away from Jared's gaze. "What I was is of no consequence now."

Jared takes a seat directly across from the slave and watches him closely. "What's your name?"

"Why would you care?" he answers. "Why should I tell you?"

"Because I asked," Jared responds. "And while you're on this ship, I own you."

Nothing about the creature's expression or stance changes, but the designs on his skin flash an almost neon shade of purple. "I belong to The Mother," he says. "No one else can own me. You have laid claim to my body. That is a right you seem to think you have. I can't fight it. So you have my body and will use it as you see fit. Fine. You do not own my past. You do not own who I am. I will tell you nothing I do not wish to."

"I'm Jared," Jared says. "You can call me that."

"What a privilege," the alien answers, and, even without any inflection, Jared thinks he could be knocked over by the sheer force of the sarcasm in those words.

"I understand your hesitance," Jared tells him. "But you're angry at the wrong person. I won't hurt you. I think I can make you a very generous offer."

"You understand nothing," the alien says. "If you really believe any of that."

Jared sighs. "Just a name," he implores. "I won't ask for anything else you don't want to tell me. You came to me for help earlier, and I listened to you. Maybe you can help me understand, but not if you won't speak to me."

The slave seems to think about it for a long time, until finally he says, "Jensen. My name is Jensen."

"Jensen," Jared repeats. "I suppose that's not such a strange name. For an alien."

Jensen watches as Jared tries to give him his warmest smile and his oversized eyes very nearly roll. "You must think you're very charming."

He laughs, can't help that he kind of likes Jensen and his defiant attitude. He angles his head down at the table. "I want your help with something. These are the maps we've been creating of Acklonia since we first discovered it."

Jensen lets out a huff and mutters, "Discovered" under his breath. Jared decides to ignore it.

"Although we've used the most advanced equipment available, I have a sense that there are things being plotted out incorrectly. I just can't say what or why."

Jensen's eyes move over the papers spread out in front of him quickly. "Yes, they're wrong."

"Would you like to elaborate?" Jared asks. "Maybe let me know where?"

"No."

He stands, deciding to try something else. Jared pulls out the maps he has stashed away, the ones he works on himself every time he returns from surveying the land. They aren't as clearly rendered, hand-drawn rather than computer generated, but they're the most accurate reflections he has of what he's seen and observed for himself. He rolls those out over the others and asks Jensen, "What about these?"

At first, Jensen's glance is disinterested, but something seems to catch his attention and he leans in, taking a close look. "These are…much better."

Jared's chest expands with pride, but Jensen continues, "Still imperfect. There are detail mistakes scattered throughout. But they at least bear a passing resemblance to the Impaleon Forest, which is, I assume, what they are supposed to depict?"

"I don't know what your kind call it," Jared admits. "We named it after the Emperor."

Jensen gestures to the bright orange Jared used to depict the ocean, doing his best to capture the liquid amber color of the water on this planet. "I assume you landed near the shore when you came down from the station. You humans are obsessed with water, build all your encampments on beaches or rivers. You instinctively headed North, another human peculiarity. It would have taken you two weeks to reach this forest, going at the rate your ship has been traveling since I was brought on board."

"Yes," Jared confirms.

"Then we are speaking of the same forest," Jensen says.

Jared smiles, could almost dance at the brilliance of bringing a native into this project. "You know this planet intimately."

"It is my home," the slave replies simply.

That hits Jared hard and he feels a muted sense of sadness for the creature. They weren't supposed to have concepts like 'home.' It feels unfathomably cruel to drag something away from its home if it knows it has one.

"It was a beautiful forest," Jared recalls, hoping to distract himself as much as Jensen. "The way the trees sparkle, so many colors at once."

"More than your human eyes can see," says Jensen. "If you could truly know the beauty of the soil. There are hundreds of colors just in the dirt underfoot."

"I saw six or seven of them, glimmering like jewels," Jared tells him. "And even that was breathtaking."

"Did you swim in the lake?" Jensen asks. "I used to go there as a child. Every year."

"So warm," Jared agrees. "And, something else about it. I couldn't put my finger on it. The water tasted and felt pure somehow."

