by R. E. Butler
Eden pulled her close, sliding his arms around her before he pressed his mouth to hers. She wrapped her arms around him in return, reveling in their first kiss as husband and wife, as a cheer went up from the crowd.
They smiled together, breaking the kiss, and then when no one moved away, she said, “Is it time to go home now?”
“Not yet. You have to be registered as a citizen. It will take just a little while longer, and then you can see your new home.”
A little while turned into an hour, before three men with graying dark brown hair stood in front of them. They used a wand to check the stone on her necklace against Eden’s bracelet, and then they pricked her finger using a small black device that looked like a blood-glucose meter. They nodded together after a moment, and one of the men said, “Welcome to your new home, Citizen Ashleigh.” He nodded and turned with the other two as she rubbed the tip of her finger where the tiny needle had pierced her flesh.
“What was with the blood thing?” she asked as Eden turned her around gently and they began to walk away from the ship, two guards still with them.
“First they checked the necklace and my matching bracelet to make sure that they still identified us as belonging together. Although there are identical necklaces on other brides, yours is coded to my bracelet alone. And the blood was matched to the medical records from your intake exam.”
“So you wouldn’t try to switch me with another bride?” She glanced up at him as they walked along a grassy area toward what looked like a parking lot, with the cars hovering several inches off the ground.
“Exactly. If your blood hadn’t matched what was on record for you, we would have had a problem.”
A door on a small blue vehicle that was shaped a bit like an egg slid open when they approached. Eden told her that it was coded for him and would be for her as well, once the lunar cycle had passed and she was free to be out in the city.
He helped her inside, and she smoothed the skirt under her as the door shut, sealing her into the two-seat vehicle. The front panel was lit up with buttons, gauges and lights, and when Eden sat down in the other seat, he waved his hand over one gauge and the car hummed to life. She felt it lift slightly higher from the ground, and he fiddled with some buttons and then turned his attention to her as the car moved away from where it had been parked.
“You don’t have to drive?” she asked incredulously. He reached for her hands with both of his.
“No. The hover-machen is fully computerized. I just entered our destination, in this case our home, and it will drive us there by the safest, fastest, and most convenient path. It is powered by the sun; small panels embedded in the roof gather power and store it. How do hover-machens on your world work?”
She had no idea how to explain gasoline, engines and steering wheels. Outside of turning the key in the ignition, she had no clue how that all worked anyway. She had never even changed her own oil. She explained what she could about manual steering and rubber tires, and he listened intently, never taking his eyes off her. It was really disconcerting to her that he paid attention to her completely and never looked at the road, but after several minutes passed with a lack of devastating crashes, she began to relax.
The scenery blurred past them as the car drove itself from the densely populated city to grassy, rolling hills dotted with trees and colorful flowers. The grass was a very dark green with thick blades, and the flowers were brightly colored, like a rainbow on steroids.
A floating sign over a cluster of dark purple flowers announced the city of Polona, as the hovering car coasted above the road as if running on invisible tires. “This is our street, Daeny, which means ‘hope’.”
She liked the translation of the street name. All the homes on the street were beige one-story domes with clear rectangular windows. The lawns were the same thick, dark grass she’d seen before, and a long flower bed filled with color ran along the front of each home. A section of the dome opened in the home at the end of the street, and the car pulled into the garage, the wall closing behind them.
Eden leapt from the car with a grin, his face alight with happiness. He rounded the vehicle as the door opened, and he scooped her up in his arms and carried her toward a door that opened against the wall. He stopped to kiss her before he stepped over the threshold, and put her on her feet inside the home.
“Welcome home, sweetheart.” He hugged her, sighing in happiness, and kissed her forehead. “Let me give you the grand tour.”
He gestured to the area around them. “This is the kitchen. This cooker is the same as the one in the ship. The refrigerated cabinet is not so small, so we’ll have plenty of room in there for your ronii.” He talked animatedly about the kitchen, pointing out the view from the window over the sink into their small backyard.
The kitchen flowed into an eating area with a table and four chairs set back in a windowed nook. The table had a clear top, with an intricately woven base made of metallic strands. The chairs were identical to the table, but with cherry colored cushions on top of the seats. White, pearly tile gave way to thick bright green carpet as he took her into the living room, which contained an overstuffed couch in sage green, a coffee table of a nearly white, highly-polished wood, and a large vid screen hanging on the wall. Underneath the vid screen was a fireplace, but instead of logs, clear, colorful rocks were piled in a pyramid shape.
He waved his hand over the stone mantel and the rocks blazed to life, as if fire were caught inside them just waiting to be free. The red, amber, blue, and green stones were as large as cantaloupes and gave off no heat. She touched the walls as they moved down a hallway, and they were cool like metal but felt like plastic. They were a muted grayish-white, in contrast to the bright green carpeting.
Of the three bedrooms, two were the same, empty and bare of any decorations. Before he stepped into the master bedroom, he swung her up into his arms again. She pressed her lips against his, drinking in the sweet taste of her husband.
