by R. E. Butler
She complained about being bored on the third day, after a breakfast of sugar-dusted pancakes with fresh fruit. It was as close as he had been able to come to donuts. One of the fruits, which he called a ronii, was sweet like ripe peaches, and she greedily ate every piece he had. The large, strawberry-shaped fruit was sweet and seedless, and its mauve skin was edible.
"You could visit my sister Sloan. She's a medical officer on board."
"You have a sister? I thought your people stopped having baby girls?"
"There are some born from time to time. Sloan was one of the last ones before our people realized that the females were sterile."
"Is she married?"
He shook his head as he cleared the table. "The men won't choose a female from our people because they are unable to have children."
"That's cruel, to the women."
He shrugged, but his eyes said he agreed. "Without babies, our people will die off. We have done what we needed to do so that our people will survive."
"Seems like they could have come up with something besides kidnapping."
"They did try. Sloan, and many of our top scientists, are working on the problem." After a quiet moment, he said, "I'll call Sloan and ask her to come get you. I, uh, have some things I'd like to get done, so she can escort you back and forth."
"Sure, Eden."
Within an hour, Eden's sister Sloan was walking with Ashleigh on the way to her chambers. She was tall and curvy, with dark brown hair and eyes, and a pretty, welcoming smile. She seemed so happy to meet her brother's bride that Ashleigh found her attitude infectious. "I'll take you to see my office another time. It's pretty busy there right now; there was a fight that broke out amongst some of the single males."
"Why were they fighting?"
"Why do any men fight?"
Ashleigh smiled. "Because they're stupid?"
Sloan laughed and entered her room, motioning her inside. "Perhaps. Men appear to be the same no matter what planet they hail from. Sit, please. I'll get us something to drink and you can tell me all about yourself."
Her room was soft and feminine, and about the same size as Eden's. The flooring was sandy brown and the walls were pale green. Ashleigh sat on a small couch and kicked off her slippers.
Sloan brought her a glass of flar, which was a mild liquor that tasted like white wine. She set a tray containing small crackers, cheese slices, and fresh fruit on a small table in front of the couch. She sat next to Ashleigh, listening to her share about her life back on Earth. Ashleigh found it was easy to talk to her, and she listened with rapt attention and asked questions and joked. Sloan talked about her work as a medical officer and her hope that someday she would be able to reverse the barrenness of their females.
"What happens to your women, when they’re barren?"
She smiled sadly. "We're useful, but not as wives. Once it became widespread knowledge that the females were barren and that cross-breeding with species from other planets and systems might produce the hope of the future, many that were married were tossed aside. I was engaged to marry a man named Talek, and he said he wouldn't marry me unless I had a fertility test done. Even though I had hope that he didn't mean it, when the results came back that I was sterile, he walked away without another glance. He was one of the first ones to take a bride from another planet. He has a couple of children now, but all boys." She smiled slightly. "I guess I can take some small measure of joyful revenge in that."
"Eden said that some females of your planet can still have children, while others are entirely barren." Ashleigh tried to wrap her head around the situation.
"I'm one of the unfortunate females who are truly sterile. I won't have children of either sex. The scientific community is almost certain that something happened universally to us; either an unknown change to our genes or environment with the end result of either true sterility or only male children being born. I'm almost thirty-five years, and there are less than five hundred females younger than me, on a planet where the males outnumber the females 8 to 1. The men, they want to help the race survive, not make more competition for future generations by only having males."
"But I thought that men's sperm determined the sex of the baby?"
"It should. But what we discovered through many years of testing was that something happened between fertilization of the egg and implantation in the uterus that changed the baby from female to male. We tried inseminating them artificially, but no matter how we manipulated them, the fetuses always became male. The only time we could get female babies was through the use of alien eggs and uteruses. It's unfortunate, I know, and I do feel badly for you and the other women. But our people are desperate."
Ashleigh protested, "But the babies that will be born, they won't be either race, but a mix."
"It doesn't matter; our people can continue on."
"How long have your people been abducting women from other planets?"
She rolled her eyes in thought. "I became an adult at sixteen years and they started testing the females shortly after that, and then it took many years for the probes to return with the right planets for the ships to take women from. Ten years, perhaps."
"And you haven't found a cure or the reason for the sterility?"
"No."
"And how many babies have been born since the abductions started? How many girls to boys?"
She smiled. "The first mixed baby girl was born about five years ago. Now there are over a dozen girls and about thirty boys resulting from the abductions. There have been numerous pilgrimages to other planets and systems, but the travel time is long and the women, of course, need time to adjust."
Of course.
"You don't know if the girls born now will be sterile or not, though," she pointed out.
"That girls are born regularly is sign enough. When the time comes that they are adults, they'll be tested. All testing so far points to the mixed females being able to breed successfully."
She felt her anger rise. "And in the meantime, your people are abducting innocent women like me."
Sloan put down her glass and took Ashleigh’s from her. "I know you're angry, and I can empathize with you, but think of it this way. If your people were going to die out eventually, wouldn't you do anything in the universe to change the course of that future if you could?"