"The Mother blessed it when she created it," Jensen says. "It heals the worst of maladies. Sadness. It can cure any sadness."

Jared nods, unsurprised to hear it. He'd felt so at peace there. "It was my favorite place. Of all the ones I've visited, on this planet, on other planets. It was-"

"Paradise," Jensen finishes for him. His expression seems to dim, even as his face gives nothing away. "I'll never see it again, will I?"

"You might," Jared says. "You love it here. Me too. I've spent my life looking for a place I could love the way we once loved Earth. I've never been drawn to a planet like I am to Acklonia."

"How lucky for us," Jensen replies.

Jared leans forward. "I have a way you won't have to leave. Not for long, anyway."

He can see the alien trying to feign apathy, but his head turns up a little too fast, those bright eyes focused with attention.

"I want you to be my guide," he says. "I'll claim you when we reach the station. I've never owned a slave before, but I'll be a kind master. We can work together. And every time I return to the surface, you'll be on board my ship. You won't have to be away from home for long."

"That is a tempting offer," Jensen says. "I'll have to decline."

"What?" Jared asks. "Okay, first of all, you don't get to decline."

Jensen winces, and Jared wishes he could take it back. He softens his tone. "Why would you want to? It's the best offer you're going to get, Jensen. You'll get to see parts of your planet even you haven't been before. To share what you love with someone who can appreciate it." Jared gestures to the maps he's spent painstaking hours of his life creating. "Can't you see? I love this planet. All I want is to know it."

He watches as Jensen reaches out, traces the borders of the map with a finger that's turning bright pink as he does so. "You love my planet," he says, his voice hushed. "The way you loved your Earth."

"Yes," Jared says.

"You come with your big ships. The wheels crush our plants, our animals beneath them, leave tracks in the forest where once there was no disturbance. You tear us away from it, you make us slaves. You cut down our trees to warm yourselves and build your camps and power your weapons. You love my planet-" Jensen says, breaking his words with a laugh. "The way you loved your Earth? What happened to your Earth?"

Jared's heart sinks, dread spreading through him as he listens to what the alien has to say. At the thought that he could be leading this planet down the same path he so resents his forefathers for leading their home down.

"It's dead," Jensen answers for him. "You humans destroyed it. And now you want to come love my home the way you loved yours?" Jensen shakes his head. "You're right that your offer sounds generous. I could be happy, exploring this land with you, sharing its secrets. But you would use those secrets to kill what we both love."

"I-" Jared begins.

But Jensen won't hear him. "If not you yourself, certainly your species and the humans who follow in your footsteps. My planet will be my planet for only 100 years more once you begin to build on it in earnest, if that. I know it will happen eventually, that it has begun and I can't stop it. It would be easier to escape servitude on your station to help you here, and why not? It's going to happen anyway." Jensen seems to ponder that for a few moments, then pushes the maps away. "I won't be the reason it happens faster. I will not help you learn to navigate this planet. The longer you fumble along in ignorance using your foolish maps the better. And if your ships get swallowed in our swamps I'll thank The Mother for her wisdom."

Jared can't even formulate a response. Jensen's words are cruel and pointed and not a single one of them goes too far. He's right. Jared stares at him stupidly, his mouth hanging open, because he's fucking right.

"Make me the next thing you chop down, Captain," Jensen says, standing with the same dignity he'd had when he entered the room and took a seat. "I will not help you."

He dismisses himself, and Jared watches him go feeling as if the entire galaxy has just been pulled out from under him.



The next time he sees Jensen, he's just one of several slaves clearing the table after Jared's dinner. Jared takes his meals alone unless there's a matter of importance to discuss, usually with his maps or logs from other travelers spread out on the table around him.

He stops reading when he recognizes Jensen, an instinct more than a conscious decision, and watches the alien as he moves through the room, clearing plates and wiping spills, his eyes cast down to his work or the floor. False meekness. Jared doesn't believe the Acklyte who stood in this very room just a few nights ago and spoke all those ugly truths to Jared without fear could have been broken so quickly.

Once the cleaning is done, the slaves line up, leaving the room in an orderly fashion, as if they're walking in chains, even though those have been removed. Jared catches Jensen's wrist before he can make his exit. "You stay."