He laid her gently on the bed and stretched out over her, his eyes glowing with happiness, a teasing smile on his lips.
“What happened to the tour?”
He pulled on the ribbon that laced up the side of the bodice. “I have a different tour in mind.”
She reached for his tunic and slid it up his body, her palms rubbing up the length of his back. He helped her pull it off his body and she trailed her fingers across his chest, tracing the muscles as he worked the ribbon loose.
“You’re married now, sweetheart, do you feel different?”
“I’m happier than I’ve ever been before. How about you?”
“Five years is a long time to want something as badly as I wanted you, but you were worth the wait.”
Their mouths met in a dance that was both so familiar and still so exciting as he tugged the dress down her body. His lips moved from hers, kissing across her jaw and laving his tongue around the shell of her ear. She shivered as he freed her breasts, her nipples puckering in anticipation.
He worked the dress down her body by slow inches, pressing open-mouthed kisses as each bit of flesh was bared for his hungry gaze. Dropping it to the floor, he undid her sandals and removed his trousers and shoes.
He stroked down the center of her body with his fingertips, a wicked, thoughtful look in his eyes. He kissed her once, twice and then straightened up on his knees. He kissed each fingertip before pulling her to her knees, tracing lazy patterns up and down her arms as he teased her mouth with lips and tongue. With gentle pressure, he turned her to face the headboard, placing her hands on top.
The headboard was made of shiny, striped black-on-black wood. The coverlet was thick like velvet and dark amber. Eden eased her knees apart and gathered her hair off to one shoulder, baring her body. Once more, his fingers wove a path down her body, this time from her neck to her bottom, rounding across the swells as he bent forward and kissed her shoulder.
One hand slipped around the curve of her hip to the curls that covered her mound,
rubbing lightly. The other hand moved up the front of her body to cup one breast, squeezing and kneading the lush orb.
Dipping a finger inside her, he found her already wet and hot, and he circled his finger around her clit. He kissed her neck, from the crux of her shoulder to the sensitive patch of flesh behind her ear. Working her to the edge of climax quickly, her body trembled as she grew closer and closer to orgasm.
With one hard thrust, he buried himself inside her so fast her eyes crossed as her climax thundered down on her like a hot wave. Her fingers gripped the headboard as Eden rode out her climax, his finger never leaving her clit as he drew her pleasure out from one great height to the next. His hand left her breast and cupped her chin, tilting her head until their mouths met as he drove into her, holding her captive in his arms.
His hips slammed against her bottom as she rocked hers back to meet his thrusts. The kiss ended when they both moaned, and he dropped his head to her shoulder, kissing and biting gently.
Heat spiraled in her core, expanding outwards as she felt herself hurtling toward release. She reached back with one hand and fisted Eden’s hair, pulling him close as her vision blurred and her heart pounded in her chest.
Eden groaned mindlessly, his pounding rhythm all but lost to his pleasure. He tugged on her clit one last time, sending her tumbling off the edge into intense pleasure, as he followed, his cock spasming over and over inside her. She would have collapsed against the headboard if Eden hadn’t shifted them quickly, laying back and tugging her body across his.
Sweat slicked their flesh and their chests heaved as they gasped for breath, both of them shuddering as the after-effects of their orgasms still rode through them. She shivered, and he tugged a blanket to cover them both. They held each other in sweet silence as they came down from the heavens.
“How long have you owned the house?” She lay sprawled across him, listening to the steady beat of his heart.
“About a year. I set aside the money to free myself first, and then to pay for your abduction and the trip, and then saved enough money for us to live comfortably.”
“What will you do now?” She lifted her head and propped it on her upturned hand.
“Some of Sloan’s patients have asked about me teaching their children art. Now that I’m not a brokah, I can finally use my talents. I have a workshop in the back big enough to hold a class. What do you think?”
“I think you can do anything you set your mind to.”
“With you by my side, I feel like that is really true.”
They talked quietly for some time and then dressed. Eden finished the tour of their home, showing her the magnificent bathroom, which matched the one on the ship. He had painted the walls in the ship’s bathroom as well, and this one was no less incredible. A forest of trees and flowers decorated the walls, the limbs and petals dotted with birds and butterflies and small winged animals like bees. In the corner where the bathing pool was located, he painted a waterfall that looked so real she had to touch it to make sure it was only painted on.
The backyard was edged with thick shrubs almost as tall as Ashleigh. Their dense webbed leaves were turquoise and lavender, with flowers that looked like strings of purple, gray and white pearls. Eden said the brown-sugar scented flowering shrub was called a kerite. The yard itself was several hundred feet square, with unplanted, freshly tilled beds in front of the kerite that fenced in the yard. Behind their yard was a stand of thick trees with clusters of yellow fruit hanging from the branches, and through the leaves she could see another group of houses that was the same as theirs. Eden spoke animatedly about her making the backyard her own, planting whatever she liked and decorating it with outdoor seating. In the far corner of the yard stood his workshop. Like the outside of the house, it was made of the same beige material and shaped like a dome. The door slid open and they walked inside. It had taken her a while to figure out where the doors were, but she could see the outline of them now.
