Desirée was still feeling weak and achy when they finally disembarked on Galos IV. Bridget, Kalyani and she tried not to rubberneck as they walked from the space terminal to the ground car that would take them to the Guild Academy. The ground car was a cigar-shaped vehicle that rode on a monorail, but also had wheels for when it needed to leave the road. It was painted in the now-familiar Guild colours of red and gold.
The car was large enough to fit all 5 passengers. Once they were inside, Ssurhuk-T'at punched some buttons on the car's command console. Although the ground car had controls should anyone need to steer it, both the Academy professors were content to let the vehicle's autopilot do the work.
The main city of Galos IV had wide avenues liberally dotted with tall, strange looking trees. Desirée could see thousands of aliens walking on the boulevards as they passed. Although Galos IV was an atmosphere similar to Earth, the light was slightly different; the sky had more of a greenish cast. Most of the bizarre creatures wandering the sidewalks were air breathers, but she saw the occasional sealed skinsuit worn by an alien that breathed something other than oxygen.
Soon the silver ground car left the city, and locked on to a highway shaded by tall forests. The trees zipped by too quickly for Desirée to get a good look at them, but she quickly realized that they were nothing like the ones on Earth.
Eventually, they left the freeway and passed through several small cities, buildings and boulevards zipping past them. Desirée quickly lost track of all the twists and turns the vehicle took in order to reach its final destination.
Finally, they turned a corner and saw the Guild Academy, a sprawling group of buildings ringed by a high fence. A fountain threw sparkles of water into the air in front of the low red and gold building.
"Most of the Academy is underground," Veronica answered the girls' unspoken question. "There are several underground entrances as well. Even though the Guild is perfectly legal, many of our guests prefer to be discreet when using our services. Those towers," she pointed to the tall towers that dotted the building, "are landing zones for spaceships that carry those guests who cannot use our regular rooms." Desirée could see a small spaceship, very similar to the one that picked them up on Earth, take off and ascend to the heavens.
"Then why did we stop at the terminal instead of coming directly here?" Bridget asked.
"Because we wanted to show you something of Galos IV," Veronica replied. "Once you learn something about the planet and its customs, you will be allowed to leave the grounds and go into the city on weekends."
The vehicle pulled up in between the fountain and the front entrance. Ssurhuk-T'at pressed the release button for the hatch.
Just then, Veronica pressed a hand to her ear. She stopped for several seconds, listening to something only she could hear.
"Professor Ssurhuk-T'at, could you escort the girls to the Assembly Room?" she finally said. "I must take this call."
"Certainly," the three-eyed alien said. "Ladies, if you will come with me?"
The professor led them through the front entrance. Despite the somewhat daunting exterior, the inside of the Academy was more lavishly decorated and less institutional. The now-familiar smart chairs dotted the entrance, and the walls were decorated with paintings, featuring various aliens writhing with, and interpenetrating, one another in seemingly limitless combinations.
Bridget gasped and tried not to look at the lurid artwork, while Desirée tried not to get distracted. Some of the actions the alien creatures were performing seemed to violate basic laws of physics.
"We *are* an Academy of Courtesans," Prof. Ssurhuk-T'at said dryly. "This is part of the public area and these images are designed to get our guests in the proper frame of mind, you might say. The actual Academy halls are not as sumptuous but we are never allowed to forget what a large part of our mandate is."
Ssurhuk-T'at pressed his palm to a scanner, and a door quickly irised open. "The Assembly Room is this way."
He led them down a long hallway that looked a lot more like the halls of a law school. The paintings changed: now they were holographic images of various creatures, sitting in formal repose. The only one they recognized was at the end: Veronica wearing a set of formal robes.
"Our Hall of Heads, so to speak," the alien professor said. "Signora Franco is, of course, our most recent headmistress of the Academy. Nearly all of them are female."
"Why is that?" Desirée asked.
He shrugged. "Not surprising, really. The vast majority of Guild Courtesans are female. The Guild is open to males, of course, " He touched his chest in emphasis. "But male courtesans are few and far between: about one in 500. We've found that females tend to have the better temperament for this kind of work."
He led them through another door and into a lecture hall. About 180 alien creatures were already seated in smart chairs, facing the lecture podium. Desirée blinked at the different species that were represented: many were bipedal, albeit very different from human. One looked like a grey-skinned vampire, with pointed teeth, long black hair and an angular nose, while another resembled an elegant cross between a human and a swan. A third creature looked like a gigantic caterpillar and a fourth was a wisp of cloud. Gauging by their manner and clothing, all of them were female.
"Take your seats. Signora Franco will be with you shortly." Ssurhuk-T'at left them and walked towards the front of the hall, standing at the back of the low stage. Desirée sat down, the chair automatically adjusting to her physiology. Kalyani sat next to her, her dark eyes darting everywhere. The Indian woman was shaking with fear.
The door to the lecture hall irised open and Veronica walked through. Her face was grim as she ascended the low stage.
"Welcome to the Guild Academy," she said, standing at the podium. She spoke in Italian, which Desirée's UTD instantly converted into English. "For those of you who have not met me yet, I am Signora Franco and I am the headmistress of this school. You will meet your other professors in due course."
She pressed a button on her console. "I am currently downloading a map of the Academy plus your curriculum to your UTDs." Desirée saw reams of information scrolling across her retinas. "This download also contains where you will sleep and the name of your roommate." Desirée and Kalyani grinned at each other: they were sharing a room. Bridget was staring at the vampire woman with a look of ill-concealed horror.
"Before we go any further, I would like you to look to the student on your right, then on your left." Veronica's voice became sharper. "By the third year, at least one of you will no longer be a student at this Academy. You are the cream of the crop, and our job here is to ensure that only the cream of the cream will become Guild courtesans. This will be the toughest 3 years of your lives but by the end of it, you will have achieved the basis for a long and successful career.
"Many former Guild courtesans have ascended to the highest levels of the Foreign Service and the Government. Many others have gone on to great success in other fields. If you make it through the next three years, that success may be yours but that success will cost: in sweat and hard work.
"That is all for now. You will now go over to Stores in order to get your Academy uniforms and your minicomputers. Your first class begins in an hour."
The other students stood up and began walking out the west door, their UTD's automatically projecting a map on the inside of their retinas.
"May I have a moment, Desirée?" Veronica said as she walked past. "You too, Kalyani."
