by Maia Starr
“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 are 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 back 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.”
I looked at this warrior’s two-line bio, which read, “Thion Durin. Warrior in the 76th battalion infantry.”
Well, that wouldn’t do. A mere soldier was not going to have access to anything. I hit the right arrow button and began to scroll through fast. I did not look at faces anymore; I only looked at the bio. It definitely made it both easier and faster to have this sort of guideline. Finally I landed on one that looked promising. “Mordikye Nezis. Flight Captain. Beti Command,” I whispered to myself. My gaze moved from the bio up the screen to the photo. My mouth fell open. It was the same Drackon that I had an encounter with in the courtyard! What were the odds?
“No, no, no,” I said as I hit the right arrow again. The next Drackon was another soldier. I sighed. The Captain was the first Drackon of power that I had come across in twenty minutes of searching. I hit the left arrow and went back to his photo. I stared at it while I weighed the pros and cons of making him a choice. First of all, I had already seen him in person. There would be no surprises there that he was not like his photo. In fact, he was hotter in person than this photo made him out to be. Two, he was already on Earth and maybe that would speed things up for me. Three, he was an ass! I knew that should be a con, but in this case it was a plus because then I would feel no remorse in leaving him when the time came. I did not foresee myself falling for him at all. He was exactly the kind of male that I would have a one-night stand with when I was looking to just blow off some sexual tension. The more I thought about it the more he seemed to be perfect for this particular mission I was on. I pulled my sheet toward me and wrote down his information in the number three slot, hopeful that I would find other Drackons more suitable than him. I sighed and continued through my scrolling for a husband.
Then I lucked out. “Terik Vuna. Land Sentinel,” I read out loud. I looked up at the photo and my mouth fell open once more, but for a different reason. This Drackon was gorgeous. His jet black hair fell past his ears and his stubble beard was rugged on his square jaw. His brown eyes were soulful, even with the unusual vertical cat like pupil. He looked strong and youthful, but mature. In all, he was perfect and I quickly wrote down his information on my sheet in the number one choice. I didn’t really understand what a Land Sentinel did but it obviously had something to do with the land of Mooreah and that was exactly what I needed. I suddenly felt a tinge of guilt as I thought about betraying this gorgeous Drackon in front of me in order to study flagion. But maybe I would luck out and he would be just as infuriatingly irritating as Mordikye.
Beep. Beep. I looked at the screen. Ten minutes was left on the counter. “Shit!” I quickly scrolled through and picked out one more Drackon, a warrior. I felt like I couldn’t really fill out all five places. So I moved Mordikye up to the second spot on the list and the Drackon warrior into the third spot.
“Time is up,” the screen flashed and then went dark. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be to pick a Drackon husband. “Is this your first time registering?” a lady asked as she came to my station.
“Yes, it is,” I responded as I stood up from the chair and grabbed my pages.
“Then you will need to be photographed. You can hand me your choices,” she said.
I handed her my choices page feeling really anxious. I couldn’t change my choices after I gave it to her. It was such a final thing.
“What is your name?” she asked.
“Adriana Adams,” I said. She looked the page over and then said, “It all looks good. This way to photography.”
I followed her out of the dark room back into the massive warehouse. “You see that sign that says I.D. on the wall,” she pointed across the room.
“Yes.”
“That is where you will go. Take your I.D. labels with you. That is your last stop. Good luck,” she said.
I quickly moved across the massive room to the I.D. station to find another line. I got in line and waited another hour before finally making it to the top. There was a wall of mirrors where women were prepping their hair and applying lipstick.
“Well, can’t hurt,” I said pulling lip gloss out of my bag and applying a fresh coat. I plumped up my hair and straightened my dress. I hated getting photos taken of myself. “That’s as good as it’s going to get,” I whispered to myself.
“Next! Hand me your I.D. page and then step on the X on the floor,” the lady shouted at me. I moved quickly to hand her my page. She scanned it with a red light. I looked at the X on the floor and noticed that my I.D. name and number where now projected on the blue screen. I stepped in front of it on the X mark and stood tall. I smiled my brightest smile. “Ready in three. One, two, three.”
Flash! My photo was taken. “Now turn to your right,” she said. I suddenly realized this was probably a full body shot. I turned to my right and stuck my chest out and arched my back. She counted down again, then Flash!
“You’re done. Next!”
“But how soon will I know?” I asked.
“I’m just the photographer. You’ll have to go to the information desk for general questions. Next!”
I sighed, as I had already seen the very long lines at the information desk. No thank you. I was done with the registration chaos. I needed to get out of there. I didn’t know if this would even work, considering I only picked three choices.
I moved out into the hallway where a group of women were waiting for the elevators. Great, another line. Ping. The doors opened and women scurried in, at capacity. Then another elevator opened and the same thing happened. Now I was the only one waiting for the elevators, but I could see another group of women down the hall making their way to the elevators. Ping. The elevator opened and I quickly stepped in. As I did so I saw that two Drackon occupied it, and one of them was Mordikye. I gasped. I was caught off guard. I thought about stepping off, but the doors closed.
I felt the warmth of breath on my neck. “You. Human. What is your name?” Mordikye said, from behind me. I took a deep breath and turned to face him. I turned and faced his strong chest. I tilted my head back and looked up at his chiseled face. I felt my whole body go warm from the heat these two Drackon were giving off.
“Why do you want to know? I’m a weak female, remember?” I said angrily, throwing in his face what he had said to me earlier.
He laughed and said, “Yes, physically weak, but spirited inside.�
� His eyebrows arched as he looked down at me and took a step forward. I took a step back. He was ominous. “Hmmph. If that is supposed to scare me, it doesn’t.” I said, crossing my arms across my chest. He looked at the other Drackon and they both laughed. I only narrowed my eyes at their outburst.
“I must know your name, human,” Mordikye said again.