“I will take it. How long before some more apartments open up?” I could live here, but I really wanted some privacy for a change.
“We weren’t planning on giving any of you an apartment yet. It is best to wait and see what happens first. Many women will mate with our warriors, and some will leave.”
“Do you have a place where we can get more clothes? I only have what I am wearing plus a change of undergarments. The warriors on our ship didn’t plan on us changing our clothes often.”
“There is a factory that makes clothes here. They could use some more bodies. Do you know if anyone in your group can sew? We really need more workers to handle the influx of warriors and people. There is also a need for trained cooks.” Captain Mypo led us back outside as we headed towards the industrial area.
"I will have to talk to everyone to see what they specialize in. That might be a great first project for me unless the Commander has something else in mind. He did say he needed me to move here tomorrow and get up to speed. I will have to ask him what he had in mind." I couldn’t believe I already had a project needing my attention.
Once we made it to the factory, my measurements were taken, and I was told that I would have a full set of clothes by the end of the week. They were going to send over to my room a couple changes of clothes and undergarments I could use until my new ones were completed.
“There will be a long line once everyone moves here, won’t there?” Paris asked.
The Captain responded, “Yes, it is good Natalie is here early. We might want to send a couple of seamstresses to the ship just to get some measurements so we can get started. Natalie, do you want to handle that as well?”
“Sure, I will get with Zelan to see when we have a transport with room going back to the ship.”
The rest of the day was spent looking at offices with the Commander and Zelan. They were able to choose where they wanted to work, and I was given a desk next to their offices. It was a very spacious area, and no one else was in this section of the building. It was nice and private. But that also meant that our coffee corner wasn’t stocked yet. That was something I needed to get on right away.
When we went back down to the lobby, I saw Clarissa. “Hi there, looks like we will be working together soon. I can’t wait to move here tomorrow. But I gotta ask, how do I get a coffee corner set up on our floor?”
She smiled at me. “I will take care of that. Since we had no plans to put anyone there yet, we didn’t see a need to set up supplies. I will go through your area tomorrow and make sure you guys have all of the necessities, like coffee and tea.”
“Great! Maybe one day next week we can go to lunch and get to know each other? I would love to hear any suggestions you have to help me integrate here as well.”
“I would love that! This Friday is our monthly dance night. You should consider joining us. Maybe even Paris and her mate can as well?”
Paris had been standing nearby when she heard her name and she came over. “I would love to join you all. But I don’t know what plans Venay has. I’ll ask him”
I hadn’t seen any dancing by any of the V’Zenians yet. “Clarissa, do the aliens know how to dance?”
Paris answered instead. “Actually, Venay does. He surprised me one night before we were mated and put together a very romantic dinner, and we danced. I think that was the night I knew I was falling for him, and falling hard.” She had this dreamy, far-away look in her eyes.
“Some of our guys here can dance. They like to learn, and we do monthly dances and teach them. With a huge influx of women, I bet all of the men turn out this week.” She smiled and went back to her filing.
“Paris, how many women will be here by Friday? And what day is today? I have lost all count of days since we left Earth.”
“Um, I think today is Monday. I couldn’t tell you what the alien word is, but I heard Venay talking about the day of the week yesterday with Zelan and the translator said it was Sunday.”
“Oh, okay, I guess that makes sense. So I have five days to get a boat load of women transferred here. Hmm, Haver is going to be working overtime I think.” I smiled thinking about all of the women that were going to be the object of Aysiaer’s flirting. He wasn’t going to be upset in the least with all of the extra flights.
When we got back to the ship that night, I had a lot of notes from the day. I spent the rest of the evening working out a tentative schedule. First thing on the list was to figure out who was heading to New Hope this week, and then I needed to get the seamstress over here to take measurements for the women.
“Commander, can I schedule a seamstress to come over here tomorrow and get measurements for the first of the women going to New Hope? Oh, and what about the men? Are they going to the settlement as well?”
“Why do you need measurements?”
“Because none of us have anything more than the clothes on our backs and a change of underwear. We need more than that. The settlement has a few seamstresses and they make all of their own clothes, so they wanted to get the measurements as soon as they could. They need to schedule the work. Also, I need to poll the women and see who has what skills. We need to match them up with the jobs that need filling first.”
“Hm, sounds like you already have a full schedule. I need to sit down with you tomorrow and go over what I need from you, but after that go ahead and schedule what you see fit. I would start with the women who have the universal translators first. The men will go, but they are going last. I want the women to get settled in before I release the men. I have a feeling we are going to have some issues with them. They still haven’t settled down and accepted their fate. Just the other day, one of them tried to attack one of my warriors.” He shook his head.
"Oh, I had hoped they would appreciate going to the colony versus staying in cells. It's too bad because I know that the settlement could use some muscle and some construction workers too. Maybe some of the women can fill those roles." I shrugged my shoulders and went back to working on my schedule.
Chapter 15
The next day came way too early. “Come on sleepy head, time to get up.” I woke up to Commander Venay’s face directly in front of mine. It startled me so much I jumped and screamed a bit. He just laughed.
