Servant For An Alien Leader by Roxie Ray
Rita
The stark white walls made it feel more like a sterile hospital than an auction in the middle of a giant space station. Only four days had passed since that fateful meeting with Tory Hearst, and now David and I were sitting, waiting to find out who would bid on our service contracts and what planet we’d end up on.
Only a matter of hours and I’d be heading far away from my ex. I couldn’t have been more ready to begin my new life.
“Sounds like some of these women have done this before,” David remarked, not bothering to lower his voice. “Do people make a career of this?”
“Some.” I shrugged. “Apparently some people love the chance to visit and work on different planets. And, well, the money probably plays a part of it.”
A huge part. Based on the research I’d done, IEP contracts were worth exorbitant amounts of money—no wonder the IEP was becoming so freaking powerful, what with their huge cut of the contract fees. Even with the IEP taking their share, the money I’d make working for them for a year was more than I’d had in my entire life. Theoretically, I could go back to Earth in a year and be pretty comfortable.
But if I renewed my contract or took another, I’d be rolling in it—at least compared to the barely-scraping-by life I’d lived these past twenty-five years.
“Yeah.” David leaned back in his chair, raking his gaze over the dozen or so other women in the room—as expected, he was the only male. “I’ve got big plans for that money. You think you’ll sign up again?”
I laughed. “Let’s just make it through the auction first.”
Following David’s gaze, I watched and listened as the other women chatted animatedly. Some were dressed professionally in suits and heels, but others looked more like they were ready for a night at the club.
“I put Raider as my first and only choice,” said a buxom blonde with hair so big I wondered if she’d used a full can of spray to keep it in place. She grinned. “Pretty sure those sex-starved giants will be more than happy to bid on me.”
I raised my eyebrows, but kept silent. It wasn’t my place to judge. Who knew why some of these women were trying to get away from Earth? Sure, Raider wasn’t on my list at all—I clearly wasn’t interested in a breeder contract—but everyone had their preferences.
The woman next to me, however, stiffened at the blonde’s words and began rocking back and forth, her arms wrapped tightly around her waist. I peered at her from the corner of my eye, only really taking her in now for the first time. Unlike the other women in the room, she was wearing a worn, frayed dress in an old style—one that hadn’t been popular in a couple decades.
Her long, stringy black hair hung over most of her face, and she hid behind it as if she wanted to disappear into the hard Plastisteel chair.
“Hey,” I said softly, my heart going out to her. I had no idea what she might have gone through but she looked like she could use a friend. “My name is Rita. What’s yours?”
The woman glanced up at me, her eyes wide and a slightly panicked look on her face. “Jean,” she whispered.
“Hi, Jean. Are you okay?” I lowered my voice, hoping not to attract the attention of any of the other women who’d been giving her unfriendly looks while we’d been waiting.
“For now, yes.” Jean glanced around then quickly dropped her head again. “But I don’t know for how long.”
As I looked back at the crowded room, many of the women turned their noses up at Jean. Some were even rude enough to whisper to each other behind their hands. Jean self-consciously arranged her dress, trying to hide some of the threadbare patches.
“Ignore them,” I whispered, patting Jean’s hand, momentarily taken aback by how thin and frail it was. “They aren’t worth your time. You can talk to me, though. What’s wrong? Is something going on?”
Clearly it was, but I didn’t want to push too hard.
Jean looked at me once again and gave me a tentative smile. “You’ve been very kind. I won’t forget you. I hope.”
I frowned and opened my mouth to ask her what that meant, but just then the big-bosomed woman sauntered up to us and gave Jean the most condescending smile I’d ever seen.
“The IEP must be hard up for candidates if they’ve let you in—or maybe they’re just lowering their standards.” She laughed at her own words, then muttered, “Pathetic.”
“Wow, really?” David said, leaning forward in his seat. “I guess that’s how you ended up here then, too. Why don’t you head back over there and leave us alone?”
