The next day, both of the new living compartments arrived and I had them installed on the top floor and the floor below that, since there was only one spot remaining on each level of the habitat for new compartments. Lashina was the one that needed the most work, so I put her on the second level and further away from my own living space. I also added the modifications they would need to survive what was going to be pretty much a battle zone.

I reasoned that if she saw me every night, Lashina would think that I was trying to be soft on her by treating her better, and she wouldn't try to break herself out of her mental conditioning as quickly. She was going to have to earn the right to be near me. I knew that sounded pretentious; but, with our promise to each other as motivation, she was the one that was going to have to work to complete it.

It was just the opposite reasoning for Kara. With me within her sight at night, she would know that I was intentionally being harder on her by keeping a close eye on what she was doing... just like she had with me. She would have to earn the right to be away from me. That made me smile, because I thought it was going to be fun to see her struggle under the same scrutiny that she had me under.

I went to the security section and retrieved Lashina first. Her reaction to being moved wouldn't be as... spectacular... as Kara's was going to be. Isabella greeted me and I went over to Lashina's cell. She was meditating and floating above the bed.

“I'm sorry for disturbing you.” I said.

“Yes, I know.” Lashina said and opened her eyes. “My room is ready.”

“If you would come with me, I can get you settled.”

“Your precautions aren't necessary.” Lashina said and landed on the floor and walked over to the door.

I opened it and she stepped out and held up her wrists. “I can decouple them for you.” I said and removed the magnetic restriction. “I can't remove them.”

“Hunter.” Lashina frowned slightly.

“You know I can't let you use your full abilities, not on a space station.” I said as I knelt and kissed her. She moaned into my mouth and I broke the kiss. “I tried modifying the dampeners in the cuffs to stop all of your abilities and they just short circuit from the overload.”

“Have you tried doubling them?” Lashina asked.

“You can't wear more than what you have on or they start interfering with each other.” I said and stood up. “I'd like for you to try and behave.”

“Hunter, I am a grown woman.” Lashina said. “You don't have to treat me like a child.”

I held a hand out to her and she gave me a look, then sighed and took the hand. I poured my love into her and she gasped. “I'm treating you with the care and respect you deserve, Lashina.”

“While you... keep your distance.” Lashina said.

I nodded and we walked out of the security section. “You are a very dangerous woman and I would be lax in my responsibility to the rest of my family to let you roam around unchecked.”

Lashina let out a sigh, because she could 'hear' my stray thoughts and had to agree. She still worshipped the goddess. As long as she maintained her contact to her, Hunter and his family were in danger from both her and the goddess.

“You should leave me in the cell.” Lashina said.

“No, I'm not that cruel.” I said as we took the lift up to the floor with her living compartment. “I've modified your space to have a protective barrier that will hopefully keep your stray Presence use contained.” I opened her door and she squealed in delight at the sight.

Inside was a combination of her living quarters and her office, with all of her things inside.

“The only difference is the change of clothes in the closets.” I said. “You're not allowed to wear Order robes anymore.”

“These awkward things?” Lashina asked and whipped her robes off and left herself in a long sleeved t-shirt and short skirt. “I like this much better.” She said and gave me a seductive look as she turned away. She lifted her hip slightly and her short shirt hiked up. “So do you.”

I smiled and used Presence to pull her skirt down. “Lose the rest, too.”

“What do you mean?” Lashina turned back to look at me, then she took in a sharp breath. “No!”

I nodded and used a Presence Blade to slice off her skirt and it fell to the floor, then I did the same to her top. “There's not a skirt to be had anywhere in this room.”

“Hunter! No!” Lashina exclaimed. “You can't make me do this!”

“I'm sorry, my little pixie.” I said and picked up her ruined clothing, including the robes, and crushed them into tiny balls as I dissolved them. “You are just going to have to suffer with the restriction... of pants.”

“Nooooooo!” Lashina covered her face and dropped to her knees as she cried.

I pet the top of her head and let my fingers run through her long white hair. “I'm tempted to tell you that you're doing this for me, just so I can see that cute little ass in a tight pair of pants.”

Lashina let out a hiccup and shook her head, because she knew that wasn't why I was doing it.

“Show me that you can do this.” I whispered to her. “Show me that you can change this one little thing in your life.”

