by Maia Starr
Richard looked at his watch and then looked at the road in the distance. “Right on time.”
“What? Who is that?” I said, looking in that direction, as Richard pulled my arms from his neck and walked toward our parked cars to wait for the jeep to pull up.
“It’s a new friend. His name is Xander Black and I think you’re going to like him. He has something to show us,” Richard said.
“What is it? Richard, what is going on here?” I asked walking after him.
“It’s out of this world,” he said as he turned and put his hand around my waist and pulled me toward him. He planted a firm kiss on my lips and then grinned. He was excited. I hadn’t seen him this excited in a long time. Then he pulled away from me just as the door opened to the jeep.
“Xander! Welcome to our little base camp!” Richard shouted happily as he walked fast toward the man in the suit who carried a briefcase.
“Good to see you again, Dr. Sanders,” the man said, shaking Richard’s hand.
“Please come over and meet my partner, Dr. Adriana Adams,” Richard gestured toward me. I smiled and wiped my dirty hands on the back of my high waist jeans. I wasn’t exactly dressed for company with my long black hair in a high ponytail and dirt smudged on my face. My blue and white plaid shirt was tied in front exposing a little bit of my belly because it was a hot day. Even my rugged lace up boots made me feel very underdressed as I looked at Xander’s polished shoes.
“Nice to meet you,” I said holding my hand out to him. He smiled and shook it.
“So did you bring it?” Richard asked him.
“Right here. Shall we take a look?” Xander said, as he patted the suitcase.
“Come into our lab,” Richard said, leading the man to our RV, which was part lab and part living space.
A few moments later we were standing around the small kitchen island as Xander laid the suitcase on it and opened it.
“It’s very rare so you have to be careful,” he said as he grabbed a velvet pouch from the suitcase and delicately pulled out a shiny orange rock. I had never seen anything like it.
“What is that? Has that been painted?” I asked, getting a closer look.
Richard laughed at my reaction and then moved in closer to the rock. “It is fascinating Xander just like you said. May I?” Richard said as he gestured to hold it.
“Yes, be my guest. That’s why I am here,” Xander said. Richard picked up the rock and looked it over. He handed it to me as he moved to the lab and set up the power microscope. I held the shiny orange object in my hand and knew that I had never seen anything like it. Not only was it something I had never seen, it was also something that was not known to the science community. It was beautiful. It was just as shiny as polished silver or gold but it was bright orange in color. It felt solid and heavy in my hand. I was mesmerized by it.
“Here, Adriana,” Richard said, motioning me over to the microscope. I placed the rock on the microscope.
“Unbelievable,” Richard said as he looked through the eyepiece. “This is just astonishing. It’s almost as if it’s alive.”
“Yes, exactly. The amount of energy that one small rock contains can power a whole city for five years,” Xander said.
Richard and I both turned to him with our mouths open. That was impossible and unheard of for any rock.
“What is it?” I asked.
“It’s called flagion by the Drackon. It comes from the planet of Mooreah.”
“This is an alien rock?” I said, suddenly feeling excited and suddenly knowing exactly why Richard had that pep talk with me earlier.
“Yes, Dr. Adams, it is,” Xander said.
“This is the future of geology. Man, this is amazing!” Richard said happily. I smiled and took my turn looking at the flagion rock through the microscope. Richard was right. It was as if the rock was alive with energy. It was beautiful.
“Yes, and you and Dr. Adams can have exclusivity in studying it in our labs if you can help us secure more,” Xander said.
“But how can we do that? We search the Earth for rocks, not Mooreah?” I asked.
Xander looked at Richard in shock and said, “You didn’t tell her?”
“Tell me what?” I asked, confused and suddenly starting to question how these two knew each other in the first place.
“No, I was just about to when you rolled up,” Richard said to him.
“Tell me what? Richard, what is going on?” I asked, getting angry.
“Dr. Adams, we need a trained geologist to go to Mooreah and find a cache of flagion and report to us the exact location,” Xander said.
“What? How can any one of us do that? The Drackon don’t exactly let anyone go and scope out their land,” I said.
“Well, they do let women go to Mooreah. You are a woman, Dr. Adams--a single woman,” Xander said.
I gasped as I realized the full extent of what he was asking. “You want me to register?! But how? If I am married off to a Drackon I can’t exactly come back to Earth to study the flagion, now can I?”
“Yes, you will. We will take care of that. We will have a ship dig out and pick up the flagion from Mooreah, and I guarantee you will be on it when it returns to Earth.”
“But…” I couldn’t get the words out.
“Come on, Adriana. Just think about it. You don’t have to answer now. Just think, we will be the only two geologists that get to study this alien rock from deep space. It’s unlike anything. It’s exciting and new,” Richard said, getting in front of me and putting his arms on mine.
