The Warrior's Proposal (Celestial Mates Book 7)

by Marla Therron

  "Is Sahria really that significant?" Lily asked, unsettled by the surprised way the other three women were looking at her; "We don't get a lot of off planet news in my village. I don't really know anything about him except what he sent. And all the proposals tend to brag about how rich and powerful their planet is..."

  "This one wasn't bragging," Chalcedony leaned closer to look at the photo and shook her head; "Turlabon rules every planet in his solar system and then some. Sahria's military force rivals that of the planetary alliance.

  On top of that, the botanicals that grow on Sahria are used in some of the most expensive and necessary pharmaceutical drugs on the market. Turlabon keeps an iron grip on the growth and manufacturing rights to those plants and hoards the product to drive prices up. As a result, half the local cluster is in his pocket, and the rest still buy from him even if they don't like it."

  "The scariest part is his Sword," Foxglove piped up, shivering, "The Sword of Turlabon is his right hand man. A mutant Turlabon raised into the perfect weapon."

  "I heard he was genetically engineered," Opal put in, "Cloned to be the ultimate assassin."

  "If you threaten him or don't pay him what you owe him," Chalcedony leaned closer, smiling at the thrill of sharing a spooky story, "He'll send his Sword after you. The Sword can burn whole cities down in a night, or slit a single throat in the middle of a party, so quick and so quiet no one even notices till the party is over."

  "Sounds like an urban legend," Lily said doubtfully, taking the datapad back and folding it away, "That's probably just all stories to keep people cooperating with him."

  "Maybe," Opal shrugged, "But if I were you, I would work really hard to please this guy and then book it as soon as your contract is up. It's not worth it."

  "Anything is worth it," Lily sighed as she tucked the datapad into her sleeve, "My village needs the money."

  "You're from one of the First Nations research stations, right?" Foxglove asked, curious, "The ones trying to bring the world back?"

  "Trying," Lily confirmed, "But we need samples to work with. Not to mention specimens to reseed the environment with once things are stable. Our biggest store of specimens, seeds, plant cuttings, even a library of animal and insect DNA for cloning, was in the Svalbard global seed vault."

  "They mentioned that place in school," Opal snapped her fingers as she tried to remember, "When they were talking about the restoration efforts. Isn't it in like... Norway?"

  "Halfway between Norway and the North Pole." Lily corrected, grim with regret.

  "Why the hell did you put it up there?" Chalcedony asked, wrinkling her nose, "It's so cold up there, even in a suit you'd die in seconds!"

  "We didn't put it there." Lily shook her head, "It's from hundreds of years ago, back in Early Decline. They never thought it would get this bad, back then. So they picked a place with low tectonic activity that would stay above sea level even after the ice caps melted. But because of how remote it is, we can only visit it once every few years.

  Last year we went to get new samples and found it buried. A glacier had advanced, decades ahead of what we predicted. It swallowed the seed bank whole. Now in order to continue our research, we have to buy seeds from the human colonies off planet."

  "If seeds are as expensive to import from the colonies as everything else is," Opal laughed, "I can understand why you're doing this."

  "They are." Lily confirmed, looking tired, "But hopefully this will keep us going until the glacier recedes."

  The ship bucked then, rattling them all like pennies in a tin can as it left the atmosphere. A minute later, it docked with the courier's main ship. They were picking up and dropping off living cargo from all over the system, many of them in programs like the Marriage Bureau.

  There were a good many people heading to Sahria, big as that planet was, and Lily said goodbye to Opal, Foxglove, and Chalcedony, expecting to be housed with the other Sahrian bound visitors for the duration of the trip. Instead, one of the four-armed aliens called her away.

  "Your client has requested special accommodations for you," it said in its flat, auto-translated drone, "Please follow me."

  Lily, slightly confused, followed the alien as it led her past the group dorms where the other guests were staying, to a hall of private rooms. It entered a complicated code into a pad by one of the doors, which opened on a room like something out of a story. Lily stepped inside, mesmerized, and was at once overwhelmed by the scent and color of flowers. The room was full of them.

  Fresh cut and blooming, they stood on every surface of the beautiful, richly appointed room. The room was a decent size for being on a commercial ship, with a full bed and a sitting area, and she could see a door to what she assumed would be a sizable bathroom.

  The decor, in shades of shell blue, rose, and gold, was the kind of elaborate, heavily patterned and flourished affair she'd seen photos of in books about eighteenth century France. This room, but for a few modern details like the console set into the vanity and the post-electric light fixtures, could have been plucked from the halls of Versailles.

  "In order to ensure you are not damaged while in our care, you will be confined to this room for the duration," the alien informed her, "For insurance purposes, you understand."

  Lily nodded, though she disliked the idea. She'd anticipated something like this. It made sense for the courier to avoid possible liability. With a room like this, hopefully she wouldn't get too bored.

  "The client has asked us to inform you that he wishes to begin the bonding ceremony as soon as you arrive," the alien continued, reading off a datapad, "And as such, you will need to begin the preparations immediately. He has prepared a list for you."

  The alien held the pad out and Lily quickly pulled out her own again. With a tap, the alien transferred the information to Lily, and then backed towards the door.

