“Good day, citizen Kahm. I’m sorry to bother you, but we haven’t heard from your friend. Is he still interested in acquiring one of our brides?” the Cetian female from the Mail Order Bride Agency asked Kahm through the communication device.
“I believe he is. Hasn’t he contacted you?” he asked, with a slight frown.
“No, not at all. And since you’ve already paid for the whole service, I considered it was my duty to inform you of the situation,” the woman replied, in a courteous tone.
“It’s very kind of you. But I’m afraid I have no idea why he hasn’t been in contact. I’ll get in touch with my friend, and I’ll let you know as soon as I have an answer.”
“That would be excellent. Thank you very much for your attention. I’m sending you an updated file with the newest profiles sent from the planet Earth.”
“Thank you.” Kahm ended the call and turned to look at his wife. “The Sumirion warrior hasn’t contacted the Agency,” he explained.
“That’s weird. He seemed rather eager to have his own wife,” she said, furrowing her eyebrows.
“I know. I guess I’ll have to go to Sumitera and check what’s going on,” he said with an annoyed tone.
“Do you think that’s a good idea? There must be a better way to contact them. That place has too many dangers for those not familiar with it,” she reminded him, shuddering as she recalled her terrible experience on the other continent.
“Now that you mention it, Goln has the means to contact them. I’ll get in touch with him and pass on the message,” he said, mentioning the representative of the people living on Terrion, the other continent on Sumirion, their planet.
He called Goln, and a few hours later, they had an answer, back. The Sumirion warrior had been hurt in a hunting accident and hadn’t been able to leave the village.
“He’s asking you to choose a woman. According to him, it doesn’t matter which woman you choose, if she’s not meant for him, they will find her a mate amongst the men of their tribe,” Goln informed him.
“How am I supposed to choose a woman? I wouldn’t know where to start,” Kahm protested.
“Then, have the Cetian in charge of the Agency choose for you. She’ll choose the best candidate for the Sumirion,” Goln suggested.
“That’s a good idea. I’m sure she’ll do a better job than me,” he said, scowling.
The other man laughed. “I’m sure you would do an excellent job, considering the bride you chose for yourself.”
Kahm smiled. “I was spellbound by her picture. I doubt that would happen again.”
Once he ended the call with the other man, he called Nadir, the Cetian female, and gave her the instructions to have a bride sent to the planet.
“Thank you for your trust, citizen Kahm, I assure you I will choose the best woman for the Sumirion warrior, considering she will have to live in Sumitera,” she said, with a pleased smile.
“I’m sure you’ll do a good job. Let me know when the bride gets here. I’ll arrange for her to be taken to Sumitera.”
“Very well.”
Seeing to Mrs. Swenson’s funeral arrangements was very hard for Aliyah. She felt she had lost the last person that cared for her in the whole universe and the sense of loneliness was quite overwhelming. She had been the only one in attendance at the burial, and once more she cursed the wars and the way they had destroyed their lives.
She was still mourning her friend when she received the message she had been expecting from the agency. She had been picked.
For a moment, she considered not accepting it, but then she realized she had nothing holding her back. Life on Earth was getting worse by the day, and she knew it was only a matter of time before it got out of control completely and she, sure as hell, didn’t want to be there to see it.
Whatever awaited her on Sumirion would certainly be better than life on this wretched place. She packed her things and left the city without looking back.
Aliyah was taken to her country’s capital. She would be joining a large group of women that would be shipped to all over the universe. She was told she was the only one going to the planet Sumirion, but that she would find other human females already established there.
She was astonished to see how devastated the whole country was. She hadn’t left her small town ever since the wars had started, so she had no idea of the level of destruction it had endured. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she asked herself if all that destruction had been worth it. No one had won, and every person on the planet had paid a very high price for the decisions made by a few.
By the time she arrived at the main airport of the capital, she was tired and disheartened. If she hadn’t been sure about leaving before, she sure was now. There was no way they could rebuild the planet, not after what she had seen and though it saddened her, she couldn’t wait to get out of there.
The place was crowded with women from all over the country. Aliyah felt out of place when she compared herself with the women around her. Most of them would have been perfect candidates to walk the runway, and they didn’t have an ounce of fat in their slim bodies.
That certainly didn’t promise anything good for her, and she started to rethink her decision. Why would have someone have chosen her over these women? She knew the fee she had paid didn’t allow her to choose the candidates, so she guessed the same happened to the male candidate. But she had been told the candidate had paid the highest dowry to get her to Sumirion and that only increased her suspicions.
She was probably being sent to marry a guy none of the women in the room would accept as a lifetime partner. She took a deep breath and did her best not to freak out. She knew she could back out from the deal anytime she wanted. After all, she still had the dowry she had been paid, since she didn’t have any relative to give it to.
A wave of excitement filled the room, and suddenly everybody was looking out the huge window that looked out to the main landing strip. A huge alien vessel had entered the planet’s atmosphere and floated high above the city.
The Cetians had arrived to pick up the brides.
A smaller vessel left the bigger one, and soon it was landing, and a group of people walked out of it heading to the room where the brides were waiting.
Aliyah had never seen a Cetian before. Aliens had arrived soon after the wars had ended and by then, she was living in her small town up in the cold northern shores of Norway, living practically isolated from the rest of the world.
So it was a bit of a shock for her to see them for the first time.
They reminded her of a reptile that used to live in Australia. The creature was known as the frilled-necked lizard and could walk on two legs and display a halo of skin around its head when it wanted to intimidate or impress.
Well, these people looked pretty much like the reptile, though their frill didn’t seem to retract. Their scales were brownish, and their face looked pretty much reptilian, with the round, small eyes, the long snout and the forked tongue that came out every time they spoke. They even had a long tail that showed underneath their robes.
She wasn’t sure she would be able to marry a creature like those in front of her. For some reason, she had expected the candidates to be humanoid.
The creatures stood on a small pallet, and one of them greeted the audience and introduced themselves. “Welcome, brides. We are the Cetians, from planet Cetia, in the Fifth Quadrant. We created the Mail Order Bride agency to help people all over the universe find their perfect match,” he explained. “We’ve been doing this for a long time now, and we’ve never had a complaint from any of our customers, and I’m sure that won’t change.”
The speech seemed prepared and memorized, not at all spontaneous and their strong accent seemed to confirm her suspicions.
The creature’s words, on the other hand, sounded a bit threatening and she wondered if they really kept their part of the bargain when the bride decided she didn’t want the groom she was matched with.
He continued explaining what they should expect during their journey to the planets where they would be living, and after that, they were lead to the small vessel and from there to the mother ship, still floating over the city.
Each woman was assigned to a private chamber, and they were told they would be able to walk freely around the vessel, in their spare time. They were expected to attend some lessons to learn about the planets they would be going to. They were also told they would have an automatic translation device implanted within their hearing system, to facilitate communication with all known species in the universe.
It sounded sensible, but the idea of allowing the Cetians so close to her brain didn’t inspire much trust. Of course, she couldn’t reject the implant so she would have to pray they would keep their word and only implant that.