“I’ll need an answer in two weeks,” Xander said, as he picked up the flagion from the microscope and placed it back in his suitcase. Then he was walking out the door.
“I’ll walk you to your car,” Richard said as he left with him. I was left in the R.V. with shock on my face. What the hell had just happened?
Two weeks later I found myself at a familiar place, the registration building in Billings, Montana. It wasn’t the first time I had showed up to this building expecting to be put on the registration list. A year before I had come, fully ready to register to be the wife of a Drackon--an alien weredragon warrior. I had grown tired of my life and it seemed that almost all the women on Earth were eager to sign up. I had convinced myself that I wanted a new adventure, and a husband I had never met. But when I showed up and stood in line, I panicked. I was almost to the head of the line when I left the building. After that I forced myself to accept my life as a geologist with a friends with benefits relationship. I mean Richard was hot as hell and he was someone to hang out with, mixing work with pleasure, so who was I to complain. But the fact was that I did not love him. I wanted more. I wanted passion and craziness and that feeling of being in awe. So now I had that feeling, but in a different way. I was in awe over this flagion rock and I was passionate about studying it and crazy enough to go after it by getting married to an alien. How’s that for career dedication? So that is why I stood in my best maroon dress and pink heels with my hair curled, outside the registration office in a long line that snaked around the building. I could not believe it. I wasn’t expecting this many women in line.
“This is my fifth time coming. I haven’t been matched yet so I just keep trying. How many times have you come?” the woman behind me said. I suddenly realized that she was talking to me.
“Oh, um, hello. This is my first time,” I said a little nervous.
“Oh honey! Congrats on making that decision. It’s a big step to take. But don’t be too nervous. Some women go through the matching cycle for years so, just think of this first time as practice,” she said.
“Oh, okay. What’s the matching cycle?” I asked, realizing that I really didn’t know much about what I was doing.
“I’ll tell ya. I’m practically an expert. So after you do all your boring paperwork, the fun part happens. The registration office will let you scroll through the photos of all the registered Drackon,” she said.
“Scroll though? How many a
re there? I mean, registered Drackon?” I asked.
“Thousands. I usually stop at one hundred and pick my five from that,” she said.
“Your five?” I asked.
“Yes, you get to pick five Drackon and place them in order. You know - first choice, second choice, and so on of which you prefer to have as your husband. Then you will be photographed and your photo and information will be sent to the five that you chose. Then a couple of weeks later the office will contact you and let you know which of your five have chosen you in return, and you have a match! But if none of them chose you, or even responded, then you have to wait a few months and go through the match cycle again.”
“Oh, that’s a lot of work. I didn’t realize it would take so long. I sort of thought you just showed up and was matched on the spot and shipped off the next day,” I said, realizing that waiting months would put our research behind.
The woman laughed at me and said, “No, it’s a crap shoot really.”
“Forms! Registration forms!” a woman shouted as she walked down the line. “If this is your first time here then you need to fill this out!”
“Right here! Right here!” the woman behind me shouted as she pointed at me. I felt embarrassed.
“I’m already in the system but this is her first time here,” the woman behind me said. The lady with the forms handed me a thick stack of forms. I was astonished at the amount of paperwork. “Fill these out and keep them with you.”
“Thank you,” I said as she continued down the line, handing out forms. Then a loud roar of an engine cut through the noise of chattering women. A large truck pulled up, followed by two more. They were military vehicles. The doors opened and out stepped six Drackon warriors. All the women in line began to swoon over them. I had never seen one in real life before but I had seen them in photos and in video. I was shocked by their size. They were very tall, almost eight feet. They were muscular and toned. I was sort of disappointed that they weren’t shifted into dragon form at the moment, but they were still very impressive. One stood taller and stronger than the others and he walked ahead of them as though leading them. He had long blonde hair down to his shoulders and his startling sea green eyes could be seen from a distance. Even the cat like vertical pupil was obvious in his eyes. His tight pants and boots hugged his lower body and his form-fitting top reminded me of a scuba suit. He grinned an impressive smile as he turned to look at the women in line. The women seemed to collectively let out a sigh as he did so. I was also awestruck by this Drackon and my grip on my stack of papers loosened. A few of them caught on the breeze and flew out of my hand.
“Oh no. Crap!” I moved after the pages as they fluttered across the courtyard toward the building door. I felt like such an idiot. I was not this clumsy, yet here I was chasing pages. I reached down to grab one as I caught up with it, just to have it snatched away from me by a very large hand.
“Lose something, human?” a voice said. I looked up and into the face of the blonde Drackon. He was holding both pages that I had been chasing.
“Yes. That’s mine. The breeze pulled it from my hand,” I said, gesturing for him to hand them back.