Inside was a large open room, the outline of several doors visible against the walls. The floor was plain white; cabinets and shelves lined the walls, filled with everything from fabric canvases to containers he said were packed with sculpting clay. One of the doors led to a small bathroom, and two were large storage rooms, one of them full and the other almost empty.
Without a word, Eden sat her down on a dark wooden stool, arranged a lock of hair over her shoulder and placed a kiss on her nose.
He grabbed a canvas, pulled an easel from against the wall and set it up a few feet from her. “Don’t move, love,” he said as he grabbed a container of brushes and a palette, arranging them on a small side table, and then he opened a drawer in the table and pulled out a pencil.
She couldn’t help but smile. He sketched furiously with the pencil and then turned to the palette and paints, choosing a brush and beginning to work. “Tell me about the soul-walk.”
He smiled at her from around the canvas. “What would you like to know?”
“Well, what was it like? How did it work? What did you see?”
Turning thoughtfully back to the canvas, he told her that Sloan had taken him to the soul-walk agency after he had been released from the hospital. He was taken back into a small cubicle where he sat down in a reclining chair. After a long wait, a medical officer and two agency staff members came into the room. He was first given a shot to relax his body. When it had taken effect, straps were used to secure him to the chair to ensure he didn’t move too much during the process.
Electrodes were attached to his head with long, twisted wires that carried the images he would see in his soul-walk to a master computer which would sort through the data, finding out the location of his bride as well as her name and physical characteristics.
“When they gave me the drugs to induce the soul-walk, I slipped down into darkness quickly, and saw nothing for a long time. I felt completely relaxed, hopeful. And then suddenly I felt like I was being pulled toward something, like I was flying. Stars and planets shot by me so fast they were blurs. Whole galaxies slipped by before a planet loomed large before me, blue with streaks of green and white.”
“Earth,” she said.
“Yes. I was pulled downwards through the atmosphere. It was night, but there were lights that illuminated everything, and I’d never seen anything like what I soared by. The buildings were square with many windows. The hover-machens moved on large, round objects. And the people! All the men had different colored hair! And the clothing was unlike anything I’d ever seen.”
“I didn’t realize you actually literally traveled to Earth.”
“It was just a manifestation of my mind. The machines that are used during the soul-walk, combined with the drugs, pinpoint the perfect mate no matter where she is. It was very much like taking a fast trip. I wasn’t actually there, but my mind felt like I was.”
“That’s really incredible. So then what happened?”
“I went from moving over the streets to appearing inside a room. That’s when I saw you. You were lying in bed, asleep. Light from your moon came in through your open window coverings, and I could see how beautiful you were. Peaceful. You rolled over while I was watching, kicked your leg over the blanket, and made the most adorable little humming sound. Then I was pulled back to the agency and slowly I came out of the deep sleep. The machine had gathered the data about you. When the recovery team transported to Earth from the ship, they followed procedure to deliver the necklace to you, and then when you were wearing it, they abducted you.”
“Sloan said that she was engaged to a male who left her because she was sterile. Had he done the soul-walk for her?”
“No. She and Talek grew up together and loved each other. Even before the females became sterile, males and females could mate for love, Ashleigh. The soul-walk was a way to introduce males to their soul mates, but there were many who chose out of love instead of letting the machines lead them.”
“Did many women like Sloan get tossed aside because they weren’
t able to bear children?”
He looked around the canvas. “Yes. When the women became sterile and other females that could carry our children were found on different planets, the agency stopped searching for soul mates on Norlan, changing the parameters.”
She wondered how the unmated women on Norlan felt about that. To be cast aside as useless when they were still very valuable as people. Sloan was one of the nicest women she’d ever known. She deserved happiness.
“Do women do the soul-walk?”
“No. From the government’s standpoint, if the women are incapable of breeding female children, then expending resources to bring mates to them makes no sense.”
“Your government is ridiculous and cruel.”
“They tend to be, sweetheart.”
She changed the topic to his art, and he talked excitedly about renovations he wanted to make to his workshop. They talked easily while he painted, and when he had done as much as he wanted to for the day, he pulled a cover over it, promising to let her see it when it was done.
For dinner that night, she made a popular fourn dish. Eden didn’t help her cook, but he did help her read the recipe from a vid display on one wall of the kitchen. After dinner, they went to the bedroom where they made love before falling asleep. She was amazed at how easily she had slipped into this new life. Two months ago, she never would have thought she would find happiness on an alien planet, but now, she couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.
Chapter 7
“I love it,” Sloan said, looking at the painting that Eden had finished the first week they had been in the house. Ashleigh loved it, too. He’d painted her sitting down on a large stone in front of a waterfall, sunshine sparkling on the water. She was amazed at his talent.
“I do, too.” She couldn’t help but be proud of him.
They moved into the kitchen to get lunch started. Ashleigh hadn’t seen Sloan since her wedding day, and Eden had called and invited her to have lunch with them. Sloan hadn’t wanted to intrude on their time to get to know each other, but Ashleigh missed talking to her.