Here we go.While I agreed with David’s statement, I knew him too well. He didn’t give a flying fuck what people thought, said what was on his mind, and often came off as abrasive. Normally I’d be pissed at his behavior, but this woman deserved whatever he threw her way.
The blonde jutted her hip out and leaned forward slightly, baring her ample cleavage as she studied David. “What, do you have a thing for Little Orphan Annie over here?” She clicked her tongue. “Such a shame when the hot ones lower their standards for such trash when other women go out of their way to look good.”
She let out a grating laugh then bit her lip as she ran her eyes up and down my ex-husband, practically eye fucking him right there in the auction room.
I rolled my eyes. Was this bitch for real?
“That doesn’t concern you,” David replied. “But I happen to believe in being kind to people,” he added with a smirk. “Which is why I’m still being polite to you, even though you’re a self-absorbed bitch.”
I almost smiled at the offended look on the woman’s face as she harrumphed and went back to where she’d stood before, but my annoyance overpowered it. I turned back to Jean, hoping she hadn’t taken the rude woman’s words to heart, but she was gone.
“Wait, where did Jean go?” I asked David, who stared back blankly. “The girl sitting right beside me?”
I looked around the room, but there wasn’t anywhere she could have gone. Maybe she’d slipped out the door somehow. I wasn’t sure how that would be possible since there was only one way in and out. She’d been right here…
“Did anyone see where the girl next to me went?” I asked loudly.
The other women glanced around, their brows furrowed, looking just as dumbfounded as I felt.
“The room was shut the whole time,” David said.
Okay, that was just weird. I started to stand and head toward the door, but suddenly it whooshed open and a short, stocky man with purple skin strode in. He was wearing the official green uniform of the IEP.
I hurried up to him. “Hey, there was a girl in here just now, named Jean, and she—”
“David Starling?” the official called out, barely sparing me a glance as he shrugged off my question. “Your contract is ready.”
David stood, giving me a grin as he swept past me. “Best of luck. Keep in touch.”
I frowned at his back as he followed the official from the auction room. That was it? All our years of friendship and marriage, and now we just parted ways with a keep in touch?
If I were being honest with myself, though, I wasn’t exactly torn up about it. This is what we both wanted—what we both needed. To start fresh with our own separate lives.
Before I could return to my seat, the door slid open again, and the same man walked back in. “Rita Starling?”
“Yes, that’s me.”
“Follow me,” he said in a bland voice, then turned and exited once more.
Well, okay then. This was it. I followed him into the wide, open hallway outside the auction room. Just like when we’d been brought on board Novis Station, the space station where the IEP was headquartered, I was awestruck by the view.
The walls were made of clear Plastisteel, and all I could see were endless miles of stars stretching out around us. It was a little scary, but at the same time it was the coolest experience of my life so far. My heart beat a little faster as I imagined what it would be like on my new planet. My life was about to change radically. I couldn’t wait.
The official led me into an even tinier room next. It contained only a table and one chair. I turned, wanting to catch the little purple man before he left me here.
“Hey, do you know what happened to the woman in the auction room with me? Jean? She was there when you first came in for David.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said in the same bored tone as before.
Quickly, I told him how Jean had been right there, then suddenly disappeared. He shrugged. “I’ll have someone look into it. Your contract is on the table if you want to take a look so we can keep things moving along.”
“Where am I going?” I asked, sliding into the only chair and picking up the paper contract. It seemed antiquated to have a paper contract aboard a high-tech space station, but I’d overheard some of the women talking about the “binding ink” on the contracts. Whatever that meant.
“Macros,” the official informed me. “It’s quite beautiful. Well known for a vast array of flora and fauna, as well as their advanced eco-architecture. You’ll be a helper there, tending to animals, crops, and things of that nature.”
I grinned. “Perfect.” Based on the little bit of research I’d managed to squeeze in during the last four days, Macros had been at the top of my list.
