by Roxie Ray
“We all do what is necessary to survive, Rosa,” Bill said, trying to avoid my eyes. He spoke softly, like a child trying to explain his bad behavior.
“You lied to me,” I said. “About so many things.”
“This program is a second chance —”
“Oh spare me,” I snapped. “I’ve heard the party line, and I even understand it now. What happens with the money, Bill?”
“Excuse me?”
“The money you collect from this program,” I asked. “Where does it go?”
“I… It goes towards…”
I shook my head at him. “I’m willing to bet that the lower sectors don’t benefit much from the bounty you receive from the Svantians.”
“That’s not the case —”
“You poach women from the lower sectors,” I interrupted. “The least you can do is take care of the people who live there.”
I could feel Quatix’s eyes on me, and I knew he was listening intently.
“Is this where you are from?” he asked abruptly. “The lower sectors?”
“I am.” I nodded. “I still live there. You see, once the situation on Earth started declining, the rich closeted themselves away behind large walls, and they took the lion’s share of the resources with them. The rest of us have to fight for the scraps they throw us.”
“That is… unfair,” Quatix said, turning his attention to Charles and Bill. “You do not have a just ruler.”
“We don’t have just one ruler,” I said. “We have a bunch of greedy men with a lot of money and power. They make the rules.”
“Where is the honor in that?” Quatix asked, and his tone betrayed genuine confusion.
I looked him in the eye. “There is none.”
Charles opened his mouth to say something, but before he could work up the courage to speak, Terrox returned. He was carrying a massive ornate chest in his hands. It looked to be made from some kind of strange metal that I had never seen before; it had the look of wood, but it gleamed with the showiness of steel. There were inscriptions on the face of the chest that formed a series of strange pictures.
Terrox placed the chest on the floor in front of Quatix, and then he opened it slowly. I gasped when I saw what lay inside. There had to be at least a dozen blocks of solid gold, all of which were three inches thick and at least six inches long.
“Oh my God,” I breathed.
Quatix looked at Bill and Charles unconcernedly. “I think that should cover Rosa’s contract.”
“Quatix,” I said, my voice faltering over his name. “You’ve overpaid… half a gold bar would still be far too much to cover my contract.”
“I haven’t overpaid,” Quatix said. “Because I expect at least nine of those bars to be used towards the betterment of the lower sectors… where Rosa is from.”
I just stared at him for a moment, finding myself at a loss for words. Was he serious? I looked at his stoic face and realized he was. When I glanced back over my shoulder, I saw that Charles and Bill were still staring at the open chest of gold.
“Terrox, have a new contract drawn,” Quatix instructed. “I want to know how my gold is being spent in our absence. When next we return to Earth, I expect a full accounting of what has been done with it. I hope to see the lower sectors fairing much better… Do I make myself clear?”
Bill and Charles exchanged a glance. I had no doubt that some of the gold would be eaten up by corruption, but at least with Quatix’s new contract, the government would be forced to develop the lowers sectors or else run the risk of being held accountable for neglecting the poor.
“Now take your gold and go,” Quatix commanded, the dismissal clear in his tone.
Bill and Charles rushed forward and attempted to hoist the chest up together, but neither one seemed to be able to raise it even an inch off the ground. Terrox smirked, and I saw a slow smile spread across Quatix’s face.
“You might need reinforcements,” he said.
“Uh… we will… come back for it,” Charles said, stammering slightly as he and Bill backed out of the room.
Terrox followed behind them, and I heard his voice carry back towards us. “That chest is not part of the deal…”
A bubble of laughter escaped from my lips, but I stopped short when I turned and saw Quatix looking at me with some amusement.
“You enjoyed that?” he asked.
“I… yes,” I admitted. “I did.”
“We leave this evening,” Quatix informed me.
“That soon?” I asked, feeling my heartbeat race up slightly.
“Yes.”
I nodded. “Okay,” I said, as I turned for the door.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
I looked back at him over my shoulder. “I need to pack… get my things ready,” I explained.
“You will not need them.”
“All the same… I need to say goodbye,” I admitted.
His ice blue eyes seemed to soften. “As you wish.”
“Quatix,” I called.
“Yes Rosa?”
I felt a little thrill when he said my name. “Thank you,” I said softly. “For what you did for the lower sectors today.”
He inclined his head slightly. “Of course, my queen.”
Goosebumps flashed through my skin. What was I doing? How could I accept the role he was thrusting upon me? And would he be so willing to take me as his queen if he knew about my past? Doubts circled wildly inside my head, but I had come too far to go back on my word now.
It was time to take a leap of faith, for better or worse.
4
Quatix
I had never experienced this kind of connection before. The moment she was out of my sight I felt… incomplete, somehow. It was as though her absence lessened me. I walked out into the main solar and noticed the small cluster of females watching me with curious eyes.