"I thought I told you no," Jensen says, pulling his hand back and sending a dismissive look toward Jared and his maps.

"Give what you're carrying to one of the others and take a seat."

Jensen's skin slips from pink to purple as he sighs, turning to the Acklyte next to him and handing off the plates in his hands. To Jared's surprise, the creature looks from Jared, then back to Jensen, and waits for Jensen's nod before accepting the order and leaving them alone.

It's not that surprising, really. If the Acklytes were going to choose one of their own to lead them, Jensen would be the obvious choice. But it's one more thing to make Jared's skin crawl. They weren't supposed to be smart enough to create hierarchies, but then, it's becoming clear the experts who briefed Jared on these natives got a lot wrong.

"Are we to sit here in silence until we reach the station, Captain?" Jensen asks, and Jared realizes he got lost in his thoughts much longer than he'd meant to.

He snaps his eyes up to meet Jensen's and tries to let some humility show in his expression. "I need your help."

"Clearly," Jensen replies.

Jared laughs and pushes a pile of maps across the table. "These are mine. No one else's. I don't have to share them-no one but me even knows they exist. I promise the empire won't get their hands on these if you help. I heard every word you said to me the other day. I won't let them use this to hurt your planet. Please, just for me."

"Why should I be inclined to do you any favors?"

"I'm a powerful man, Jensen," Jared says. "It won't hurt you to have me on your side. If you really won't come with me, I can secure you a good placement on the station. Something that requires less intense labor, where you're less at risk of being hurt. There are some masters worse than others. I can guarantee you won't go to one of them."

"Which just means one of my friends will," Jensen responds.

Jensen's selflessness is honorable, Jared will admit that, but it's also rather inconvenient for him. He'd been counting on the offer of a safe placement to win him Jensen's assistance, and without anything to promise Jensen that the alien will accept, Jared is about to give up.

Then Jensen sighs and says, "Alright, this is bothering me."

He reaches out for one of the pencils resting on the corner of a map and begins to erase lines, drawing in a slightly different shape for the land. When he's finished with that, he bites his lip for a moment before setting himself to work on another spot on the map, then another, then another. Jared watches for nearly half an hour as Jensen makes adjustments and notations, and when he finally pulls away, the map isn't completely different, but it is decidedly more complete.

"You did that so quickly," Jared says excitedly, double checking the work as best as he can from memory. It all seems to add up. "That would have taken me years."

"Maybe you should look into a different career path," Jensen says. It sounds playful, teasing.

Jared grins. "Or maybe you should reconsider joining me."

When Jensen says nothing, Jared asks, "Will you come back again tomorrow, help me with another?"

Jensen tosses the pencil back onto the table. It lands on the map with a heavy thunk. "Why phrase an order like a question?"

"It's not an order," Jared says. "But if you choose to, I'll be waiting. I'll make sure Sheppard doesn't look for you while you're here."

He does wait the next night, and he isn't surprised when Jensen doesn't show. What does surprise him is the night after that, when Jared is sitting and reading a history of the first human colony on Pluto and Jensen comes in and sits down at the table across from him, staring at Jared in silence until Jared looks up.

"Are we going to fix your maps or not?" Jensen asks.

"You didn't show yesterday," says Jared as he closes his book. "I took that as a no."

"I was testing something," Jensen admits.

Jared raises an eyebrow. "What, exactly, were you testing?"

Jensen licks his lips, then cuts his eyes away from Jared's. "I was waiting for the guards to come."

"Guards?" Jared asks.

"I was waiting for the guards to come escort me here." Jared sees Jensen rub his hands on his thighs across the table, and then he lifts them in a kind of shrug. "They didn't."

Jared wonders if he looks as confused as he feels, and Jensen's skin mutes, the pink glow disappearing. He has no markings on his body now and he looks unbearably human sitting there with his big eyes turned away.

"It wasn't an order," Jensen says.

"I told you that," Jared reminds him.

Jensen's skin flashes yellow for a moment before that disappears, too. "Yes, but I didn't believe you."