Ashleigh wanted to say that she thought she would rather go gracefully into non-existence then abduct women and force them to breed, but she didn't. Because if she knew anything about human nature, then Eden and his people had behaved no differently than humans would have.
Sloan shifted the subject slightly, "I hope you can take some comfort in knowing that Eden will take very good care of you. He cares about you.”
She muttered, "As a brood mare."
She smiled sadly. "I'm sorry, Ashleigh. I can't imagine how you are feeling right now, but I will tell you that my brother is one of the sweetest, most gentle men I've ever known. You need time to adjust to this situation, but in time I know you'll come to love him."
"I really just want to go home to Earth."
"I know it seems impossible, but our ability to travel through space is millennia ahead of your planet's. We're so far away from Earth that we're already in another solar system. Our ships use something called yanning, that folds space for us, and allows us to travel great distances in a shorter amount of time. These ships are supplied with only enough fuel and supplies to take us to the destination planet and then home again."
Ashleigh felt tears press behind her eyelids again. She hadn't cried since that first night, but she wanted to cry now. She just didn't believe it. She didn't want to believe it. But looking at Sloan through blurry eyes, she knew that it was true. She really couldn’t go home. It helped some to know that Sloan thought a great deal of Eden, and so far, he'd been nothing but kind to Ashleigh even though she'd been difficult, but it wasn’t enough to take away the ache of not being able to go home. She would never see her mother again or apologize for
not calling her when she’d had the chance. She would never see her friends again, or her boss.
"I don't know that I'll ever stop wanting to go home, Sloan. I hope you can understand that." She sniffled and wiped at her eyes with a small napkin.
"I do. But for what it's worth, I think that in time you'll change your mind."
Silence fell between them, but it wasn't strained. Neither of them had any more to say about the situation.
Ashleigh spent the day with her, watching vids and talking about the similarities and differences between their people. It was a strange twist of fate that something had happened to their females to prevent them from having girl babies. And it was her bad luck that she was picked to help further their race.
When she walked with Ashleigh back to Eden's chamber, they found him pacing inside. His face split into a broad smile of relief when they walked in. He hugged Sloan and asked her to stay for dinner, which she accepted. Over dinner they talked about the differences in plant and animal life between the two planets. Their people were scientifically minded, but they were also agricultural. Although many things were similar enough, Ashleigh knew that their planet was going to take some getting used to.
When Sloan left after dinner, Eden joined her on the couch with a bowl of ronii, and they watched some vids about the art history of his people.
When the nightmare came that night, and she looked into Eden's sleep-blurred eyes and watched the terror slide into relief, she felt another little bit of her heart lost to him. It angered her, because it felt like a betrayal of her own kind, but she seemed to be unable to stop it. He was sweet and kind, and even though she hated that she’d been taken from Earth, she couldn’t help the warm feelings that surfaced whenever she was with him.
The fourth day, Eden took her on a long elevator ride up to the top deck of the ship to the observation deck, telling her they called them transports and not elevators.
"I reserved this time for us, Ashleigh. There won't be anyone else up here for the next hour. I know you're bored in the chamber, but it’s part of the agreement that we sign when we take a bride, that you have to be sequestered until we arrive on planet and then another moon cycle after. Because Sloan is a medical officer, you're allowed to visit with her, but otherwise, you aren't supposed to have contact with anyone but me."
"Did something happen that made that a rule?"
"I think you can guess that some women gathered together and tried to find a way to escape. Unfortunately, they were injured, and one of them died when she stepped into an airlock, sealed herself in, and blew the lock. She died out in space. I know she didn't want to be part of our world, but I don't think she wanted to die like that."
"What happens if a woman refuses?" The door to the transport opened, and they stepped out into a large oval-shaped room.
"If, after the moon cycle on the planet is over and the woman is still insistent that she cannot remain as bride to her husband, then she is taken to the Bordelayz until a more suitable mate can be found."
She turned to look at him in surprise. "What is the Bordelayz?"
"It's a brothel, Ashleigh. Do you know what that is?"
"Y-yes," she stammered.
His face hardened, and he looked truly angry. "Do you understand that a woman that refuses to marry the male who chose her loses all rights to herself and her body until she is chosen by another male? And she may never be. There are women in the Bordelayz who have been there for years."
She swallowed hard. "What happens if her husband dies?"
"When the mating ceremony is complete, the bride becomes a citizen of our home planet immediately. If her husband should die, as long as she was not the cause of his death, she retains her freedom and citizenship and can choose another husband if she wishes, or she can remain single for the rest of her days."
"Freedom? How is what you are doing to me freedom?"
"You're no less free than in a marriage on your planet. I've done my research, Ashleigh. Human men and women belong to each other in marriage, there's mutual love and respect, sharing of household and family duties. It's no different on my planet. The only difference is that you didn't ask to be taken, and I understand your anger at the situation, but I only want you to be happy. Ask me anything, except to take you back to Earth, and I'll go to the ends of the universe to see it happen."