He let out a little laugh and looked at his warriors behind him and said, “This one is beautiful but obviously weak.” Then he pushed the papers back in my hand.
I gasped at his remark. “How dare you! I am not weak. I will have you know that I am a strong able woman. I am a geologist.” I said it with all the anger and courage inside of me.
He furrowed his brows at me. Obviously he did not know what a geologist was or that I worked outside in a rugged fashion, but I didn’t care. Then he motioned to his warriors and they kept walking inside. I was left feeling really dumb, angry, and a bit turned on by the encounter. I turned and found my place back in line.
“Holy crap! What did he say to you? I can’t believe that just happened. He’s a captain and very powerful!” said the woman in line to me, as soon as I took my place.
“He called me weak,” I said, pouting.
“Oh. That’s not good. You see, they are known for wanting strong women to birth their offspring. Sorry, bad luck,” she said.
“No, it’s good luck. Now I know not to pick him if he’s such an arrogant ass,” I said to her. I angrily filled out the paperwork as I moved slowly forward in line. I was totally pissed off by the encounter, but I could not stop thinking about him, this Drackon captain.
I sat down in front of the registration official as she shuffled through all the forms that I had filled out. “You need to sign at the bottom of all of these, while I witness.”
“Sure,” I said, taking the pen from her and signing my name. I couldn’t believe I was actually doing this. It was insane and yet, exciting. I could not get the Drackon that I encountered earlier off my mind. I didn’t want to be matched with him, but then again… I did. It was a complex battle in my mind.
“Good, now move on to station two. There you will pick your Drackon,” the lady said, as she grabbed the stack of papers and put them in a file, all except one. She handed the paper back to me. It was a wax paper with several pick and peel labels on it with a printed number, Z808, and my name Adriana Adams.
“Take that sheet with you. It’s important,” she continued as she waved me away.
“All right. Thank you,” I said, getting up from the chair and looking around the bustling area stuffed with women as I looked for a sign that read Station Two.
I walked through the obstacle course of women, all hustling to get registered or go through the match cycle again. There were even women in moments of reunion after not having seen each other for years. “It’s so good to see you! It’s been forever! I can’t believe you’re here too! What happened to you and Michael?” were the various lines I heard as I maneuvered toward the back wall and station two. I realized that it was a place of broken marriages, divorce, and women seeking a fresh start. I wondered if I was the only one there registering because of espionage. “You must be insane, Adriana,” I whispered to myself as I stopped to get my bearings.
When I arrived at station two there was another very long line of women. Registration was nothing but long lines; pretty much like the DMV, only this was for a license to marry an alien of sorts. It was silly, really.
Finally, after standing in my heels for an hour, I made it to the front of the line.
“Next!” the lady shouted. I handed her my label page. She pulled one off and slapped it on another paper as she said, “Have you done the match before?”
“No. I would like…” I began to say but she cut me off.
“Lucy! This one needs a tour!” she shouted. She handed my page off to Lucy, who smiled at me and gestured for me to follow her.
“Hello…Adriana,” she said as she looked down at my page for my name.
“All right, so follow me. You are going to scroll through Drackon choices for a husband. When you find one you would like to choose just write down his identification number and last name on this sheet. Write very, very, clearly in block letters,” she said, as I followed her into a doorway and into a very large darkened room. There were many stations. Each station was a cubicle with a chair in front of a small counter that had glowing buttons on it. On the wall in front of the counter was a large screen with photos and short playing video cycles of Drackon warriors. It was like internet dating, but to the extreme.
“Fill out the form according to whom you’d like as a husband. The first choice of husband goes under number one and so on. There are five choices on your sheet. If you make a mistake, draw a very thick line through your mistake and write in the new I.D. number of the male that you want. Here is your station,” she said, as she sat me down in a chair in front of the large screen.
“The left and right arrow buttons are self-explanatory. When you are ready to start hit this green button. You have forty-five minutes and that is all. The screen will turn off when your time is up. Good luck,” she said as she quickly moved away from me and b
ack to the other room. I looked around at all the women in the dark room. Some were smiling, while others seemed depressed, and it made me feel like I was in a husband-finding factory.
“This is ridiculous. But you’ve come this far, Adriana,” I said, picking up a pen from the stack and placing my sheet on the counter. I hit the green button and my screen turned on. “Hit Right Arrow” the screen read. I hit the arrow and the first Drackon husband choice popped up. He was an attractive brown-haired and brown-eyed alien male. I stared at his picture, realizing I really didn’t know what I was looking for. The first time I came here and ran away I was hoping to find passion and escape, but now that had changed. Then I remembered what Xander had said. “Try to find a Drackon in a position of power. You will have better access to the Drackon world.”