by Alma Nilsson
“It’s interesting you should say that as you were almost all on birth control and that changes your smell as well. Since Drusilla is the only one who wasn’t on birth control,” everyone looked at Dru then, at the sound of her real name again with some shock as if they had forgotten it, and then with the reminder as there was something not quite right about her not having been on birth control, but those looks were lost on Madame Bai as she continued, “I’ll allow her to forgo the pleasing scents if she wants, but the rest of you will use what is offered to you as you showed little regard for your pheromones before by taking birth control. Let the gods be thanked you were brought here to us to save you.” Madame Bai nodded at Drusilla, “Do what you like in this regard, Drusilla.”
Dru did not want any Alliance scent on her. It sounded disgusting. To wear something artificial. However, she didn’t want to make any enemies either, so she replied, “I’ll do what everyone else has to do.” She could feel that this made a lot of people feel better and they went back to their mindless apathetic listening mode. And she hoped they forgot about her real name and her lack of birth control usage.
“As you wish, now, the mirror,” Madame Bai pointed to the large round mirror over the sink with two panels on either side, “is able to provide you with information about your health, based on your toilet samples and appearance, to local news, weather or even hair style suggestions.” Then she opened a drawer that revealed small hand-held devices, “This,” she said holding up a pen-like laser, “is for your teeth. Don’t be scared by it. It’s a laser and requires no soap. It cannot hurt you.” She turned it on, and a thin blue light was released and she showed the women how to use it. Then she picked up another device from the drawer and it was a laser to remove hair, “This is permanent hair removal. You can choose to do as you wish, but just in case you didn’t know, Alliance citizens have no hair on our bodies except for our eyebrows and hair on our heads. Your future husbands may also prefer you have the hair on your bodies removed. I make no judgements about what you choose to do. I just want to give you this information and you can do what you want with it.” Everyone was too tired to care about body hair and just wanted Madame Bai to move on with the tour so they could shower and go to sleep. “One more thing about hair, we don’t cut our hair as it goes against the gods. If you are caught doing it, you will be punished. And so, we are clear, when I say you, that means every one of you. We expect you to work together to integrate and conform.”
“The women downstairs had cut their hair,” Rebecca commented as she had dark brown hair which she kept cut just above her shoulders.
“They’re slaves, the closest to the gods. They’re allowed to have the look of the gods. That is why they cut their hair and dress in green,” Madame Bai explained as if this was the most common of knowledge.
“But if we remove our body hair won’t that be going against the gods?” Jane asked.
“No, because I don’t think the gods intended you to ever live on Earth. You’re the Lost People and your bodies have mutated through natural selection to suit that inhospitable planet you were forced to live on. Removing your hair will bring you closer to the gods.”
“Should we paint our skin grey then and dye our hair black? We’re not your Lost People. We’re human. We’re meant to look this way,” Jane defended them, everyone could hear she thought this whole situation was ridiculous.
“I’m not going to have a religious debate with you. It’s a fact that we are 160 trillion in the galaxy and you are only 12 billion, but we are genetically identical. Do you think that is a coincidence? No, it can’t be. You’re the Lost People. You were the unfortunates in our early space exploration that became stranded, but now you have returned to us in our time of need through the will of the gods. The sooner you accept this the better it will be,” Madame Bai looked at them all sternly then and added, “Have I made myself clear? I don’t want to start punishing you on the first day.”
“Clear,” said Jane sarcastically. Isn’t this whole thing a punishment? she thought.
Dru smiled at Jane having heard her thoughts.
“Now, on to the clothing. In your wardrobes are four simple Alliance dresses for everyday and one more formal dress for special occasions. We had your measurements from your human fleet records and the dresses were made especially for each one of you while you were enroute to the Capital Planet. You’ll also find appropriate stockings, shoes, coats, hats, scarves and gloves as well. The dresses have been made especially warm for you so that you will not suffer from our cooler temperatures even now. Don’t worry, it won’t be long now before you can change into one of these warm dresses,” she looked with sympathy at one of the thinner human women, who’s teeth were beginning to chatter again. “When I looked through your human fashions to make sure we made clothes that would be comfortable and keep you warm, I noticed that you like to wear undergarments. In the Alliance, we don’t wear any undergarments as they are unhealthy and unnecessary. I’d suggest that you stop wearing them as well, especially for those of you who were just pierced. Your bodies should be free underneath your clothing, to do otherwise goes against the gods. You will also find a couple outfits for practicing with your swords in your wardrobe as well. Those must never be worn anywhere else, but the gymnasium and gods forbid if you are challenged to a duel, you’ll wear one of those then. Your human clothes will be recycled. I realize that you might be tempted to keep them for a memory, but we believe that’ll only hinder your acceptance of your new life here. Instead, after we finish our short tour, I’ll take a picture of you all together in these clothes so you can look at that and have the memory of your old fleet uniforms and of this memorable day.”
Just fantastic, Dru thought, What a clever reminder. Here is a memory of how terrible you looked when you were brought here from the war and we took you in.