That's fair enough in Jared's book, so he says nothing more about it. Instead he gets up and pulls his maps out of their hiding place, along with a set of colored pencils, and he tries not to look too hopeful.

"Which one do you want to work on, then?"

Jensen reaches out for the first map Jared had showed him, the forest they'd both loved so much, and before long they're talking, making changes as they go. Jared loses himself for what turns out to be hours, distracted by the histories of the land that Jensen knows, the way the alien's skin glows a bright yellow as they talk.

Jensen is back the next night, and the night after that. He comes every day of the journey back to the station, and between the two of them, they perfect all of Jared's maps, even begin to work on one to bring all of the segments together.

"How do you say 'thank you' in your language?" Jared asks Jensen when they're ready to roll the last of his maps up, Jared admiring their handiwork as the ink dries.

They'll reach the station early tomorrow, before Jared can have another chance to meet with Jensen, and he's learned more on this trip since they turned and started to return to camp than in his last ten expeditions actually exploring Acklonia.

Jensen shakes his head. "We don't have words for things like gratitude," he explains.

Jensen's eyebrows draw together, but Jensen continues, "Concepts like that are too large to fit into language. We would…"

Jensen reaches out, showing Jared the back of his wrist. The marks on his skin reform themselves, a paler yellow than Jensen displays when they're wrapped up in their work, but somehow still less sickly to Jared than that pink glow he's so used to.

"Is it a symbol, or…?" Jared shakes his head. "I can't read it. Besides, I can't do that." He holds his arm out, and nothing happens under his skin, no markings or color changes. "I want to thank you."

"You just have," Jensen says.

"No," Jared insists. "I want to thank you in a way that comes naturally to you. Not my language. You must hate our language."

Jensen covers his arm and pulls back a bit. His eyes look guarded. "Why would you care?"

"You've helped me," Jared says, easy as that, and he wishes he could make Jensen believe him. He tries to look earnest, but Jensen never acknowledges his expressions, and it doesn't start now.

"Very well," Jensen says. He sounds something out carefully, telling Jared it's the closest approximation his people have to an expression of gratitude, and Jared tries to echo him, which makes Jensen laugh at his expense the first four or five times. Finally, Jared repeats it back and Jensen nods, the yellow marks returning.

"Good!" he says. "You got it."

"Will you teach me more of your language? Or how to read the symbols?" Jared asks, gesturing to Jensen's arm. "Maybe when we reach the station we can-"

"It's not a particularly useful skill for you, is it?" Jensen sits back in his seat and looks at Jared critically, and Jared feels exposed under that scrutiny. "I learned English because we thought when you first came that we could learn from each other, that we could bargain. No humans have bothered to learn our tongue. And why would you? Why speak to a people you only plan to crush?"

"I don't want to crush you," Jared responds, a little sad, because he'd thought Jensen would know that about him by now. "I want to understand you. I'm curious about you."

"Curious," Jensen repeats. "I'm glad we're at least interesting microbes for you to study."

"It's not like that," Jared tells him. "Not for me. You know that, don't you?"

Jensen's skin flushes a deep pink and he sighs. "I don't know what I know, not about you, Jared. You're too many contradictions at once."

Jared is quiet for a spell, watching as the shapes and colors on Jensen's skin change. Finally he says, "Can I ask you one more thing?"

"Why not?" Jensen answers. "What's one more?"

"The symbols on your skin, they mean something? Other Acklytes can understand them?"

Jensen nods.

"What about the colors?" Jared asks. "What do they mean?"

Jensen stops and regards him with confusion. "You don't know? I thought your scientists must have figured out the concept by now."

"Enlighten me," says Jared. "Apparently our scientists aren't any better at understanding different people than they are at understanding different planets."

"People," Jensen repeats. "You called us people."

Jared can't help being ashamed at that, at the fact that he ever let himself believe they weren't. Just because it was easier that way. Because that made him less of a monster.

"Emotions," Jensen says. "The colors indicate emotions."

"Emotions?" Jared repeats, watching Jensen's unchanging face.

"I know you don't feel them." Jensen rubs absent mindedly at a pink swirl on his palm. "But you have a word for them. You must at least understand on some level?"

