Gundar Read online

  “My people?” she seethed. “Well, gee, I’m sorry if us primitives think that windows are a nice thing to have and worthwhile with acceptable risk factors taken into consideration by my people’s engineers. Oh noes, how did we ever do anything before your people came to teach us your ways?”

  Gundar gave a small frown. “You sound peeved.”

  “Peeved? Really? Oh, I don’t know, what reasons do I have to be peeved?” she spat. “Oh, yeah, I wanted to study a bit of the advanced sciences your people would allow us, but the only way to get a decent scholarship was to practically sell myself. Then, when it turns out I actually did sell myself, I was locked up and not even allowed to say good bye or pack a bag or settle any affairs I might need to or anything. Nope, I was just locked in a room, fed doughnuts and coffee and then taken away by a patronizing alien general or whatever, who then insults my primitive people.”

  Gundar’s eyes narrowed. “I thought you’d accepted and came to terms with the contract you signed. It appears you have not and are still upset and therefore lashing out.”

  “Lashing out? Buddy, you have not even begun to see me lash out,” Darla hissed from between her teeth.

  Gundar pretended he hadn’t heard her say anything further. Instead, he pointed to the view screen. “That’s my ship, Limitless Horizon.” Darla felt the shuttle bank to the left and watched as image on-screen tilted to match their new trajectory, a large open bay now appearing fully horizontal before them. “We’ll be docked in a moment. Don’t worry, the autopilot can handle it perfectly.”

  Darla blinked. All of her animosity whooshed out of her as her excitement returned in full. It’s just so cool! It’s like being in a movie or something, she thought as the open bay doors drew ever closer. Then they were in and she watched as they glided in ever slower into the landing bay before coming to a near stop and settling down gently upon a floor. She heard a muffled thump then a voice over the comm system saying something. Gundar replied in the same language before pressing a button on the console. The webbing retracted, leaving them free. He stood up and glanced at his bride cooly. “The shuttle bay doors are now closed and the area has repressurized. We’re free to exit the shuttle now.” He raised his hand into the air and made another fist before reopening it slowly and rotating his palm. The engine shut down and the view screen dimmed. Darla stood up.

  “So, you operate this thing with buttons and hand gestures?”

  “It can also respond to the voiceprint of it’s authorized pilot,” he replied shortly. “The buttons unlock to authorized DNA only.”

  “Oh.” Darla didn’t know what else to say. “Um, sounds secure.”

  “Very,” he said as he opened the shuttle door.

  Darla narrowed her her eyes at him. She hoped he wasn’t insinuating anything. I might not be thrilled at it turning out that I was the one in a million match, but I’m not dishonest. I knew there was a remote chance and voluntarily risked it anyways, so I’ll damn well keep my end of the bargain.

  “It’s completely safe,” he reassured her, misinterpreting her gaze. Or pretending to anyways, she thought sourly. “I’ll take you to our quarters first so you can contact your family, employer, and anyone else you need to settle things with,” he continued.

  She relaxed at that. “Thank you,” she said grudgingly.

  He gave a curt nod before exiting the shuttle. “It’s only reasonable,” he said before leading the way as she fell in beside him.

  She decided against giving a retort about what she considered to be reasonable behavior, suddenly all too aware of the curious eyes of the shuttle bay crew. Glancing about, she saw men pausing at their work, looking at her and the Commander with frank interest. Several bent heads together, whispering. No doubt the grapevine spread the news far and wide moments after Gundar himself found out. Nice to know humans aren’t the only ones who love to gossip. She schooled her features carefully and plastered a smile on her face, reaching for Gundar’s hand tentatively. He glanced at her, taking her hand and smiling back, his eyes telling her that he understood her motivation. “Word travels fast onboard,” he said. “They will be eager to know what kind of mate I’ve found and our match will give hope to those as yet unmated.”

  “The genetic diversity agenda is that important? I mean, if they don’t get a match here in a reasonable amount of time, they could just go home, right?”

  Gundar hesitated before answering. They walked in a silence for a few moments, leaving the bay and entering a corridor. Indecision warred across his face as they walked. Coming to a decision, he stopped and glanced around. Satisfied that no one was around to hear his answer, he responded in a low voice as he began walking once more. “Do you remember the clause about the Groom program?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “It’s not just to give us an extra chances at a lottery win sort of thing, for those who wish to gamble for an exotic bride. The truth is, we do want to add genetic diversity so we can new strengths to our species. But we could do that just by mixing with humans on an everyday basis, socially, if that was our only reason. Instead, we have a lottery system and go all out matching DNA and personality profiles.”

  Understanding dawned on her. “Because you need brides, not just want them?”

