Feliax Customs

After that, Dustin had let the two women take the lead on sketching out their idea of what their new crew member should ideally be like. He wasn’t that concerned - when asked for his input he’d just shrugged and pointed out that he was already more than happy with the two of them, and as such he didn’t have any strong preferences either way for the new recruit. Meli huffed at that, and Rye kept insisting he add something so eventually he just noted that he’d prefer someone who liked singing. Music nights on board ship had become something of a joy for all three of them; whilst he’d managed to coax Rye into playing percussion (the Rabyth woman scratch-building a rough approximation of a traditional Rabyth instrument out of spare parts) and even Meli had produced a flute-like instrument (that had Rye making arch commentary about the Velca being good at blowing things) none of the three of them were particularly good singers.

With what Meli was referring to as a recruitment profile (but Dustin had internally logged as a dating filter) done, the two officers had gone over some technical specs, Meli shifting into Rabyth for ease of discussion. While he’d been doing his best to learn his fiancé and girlfriend’s languages, Dustin wasn’t even close to following engineering-grade questions and answers in Rabythian. Eventually though, Rye sat back and kicked her heels up onto the table. “Okay. It’s doable, should take me all of a half day to get it done, less if that program you’ve been working on interfaces correctly. If not I’ll run a bypass through one of the sensor arrays and redo it on the fly with you - I’ll get on this now, then we can spend tomorrow fine-tuning.” At that, she drained her drink, leaned over to get a kiss from Dustin and darted out of the room.

“Do I need to know much about that?” Dustin asked, gesturing to the door the woman had just run through. “Not really as far as the technical side of things goes.” Meli began, walking to the automat and giving him a questioning look. Dustin replied with a nod, and she punched in a drinks order for the pair of them. Coming back to the table, she carried on her explanation “Feliax are going to be a lot for you to take in as a human I suspect. Let’s start with the basics - their society is based around display. Everything is based on how fancy you can make it; this ship’s plenty fancy in spec terms, but we don’t show off enough visually. Rye’s going to make our hull sparkle on the way in, that should set a good tone.”

Taking the offered mug and sipping it before setting it down, Dustin queried the Velca. “So, does that mean they’re concerned with wealth? We had a phase of that back on Earth before first contact and judging by the history books it didn’t go too well.” Meli sighed and sat down. “Not really. It’s about appearances. Sure, wealth is an easy metric - but just handing over stacks of currency or minerals is considered crass and something only the lowest in society do. A one-off painting, a piece of sculpture, home-made jam from a tree you’ve grown yourself - masterpieces that are unique, rare or just show your personal attention to the details are the real mark of high society for the Feliax.” She paused for a moment, then continued. “There’s another matter - Feliax are, as I’m sure you’ve picked up by now quite hierarchical. That shows itself in a range of things, but primarily in their relationships. You are aware of the concept of arranged marriages from human history?”

Dustin nodded, suddenly sure he could see where this was going. “Well, to put it bluntly - Feliax organize into packs or prides, depending on how you want to look at it. The groups are one male to many females due to their biology; significantly more female births than male ones. Interestingly enough, in pure Feliax prides only the lead female remains fertile - part of the reason they have the reputation they do is because it gets a bit odd with non-Feliax males, and even in regular prides the ‘lead female’ is merely the first Feliax in the group, non-Feliax women don’t count. We think. There’s a paper speculating about human women, but I’m digressing. You’re probably thinking that this sounds very patriarchal about now, right?” Dustin blinked and nodded. Meli smiled and shook her head. “Actually, they’re the most matriarchal society on the council. Males have very, very little say in the organization of their prides; that falls to the first female and her second. Which is why…” Dustin cut in then with a smile “we need to make it clear that you and Rye are first and second within our own relationship or otherwise she’ll try and boss me around on my own ship, correct?”

Meli’s ears flickered into amusement. “Not on your ship, captain - they’re too professional for that when dealing with non-Feliax. But when we’re off duty or in the bedroom? Judging by what Rye told me about your reaction to her little gravity-clamp cuffs, I suspect you’d prefer to not be being bossed around too much in either area of our lives. If she’s not in the first or second position, the two of us can mitigate that if necessary.” The Velca stretched before continuing “In any case, we’ll be dealing with the empress or her pridemate for most of the negotiations to arrange a new crew member. Once a candidate is approved by Rye and myself, you then get to deal with the fun part.”

Dustin winced at that, sure this was going to be awkward. “What’s the fun part?” he asked hesitantly. Meli paused again for a moment, clearly trying to phrase it correctly. “Pride members don’t leave their prides for free. There’s a trade involved; you’ll need to discuss with the male of the pride to agree a suitable transaction. He’ll be influenced by two things in this matter - the matriarch’s views, and the views of the person involved, but ultimately it’s his job to ensure that any trades that don’t come with reciprocal agreements are to the pride’s benefit.” Dustin looked puzzled at that, and Meli sighed. “Unless you want to promise one of your eventual kids hand in marriage to a Feliax, you’ll need to agree to pay something to the pride our new crew member is joining from.”

Dustin’s jaw dropped open and he spluttered at that, before Meli leaned forward and closed it with a finger. “You’re probably getting weird slavery vibes in your head. It’s not. It’s closer to a dowry - lots of human cultures had those, right? So, the process goes like this. We meet and discuss the matter with the empress and find a candidate. Rye and I discuss matters with the candidate’s pridemother, and you spend that time talking - and I mean just talking - with the candidate. She’ll have the second as a chaperon in any case. After that, the matriarch, second and candidate will all go talk to their pridemaster - in this case, with me present as matriarch of your pride as well - and then you and her pridemaster can sit down and discuss things and reach an agreement.” Dustin nodded, more than a little bemused by the whole situation, then straightened up and nodded. “Okay. If that’s what we need to do, that’s what we need to do. First things first then - lets get a handle on cultural basics so I don’t screw the whole discussion up before we even start talking trades. Or cause any diplomatic incidents by insulting the empress seeing as we’re apparently meeting her first.”