"Who told you we don't feel them?" Jared demands, but it's himself he's mad at, and his species, and the fact that they'd built the entire right to enslave these creatures on the conviction that they couldn't feel.

"You certainly don't show them," Jensen replies, not seeming the least bit ruffled. "The way you treat others is heartless. And your skin, it's always the same."

Jared points at him. "But your faces are always the same."

"Our…faces? What do faces have to do with emotions? That's stupid!" Jensen laughs, but then he sees that Jared is serious. "Wait a minute. You mean to tell me all those weird things your mouths and eyebrows do-that's how you express emotion?"

Jared nods, and Jensen tilts his head. "But can't you control it? Can you not control those muscles?"

"We can control them," Jared says.

Jensen drums his fingers on the surface of the table. "This is all very strange. You can lie to each other?"

"Acklytes don't lie?"

"Oh, to humans, sure, all the time. You don't know how to tell when we are. But we would never to each other, and we couldn't if we wanted to, because you can more or less tell from the way someone feels and what their markings say."

Jared frowns. "We lie to everyone. Including each other."

"I don't know why that surprises me." Jensen reaches out and traces the line of Jared's mouth. "What does this mean?"

"Unhappiness, generally," Jared replies.

"So when it's the other way around, like when you talk to me about the forest."

"That's called a smile," Jared says, letting his lips turn up while Jensen's hands are still on his face. "That's happiness."

"Yellow," Jensen tells him. "Yellow means happiness for us."

Jared's smile widens at that, becomes more genuine. Jensen is always yellow when they're lost in each other.

"You were green the first time I saw you."

"Fear," Jensen says. "We were about to go over a cliff."

"And the purple that mixed in," Jared reaches out, stroking a thumb over Jensen's arm where a jagged mark has just formed, "I'm guessing that was anger?"

"Yes, very smart."

"Pink," Jared asks, his eyes fixed on the color Jensen is displaying now, the one he sees so commonly on the Acklytes he encounters. "What's pink?"

The color only grows stronger under Jared's thumb, and Jensen's voice is soft when he answers. "Sadness. Pink is sadness."

Jared lets go too fast and rises to his feet, turning his back to Jensen. Disgusted at himself, at the entire human race, and this situation they've created. He knew. Deep down a part of him knew. The only times he's ever wanted to look away from Jensen have been when his skin is flushed pink.

"I thought that was just your default," he says, wiping his hand over his mouth. "I saw it so many times from so many of you. I thought it was your default."

Jensen stands and walks a few paces forward. When he puts his hand on Jared's shoulder and turns him so that they're facing, his eyes are looking up to Jared's, gaze intense. "We're slaves, Jared. Of course that's out default."



They reach the space station ahead of schedule the next day, the transfer between land transportation and space travel taking place seamlessly thanks to some of the methods Jared has developed over the last few months. He used to be proud of that, but this time all he can think of is Jensen and the other Acklytes, still packed into their holding cells because his crew learned it saves over an hour if the slaves aren't given time above deck before they're taken from their planet.

Jared hardly has time to clean himself up and change into formal robes before he's leading his crew and the gifts they gathered for the Emperor through the station halls and arriving in the ornate throne room.

The first thing he notices when he enters is that the Emperor, his seat raised above all others and placed directly across from where Jared is standing, looks terrible. He had only started to fall ill when Jared last departed, and although he'd heard reports that the illness had not improved, he had no idea it had gotten this bad.

Next to him, Genevieve is glittering in a dress made of stardust, resplendent as the jewels hanging around her neck and embedded in her crown. She smiles when she sees Jared watching her, but it's a strained smile, and he takes note of the dark circles under her eyes. His princess is nothing if not concerned with her appearance, so the comparatively haggard state she's in makes it obvious that her father's illness is weighing heavily on her.

The last thing that strikes him as he looks around is Mark Sheppard standing in front of the group of Acklytes they'd brought from the ship, all of them flushed a combination of fuchsia and forest green, except for Jensen, who is purple from head to foot and glaring right at Jared.

Jared swallows hard, tearing his eyes away and returning his attention to the throne. He falls to one knee before the emperor, begins to recite the trumped up speech about what they saw and, more importantly, what they brought back that's expected of him.