  "If you have any questions or concerns, you can contact guest services with this button," the alien gestured towards a gold embellished fist sized pearl set into the wall near the door,

  "In case of medical emergency or other danger, the room is programmed to monitor your vitals and listen for signs of distress. The information gathered will remain private will be deleted upon your departure except for cases in which the computer determines you to be in danger, in which case it will call for help, or if legal action is levied against you in which the recordings may be considered evidence. Thank you for choosing our courier service. Please enjoy your flight."

  The alien backed through the door, which closed behind them with a rush of finality and locked into place. Lily was alone, as she would be for the next week until they reached Sahria. With a sigh, she sat down on the edge of her bed and began to read over the list her husband to be had sent her.

  Most of it seemed to be a beauty regimen. Daily baths in certain oils that would soften and scent her skin, treatments for her hair and nails, instructions on what clothes to wear. In addition, there was a large packet of information she had to study and memorize on Sahrian etiquette.

  Finally, there were medical notes about her fertility treatments. She shivered a little, thinking about that. She'd signed up for this expecting it, knowing why aliens wanted human brides. But the thought still left her cold. She'd hoped, when she didn't see mention of it in the proposal, that this client was different. She supposed that had been foolish to assume.

  Luckily, the treatments wouldn't be too invasive. She had pills to take twice a day, half of which were hormonal adjusters. The rest were microscopic nano machines, which would subtly alter her reproductive system.

  It was all explained in detail and Lily, despite feeling fairly nauseated by the concept, was confident that it was all medically sound and wouldn't harm her beyond some uncomfortable side effects during the transition. And in the meantime.

  She fell back onto the bed and sighed, luxuriating in how soft it was. The bunks back home couldn't compare. And all these flowers! She'd never seen so many in person. She'd se
en few flowers at all, even in her botany studies. The seeds were too rare, the process of growing them too arduous and resource heavy on the barren earth. She'd learned most everything from books, only having a chance to experiment on real plants on very rare occasions.

  Deciding to indulge, she grabbed an armful of the flowers and dragged them into bed with her, smiling with delight, as she lay surrounded by their sweet scent and soft color. She could have lain like this forever. But she still had the bathroom to explore.

  She stripped out of her cold suit and down to her underwear, tiptoeing into the bathroom to prolong the suspense. It was as large as she'd thought, with a deep, wide bathtub surrounded by auto candles.

  The bathroom was even more full of flowers than the main room. She'd never in her life had a bathroom she didn't have to share with anyone else. Excited, she started the tub at once, letting it fill with warm water as she explored the cabinets, finding the oils and treatments Turlabon wanted her to use.

  She added them to the water generously. The liquid turned rose pink, a shimmer glittering on the surface of the water as rehydrated rose petals floated to the surface. The scent that drifted up from the bubbles was heavenly, rich and floral.

  Lily wriggled out of her underwear and slipped into the water all too eagerly, sighing with relief as the warm water soaked into her muscles, the oils tingling as they sunk into her skin. She tipped her head back and closed her eyes, relishing the luxury of this.

  She was still nervous about everything. Moving to a new planet, marrying a man she'd never met, possibly bearing his child, it was all terrifying. But maybe if it could be like this, she could not just endure it, but even enjoy it.

  She turned in the bath, splashing rose-colored water onto the floor as she dragged her discarded clothing closer and fetched her datapad. She settled back into the water as she unfolded it and summoned again the photo of her intended.

  She looked at those soft green eyes and wondered if they were kind. Had he arranged for the flowers in her room? Did he want them to make her happy? What if she wasn't good enough for him? Was the contract doomed like Chalcedony said?

  She wanted this to work, if only because her village needed the money. She'd find a way to make it work. She ran a damp finger over the photo, hoping he was as kind as she needed him to be. With a beautiful husband and luxurious baths, she could find a way to make it work.

  Chapter Three

  The flight was long and, even in this glamorous room, tedious. Having spent most of her life below ground, it took longer than it would for most people for the cabin fever to set in. But set in it did.

  There were movies to watch and books to read on the room's console of course and they entertained her for a while. But Lily had never been the type to just sit back and watch movies for days at a time. She needed to feel like she was doing something, being productive. She threw herself into her beauty routine and studying the guides on culture and etiquette that had been left for her.

  The Sahrian people seemed unexpectedly violent, for floraforms. She would have expected plant people to be more placid. They were a diverse people. Sahria was home to many distinct intelligent species and a rigid class system that Lily was having difficulty parsing, especially because no history on the planet had been included in her information.

  When she attempted to look up Sahrian history on her console, she could find no information that went back further than the crowning of the current king.

  She knew Sahria had been part of the greater connected universe for longer than King Turlabon's reign, but even resources belonging to other species connected to Sahria had no history on the planet earlier than a hundred years ago when a then young Turlabon had 'overthrown his enemies' and taken the crown. That was all the detail given to his rise to power. Lily found it unsettling.

  It seemed like fungaloids were considered the superior form of life, which seemed curious to Lily, considering molds, mosses, and lichens seemed to be despised. The divisions of which flowering species were respectable and which were 'weeds' seemed entirely arbitrary and indecipherable to Lily.