Then Madame Bai brought them over to the desk in the bedroom and opened the 3D computer, “For the moment, your computers are all locked. They will be unlocked for you tomorrow after your universal translators are changed for one of ours. Also, tomorrow you all will be able to send video messages, VMs, to your families on Earth to let them know that you are alive and well. No doubt they’ll be sorry that you’ll not be returning to Earth but rejoice that you are now Alliance citizens and the privilege that brings in the galaxy. Don’t get any ideas about escape or sending messages to your fleet to rescue you. These videos will all be monitored, of course. Your Earth social media accounts have all been locked. When you are settled here with a husband and a child they’ll be unlocked. The same goes for all human culture, music, books, dramas are all blocked for you until you are married with a child. Also, you may have no visitors from Earth until you are married with a child. You may send VMs and messages to your friends and families on Earth or on your human colonies, but these will be limited to five a week. This is all done so that the processes of integration will go both quickly and smoothly. Now moving on,” she instructed the women to continue following her.
Madame Bai began walking downstairs to the large drawing room and everyone followed quietly. In the drawing room, they all sat on the circular black sofas surrounding the large medieval looking fireplace and Madame Bai motioned to one of her assistants who brought forward a large black wooden box. Madame Bai opened it and began calling each woman’s name, giving each one of them a silver necklace with a small round charm on it. The charm had Alliance hieroglyphics engraved on it. As Madame Bai took the necklaces out of the box, she explained, “In the Alliance we wear jewelry that represents our status and our family names. You can’t read these yet, but each necklace says your name and your designation as a part of House Human. I’ll explain more in detail about our society tomorrow, and the place we have created for you, but just so you all know, you must wear this everyday over your dresses at all times except when you are sleeping. Now that you all have your identity necklaces, let’s take the picture for your keepsakes. Please all line up there,” she indicate
d against a yellow, stone wall. “I know this isn’t what any of you imagined, but it truly is the best thing that could have happened. To be saved from your backwards planet and now to be Alliance women. Embrace this gift.”
Dru and the rest of the women from the Dakota lined up and a picture was taken. It seemed almost surreal to Dru that they would even bother with this, but then she reminded herself, It’s all for a purpose, that a feeling of gratitude would haunt us every time we look at the picture. Dru shuddered to think that a day might come when she actually thought that was true, that there would be a day she would be as grateful to the Alliance as they wanted her to be. She brushed the thought away. All she wanted to do now was have a hot shower and go to bed. She was in pain and exhausted. Now that she knew what their new prison was like for the foreseeable future she just wanted to collapse.
Madame Bai ended her lecture by reminding them all that the guards outside, the forcefield and the slaves were there to serve them and that they were no longer prisoners but members of Alliance society. Then she and her assistants left with the promise that their cultural classes would begin tomorrow after the midday meal. To give them a chance to rest from their long journey. All the human women just looked at each other in silence after Madame Bai and her assistants left. Although the city was buzzing around them through the windows, the room was silent. Everything was still.
Jane ran a hand through her short brown hair, “I feel like this is the calm before the storm,” she said to them all. “I suggest we all find our rooms, bathe and then sleep. I can’t remember what time it’s now but since it doesn’t look like mealtime is happening anytime soon, I’m going to skip that today so that I can just sleep.”
Everyone agreed and so they went upstairs to their designated rooms, which were ranked according to age. The only noise they made was the sound of their footsteps on the stone hallway floors. Outside each door was a small screen with their name in English and Alliance on it. Dru found her assigned room and went in, closed the door and immediately took off her filthy uniform. She winced as she took off her bra and cursed the Alliance culture. Then she went into the black stone bathroom and said, “Computer, raise temperature to 23C.” Suddenly she heard warm air filling the bathroom and felt a bit better. She pressed the blue button on the toilet and then sat down. She had never considered herself a private person, but after spending over a week using a toilet in front of the other women, she was happy to have some privacy now. She sat on the toilet for longer than she needed to, in a daze, half-thinking half-not, letting the warm air surround her. The toilet seat was warm too and she thought in that moment, Maybe the Alliance isn’t so bad? At least my butt is warm, and I have some privacy at last. She couldn’t help but smile at her own joke. She hadn’t realized how cold she was until she began to warm up. Her fingers and toes were tingling as the small bathroom warmed. After many minutes of just sitting on the toilet, she finally got up and turned on the shower by simply stepping into it. It had never occurred to her how warm the water should be so after many minutes of telling the computer to go warmer she finally settled on 42C and stood there letting the hot water roll over her skin. Then she unabashedly let her tears fall with huge cries and this time she couldn’t help but kneel down from the sobs her body was producing. After countless minutes, when she felt like she had cried enough over everything that had happened, she got control of herself and stood up again. She asked for soap and the shower produced both shampoo and soap for her skin that she couldn’t help but think smelled overwhelmingly like petrichor with a touch of an unfamiliar sweet scent that she wondered if it came from a native flower to the Alliance. As the water ran down her body, she looked down at her ruined nipples and began to cry again, but then scolded herself, This can all be completely healed. It’s not permanent.