He gets through the whole thing without the Emperor interrupting him with praise or an order to stop being so formal, and that's more worrying even than the pallid color of his skin.

When he lifts his head and rises to his feet, Jeff has appeared at the Emperor's side, and he's smiling warmly at Jared.

"Welcome back, son," Jeff says, and Jared's chest swells with pride for the first time since his Jensen-induced mixed feelings kicked in. "The Emperor is, of course, appreciative of the gifts and knowledge that you've brought back from your journey."

Emperor Beaver nods his head, and Jeff gives him a friendly tap on the shoulder. "He's not up to saying it right now, but he's very proud of you."

Jeff gives Jared a meaningful look and jerks his head toward the princess, and Jared just hardly manages to check his frown. He wants no part of his upcoming nuptials, and, as much as he loves Gen, he's always a little annoyed by the charade of being forced to court a woman he's been friends with since childhood for the sake of publicity.

"With your permission, your majesty," Jared begins, "there are some gifts here I would like to reserve for your beautiful daughter."

Jared gestures toward one of his crewmen, and he brings forward a chest. As soon as he opens it, the stardust they'd harvested glimmers in the hall's light, and Genevieve does the same false gasp of surprise that she always does when Jared brings her this gift.

Her delight as she springs to her feet and begins to inspect the material, however, is not faked. For all of the fascinating items that Acklonia has to offer-new foods, strange animals, jewels-
stardust is easily Genevieve's favorite thing about the planet. She reaches the men holding the chest in three quick strides, and Jared can't help wondering how she manages to move so quickly in her elaborate gown.

The fabric slipping through the princess' fingers is thin and light-weight, but incredibly strong. Like everything that comes from Acklonia, the colors are the most intense thing about it, shining and shifting. These were pulled from a valley where the flowers were predominantly purple, and that seems to have influenced the palette of shades that reflect from it. A large group of slaves labored on board to spin this into cloth by the time they arrived, using methods they developed long before humans found them.

It’s that thought and the purple catching Jared's eyes as Gen drapes her gift over her arm that gives Jared the idea that's falling out of his mouth before he has a chance to think about it.

"I have another gift for you," Jared tells her, approaching her like a lover, his tone taking on a sweeter note. "A wedding present for my lovely princess. Something far more valuable than stardust or jewels."

Genevieve turns to him with a raised eyebrow, a half smile on her face. Jared is going off script, and she knows there's more to it than wooing her.

Jared gestures at the huddled group of slaves and Sheppard gives him an angry look, probably guessing what's coming. "This is Jensen," he tells her gesturing toward the group.

Most of the Acklytes hang back, and Jensen steps forward, giving Jared another long stare before turning to the princess, completely neutral…if you don't know what the color of his skin means. He bows his head.

"A slave?" Genevieve asks, sounding confused. "I have many slaves already, Jared."

The puzzled tone of her voice asks, 'and since when do you claim slaves?' without her having to say it.

"This one is special," Jared assures her. "He speaks our language and knows much about Acklonia. Among other things, he can teach your servants how to spin stardust, produce a nearly endless supply."

That has Genevieve's attention, and Jensen's, too. She smiles wide, genuinely touched by the gesture, and Jared feels guilt churn in his gut.

"A slave who knows his fabrics," she says cheerfully. "I'm keeping him!"

Polite laughter at the princess' joke spreads throughout the chamber at that, and the procession begins to break up. As soon as Sheppard has finished unfastening the chains on Jensen (all the while grumbling about how much Jensen would have gone for on the market), Jensen turns to Jared and hisses, "What did you just do?"

"Jensen, I know you're angry, but let me explai-"

"Explain?" Jensen spits back. "Explain what? You promised me you wouldn't share any of the things I told you with the empire. That includes how we make our fabrics, and you damn well know it."

"She'll take good care of you, Jensen. You'll have better food, better sleeping quarters, less demanding work, and nicer clothes as her slave than any other placement in the Empire. I did it to protect you."

"You did it because you're a liar," Jensen hisses. "Just like the rest of your species. I told you I didn't want your patronage."