  The majority of the population seemed to be grasses, but despite their clear majority, the 'respectable' flowers seemed to be considered preferable, with grasses being mentioned as common and dull, when they were mentioned at all.

  The 'weeds' were mentioned more often, in hateful derision, as ugly mutants of higher species, widely assumed to be the product of incautious cross species pollination. Lily, baffled and a little disgusted, rubbed her temples. The more things change, the more they stay the same, she thought.

  The documents she was given were clearly subjective opinion, with little but anecdotal evidence to back up its claims about the species it praised or derided. She supposed she shouldn't judge.

  Trying to force an alien society into the context of human racism was likely very ill advised. She didn't have any real idea yet how their society worked or what their people were like. It could be that what the book described was completely accurate. Or that she was misinterpreting the ideas it was describing because of her own human biases. It wasn't her culture or her place to say what was right or wrong for them.

  By the end of the week, she felt transformed. She'd never had cause or the resources to spend much time on her appearance before. To spend a solid week doing little else was strange to say the least, but she couldn't say she didn't feel wonderful. Her hair had never been so healthy, shiny as a raven's wing and soft as her flawless skin.

  She'd been practicing using makeup, the rich perfumes and beautiful, exotic clothing that had been sent for her, and had made quick progress with little else to focus on. And she'd practically memorized the information Turlabon had sent her, even if she still wasn't confident that she understood everything.

  Comprehending alien cultures was a difficult task usually reserved for highly trained diplomats. Everyone else just muddled through, as she intended too. Still, though it had been nice to spend some time focusing almost entirely on herself, by the time the ship put in on Sahria she was dying to get out and do something, anything, other than bathe or study. But leaving this ship, she realized with a shiver, meant going to her bonding ceremony.

  Turlabon's instructions said he wanted to have it as quickly as possible. She would arrive with the event already in progress and be led directly into the ceremony. Her nerves jangled nosily in her ears at the thought. There was no turning back now.

  She dressed in the elaborate gown he had instructed for her to wear (Turlabon's instructions, she had found, were near endless and tediously specific) and prepared herself as she waited to be let out of her room. The gown was a rich scarlet, with the kind of fluffed out, bell shaped skirt that was popular in Sahrian fashion, composed of a dense mass of silken petals that made her feel like she was wearing a bouquet of roses. She did her hair up, studding it with scarlet blossoms from among the unwilting, ageless flowers that filled her room.

  She wore lipstick as red as her gown and the perfume Turlabon claimed to like best. Her pulse fluttered in her throat as she waited, trying to keep her composure.

  She didn't want to wrinkle her skirts gripping them in her sweaty palms. She had to be perfect. She'd put a solid week and her entire future on the line, counting on this to go well. If she messed it up because she hadn't worked hard enough...

  There was a knock at her door and she stood up from her vanity at once, collecting herself.

  "I'm here," she called, taking a deep breath, "Come in!"

  The door slid open, revealing one of the black suited aliens, and behind them stood the beautiful alien from her photograph. He was even more stunning in real life and she couldn’t help but stare, awed by the softness of those most colored eyes, and the way the light shone translucent through his petals.

  He was wearing the kind of dark suit popular as Sahrian formal wear, with sleek lines and gold accents and artful cut outs for his fronds. She hadn't expected him to come for her himself.

  Sh
e bowed immediately, reciting the respectful greeting she'd been taught. To her surprise, he bowed and repeated it. To share such a thing so respectfully caught her off guard. She smiled at him, flushed with unexpected delight.

  "She looks to be in very good condition." Turlabon said, inclining his head towards the crewman who'd opened the door, "Thank you for your hard work."

  "We appreciate your patronage." The alien replied, and as Lily took Turlabon's outstretched hand and stepped out of her room, he closed the door behind her and left them alone.

  "Please follow me." Turlabon said with no further pleasantries and, releasing her hand, led her down the hall and out of the ship. She followed in respectful silence, all but vibrating with excitement as she wondered what the planet would look like. She couldn't wait to get out of this stuffy ship and see the sky. A brand new, alien sky! She could hardly imagine!

  She wasn't sure how busy Turlabon would keep her, but she was really hoping he would allow her to continue her botanical studies. She would love to learn about all the unique, non-sentient plants on this planet. Heck, interviewing floraform life might give her insights that's she'd never even considered before. She'd always wished she could just ask her plants what was wrong with them.

  As they reached the doors of the ship Lily couldn't hide her smile, nervous as she was excited. What would it look like? A planet of floraforms was bound to be lush and vibrant and over flowing with life. Turlabon opened the door, stepping out first before moving out of the way for her.

  Lily was dismayed first by the blast of hot, dry air, which stank of exhaust and chemicals. Her dismay grew further as she stepped outside and into the clamorous, offensive noise of a dense city.

  Skyscrapers towered in every direction, bridges between them crowding overhead, blocking out the sky while delivery drones and other unmanned craft zipped by overhead. The stink and heat of concrete and machinery was everywhere. The only greenery was on the people, and even they seemed wilted. Lily could only stare in confusion.