Dru took a deep breath and said out loud to herself, “Be strong now and not such a cry baby. You’ve just been taken prisoner, don’t be confused by all of this. You’re probably not staying,” Dru felt comforted by this new thought of either escaping or being saved, both for some reason felt like a possibility in the hot shower.
When she ended her shower, she was subsequently dried with pleasant gusts of warm air. Dru had long red hair with a bit of curl to it and obviously the dryer was designed with Alliance people in mind, who had heavy, long black hair, so when she looked at herself in the mirror, she could not help but laugh at her appearance and the absurdity of all of this, pierced nipples and big hair, “Is this what you think passes for beauty in the Alliance?” she asked her reflection jokingly.
When she spoke, the mirror lit up and asked her if she would like some hair styles suggestions and immediately the mirror began showing her images of herself with different style options, All of which must be popular in the Alliance, she thought.
She dismissed the mirror and enthusiastically used the laser to brush her teeth. Then she looked down at the hair removal laser. She had no intention of using it. She knew in human history at different points in time men and women had both mutilated their bodies with tattoos, piercings and hair removal. Everything humans did now was temporary, cutting their hair or wearing makeup. To permanently change your body went against human nature and if someone did it, it was understood they had underlying psychological issues. She suddenly envisioned what it would be like to be intimate with a man with no body hair and decided that it would feel too strange, as if she were with a lifelike robot, Or an alien, she thought, because that is what they are, aliens. But she did have the tugging notion that what she had heard about humans being the Lost People might actually be true. It was almost impossible that there would be two species located across the galaxy that were genetically compatible. However, she didn’t want to think about that just now because that would mean in a way that she had come home. Home to a foreign planet. She frowned at her reflection.
Dru banished the thought of the Lost People for now and walked out into her room naked. She quickly went to the wardrobe, opened it and looked for pajamas. When she couldn’t find any, she examined the four identical dresses of various solid colors. The fifth dress was made of a different kind of material that seemed to shimmer like water in the light, she had no idea what kind of formal occasions that dress would be for, but hoped she would never have to wear it, as she feared it might be a wedding dress. She took out the plain black dress. It had been machine made. She had never seen a machine-made piece of clothing before. On Earth, everything was handmade, even their uniforms. This also meant that most people owned very little clothing as it was expensive to buy. Most humans put great thought into what they wore and owned. She didn’t want to put on the machine-made dress now, it seemed to her like a prisoner’s uniform, but she put it on anyway, without any undergarments because her nipples hurt, and her underwear was disgusting having not changed it for over a week. She looked at her bare feet and looked back in the wardrobe for the ‘appropriate stockings’ and wondered, What do inappropriate stockings look like? She found a pair of thigh high soft black stockings, again machine made and said out loud, “Really? The most advanced civilization in the known galaxy and women are wearing these?” Dru put on the stockings anyway and then looked at herself in the full-length mirror that she activated from the menu next to the bed after pushing almost all the options and then realizing she could just request it from the computer vocally and muttering, “I’m such an idiot sometimes,” as she looked at her reflection.
Her usually curvy figure was eclipsed by the loose fabric of the standard Alliance dress. The top closed nicely with a cross-over mandarin collar but the rest of the dress had too much loose fabric and just hung on her down to the floor, making her appear much bigger than she really was. The three-quarter length sleeves did nothing to help the appearance of the dress either. She couldn’t help but wonder, How did this dress ever become the fashion in the Alliance? Thankfully, the rest of the galaxy has seen it and said, ‘No thank you,’ to this ugly grandma dress. And then she thought, Why am I in
sulting grandmas the galaxy over, they wouldn’t wear this either? As she ran her hands down the sides of the dress, pushing the extra fabric down to expose her figure, she wished fervently that Alliance women wore undergarments. She was completely naked underneath, which didn’t make a difference in her overall appearance in the dress, but her breasts, once they healed from the piercings would feel better supported by a bra, I’m no A cup like these Alliance women, she thought, The gods will have to understand that. After looking over herself in the dress for longer than she should have she resigned herself to it and decided at least no man would want her as she looked like a fat goose in it with red hair.
She had overheard some of Madame Bai’s assistants’ thoughts about her red hair and she now knew that red was the color of instability in the Alliance and that is why they thought her so out of control in her medical exam.
Dru sighed and picked up her dirty bra and her filthy underwear from the floor, the latter she had turned inside out too many times to count and washed them in the sink. She left both of her undergarments to dry overnight in the bathroom. The mirror tried to talk to her while she was washing out her undergarments, but she told it three times to turn off. “I’m already tired of this technology,” she muttered.
“Drusilla, let me…”
“Turn off stupid mirror,” she said again.
After she finished, she went back into the bedroom and with great gusto, threw the fur blanket off the bed and got under the covers. However, she realized that she might be cold without the fur so then she got out of bed and put it back on top and then got back into the large bed with her dress on. She tried to make herself as comfortable as possible under the smooth yellow sheets. This was no easy task as the sheets kept trying to conform to her position which would have been nice if she had not had on the large dress. Once Dru was settled and the sheets comforted her she realized that she had not felt this warm in over a week and she was so happy just to be warm and clean.
