Ramliel by A.M. Griffin
Chapter Two
“Welcome onboard New Beginnings and congratulations on being chosen for the Teague Bride Program! Your new life awaits! Please report to your assigned room. Additional instructions will be found there.”
Mia followed the dark, curly haired woman in the line in front of her. When she’d first heard the recording that blasted overhead, she’d paid attention to it, hanging on every word. An hour later and the same message continued to play. The line to get through the check-in process and board the enormous silver spaceship had been a long, arduous one. Now the repeated greeting had become annoying background noise in a mix of other discordant sounds.
Shock still held Mia in its clutches. She couldn’t believe she was actually here. As instructed, she’d left her home unlocked and car keys on the counter. She’d had a fleeting thought of calling her extended family and telling them to come get whatever they wanted, but a small part of her thought doing that would be so…so…final. If she didn’t give her things away, she could eventually return.
Now that line of thought seemed stupid. She was never returning home. She’d felt that in her bones after she arrived at the drop point and met the rest of the “lucky” women at the International Airport. She’d felt it in her bones when she’d gotten off the bus and glanced at the tens of other buses that had dropped off the other women.
Any fleeting hope of this being a big mistake was g-o-n-e. GONE.
Once arriving at the ship they’d met the artificial intelligence or A.I.’s that would be taking care of them until they reached Teague. They were efficient, tall shiny robots that seemed to have everything under control for the onboarding process. The A.I’s directed everyone into the right lines and where to go and soon Mia was inside her first real spaceship.
“Is it too late to ask for a refund for this trip?” the question came from the woman behind her.
Mia turned toward the petite lady with large and expressive green eyes. “I wish. Do you think we can run away?”
She chuckled even though her question had been part serious. Nerves danced in her belly and left her palms clammy.
The woman ran a hand over the back of her neck, lifting a section of her dark hair and let it fall with a weary sigh. “At this point I don’t think they expect us to try to escape. We’re like, miles up in the air.”
“We would have to steal the shuttle they used to bring us up here with.” That came from a middle-aged Black woman in front of them. She glanced around at the women milling about. “Hey! Does anyone know how to drive a space shuttle?”
Looks of confusion met her question. Everyone appeared as dazed and off center as Mia.
“No?” the older woman faced Mia again. “I thought as much.”
The overhead recording looped again.
Another lady in front of them looked at the paper she held in her hand. “What room are you in?”
Mia glanced at hers. After they arrived, they’d been given a yellow notecard with their room assignment on it. There were also directions on how to access the room’s security. “Five-eighty-three.”
“I’m five-eighty-six,” the woman behind her who’d originally joked about a refund said. She pointed to the right at the wall mounted sign that had room numbers five-five-zero through six hundred printed on it. “We need to go that way.”
There was also another sign above the English one, but it was written in funny characters Mia didn’t understand.
“I’m in the eight hundreds,” the Black older woman stated. “I’ll see you guys around?”
“We’re going to be stuck on this ship for years,” Mia said. “We’ll be bumping into each other for a long time to come.”
She smiled, hoping to hide her growing anxiety. She got claustrophobic when she was on a plane for longer than three hours. How was she going to get through years?
“I’m Mia.” She shook both women’s hands.
“Diana,” the woman in front of her said.
“Angelina, Lina for short,” the woman behind her said.
When it was their turn and they finally reached the end of the hallway, Mia and Lina headed right and Diana went to the left. They followed a group of women down the hall, the crowd thinning out as everyone found their rooms and left the line.
Five-eighty-three.
Mia stopped in front of the door.
“Do you want me to go inside with you?” Lina asked, stopping next to her.
Mia chewed on her bottom lip, mulling it over. “This is really happening, isn’t it?”
Lina’s hand slipped into hers. “I hate to say it, but yes. We’re really on a spaceship being carted off to be some alien dude’s bride.”
Acid burned the back of Mia’s throat. She swallowed, trying to move past the lumps forming. “I was trying not to think of the last part. I’ve been stuck on the being on an alien spaceship and jetting through space to God knows where.”
“I tell you what. I’ll help you get settled, then you can help me. How does that sound?”
Mia’s heart sped up and the air in her lungs constricted. This was it.
“I know this might seem forward and pushy of me,” Lina continued. “But I’m scared as hell and I really don’t want to be alone right now. Do you mind if I hang out here before going to my own room?”
Mia damn near crushed Lina’s hand at the offer. “Yes. Let’s go in together.”
Lina read the security directions while Mia followed the commands to program the door to her handprint. After a few tries of bumbling through the instructions, the door slid open with a woosh. Crisp and cool air wafted from inside. From her vantage point, Mia glimpsed a twin sized bed and a round table with two chairs.
Lina poked her head inside. “Is this it? I thought since this was a fancy alien ship that our rooms would look like something in a nice hotel. I had better accommodations at a hostel in Frankfurt.”
Mia stepped inside and glanced around. Yup, if she had to spend years here, she was going to have to fight through one helluva claustrophobic episode.
“I think this will tell us what happens next.”
Mia glanced toward Lina who stood in front of the one of the walls that had a whiteboard attached to it. “Don’t tell me it says we’re really going to be an alien delicacy instead of alien brides.”
Lina didn’t answer.
At her silence, Mia chuckled nervously. “Um, do I want to read it?”
Lina’s voice was barely above a whisper as she said, “We’re to meet at this place on the map in the morning. Apparently, we’ll be in stasis sleep for the entire trip to Teague.”
“That’s better than spending years getting old and being bored in space.” Mia erupted in another round of nervous chuckles. “How long are we going to sleep for?”
She opened a closet and discovered her two bags inside. A breath of relief slid past her lips. She’d had a bit of concern at check-in when her bags had been taken and thrown on a moving conveyor belt. The only mementos that she had of her parents were in those bags.
Lina turned around, face pale and lips trembling. “Two hundred years.”
Mia dropped her purse.