“… He’s scary but there’s something about him…”
“… They say he’s a king…”
“… Being married to an alien wouldn’t be so bad if I got to be a queen…”
I kept my expression neutral despite the smile trying to break its way to the surface. Terrox came to stand beside me. His eyes ranged over the room as though he were expecting someone to jump out at us.
“I hate this dying world,” he complained, in native Svantian so that we wouldn’t be understood. “It’s bleak.”
After the bright beauty of our own home world, I understood Terrox’s distaste.
“The planet may be a lost cause,” I said. “But its females are certainly worth our time.”
Terrox met my eyes. “Are congratulations in order?” he asked.
“She has agreed to come back with us,” I nod. “After all these decades, Svante finally has a queen.”
“She is… comely,” Terrox replied, in a tempered response. “Was it instant?”
I nodded. “For me it was. I think it will take time for her.”
“Humans don’t have a mating connection like we do,” Terrox pointed out.
“No,” I agreed, glancing towards Terrox. “I can’t read her thoughts.”
Terrox looked stunned for a moment. “But… the humans are so easy to read.”
“Exactly — which is part of her allure. She is a mystery to me,” I admitted.
“That is interesting,” Terrox muttered, with almost professional interest.
“It is also inconvenient,” I sighed, as worry started to tunnel its way to the forefront of my mind.
Terrox turned to me with a frown. “Is something wrong?” he asked.
“I sense hesitation on her part,” I admitted. “I think she is scared of her decision.”
“Understandable.”
“She cannot change her mind, Terrox,” I said. “I will not leave Earth without her.”
Realization flashed across Terrox’s eyes. “You are the king, you can take what you want. You have the power to do so.”
“But that would m
ake me my father,” I pointed out. “I swore I would never be like him.”
Terrox nodded knowingly. “And yet now you worry because you understand what led him to make his decision.”
I gritted my teeth together, feeling the weight of my past jump over me like a predator. “I will not do what he did — and yet, if she changes her mind, I don’t know what I’ll do.”
“Then make sure that does not happen,” Terrox counseled me.
I nodded, steeling myself against this new challenge.
“Where is your future queen now?” Terrox asked.
“She wanted to retrieve some personal belongings from her home,” I explained.
“And you allowed it?” Terrox asked incredulously.
“If I show her that I do not trust her, how can I expect her to trust me?” I countered.
Terrox had reservations, I could see that in his eyes, but I chose to trust my own instincts in this instance. If my offer had not convinced Rosa to return, then the gold I had offered her colleagues certainly would. The betterment of the lower sectors was contingent on her coming with me. It wasn’t the way I would have wanted it, but it was a start.
“Gather the warriors together,” I said. “We must prepare for departure.”
Terrox nodded and moved towards the exit to confer with the human orchestrators of the bride program. A few moments later, a skinny, dark-haired human I recognized only in passing entered to usher out the small group of women.
Alone in the large solar, I moved towards the darkened windows and looked out into the smoky mist of Earth’s polluted atmosphere. This world looked as though it had been drained of color. Everything was cast in grey shadows. It was no wonder the sun had decided to abandon it.
“Your majesty?”
I didn’t have to turn to know which human was addressing me. It was the ash blonde male that had tried to deny Rosa her right to leave Earth with me.
“Yes?”
“The contracts have been drawn sir… uh… Your Majesty,” he stuttered. “They only require your signature.”
“Very well,” I nodded, as I walked towards him.
The signing of the contracts was a somber event. The humans present seemed disillusioned somehow, as though they wanted us to get on our spaceship and leave as soon as possible. Just after the contracts had been read through and signed, Terrox informed me that Rosa had arrived with a single packed bag and little else.
“I can take her to the ship,” Terrox offered.
“No,” I said. “I will do that. You can finish things here and meet me at the hangar.”
Terrox contained his displeasure at the command, but I was too eager to see Rosa to care. I walked down the hall and found her by the elevator doors with a small bag in hand. She was wearing dark trousers that hugged her shapely legs and a light green sweater that brought out the blue in her eyes.
Her eyes went wide when she saw me. “Hello,” she said awkwardly.
I smiled. “You returned sooner than I anticipated.”
She dropped her eyes for a moment and shifted on her feet. “I… I didn’t have as many memories in that apartment as I thought I did,” she said, in a low voice that was heavy with emotion. “I think I let go of sentimentality a long time ago.”
“It sounds like there’s a story behind that,” I said, as I pushed a button to open humanity’s extraordinarily simple version of the elevator.
“Isn’t there always,” she said, in a clipped tone that told me she wasn’t about to share that story today.
The elevator doors opened at the ground floor, and Rosa stepped out first while I followed behind her. I looked forward to being back on Svante where I wasn’t forced to dip my head down every time I passed through the threshold of a door.
With half a stride, I fell into step beside her and was forced to match her slower pace. It was the first time I didn’t mind. I led her through the building’s odd layout until we had reached the separate elevator that led down to the hangar where my ship had been docked. Already, I could feel my spirits lift at the thought of captaining the Destroyer back to Svante.
“So… you have a… spaceship?” Rosa asked tentatively.
