How I Helped My Smokin' Hot Alien Girlfriend Conquer Hell 3-19: Trauma Processing
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I stepped into the enclosure with Sera at my side holding my hand. She held her stun stick in the other hand out in front of her. The tip glowed ever so slightly.
There wasn't anything as dramatic as a crackle from electricity dancing back and forth between tines on the front of the thing, but it still seemed like the kind of weapon that was a touch ridiculous to be in the hands of a little girl.
Then again, I knew about border colony worlds where it wasn't out of the ordinary for kids her age or younger to run around with plasma rifles and plasma pistols. There was something about living in a less populated area where you couldn't always rely on the military or the local guard to come in and save your ass that made people learn how to do that kind of shit at a younger age.
"Are you ready?" I asked.
"I am," she said, taking a deep breath.
Her eyes darted around the enclosure. Her breathing was picking up, and she looked like she was a little worried.
"Don't worry, kid," I said, squeezing her hand. "You've got this. You've done this before, right?"
She looked up at me and blushed. It was a suddenly guilty look.
"Sera," I said, sensing there was something going on here. In much the same way I'd sometimes sensed somebody was trying to hide something from me when I was commanding a ship.
It was remarkable how similar dealing with an insubordinate subordinate was to dealing with a kid who was trying to hide something from you because they knew they’d get in trouble.
"I've actually never done this before," she said, looking down and getting a little quiet. "My mom and dad always said they thought it was too dangerous. I could do it when I was older, only…”
I blinked. "And so you thought you’d get us to take you to do it anyway?"
"Well, it's something I always wanted to do," she said. "And you're always so willing to let me try things. Like you let me hang out with the troops so I can learn how to fight. I need to learn how to fight if I'm going to kill the empress someday."
I blinked as I stared down at her, and then I looked up and around, taking in the garzeth enclosure all around us.
There was no sound that would indicate any of the creatures were nearby. I figured I’d be able to hear them. One of the benefits of the battle link was the ability to hear things I wouldn't normally be able to. We'd even gone through and tested it in the man cave with Arvie.
I figured we were safe enough from an attack for the moment. We were at the entrance, and there was a faint shimmer from a force field meant to protect people before they went out into the enclosure proper. Which didn't seem terribly sporting to me, but nobody asked me.
The garzeth here seemed to enjoy this, as odd as it seemed. Though if ever there was a species who would cultivate a megafauna apex predator into something that enjoyed sparring with them and their children rather than doing the smart thing and hunting them to extinction, it would be the fucking livisk.
But I was worried about different things right now. I got down on a knee in front of Sera so I was eye to eye with her. I looked into those eyes, my own darting back and forth.
"Sera, are you okay?" I asked.
"Of course I'm okay," she said, a sudden stubborn set to her jaw.
"So why do you feel like you need to kill the empress?"
Tears started to well up at the corners of her eyes. She looked away from me, but I reached up and gently put a hand on her chin. I pulled her so she was looking at me again, and this time around the tears were definitely there.
We hadn't actually stopped to talk with her about what had happened to her parents. It was something that Bronhel told us it would be better to avoid until the child was ready, and Varis told me the old battleaxe of a nanny had multiple degrees or training certifications or whatever it was someone had to have before they were trusted with children of nobility. So I figured I’d trust the local equivalent of a child psychologist supernanny to know the proper thing to do.
Especially when it came to livisk child psychology, which was even more alien to me than dealing with human children.
She said to wait for the opportune moment, but that the opportune moment might never come and we needed to be okay with that.
Still. This moment seemed awfully opportune.
"Sera," I said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You know I'm always willing to listen to you. I'm sorry I haven't been around as much."
"No, it's okay," she said, reaching up and wiping a tear away and looking very annoyed at herself for having to reach up and wipe that tear away. I was reminded of a marine in one of the gymnasiums on one of the larger ships early in my career doing some sparring. He had his arm broken, and he’d sat there rocking and holding the thing, trying very hard to look like he wasn't about to completely lose it.
I was getting the same vibe from Sera now.
"If you don't want to talk, then that's okay too," I said. "But you've been through a lot."
"I need to kill her because she killed my parents," Sera said. "I need to have my vengeance."
"Oh, honey," I said, and my heart broke as I looked at her.
