Today, after I finish the Commander’s correspondence, I have a cup of tea with the female servant who is my age, and taught me to play the game Jam. We meet regularly, and she often tells me all the gossip on the ship and from the Home Planet. My commander says that my language and cultural skills are still not good enough to access all the information available to me on my computer, so she is my source of entertainment. She never fails to tell me something I find interesting.

“Volunteer 4711,” she says, waving at me to join her in the busy canteen. “I’m here.”

I join her with my tea.

She smiles in a Silver way without showing her sharp teeth. I know she has something to tell me that she is excited about today.

“You will never believe this,” she says. I don’t bother saying ‘what’ because she is the type of wonderful friend that is too excited to wait. “You were in the newspapers.”

I put down my tea. “Why?”

“I know. I was shocked too. I wish I could show you, but you know the Commander’s orders.”

“Why was I in the papers?” I ask again.

“That’s the funny thing. The farmers who you volunteered for are calling you back and saying that the Commander took you illegally.”

“I saved his life, then he gave me this position,” I say.

“I know,” she says sympathetically, “and everyone knows, but they’re backward farmers, and their other volunteers have all died, so they’re just trying to get you back because they’ve nothing else to lose. I don’t think it’ll come to anything.”

“I hope so.”

“I know so,” she says, then changes her tone, “I didn’t mean to upset you. Don’t worry; you will never go back there. I will buy them off myself if that’s what it takes; you are one of us, Volunteer 4711.”

I smile and then change the subject by asking her about the latest fashions from the Home Planet. She is more than happy to describe the clothing and the kind of parties and entertainment famous Silvers were attending. It’s almost like watching the Silver version of the Hollywood Reporter, which was one of my favorite guilty pleasures.

After my tea break, I start the laundry and then study more of the Silver language and culture with my computer program. Next is my self-defense training, and then I relax until the evening when the Commander buzzes me. Once a week, I masturbate for him while he watches. This is a treat that I find myself looking forward to. I have a fantasy that he enjoys watching me in a sexual way, and it makes me feel like a complete person. Otherwise, I’m just a worker, a volunteer, a Water woman… not free. But when he’s watching me, I feel free. I feel like I’ve control over myself and maybe even him, or I like to imagine I do.

Later, when I see him, I remember what my friend had told me over tea. I want to ask about the farmers claiming me, but according to protocol, I’m not supposed to speak first, and for some reason, he isn’t in a good mood. I begin taking off his clothing, hoping he will tell me about what’s going on, but he says nothing. As I put away his pins, he says nothing. I look at him with eyes that I hope to say, ‘Tell me what’s going on,’ but still, he says nothing.