"Well, I wasn't going to stand by and let you go to someone who would hurt you, not if I could stop it. It didn't seem like a big deal, it's just fabric. That's worth trading for safety, Jensen, there's no shame in it."

"You don't get to decide what's is or isn't a big deal for us. You don't-you know what?" Jensen laughs. "It's my own fault. I trusted you. A creature who can and does lie to his own fiancé. I thought you might be different, but you're just another human."

Jared wants to defend himself, but before he can, the rest of the princess' slaves are leaving the room in a procession following their master, and Jensen is pulled away.

A hand on his shoulder startles him out of the self-loathing of the moment, and he turns to see Jeff's smile.

"Another victory thanks to you," he says, fondly ribbing Jared in the side.

Jared smiles, though his joy in the moment is much more affected than usual. "Jeff, it's good to see you."

Jeff nods, the fatherly expression on his face saying more than his words could. When Jared's parents died to secure his safe passage aboard a star shuttle, Jeff had taken him in, raised him, and taught him everything he now knows. His triumphs belong to Jeff as much as to himself, and Jared feels a little bad that he can't share in the pride Jeff has for him today.

"Wish it were under better circumstances, though," Jared says. "The Emperor is-"

"Yeah," Jeff says, cutting him off. "He's going fast, Jared. I've had to be his voice for weeks, and, uh. Well. Let's just say your princess is going to be an Empress very soon, judging from the way things are going."

"Poor Genevieve."

Jeff sighs apologetically. "Poor girl, yes. She's so devoted to her father. And poor you, I know Jim has been an important part of your life for many years now."

"He's always supported me. Never judged me for where I was born, only by what I did. I'm proud to serve him. But…that's not the only thing that has me upset. Genevieve won't be a great leader like her father, Jeff. Not yet, at least. She's not ready." Jared paces anxiously a few feet forward, and Jeff follows, holding him still with one hand on each of Jared's shoulders. "No one expected him to die for decades."

"No one but me," Jeff replies. He gives Jared a meaningful look. "I know you won't want to hear it, but you've been groomed for leadership, far more than she has. You were by her side when she was growing up, and you applied yourself in those lessons while she was distracted. I observed you both many times as children, and I've seen the man you've become. This Empire is going to need someone like you at her side, someone to take care of important matters while she collects gemstones."

"You're being unfair to her," Jared says. "She is smart, I know her. She's just never had to be. Never been asked to do anything on her own."

"You have, kid," Jeff tells him. "I wish things were different, but you saw Jim up there. He won't make it more than a few weeks, if that. There's no time to gradually teach the princess responsibility. She's going to be calling the shots any day now. We can't let that kind of power fall into frivolous hands."

Jared freezes and looks at Jeff closely, slowly realizing what he's been working up to since he greeted Jared. "Just say it."

"Jared," Jeff says, placating tone that Jared definitely does not like. "The Emperor would like nothing more before he dies than to see his daughter's happy union to a capable young man, one he's long viewed as a son."

"No!" Jared cries. "No, you promised. I was supposed to have years before-"

"Jim was supposed to have years," Jeff reasons. "Things like this don't happen on a set timetable. The Empire is going to need you to step up."

"I've been stepping up since the day I was old enough to join the ExploreCorps," he says. "Look at everything I've brought, everything we’ve learned thanks to my work. And there's more, I can discover so much more, but not if I'm stuck on this station."

"Your work has been invaluable to the empire, and I know how much you enjoy exploring. But you'll come to find being Emperor is even more rewarding. Think of all we could do if you had that power, Jared. We could build cities on Acklonia, really make it home."

Jared winces, thinking of Jensen, of how that future he and Jeff used to dream about can only be built on the corpse of the world Jensen's people inhabit. "I don’t want to be Emperor. I never did."

"I know," Jeff says, rubbing his back soothingly. "But we all have to make sacrifices for the greater good."

"When?"

"Your wedding is three months from today," Jeff tells him. "We arranged it yesterday. Everything is being taken care of, you don't have to worry about any of it. Just keep the Princess happy and start getting used to the idea that you won't be going back to Acklonia until there's a palace there with your name on it."



(NOT ACTIVE YET)