  He nodded solemnly. “Millennia ago, we had begun genetic trading. Only instead of brides, we traded DNA sequences which our scientists spliced into our own. Though some did indeed breed with alien women they met, it wasn’t anything official. Our scientists were looking at tweaking our species, adding strength, vigor, longevity, and working on gene therapies to eradicate diseases. They thought they struck gold when it turned out that a species we were trading with were very genetically similar to us, enough so that it was practically parallel evolution. They aged much slower than we did and were not susceptible to many of the illnesses that could plague my people, so it was decided that all women and children would undergo gene therapy in order for our species to assimilate the superior traits without delay.”

  “Did it work?”

  Gundar nodded. “It did, but it had an unexpected side effect. Afterwards, only one in a thousand births was female.”

  Darla gasped. “One in a thousand?” she whispered frantically.

  “Yes, we almost died out. Our numbers are still too low, but with lotteries such as these across dozens of worlds, we’ve been able to continue. Sadly, while the male to female ratio has improved, it’s still only one in a hundred and fifty births, so we must still look for brides elsewhere. Ah, we’re here,” he said, opening a door. “Welcome to our quarters.”

  Chapter Five: Darla

  The quarters were nothing to shout about though inarguably the furnishings were of a higher quality than our cheap flatpack and third hand stuff back home. Home. This is home now, so I best get used to thinking of it like that. That’s not home anymore, it’s my parents’. Damn, so much gray in here. I hope he lets me decorate as this place could really use a pop of color, not to mention something more interesting to look at than bare gray walls.

  “It’s so... gray,” Darla managed.

  “It is standard issue, though I did prepare for you. We have a bed that will be comfortable for the two of us and I had the chiller unit stocked with foods you indicated on the form that you liked.”

  Darla thought back to what she’d put on the form and felt a little embarrassed. When she’d come to the question asking her about foods she liked, she’d seen the large space provided and felt stumped as to how to fill it. In the end, she’d listed a few of her favorite flavors of yogurt, a few types of cheese the names she could think of off the top of her head, pizza with her favorite toppings, burgers, hotdogs, and spicy buffalo wings. Then she listed her favorite items from the local Chinese takeaway her family sometimes treated themselves to a meal from. For good measure, she’d listed every type of breakfast cereal she’d ever eaten and liked, milk, and several types of fruit juices, which then made her think of smoothies, so she listed a few fl
avors of prepared smoothies. Then she thought to list coffee and her favorite brand of iced tea bags. If he’d gotten only the things on her list, she’d need to go shopping.

  “Thanks. I might need to get a few more things that I, uh, didn’t think to put on the list.”

  He nodded. “Just make a new list and I’ll comm it over to stores so it’ll be ready for pick up.”

  “Okay, cool.” Darla waved a hand about to indicate the room they were in. “I get this is a government ship and these are government quarters and everything is, um, standardized. But, I was just wondering, will it be okay if I personalize it more? Make it more comfortable?”

  Gundar regarded her cooly. “I assure you, the seating and bedding are comfortable. Not sumptuous, but as comfortable as needed. This is a battleship, not a luxury resort.”

  “That’s not what I mean,” she said hastily. She pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’ll try again. Will I be allowed to decorate, so that this feels more like a home, for a family, instead of utilitarian quarters for a military man.” She then realized what she’d said, her mind then backing up to what he’d said that had made her phrase things the way she had. “Wait. Back up. A battleship?”

  “Indeed.”

  “You guys brought a battleship here? Why?”

  “Five battleships actually, along with three civilian vessels that primarily serve as living quarters for our civilian workers and their brides and families. As for the why, some of the families on those civilian ships were already living on them, the brides being from other planets we have treaties with. The unmarried amongst them are some of the brightest minds of my people. Space is not a walk in the park, Darla. A group traveling through space attracts attention and is trackable via its transmissions. Not to mention, the people onboard will have no doubt mentioned where we are now, to friends and family elsewhere. Slavers would happily attack an undefended civilian transport. Then there are those who oppose my kind, who think their people should not have treatied with us, others still that rejected our bride request but wanted our technology so would risk trying their luck if the odds were right, and, to be fair, we had no way of knowing one hundred percent that your people would not have tried to blast us from the skies, fearing an invasion, until we got here and actually finished our negotiations. Even so, there are those among you who have paranoid fantasies about ‘people eaters’ and ‘conquering aliens’ and so on that they would happily try to attack us to prevent such things occurring. Some of them are in positions of government.”

  Darla couldn’t argue with that. She’d heard some of the rhetoric herself. In fact, her own state representative was one of the most outspoken. Representative Ted McKay didn’t like single mothers, opposed non-privatized healthcare, believed that climate change was a hoax, and finally, that the aliens were there to take brides only in order to use them for them intelligence purposes, before swooping down, destroying cities and stealing American coal, natural gas, and oil while enslaving Earth’s people.