Turning back to the contract, I read it over carefully to make sure everything was just as Tory had explained it. Sure enough, the information about pay rates and time frames was all there. The only thing that was missing was—
“Excuse me, sir,” I began, glancing at the official once more. “I was promised I would go alone—that my ex-husband and I would be sent to different planets.” It never hurt to make sure.
“I don’t know anything about that,” he replied, “but the IEP always keeps their promises.”
I nodded. Perhaps this was just a standard contract template then, with only my specific job and location added in.
Picking up the pen, I signed my name with a flourish, watching in awe as the ink flashed bright gold for an instant before fading back to black.
“Binding ink?” I asked, and he nodded.
“Completely binding and unbreakable.”
Yikes. Good thing Macros was a top choice—and that I’d be working on things I knew and liked. What kind of animals might they have on Macros? I’d likely need to study the species to bone up my veterinary medicine knowledge to make it applicable. Either way, a rush of adrenaline flowed through me as it hit home that I was actually doing this.
“Now I’ll escort you to the clinic where you’ll be fitted for your translation device.” Without waiting—again—the official strode from the room, expecting me to follow.
I trailed behind him as he led me back into the main hub of the space station then down another long Plastisteel hallway. The stars were mesmerizing, and my stomach did a little flip. Before long I’d be shooting off into those stars, a whole new world before me.
“Hello,” a pleasant female voice said, drawing my attention as we came to a stop at what had to be the clinic. The tall, golden-skinned woman with flowing silver hair was dressed all in white, and she was smiling so kindly I was immediately at ease. “I’m Farin, and I’ll be fitting you with your communicator today.”
“Hi,” I replied as the purple man turned and left without speaking. Farin led me into the clinic, and my curiosity piqued. “How do these devices work?”
“Oh, it really quite exciting,” Farin said, and her silver eyes lit up. “It’s a Hollander technology, brought to the IEP by one of our own princes. The device instantaneously translates any foreign language into your own native tongue. And anyone who has a translator will be able to understand what you’re saying as well.”
“Wow, that’s crazy.” Tory had told me there wouldn’t be an issue of a language barrier, but I hadn’t expected something this advanced.
Farin laughed. “It’s definitely opened up the universe a bit more. Now, right this way.”
She took me into a small room where I sat in a chair while she attached a miniscule removable device behind my left ear. It was completely painless and done before I knew it.
“All right,” Farin said with a smile. “You can take that off whenever you want, but you’ll find that you forget it’s even there. Now all that’s left is to get you to your spacecraft, and you’ll be on your way.”
“Perfect.”
Less than fifteen minutes later, I stood at the base of a gangway attached to a massive spacecraft. I took it all in, still awestruck by the whole experience. Ahead, a familiar head of brown hair bobbed up the gangway, just about to board.
“David?” I called out. Sure enough, he turned around. “What are you doing here?”
I walked toward him, my stomach clenching as he spoke the words I knew he was going to say before they ever left his mouth.
“What are you taking about? This is my ride to my new planet.”
I took a steadying breath, not wanting to get worked up for nothing. “And what planet might that be?”
“Macros.”
“But that’s where I’m going. Why are we going to the same place?” I couldn’t keep the frustration from my voice as I turned to yet another IEP official standing off to the side of the ship’s entry. “Excuse me, but we were promised we would be assigned different planets.”
His eyebrows lifted. “Who promised you this? Was it in your contract?”
I gritted my teeth. “No. David, was it in yours?”
He shrugged. “No.”
The purple man’s words came back to me. Completely binding and unbreakable.
Great.
I stared at David, and he stared back, his annoyance as plain on his face as it probably was on mine.
Then without a word to each other, we boarded the ship and separated, him heading to the front left of the ship as I made my way to the back right.
I was frustrated and angry, but there was nothing I could do about this. I would just make a point of staying far, far away from him once we arrived. Perhaps I’d luck out and our jobs would be on opposite sides of the planet.
Either way, I wouldn’t let it ruin what was ahead of me. A new life on a new planet. Butterflies took flight in my stomach and anticipation hummed in my blood.
Planet Macros, here I come.
