Chapter 2

Scared and Alone

~ Venice~

Venice wrapped her dusty scarf over her head and pulled it up around the bottom of her face as she sunk towards the back of the crowd. The holding bay was heaving with a mass of women and crying children. They had all faced various degrees of risk to make it this far. Still, Venice couldn’t help but respect the bravery of the mothers who’d made their way to the ships pregnant or with clinging children. This was their one final chance to avoid a life filled with endless hunger and deprivation.

She’d been trying to board the vessel herself for days, but kept getting forced back by a large group of human protestors. Calling them protestors was an inaccurate kindness. They were more of an unruly mob bent on interrupting the transition of women to the new Maruvian home world. It was reputed to be a lush tropical paradise, filled with clean air, pristine wilderness and sparkling clear oceans. It broke her heart to admit it, but the description seemed a fantastical dream world compared Earth. At first, Venice had been far too Earth-proud to consider relocating. Unfortunately, scraping by day after day with an empty belly and only an occasional odd job finally drove home the fact that staying was no longer an option.

Women outnumbered men almost three to one at this point and she’d never even had a boyfriend, much less anything resembling a prospective husband. Even if she were lucky enough to find one, Earth had instituted a one child rule decades ago to combat overpopulation. Now everyone was living in huge underground cities or bio-domes to protect from the ultraviolet radiation. Between losing the ozone layer and the solar flares, life had become pretty unpredictable as of late. Since all the food was being grown in the bio-domes, it was so becoming harder to come by real food items. Most people were living off specially designed nutrient bars.

Just when true hopelessness set in and the suicide rate began to spike, visitors from other worlds began running missions of mercy. They set up huge bio-domes to protect the population and assisted in creating underground cities. It was shocking how quickly those things happened. At some point the aliens realized human women had very adaptive reproductive systems. They were fascinated that human females cycled monthly instead of yearly, like most other humanoid species. The first interspecies children were born, and suddenly Earth had something worth trading. Over the last few years, several alien races had arrived on Earth with all sorts of durable goods in tow, looking to trade for females. The thing was, most women were dying to get off the planet and more than willing to be traded.

Interesting, tasty, and exotic alien samples found their way into circulation. Being a junker, Venice often traded scavenged items or electronics she’d cobbled together out of scrap for sustenance. A tiny Krylon meat cookie here, a Maruvian chelva wafer there and soon she was hooked on all things alien. Thirsty for information, she would question every person she could find who had any contact with aliens. Sometimes the humans who traded with them would come into the lower levels of the city where the poorest of the poor were housed and tell stories of their interactions. Venice always listened with a greedy ear, forming images of them and their respective worlds in her mind’s eye.

Now she was on board a Maruvian vessel, seeing them with her own eyes. They were every bit as amazing as she imagined them to be. Wanting to pinch herself to make sure it was all real, she settled for watching as the alien males moved around below. They tended to the needs of the children first, as they calmed the women with kind words.

They were handing out bubbles of what appeared to be a clear liquid. The males demonstrated their use by popping one into their mouth. One woman tried it and announced gleefully, “The clear thin film dissolves. It tastes sweet, like candy.” All the children began clamoring for them. As more men poured into the space with trays of finger food and people began moving around, bodies pressed back on her. Venice quickly scampered up onto a small catwalk in the back of the room. Kneeling down, she grabbed the handrail and watched the action below with fascination. The males really seemed to enjoy caring for their visitors.

They all looked a little different. Though they had no hair, there were spots on their heads that were all unique. This was clearly an easy method for identification. They had large dark curious eyes that didn’t miss much of what went on around them. Every single one had a nice plump set of antennas on the top his head. They seemed to be sensing and reacting to their environment, because when someone spoke to one man his antennas swiveled around in the direction of the speaker before his body did. Their skin color was all different as well. Most were a variegated green or plum but some were brown, deep yellow or even red. Some had wings and others didn’t. Among those with wings, there was some variation, with some having shorter and others longer wings. She could imagine that longer meant a huge wing span once they opened. In the closed confines of the crowded room, none of them dared.

A huge holographic image shimmered into view. The female speaker was human and Venice recognized her immediately as the queen of the Maruvian home world, Queen Carolyn. Her greeting message played on a continuous loop in multiple languages. It was welcoming them, congratulating them on making the choice to visit their home world and telling the women that healers would be offering a hypo-spray of the multi-language bacteria. Thumbs up meant you approved of the implant and thumbs down meant you did not want it. Venice’s hand flew to cover her mouth. Who in their right mind would turn something like down? She’d wanted one for ages, but they were too expensive on Earth.

The hairs on the back of her neck stood up and she had the oddest feeling that someone was staring at her. Searching around, she found it was a strange dog-like creature, sitting on the catwalk all the way across the deep expanse of the room. It was sitting on its haunches, licking a paw. It didn’t seem threatening and was pretty far away, so Venice ignored it.