I nodded. “I do.”
“Does it have a name?”
“Imperial Destroyer,” I replied.
When the doors of the second elevator opened, we walked out into a massive open space with a roof that stood at a few stories high. But Rosa’s eyes were trained on the vessel sitting in the middle of the hangar… a beast clothed in metal and titanium.
“Oh my God,” she breathed. “Is this your ship?”
“It is,” I said, unable to contain the pride in my voice.
As spaceships went, the Destroyer was not the largest out there, nor was it the showiest. But its simplicity and the novelty of its design more than contributed to its aesthetic beauty.
The ship’s body was large and oblong, with a number of spoilers and wings that extended from its body like a hydra with many heads. Its sleek lines gave the illusion of power and bulk, but in fact the Destroyer was the fastest ship I’d ever captained. It was also remarkably well equipped, and despite its size, it could be flown solo as well.
“… Jellyfish,” I heard Rosa mumble.
“What was that?” I asked.
She turned to me, with wonder in her eyes. “It kind of looks like a weird jellyfish,” she said.
“What is that? Jellyfish?” I asked.
Rosa’s eyes went wide. “Oh, it’s this strange looking creature that lives in the oceans here.”
“It’s a odd name.”
She smiled secretively, and I knew she was thinking something that she didn’t want to share with me. I ground my teeth in frustration. It was hell to be shut out of her mind. If it had been anyone else, I wouldn’t have cared, but she was the one human whose thoughts mattered to me.
“Come,” I said, placing my hand on her back to nudge her forward.
The moment my fingers made contact with her arched back, she flinched and her whole body tensed immediately.
I dropped my hand. “Forgive me,” I said. “I did not mean to frighten you.”
I saw an embarrassed blush creep onto her cheeks. “You don’t frighten me,” she said, but her shaky voice betrayed her.
“No?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
Her eyes faltered over the blue scales that covered my arms, before darting back to my face. “No,” she said, but it sounded like a question.
I gestured for her to start walking, and this time I made sure to keep a few feet between us as we walked around the Destroyer to its entrance. I could sense the uncertainty wafting off her, and I wished I knew how to temper it.
“Wow,” Rosa breathed, as we came upon the entrance.
The Destroyer’s main doors were open, and the boarding aisle had been deployed, creating a broad ramp that descended down from the sliding titanium doors, which were at least twenty feet off the ground.
Rosa stared up at the Destroyer for a long while, and then she started to look around searchingly.
“Is there something wrong?” I asked.
“No,” she said. “I just, I was wondering where the other women are, the ones who volunteered for the program?”
I hesitated for a moment, wondering how she would take the news. “They will not be joining us on this journey,” I revealed.
She paled slightly, but her expression didn’t change. “Why not?”
“They still need to be briefed and prepared for the journey,” I explained. “They will be given time to change their minds… they will need to get their affairs in order before they leave.”
Rosa frowned. “Then why aren’t I doing the same thing?” she asked. “Why am I leaving with you today?”
“None of those other women have been claimed yet,” I said. “Things were different for you because I chose you as my mate.”
“And that’s… significant?” Rosa asked.
“Extremely.”
“Yes.”
“I see,” she said, after a small pause.
She looked like she wanted to ask more questions, but Terrox walked up to us and interrupted out little conversation. “We’re all set to leave,” he said, and I noticed his tone and expression were already a little brighter.
I nodded. “It is time.”
I walked up the steep ramp with ease, but I noticed how Rosa struggled. I would have offered her my hand, but I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable. The moment we reached the top, I gave the order for the boarding ramp to be pulled in, and the doors to be closed and sealed. I could see the leaders of the bride program standing on one of the decks of the hangar in the distance.
When I turned, I saw that Rosa was not standing by the viewing deck, as I would have expected. Instead, she had her back to the deck, and she was turning on the spot as she took in the ship’s simple but effective interior.
The walls were soldered a dusky brown containing hints of gold that shone when the light touched it. The ceilings were high and fitted with built-in lighting pods that were automatically activated whenever natural light was lost. At the moment, they were only working at forty percent capacity, but the moment we entered dark space, it would amp up according to necessity.
Rosa finished her three hundred and sixty degree turn and came to a halt in front of me. “Your ship is beautiful,” she said, with sincerity.
“Thank you.”
“Can I… see more of it?” asked tentatively, as though she wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to ask at all.
I smiled. “Of course… but perhaps we should put away your personal items first?”
Her expression turned to one of nervousness, but she nodded all the same. “Ok.”
I led her through a circular passageway that opened out into the main center of the Destroyer. It had a viewing deck of its own and a series of elevators and staircases that were nestled into the sides between the mezzanine’s apex that boasted a domed roof encased in glass.
“This is… insane,” Rosa said, arching her head back as she stared up at the dome.
I smiled at the look on her face. She actually looked more relaxed as she took in all the ship’s frills. I led her to the captain’s elevator and pressed the sequence code next to the door. The doors parted instantly.