“H-Hunter, I...” Lashina wiped at her face. “I don't know if I can.”

“It's a good thing I bought thousands of different panties for you, since you're going to be walking around in them all the time.” I said and she sobbed. “Oh, and no cheating. You can't cut things up and make a skirt out of it.”

“You... you're being... so cruel!” Lashina said.

“I know, sweetheart.” I said and bent down to kiss the top of her head. “I really do.” I turned around and looked at Noma. “Please watch over her for me.”

“Of course.” Noma came in and opened her mouth a little, then Lashina's extra Presence disappeared. “It has a taste of you in it.” She said, a little surprised.

“It happened a long time ago.” I said and gave her a kiss and a taste of my Presence, then I walked out of the room. I went down in the lift to the security station and went over to Kara's cell.

“You should leave me in here.” Kara said.

“I know it's a lot nicer than the room you had on the ships you've been on; but, I won't let you wallow in your self-pity.” I said and opened the door.

Kara jumped at me and slammed her fist into my face, then wrapped her arms around my neck. “Take off these restraints or else!” She said loudly and turned me around to put me between her and Isabella.

“Can I?” Isabella asked as she looked at me.

“Go ahead.” I said and turned off the magnetic restraints on Kara's cuffs and ducked.

Isabella smiled, quick-drew her holstered weapon, aimed, and fired in less than a second. The stun round hit Kara right in the forehead and knocked her out. I caught her before she fell to the floor.

“I guess I won't have any trouble bringing her to her room now.” I chuckled.

“I tried to warn you.” Isabella said.

“Thanks.” I said and picked Kara up in my arms. “Do you want to come along and see what happens?”

Isabella chuckled this time. “You really are going to assign me to guard duty, aren't you?”

I shook my head. “No, you can choose what you want to do. I just thought you might want to make sure she doesn't mess up your command area.”

Isabella gave me a look that said I was manipulating her. “That's sneaky.”

“At least you'll be busy.” I said, and she had to laugh.

“All right, I'll be her shadow for a little while.”

“I'll be bringing her along while I work, too.” I said and she nodded.

“I'll stop her from stealing anything.” Isabella said.

The two of us walked out of the security section and went to the lift. We rode it up to the top floor and took Kara into her new living quarters.

“Good heavens!” Isabella exclaimed when she saw the girly interior. “She's going to kill you.”

I laughed. “What girl doesn't like having their own pink wonderland to live in?”

“Maybe when they were five.” Isabella shook her head as she looked around. “I'm actually scared to look in the closets.”

“You have great instincts.” I said with a grin and she laughed.

“You are a cruel, cruel man.” Isabella said. “She really must have pissed you off for you to get her back like this.”

“Want to help me change her into her new uniform?” I asked with a gleam in my eye as I laid Kara on her bed covered in frilly pillows.

Isabella thought about refusing, then sighed. “I'll help, just so I can get over the laugh before she wakes up.”

“That's the spirit.” I said and nodded at the closet.

Isabella walked over to it and inside were two dozen adult sized little girl dresses that made you look like a princess. She put a hand over her eyes and shook her head for almost thirty seconds, then she took the first one off the rack and brought it over to me.

“I swear, if she doesn't strangle you, I think I might do it for her.” Isabella said.

“Don't worry. This is just as ridiculous as The Order's color coded robe uniforms.” I said.

We quickly changed Kara's robes for the dress. I checked her robes and emptied the things inside the hidden pocket to find a couple data chips, a credit chip, her apartment key, and to my surprise, a picture of me. I put them on the nightstand beside the bed and then used Presence to do up her hair into a proper princess style. When she was properly prepped, I opened the drawer to take out a diamond-covered tiara.

Isabella gasped at the glittery jewellery and I held it out to her. “It's real?” She asked, shocked, and handed it back.

“Everything's real.” I said and tucked the tiara into Kara's hair. “I held off on having a wand or a sceptre made, though. I thought that would have been too ridiculous.”

Isabella shook her head. “When you decide to do something, you go all out, don't you?”

“My automated missile factory is fully operational and I'm just waiting for more parts, the troop transport is already inside the mobile dock being converted into a cruise ship, and I've got another thousand satellites to ship out.” I smiled. “I also have two people that need some good mental reconditioning to help them fight their old mental conditioning.”