“Really funny, Commander. That is not a nice way to be woken up. What time is it? I feel like I just went to sleep.” I rubbed the sleep from eyes as I sat up.
“It is 6 am local time. We have a lot to do today. So let’s get going. First stop is the bridge. You need to meet the crew working there so you can come and go as well as allow you to communicate with the settlement whenever you are on this ship. Your communication device isn’t strong enough to reach the settlement, so all comms must go through the bridge, for now. We are working on setting up repeaters so that you can just use your internal comm with anyone no matter where you are.”
“Sounds good, but why so early?” I yawned.
“Because you have a very full day if you want to get the seamstresses here and survey the humans for job skills before you move.”
I sighed deeply. “Yes, of course. Do I have time to get some tea before we leave?”
“Breakfast is ready and waiting for you on the table. We leave in fifteen minutes so get going.” He pointed to the kitchen.
He had no clue how long it took women to get ready. I was so happy that he wouldn’t be around to wake me up every day. Poor Paris.
True to his word, we left his quarters within fifteen minutes. I wasn’t finished with my breakfast so I just took the toast with me, and ate it while we walked to the bridge.
The Commander stopped me around the corner from the bridge entrance, “Natalie, I need you to be on your best behavior while on the bridge. Most of the warriors here are not mine. They won’t be as tolerant of your presence as I am. It might be best if you only come to the bridge with either myself, or Zelan. I would hate to hear you had been treated poorly by one of the bridge officers.”
“Won’t the
y respect your word? If you tell them I am your assistant, doesn’t that mean something to them?”
“To some it will, to others you are just a slave. Even if you are my assistant, you are no better than cattle. I understand both you, and Paris, want to work to improve the status of humans in my world, but this bridge is not a place to experiment. Do you understand?” He looked me straight in the eyes and I felt a little intimidated by the intensity of his look.
“Yes, Sir. I will do my best to stay out of everyone’s way here.”
I followed him into the room and looked around. The bridge was smaller than I expected. It had multiple work stations, and each one was manned by different aliens. A few were pure-breeds, but most were hybrids.
What surprised me the most was the viewscreen. It took up the entire wall in front of the workstations. The captain’s chair sat in the middle of the room, like a throne. In front of that was a long workstation where four warriors sat looking at the displays on the tabletops in front of them. If they looked up, they would see a giant screen that had to be bigger than the movie theatre screen back home. Off to the left and the right were more workstations built into the wall.
We walked over to one side, “Natalie, this is my communications officer, Maximillion. Max, this is my new assistant. She will on occasion need to comm the colony, and if she ever sends a message to me from the colony, you are to route it immediately to me. Show her how to send her messages. And be sure to tell your replacement the same thing.” I smiled when I saw Max. At least one face on this bridge would be somewhat friendly.
He smiled at me as well, “Natalie, it is good to see you again.” He stood up, “Please, take the seat here and I will show you how to send a comm.”
The commander looked at me with a stern face, and an arched eyebrow, but said nothing as he walked to his throne chair.
As soon as I finished relaying my message for the seamstresses to come over, the Commander told me to follow him. We went to a room that was off to the side of the bridge.
“This is my office, while on this ship. The only way to enter is via the bridge. If I ever request your presence on the bridge, and I am not there, I will be in here.”
“Okay.” I wondered what he wanted that had to be said in private.
He must have read my mind, “There will be times when we speak in private because there are factions on this ship who want nothing more than to keep the humans in our cells. Most of those who were serving on this ship are not human friendly, so keep that in mind when making friends. How do you know Max?”
“I met him the other night in the mess hall when we had movie night. He seemed to be fine with me being a human.”
“I am sure he is, but others are not. Just be careful. It will be better for all humans to move to the settlement as quickly as possible.” He then gave me a list of things he wanted done tomorrow. After which, he promptly kicked me off the bridge. I was happy to leave.
While I was getting more comfortable with the Commander, it was still intimidating being on the bridge in front of so many aliens. He was right too, as I walked away I saw a few of them looking at me with scowls on their faces and even heard one say, “Why did the Commander use a slave as his assistant? Any one of us could have done that job so much better.”
I didn’t wait around to hear what his companion said, but I was pretty sure it wouldn’t have been nice. Those were two guys I would try to avoid at all costs.
Next on my list was heading to the cells to take inventory of job skills. For the most part, I was looking forward to this. However, there were a few people I wasn’t looking forward to speaking with. I started with my least favorite person, so that the task could only get better from there.
“Rachelle, have you received your implant yet?” I knew she wasn’t scheduled until later, but I wanted to see what she had to say. Maybe things had changed.
“No, I wanted to wait and make sure that it was safe before I signed up. I am on the list for next week.” She shrugged one shoulder like it was no big deal.
“That’s good. I am here today to take a list of names and job skills. The outpost needs certain positions filled right away. Then they will match the rest up to roles they could use help with. Have you ever sewed anything?”