Of course he would say, "except to take you back to Earth". Damn smart alien.
She shook her head and moved away from him, unable to say anything to that statement. She could see the truth in his eyes. He really did care about her; he really did want her to be happy. She just didn't understand that. It had only been a few days.
The lights went out suddenly, and she spun in the darkness as fear spread through her. She felt Eden's strong arms circle around her, and he said, "Screen clear." The light from a million stars and planets became visible as the walls and ceiling faded to clear glass. Dumbfounded, she stared up at the ceiling, the inky darkness dotted with stars. She gripped Eden's arms. "Where are we?"
His voice tingled in her ear as he said in a low voice, "This is the Gasar Galaxy. Beautiful, isn't it?"
Awed, she could do nothing but stand there and stare, mouth open, at the awesome expanse of space. She moved from his arms and he let her, and she walked to the glass and touched it, finding it slightly cooler than the air in the room.
He moved next to her while she gazed out at a galaxy she had never heard of. The inky darkness, dotted with stars, was mesmerizing. She kept reaching her hand out and brushed it against the cool glass.
All too soon, he said the time had come for them to return to their room, and she was still so surprised by what she had seen that she didn't correct him by reminding him it was his room and not theirs.
Before she went into the bedroom that night, he said, "You don't have to keep coming out here."
"What do you mean?"
"My nightmares. I, I appreciate that you come out for me, but it's not necessary."
"If you don't want me to, I won't." She felt strangely disappointed.
"It's not that; it's hard enough to be here in this room with you while you push me away, but when I wake up and find you in front of me, concern on your face, it just makes it that much harder."
The pained look on his face made her want to walk over to him and hold him tightly and tell him she was sorry, but she did what she'd been doing since she got there, and walked away.
Chapter 4
The next several days were the same. They ate together, watched vids, and talked, but there was a tension between them, and she didn't know how to fix it. She hadn’t gone out to him when he had his nightmares, and it tore at her to remain in bed while he was being tortured in his dreams.
She was still keeping Eden at arm's length, even though her feelings for him were growing steadily. Grudgingly, she had accepted that she wasn’t going to be taken back to Earth and was sad for what she had left behind: her job, her friends, her family. But she was surrounded by things that probably would not have happened in her lifetime back on Earth. She was in a spaceship traveling through space in a way that her people never imagined possible, going to another planet to live. She was living a dream that her people likely wouldn’t realize for generations.
She was stuck on the ship, in his room, for two months and then another month on the planet. He was gorgeous, funny, sweet, attentive, and kind. Of course she was going to care for him, fall in love with him. No matter the amount of physical space she put between them, she couldn't help but appreciate everything about him. He never lashed out at her when she rebuffed him. He never pushed her. He’d never done anything in their time together except hug her a few times. She could have certainly ended up in a far worse situation.
And she certainly didn't want to refuse him and wind up as a whore in a brothel.
She asked to visit Sloan again on the seventh day. Eden made the arrangements, and Sloan came to pick her up. As they walked through the halls and step
ped into the transport, Sloan said, "Is there anything special you'd like to do, Ashleigh?"
"Could you teach me how to use the cooker?"
Sloan's brows rose in pleased surprise. "Sure. Was there something you'd especially like to make, or did you just want to learn how to use it in general?"
"Eden liked a salty thing, esot I think it was called, that was rolled up?"
"Oh, esot with guiu and freks. That's his favorite. I used to make it for him all the time when we were young. I'd be happy to show you how to make that."
Inside Sloan's tidy kitchen, she showed Ashleigh how to turn on the cooker and use a control pad in the counter to adjust the heat level. Ashleigh sliced up the esot, which was a pyramid-shaped meat like a ham, with two thick bones through the center of it. The esot beast, which was a stocky creature with spikes along its furry back, was butchered and the meat prepared using a brine, which gave it the salty flavor, before it was roasted over an open flame.
While the strips fried on a pan heated on the cooker, Sloan showed her how to make the flatbread, which they called varjak. Two scoops of yellow flour, one spoonful of a thick oil, and enough hot water to make a dough. While Sloan watched, Ashleigh kneaded the dough and then cut it into three pieces, rolling them into large discs. Another pan was heated on the cooker, and each flatbread was toasted until it was cooked and then left to cool on a platter.
"Why do you come on these trips, Sloan?" Ashleigh asked, touching the strips of esot with a long-handled fork and moving them around the shallow pan.
"This is my first trip, actually. I wanted to come to support Eden and to meet you. I am qualified to be here, and I, well, I wanted to make sure that you were treated well from the beginning."
Ashleigh stopped fiddling with the meat and looked at Sloan. "What?"
"I'm the one who handled your in-take, Ashleigh. I implanted your translator, and I examined, bathed and dressed you. I know that might embarrass you, but you shouldn't worry about that. It was important to me that you were treated with the utmost respect. I even watched the entire group of women in the room, and I spoke personally to Commander Riya and made sure you were the last one taken."