Looking down on the scene below, a feeling of excitement bloomed in her chest. This was the beginning of an adventure, she just knew it. Sliding one hand into her pocket, she toyed with a tiny smooth stone. The alien artifact easily qualified as her most precious possession. She worked for almost a month to earn the tiny pleasure stone. It was no larger than her thumb but served as a potent reminder of the thrilling experiences the Maruvian home world had to offer.

Suddenly a soft thunk startled her. It was the creature from across the way dropping a bag beside her. Seeing it up close was downright terrifying. It looked like a mash up between a gargoyle and a wild boar with huge tusks. It hung in midair, flapping its delicate wings. Huge eyes stared at her, as if waiting for something.

Venice quickly grabbed the soft canvas bag and held it up. “Umm, I think you dropped your bag.”

Waving a hand through the air, the creature snarled a reply. The tone of her voice led Venice to think it was actually a she. Unable to understand, she shook the bag at the creature.

Grabbing it with one claw, the strange creature tossed it back onto the ground and clawed through it. Grabbing one of the round water globes, she quickly dove down to the healing cart and grabbed one of the hypo-sprays. Holding the globe up to the spray, she squeezed the trigger. The water turned from clear to a sparkling blue.

Taking flight with the small globe, she landed on the metal grid of the catwalk. The moment Venice opened her mouth to ask about it, the creature’s arm shot out, sticking the globe into her mouth. Jerking back, Venice tried to spit it out but the thin sweet membrane dissolved upon contact with her saliva. Swallowing the gush of liquid quickly, she frowned at the impatient creature, only to realize its mouth was moving.

“I am not here to offer my services to a queen. You must learn to care for yourself. Do not expect me to do any more favors for you. Take your bag of supplies and be gone with you.”

“First of all, I was here before you. Therefore you are the one who should leave. Secondly, it’s rude to stuff things into people’s mouths without asking first.”

“You required language. I gave it to you the way we do your young.”

“I saw that.”

“It is not magic, little human queen. Injecting the translation bacteria into a hydration bubble created an oral suspension. It may be too scientific for you to understand.”

“It’s called transmutation through a semi-permeable membrane. I’m not stupid. Now go away.”

“I am primary daughter of the house of Zardon. You will address me with respect, small human.”

“Where I come from, respect is earned not given.”

“That’s ridiculous. Respect is bestowed by virtue of my bloodline. My line serves Queen Carolyn, therefore you will—”

“Donella, you have been warned about bullying the human females.”

The creature froze in mid-sentence.

Venice spoke up, “She wasn’t bullying me. We were just having some girl talk.”

The male’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. “All the same, I think we should get back to work passing out supplies. Come, Donella.”

Grabbing up the bag, Venice pawed through it. It looked like everything a woman might need to survive for a few days. There were more water balls, small packs of chelva wafers, food bars, some clothing, toiletries and, best of all, a small data-pad.

Crawling back into one of the dimly lit corners, she opened it up and began scrolling through the information. There was virtually a cornucopia of fascinating facts on the Maruvian home world, complete with holographic images, sound bites of the birds chirping and the queen holding court. Her mind was transported millions of miles away as she perused images of their colorful flowers. They had butterflies, but the Maruvians called them ‘flutter-bys’. How cute was that?

Their data stream was filled with pages and pages of information on their breeding habits. She learned males were called drones and they all either had wings or dicks. Odd that they were broken into two distinct categories like that. She briefly wondered about the ‘either or’ of wings and dicks. It honestly made no rational sense.

Unsure how much time had passed, a growly feminine voice sounded off above her. “You missed processing.”

Without looking up, Venice replied flatly, “I have no desire to be processed, whatever that means.”

Donella’s snarky voice clarified. “It means the healers check you for parasites and assign you accommodations.”

“I don’t have parasites, I dislike doctors, and I’m fine right where I’m at.”

“You stink.”

Finally looking up at Donella, she grinned. “You remind me of a human fairytale.”

Dropping all pretense of having an attitude, the female appeared all kinds of interested. “The Golugua love human fairytales. Queen Penny tells them to us in an effort to impart important life lessons.”

Having no clue what the creature was talking about, she stated politely, “That’s real sweet of her.”

“In case you are wondering, I do not have evil step sisters, nor do I wear slippers.”

Looking down at Donella’s large feet, she noticed the Golugua was sporting a huge claw right above each big toe. “I was thinking more along the lines of Little Red Riding Hood.”

“I do not know that one. I demand you tell me, human.”

“My name’s Venice, and if you show me where the showers are I’ll tell you the best fairytale ever.”

A self-satisfied expression jumped onto the creature’s face. “That is a fair trade. Follow me.”