I was summoned to their command centre. It was only a short drive between the old city and the new one. The distance getting shorter all the time now, the alien domes beginning to merge with the square outlying hab blocks. I was stopped at the checkpoint to the military district. However, once several of their hovering drones scanned my vehicle and confirmed my identity, I was let through. After disembarking I was escorted by a single fire warrior though the facility. Given how other human delegations were treated I was aware I was getting the light touch. Being the former governor that had surrendered the world, sorry, agreed to the protection of the Tau empire, I mentally corrected, did have some advantages.
Eventually I reached a lift that took me up one of their spires. There behind a door flanked by two bodyguards, was the office of Commander Kor'La, military leader of the Tau forces on Kyla. "I have received the most disturbing report," Kor'La said, studying me from across his while marble desk. He had swapped the armour that all fire caste I'd seen wear for robes. He said it helped put people at ease. Personally I felt it said I don't consider you a threat. "Apparently the banner in the main cathedral proclaiming the peace and harmony of the Greater Good was torn down last night. Do you know anything about this?" he continued.
"I do not, sir," I lied. Pontifex Jeromy had been incensed that the banner had been hung above the blessings of the Emperor and must have ordered a priest to tear it down during the night. "Perhaps a servo-skull misidentified the banner as a foreign object and cut it away. You must realise their machine spirits can get very set in their ways," I continued, falling back on a well used excuse.
"I am willing to accept your explanation of another malfunctioning artificial intelligence," Kor'la said after a moment's contemplation of my response. "But it is to be replaced by the end of the day. I want it to be back before Prince Fio'Ui returns from his inspection of the outer districts."
"It will be done," I said. Even if I had to personally restrain Jeromy.
"Good," Kor'La said, putting his hands together, leaning forward. "I don't have to remind you that your worship of your Emperor is a gift we do not offer to all. If we feel it is being abused, we may review it."
"I am aware of that."
"I'm sure you do personally," Kor'la said. "But I fear that there is still resistance amongst the population. Perhaps you are in need of a reminder," he continued, getting up from his chair. "Of the advantages of the greater good, to inspire them." He pulled apart his robe and I realised he wasn't wearing anything underneath. He made a seductive look at me. Horny bastard.
"Perhaps I should," I replied, approaching and taking him in a warm embrace, bringing my mouth to his in a kiss.
For a while I lay there on the bed in a post coitus stupor before getting up to relieve myself. The floor was cold against my bare feet. I suppose with their hoofs it was never a problem. As I took a piss I could feel his alien semen leaking out of my ass. I muttered a quick, if probably futile prayer to the Emperor for forgiveness. I was probably damned long ago.
"Another archaic religious expression?" a voice said. I turned to see that Kor'la was up, lounging naked on the bed in silken sheets. It never stopped being strange that the tau did not have doors or even walls to their bathroom. For them their living space was a single private area. Still it didn't feel right for me.
"Old habits die hard," I replied, shifting uncomfortably.
"Ah yes. Your Imperium life still dominates your worldview. You seemed so reluctant when we started."
"You are a xeno," I pointed out. All my life I had been taught to hate aliens, spent years fighting them. Yet being forced to sit down and deal with them for months took some of the mystery away. Kor'La especially had made every effort to be warm and friendly, even if it turned out he had additional motivation.
"Hah!" Kor'La snorted. "We do not have your irrational fear of over races. I have had several encounters with other species, Kroot, Demiurg…"
"How is that possible?" I asked at the first one. I knew enough about Kroot biology.
"They give great head," he explained, eyes rolling up in memory. "Wonderful tongues."
"I don't want to know," I protested. Perverted images filled my mind. Kor'La was human enough that I could accept our relationship but anything more alien was too much.
"And there was I thinking your resistance came from the fact we are both male," he continued. Kor'La has started inviting me to private dinners, I had accepted, feeling more comfortable talking soldier to soldier instead of dealing with the insufferable Fio'Ui. He had been shocked when he realised Kor'La was making the bedroom eyes at him one night. It was even more surprising, it was the alcohol he'd thought later, that he'd accepted the tau's advances.