“Me? No, I am not a “Susy-homemaker” kind of girl. I am meant for management. My last job was in a bank and I was on the fast track to becoming the youngest bank manager in history.”
“Huh, well, we don’t use money on this planet. Everyone works hard and gets to use the services for free. I will put down that you are good with counting. That might be a skill set they can use.” I wasn’t going to put customer service. I could tell she would only provide good customer service to those she wanted something from.
I made my way around the room until lunch time and took a break with Zelan. He came to the holding cells to get me which caused a bit of a stir with Rachelle. “Oh Zelan, is it time for our lunch? I am looking forward to spending more time with you today.” She sidled up as close as she could to the cell bars nearest him and his veins pulsed a bit of orange before he calmed himself. Then his veins went to green.
“Rachelle, for the last time, I am taken. Natalie is my mate. I have no interest in anyone else. Please stop trying to get my attention, it only makes you look bad.” He walked past her and straight to me. What he did next caused quite a stir. He took me in his arms and gave me a kiss that caused my knees to go week. I dropped my pad and pencil when he grabbed me. If he hadn’t been holding me so tightly against his body, I might have fallen to the ground.
I heard the catcalls from the guys in the room, and even a few girls were whispering and giggling. Oh well, I guess the cat was out of the bag now. “Hello to you to Zelan.” I said as I tried to get my feet under me again.
“I missed you, Natalie.” He whispered in my ear. Then he said a bit louder, “Are you ready for our lunch date?”
I smiled up to him and said, “Yes, let’s go.” I grabbed his hand and we walked out of the room. Men were still whistling and some of the girls said things like, “you go girl!” Another said, “That’s the kind of man I want.” I tuned them out and focused on Zelan as we headed to lunch.
“Ok mister, what was that display of affection for? I didn’t see any warriors in there who were ogling me. So why do that?” I looked up at him with pursed lips, and one eyebrow raised.
“To make sure those women knew I was taken. Sometimes it isn’t all about you.” He winked at me and my heart thudded loudly.
What do you say to something like that? I didn’t have a response so I kept my eyes forward and thought about what he said. Sometimes, I was a bit selfish.
We went to his room where he had laid out sandwiches. It was an impressive spread. The ham and swiss looked wonderful, so I chose that. It was pretty quiet, and I started to get nervous.
“Zelan, do you really think it is safe for us to live here?” I know, it was a major change in topic, but it was something that had been on my mind since the attack the other day.
“Of course it is. We will make it even safer with all of the upgrades. The Commander mentioned the other day that we are in the process of obtaining a new satellite, remember?”
“Yes, but isn’t it like five months away from now?”
“Actually, it is less than a month away. There is another settlement that makes the satellites. This one we have coming was intended for another planet, but since we have these issues now, the President re-routed it to us as soon as he heard about the attack.” He took a bite of his sandwich. Then continued.
“This satellite will allow us to scan the planet for technology and advanced life-forms. We are also worried about finding any other ships that the bugs may have sent here. I think our first concern is finding that crashed ship of theirs, and destroying it. Then, we need to find any mutant cockroaches that survived, or were hatched here, and destroy them.”
“Will the satellite do anything else for us?” I hoped it
had some defensive capabilities as well.
“It does help with detecting ships that enter this solar system. We will have a better view of anyone who tries to come here again. There is also a communication node inside that will help us to communicate from anywhere on this planet using our universal translators.” He paused before continuing, and sighed.
“They will, of course have to be synced to the satellite’s software. However, you should know, that it will also be able to track our movements. It isn’t so much of a tracking tool, as a communication tool. I know you don’t want to be tracked, but it could be helpful in finding you if you ever get lost, or something happens to you. Or anyone for that matter.”
I heaved a heavy sigh. “I understand why you think that is important. Us humans are going to have trouble with being tracked, it is a bit too 1984 for us.”
“1984? Isn’t that a year from your planet’s history? What does that have to do with this conversation?” He scratched his chin after taking a bite of his sandwich.
“That was a book written a long time ago by an author who predicted that our governments would take control of our lives and watch our every move. Since then, we have seen a lot of that happening. Many of our personal freedoms have been violated because of the watchful eyes of our governments. Sometimes it really is for the betterment of all people, but sometimes it is just the government flexing its muscle.” I took a small bite of my sandwich.
“There was a scandal not long ago about the government actively reading our emails, and listening to our cell phone calls. Now granted, if we had nothing to hide, then it shouldn’t have mattered. But, some of those messages were very personal. People don’t like it when strangers listen to their very personal communications.” I wiped my mouth and took a drink of water.
“The idea of that listening program was a good one, but it turned out to be a huge nightmare for our government and her allies. We want our anonymity. The ability to move about and communicate without someone watching us has always been very important. We call it “Big Brother.” You know, the guy who is always looking over your shoulder at everything you are doing? As a people, we don’t like it.”
Worlds Collide: Sci-fi Adventure/Romance (Alpha Alien Abduction Tale Book 2) Page 13
