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But safe means controlled, captive, and always waiting.

I’ve been waiting here for as long as I can remember. For my entire childhood, my father had always made promises of a bright future far from this corrupt, opportunistic world. He’s always painted these grandiose visions of what’ll happen when ‘things come together.’

They’re like giving a glimpse of the blue sky to a bird raised in a gilded cage. I’ve waited my whole life for ‘things to come together’ for my father.

I bite my lip, tossing in my sheets. He’s always promised to take me out there – past the walls of this towering estate, past the confines of the atmosphere of this planet, and out past the dangerous asteroid fields…

Out there is life.

Out there arethem.

Aurelians.

As I do whenever I can’t sleep, my mind turns to the noble, all-male species that hails from the planet of Colossus.

Aurelians are in my thoughts far too often. For some reason, I can’t help but imagine them – for all I’ve studied of them to become real.

I know here on Marn, they might as well be fantastical creatures to me – as likely for me to encounter one as a unicorn, or fairy.

But they’re real. On their home planet of Colossus, the imperious creatures stay in their mansions, surrounded by their harems. Their every urge is satisfied eagerly by the women who flock to join them.

It would be so easy to become one of them – to escape this place, yet actually have somewhere to go.

If I could slip past the gates, and trade the sapphire ring I’ve treasured since childhood for a ticket on the next flight off this rock…

That’s the irony. Women of my class scoff at the women who flock to the security and protection of an Aurelian harem – but it’s not just the impoverished who succumb to that temptation.

The harems of Aurelians are filled with women from all walks of life. Rich, poor – it makes no difference when all are living as equals in a harem.

The countless books I’ve read on the subject have been filled with allusions as to what life is like on the planets occupied by Aurelians – and my imagination has filled in the rest.

“They rule their harems with strict discipline.”

Strict discipline. Those two words tickle my mind.

My father doesn’t discipline me – for a start, because I don’t misbehave; but more so because he barely shows me any attention.

That wouldn’t be a concern the first time I joined an Aurelian harem – as a fresh, untainted feast for the towering warriors of a triad to enjoy.

I wonder what would happen if I made good on this foolish fantasy. What would greet me when my shuttle landed on Colossus, and I offered myself to a harem?

Aurelian warriors share harems between three of them – three huge, voracious warriors.

I shiver. The image of them is in my mind. I’ve only ever seen pictures of Aurelians in books before, but pictures don’t lie.

Aurelians are more like Gods than men.

There would be others, of course. The downside of joining a harem is that you’d be just one woman among a bevy of countless other beauties.

In my fantasies, at least, I don’t need to think of them.

I imagine that the three, huge Aurelians who’d choosemeto join their harem would look at me and only me. To them, no other women would exist.

I fantasize about theideaof them, more than as real creatures. Their faces are blank in my mind. I focus only on their huge, powerful bodies.

I don’t know the first thing about sex. I’m twenty-one, and it’s remained a mystery to me. I’ve been trapped behind these walls for my entire life and experienced nothing that can’t be found within the pages of my countless books.

Including many, many books about Aurelians.