Isabella looked around the room. “Are you sure this is going to be good mental conditioning?”

“I'm positive.” I said and put my hand on Kara's forehead. “It seems she wasn't too scrambled by the stun shot.” I used one of Lashina's techniques and 'fixed' the stun effect.

“Uhhh.” Kara groaned and lifted her hand to rub her face. “What hit me?” She asked, then her hand touched mine and she caught her breath and opened her eyes.

I took my hand off of her forehead. “Stun shot, right in the forehead.” I said and tapped the spot on my own forehead. “The lieutenant commander is a fantastic shot.”

Kara closed her eyes for a moment, then she opened them and used her hands to sit up. She realized her arms were free and she was about to comment, then she frowned.

“You're still wearing them.” I said and took her hand, then held it up. “Coordinating accents.”

Kara sighed. “Why are you doing this... to... me?” She finally saw her bright pink girly dress and stared at it.

“Oh, you've noticed your new uniform.” I said and pat her hand. “You can't wear your old uniform anymore.”

“My robes!” Kara exclaimed.

“Relax.” I said and pointed to the nightstand. “Your things are right there.”

Kara sighed in relief and turned to look... and saw the picture of me there. Her hand gripped mine tightly, then she realized she was gripping my hand and let it go.

“It's not what you think.” Kara said.

“I'm pretty sure I know what it means when a woman has a picture of a man in her possession.” I said.

“No, that's not...” Kara took in a deep breath and let it out. As she tried to compose herself, she looked around the room. “Where by the Goddess' Light am I?”

“This is your new living space.” I said and stood up. “Someone has a false sense of themselves and they need to understand what that means.”

“I am not living here.” Kara said.

“I'm sorry, you don't have a choice in the matter.” I said and she looked at me. “That's right. You didn't feel the Presence waver, did you?”

“But... I'm...”

“...a grown woman.” I finished for her and she nodded. “That's what Lashina said.”

“Does she have to live like this, too?” Kara asked and in her mind she could easily see Lashina fitting well into this kind of environment.

“Oh, no. What she has to deal with is much worse than this.” I said and smiled as Kara thought of a bunch of different ways that I could have made Lashina's room worse than this. “I'm making her wear pants.”

“No!” Kara gasped, because she knew that Lashina had never worn pants in over a hundred and ten years of her life. “She must be going crazy!”

I looked down into the next compartment and saw Lashina vigorously shaking her head as she held a pair of pants. “She hasn't even put a pair on yet.”

“I don't think she will.” Kara said and looked down at herself. “I wouldn't have put this on, either.”

“Once again, you don't have a choice. It's either that or you walk around in just your underwear.” I said. “I'll give you the same restriction as Lashina, just in case. You can't cut up things or make something else to wear from the bedding or curtains.”

Kara looked at the bed she was on and then at the coverings over to port window. “Everything is pink!”

I chuckled. “It's dastardly, I know.” I said. “I just don't want you making new robes or anything.”

Kara frowned at me.

“On that note, I'll let you look around your new home and get acquainted with everything.” I said and Isabella and I walked over to the door. “Oh, and everything is reinforced. Even if you had access to Presence, you can't damage anything except the clothing.”

“You... you...” Kara started to say.

“Before you finish that thought, there's a full length mirror on the inside of the closet door.” I said. “Go have a nice peek at how cute you look all dressed up.”

“CUTE!” Kara yelled and I laughed.

“See you at lunch.” I said and shut the door. I stood there and waited for almost ten minutes as she stared at the door.

*

Kara gave up seeing if he was going to come back to tell her that he was only joking and it took her a minute to get off the bed. The fluffy bottom of her dress got in the way and she swatted it away angrily. She stood up and took a breath, let it out, and walked over to the closet. She opened the door and nearly shouted when she saw the contents. She grit her teeth and opened the closet door all the way, then she let out an inarticulate shout when she saw her reflection.

It was exactly how Kara looked like in her childhood fantasy when she had first met her 'prince'. The style of dress, the color, her hair style, and even... her observations stopped and she reached up to touch the gleaming diamond tiara in her hair. She pulled it out and turned it around to look at it with her own eyes. She blinked her eyes rapidly and stopped the tears from forming.

No, I... I can't let him get to me like this. Kara thought and put the tiara back in her hair and shut the door.