And then the dam broke. She threw herself at me, but she wasn't the ball of energy she usually was. No, this time around she was a ball of pure emotion. I felt something hot and wet on my shoulder as her tiny body was wracked with sobs. She held herself against me like I was the only thing anchoring her to reality and sanity.
I held her , and I patted her back. I let the emotion wash over her and me.
It was something that was a long time coming, and I knew it was something that would ultimately be good for her. Even if it was tough for the kid in the moment.
I felt other people moving around us. I felt their eyes on us, but I ignored them and focused on Sera.
Maybe there was some taboo against crying like this in livisk culture, but I didn't give a shit. I was going to help this kid, damn it.
Even if it wasn't appropriate to livisk culture.
Finally, the crying started to slow down. A little. She pulled away from me and tried to wipe her tears. I pulled out the hem of my uniform and wiped them away instead. Then I pulled it back down and pulled a bit of the old Picard maneuver to get it back into place.
"I'm sorry for bringing shame on you, Bill," she said.
"Why would you ever bring shame on me?" I asked.
"Putting on a display in public like this," she said.
Well, shit. There it was. Maybe it was considered a bad thing for a livisk to lose it in public like this.
"Kid, you can do that anytime you want. I don't care."
"Really?" she said, a faint hint of a smile coming to her face.
"Showing how you feel isn't a sign of weakness, Sera. It's just a sign that you're a living, intelligent being making your way through the galaxy, and that's fine. You own that shit."
“Own that shit," she said, that smile getting even broader.
I briefly thought of all the times Varis had talked about how I was a bad influence on the kid. She'd finally admitted that maybe I was a good influence as well, but I also imagined if she heard that kind of language coming from Sera's mouth, she’d go right back to me being a bad influence.
"And Sera, I can make you a promise now."
"You can?" she asked, her eyes going wide.
"You can't kill the empress."
The smile disappeared. She looked down and away. Her voice was quiet.
"I knew you were going to say something like that. Adults always say I shouldn't say something like that. That it's bad to talk bad about the empress."
"No, that's not the reason, kid," I said, putting my hands on her shoulder.
This time, it didn't take me moving her chin in my direction for her to turn and look at me. She seemed to sense there was something important I was about to impart on her.
"You're not going to kill the empress, because I'm going to kill her for you."
"You promise?" she asked.
"I promise," I said. "I'm going to make her pay. We're not going to Hirohiro this bullshit and let her off. She's dying."
"Hero who?" she asked. "Is that a great warrior in your society or something?"
I blinked. I'd taught her a few Terran words, and I could see the confusion. Some of the stories I'd told her talked about some of the great heroes and conquerors and warriors from Earth history. Beowulf, Sun Tzu, Josh Chamberlain, Jim Kirk. The list went on and on, and she'd eaten those stories up.
It also included teaching her the concept of a hero. Somebody who did something because it was the right thing to do, and not necessarily because they wanted to see their enemies driven before them and hear the lamentations of their women.
Oh, yeah, we'd also covered Conan. I'd even managed to get a gray market version of the ancient governator in one of his greatest roles. Which I would've hesitated to show a human kid her age, but it was positively tame by the standards of what they showed their children here on Livisqa.”
"Was he a great hero?" she asked.
"No. He was a son of a bitch who was complicit in starting a war that killed a lot of people, and he got off because the people who conquered him thought it would be easier to use him as a puppet rather than killing off the empire entirely."
"I see," she said. "That is a wise move."
"Maybe it's a wise move," I said, boggling at how a child of an empire could so easily accept that idea. "But it's not what we're going to do here. The empress is going to be dead by the time this is all said and done. Do you understand me? I promise that to you."
She giggled. "Can we torture her a little before she dies?"
Again, I boggled at the difference between livisk and human society. Sure, torture was one of those things human governments still did, and then acted all high and mighty and talked about how they didn’t, but it was odd to hear a child talking about it so casually. Then I thought about everything the empress had done, particularly to Sera, and I shrugged and grinned.
"Yeah, sure. We can do a little bit of torture. You can even pull one of her fingernails off if you want to."
"Yay," she said, clapping her hands together and rocking back and forth, practically buzzing with energy. On the outside I tried to look supportive, because she seemed to have gotten over the momentary grief that had overwhelmed her. Inside, I was still reeling. Fucking livisk.
Still, when in Rome, and the Romans had some very particular ideas with how to deal with an imperial figurehead who'd outlived their usefulness.
Posted May 22, 2026, 5:02 PM UTC