"It is... discouraged," I admitted. I mean it had never been outlawed, but most cults took a dim view of homosexuality, viewing it as a sin, robbing the imperium of a future warrior. The more excessive viewed it as simply another of heresy to be put to the stake. In his time in the guard he'd experienced them all and learned to be discrete. The local cults of Kyla were fairly liberal as they go but he knew it would damage his standing as governor. "What about your culture? How does this fit into the greater good?"
"Non reproductive sexual relationships are not a punishable offence," Kor'La replied, chuckling at my use of his guiding principle. "Most prefer to do it within ta'lissera, but providing you are not indiscrete and disrupt the procreation program it is not an issue. Most recognise that some deviation from the greater good is necessary to ensure an individual can fulfil his role better."
"Isn't that a contradiction?" I pointed out.
"Perhaps," he admitted. "But I still have hoped you would allow us to be more open about our relationship."
"It would not be politically wise," I pointed out, moving to stare out of the window. "Some people hate me enough for not resisting your arrival. For me to be seen as involved with you, could provoke resistance."
"It is such a pity that some of your people still resist the greater good," he noted. "I received a report a few days ago that Enginseer Krugen still performs his archaic machine cult practices in secret."
"I thought that was the same Krugen Fio'Ui honoured last month for his adoption of tau technology," I said. Trust a tech priest like Krugen to be trying to stay due to the Cult Mechanicus while taking apart Tau drones for study.
"As you said, it appears that for humans, old habits die hard," he replied, smiling at the call back. "Ultimately I dismissed the report as unproven."
Movement in the window made me move over to it, Kor'La had guaranteed the glass was one way, ensuring our privacy. A heavy industrial transport coming into land at the new spaceport, better than the earthen field that had passed for ours. "New delivery?" I asked, counting the number of cargo pods.
"Industrial equipment," Kor'La explained. "The earth caste wishes to expand your light industry sector. They feel this planet can be more than a simple agricultural centre."
"You mean replace," I said, turning towards him, still naked.
"Supplement," he replied, "At least at first. Fio'Ui wishes to ensure our own presence here is self supporting and our supply lines less vulnerable before we start real economic and technological integration."
"Prince Fio'Ui is an inexperienced fool," I snapped, in annoyance, the current status quo was working, doing that could cause no end of problems, and force me to really pick a side.
"He is an ethereal!" Kor'la said reproachfully. Insulting the ethereal class was pretty much a heresy in Tau society. "While I admit he is inexperienced," he admitted a moment later. "He does know the value of advice."
"You mean he does what you tell him to."
"I simply advise," he insisted.
"Any chance you could advise him to hold off for a while?" I asked, coming to sit down on the bed.
"I already have," he gave a wry smile. "He was going to order full integration as soon as possible but I and planner Fio'Vre pointed out how overstretched our resources are. He soon saw the benefit of a slower pace."
"I suppose I should thank you for that," I said.
"You should, but then I also would not want to force the greater good on your people. The work can sometimes be… unpleasant. Plus I fear it would ruin our relationship." He reached out a hand towards me.
"It probably would," I replied, taking his hand in mine. I had read reports of what happened to those that resisted the tau. Talk of cities destroyed, families fed to Kroot alive and camps that turned people into mindless drones. How much of it was baseless propaganda he didn't know, but he knew that Kyla was getting the light touch treatment. It was certainly better than what the Imperium would have done to the Tau.
"You know it can't last," Kor'La said suddenly. "Both us and this world I mean. Sooner or later I will be replaced, or a new ethereal will be assigned that will demand further integration."
"Or the Imperium will return," I said, though the chances of that were slim. "And if that happens you will be dead and I'll be up against the wall or worse."
"I can't protect you forever," he said. I started out of the window again, he was right of course, soon this little bit of tranquillity would come crashing down. "I suppose we have to make the most of the time we have." I replied, leaned backwards and slid my hand under the covers to brush along Kor'La's cock. Just for a moment I didn't want to think about our problems. "Ready for round two?" I asked. His hardening member suggested he was.
"I am always ready, my most favourite gue'la," he said, rolling on top of me.
"You know I hate it when you call me that," I complained as we kissed.
"Would you prefer my mate?" he asked, a finger gently circling my nipple, apparently the tau found them fascinating.
"Better," I was before gasping. While Kor'La was an alien, he was an excellent lover.