  “True.” She wished now that she hadn’t changed the topic. “Now, about what we were originally talking about, the decor.”

  He inclined his head. “You are allowed to make this into a home you are comfortable living in, making changes within reason. We may not change the color of the walls, but we may add draperies, hang shelves, put up pictures, and so on. The covers on the sofa and chairs are removable and you can ask the ship’s stores for different materials and colors. The kitchen must remain as it is, but you may ask for a few familiar small appliances, which we have provided multi-voltage outlets for in every set of quarters. You will find other outlets as well, those are for small appliances from other brides’ worlds. In time, you may wish to get a few of them, just as our people have gotten some of yours. The coffee machines are a particular favorite.”

  “Awesome!” Darla clapped her hands. “How will I know what you guys have?”

  “There is a catalogue. I will show it to you. But first, you wished to contact your family, did you not?”

  Darla chewed her lip. “I do, but Dad’ll be at work right now. It’d be better if I told my whole family at once. He’ll get home around six.”

  Gundar raised an eyebrow. “Can your friend keep quiet that long?”

  Darla’s shoulders slumped. “Probably not. She’d try, sure, but she was torn up over it, so it’ll come out.”

  Gundar looked thoughtful. “I could contact the bride office and ask them to contact his employer, request that he be sent home for the day.”

  “That’ll worry him sick, but yeah, probably for the best. Go ahead, do that.”

  Gundar moved to a section of outer wall. “View screen on, communication mode.” The section of wall before him flared into life, a logo all in white appearing in the middle of a bright green background.

  “Whoa, the wall itself is a view screen? I won’t accidentally drive a nail through a view screen hanging pictures, will I?”

  “Only the outside walls have this technology embedded and then it is confined to these narrower bulkhead sections,” Gundar pointed out strips running from ceiling to floor. “You’ll be able to tell because of the interior seam coverings.”

  “Right. Gotcha.”

  “Xeranos, Mylos chak na mekresh, Tennessee,” Gundar said to the view screen in a firm, authoritative voice.

  “Mehreshi no jakeli. Norbingdop Lavorr,” came the reply, quickly followed by the visage of Lavorr filling the screen.

  Great. I won’t be able to use the thing myself as the computer only speaks Mylos, Darla mourned.

  “Lavorr,” Lavorr said, answering the call.

  Gundar spoke to Lavorr rapidly in Mylos. Lavorr looked frustrated and answered vehemently, shaking his head. Gundar leaned forward and a hard edge crept into his voice as he replied. Lavorr finally nodded, lips pursed. “Charkresh,” Gundar said, ending the communication. The view screen returned to the logo screensaver.

  “He’s going to get my dad home?”

  “He’s going to go personally to see he goes home, with a portable comm device, and will comm us back so you may speak to them all.”

  “Thank you so much!” Emotion rushed over Darla in a wave, gratitude burbling within her. She turned towards Gundar and flung her arms around his neck, tears pricking her eyes. “Thank you, really! I can’t tell you how much this means to me.”

  Gundar tentatively reached around her, returning her embrace. “I can imagine,” he said softly. “I’m not an unemotional monster. I once left my family home as a young man and had to take my leave, not knowing when my service might let me return.”

  “Oh!” Darla hadn’t even taken that into consideration. “You weren’t raised on one of the ships?”

  “No, and even if I was, odds are low that it’d have been one in this detachment. My father settled on my mother’s world. It’s a pleasure planet, dedicated to tourism. It’s mostly water, with several large and small island chains dotted about the equator, so attracts people who wish to enjoy its unspoiled beaches and seas. My parents run a marina there.”

  “Wow, that sounds awesome! Like Hawaii, but without all the condos, huh?”

  Gundar smiled. “There are condos, but on artificial islands dedicated to residences. And unlike condos here, the buildings start on the seafloor and go up.”

  “So some have underwater views?” Darla gasped, enthralled. “Can they swim right out from the building?”

  “The buildings have view screens, not windows, so can have whatever view they want. As for direct access to the sea, if they wish to swim out, they can only do so via the pool entrance, where a section of the pool meets the sea.”

  “That is so cool,” she breathed. “Will we ever get to go there?”

  “I’m sure I can arrange some time off to do so, some time in the next year. Things here are not settled enough yet for me to take a leave of absence,” he said regretfully. “But, I could perhaps take off a few days and take you to your Hawaii or perhaps the Bahamas?”

>   “Like, a honeymoon?”

  “It is a custom of your people, is it not?”