Page 4 of Soliv Four
Rako gasped and first sank to his knees, then fell forward, smashing his face on the ground.
Blood soaked the front, and the left shoulder of Tomak’s shirt looking worse than it really was. He went over to the female on her hands and knees, crying over her shredded clothing. It was just a pair of pull-on shorts and a shapeless shirt. But now, she was naked.
As Tomak approached, Frellag burst onto the scene with a roar, his knife raised.
“Easy, Frellag. I was just trying to help her.” Tomak sheathed his knife and backed away. “But now you’re here, so I will leave her in your capable hands.”
Frellag sheathed his knife and pulled off his shirt over his head, squatting down beside the female. “Don’t cry, little one. Put this on, and I will take you out of here.”
“My name is Lizara,” she sat back on her legs and held up her arms for him to slip the shirt on over her head. Then Frellag gently picked her up and held her against his chest.
Lizara wrapped her arms and legs around him and rested her head against his shoulder. Frellag gave Tomak a curt nod and marched out of the jungle carrying his prize.
Tomak smiled wryly and ambled after them, glad he’d gotten there in time.
TWO
Angie
Angie stood in line with about thirty other women waiting to board the shuttle that would take them to the starship to Soliv Four. Many Worlds Matchmaking was a chance for them to make a positive future for themselves. Earth had failed all of them.
Overpopulation and dwindling resources were primary factors causing people to leave Earth. Angie had signed up the day after she lost her job three months before. Many Worlds Matchmaking Service was a mail order bride and groom service that found mates on other worlds for Earthers.
As the line moved ahead slowly, Angie took a moment to look at the women in front and behind her. Only women populated the line.
Angie wished she didn’t have to do this. Some of the women in line quietly wept while she blinked back the threat of tears. If only she could stay where she had family and friends. As much as they didn’t want her to go, they couldn’t help her either. Even if they had room in their tiny flats, they didn’t have funds to feed an extra person, especially when Angie’s severance pay would run out. Her prospects for employment were almost nil. There just weren’t enough men on Earth to go around. Many had more than one wife.
It was finding a mate off-world or go into indigent housing. The odds against ever becoming self-sufficient after that were almost nil. Before she signed the papers with Many Worlds, she went to see the indigent housing complex. It was full of childless, hopeless women who, like Angie, lost their jobs to automation.
It only helped a little that all these other women were in similar hopeless situations. Angie almost felt like she was going to prison rather than to a far-off world to meet the male who would be her husband and father her children. The choices had been limited. He would be a bipedal humanoid who was physically compatible.
There were twenty species listed with pictures of each. Only seven bore a close resemblance with humans. A few more had tails or horns and claws. A couple were reptilian with lizard-like faces. Angie could eliminate four, then rank the ones left in order of preference. Scales were ok, but lizard faces were not.
Not until they entered the starship did Angie learn that they had all been victims of a bait and switch scam.
One by one, they were ordered to strip and relinquish their phone tablets. Angie was in the middle of the line so she could see what happened to the women who tried to flee back to the shuttle.
The first one was caught by one of the humanoid attendants flanking the line at the entrance to the “passenger” section. Each male was equipped with a wand. The one that caught the first female trying to flee held her by the arm with one hand and pressed the wand against her stomach.
She screamed and writhed in agony the duration of contact. When the male broke contact with the wand, the young woman fainted. Taking her arm, he dragged her back to the line, where they ripped her clothes from her body. She was microchipped, and body scanned as she sobbed through the whole process.
No one else tried to run after that. Everyone gave up their clothes and got scanned, then led to their individual cells. Only when she was alone in her cell did Angie sit down and cry. No one told them anything about what was going to happen to them. They were left to speculate among themselves.
Angie’s cell was in a section with two rows of cells facing each other across a hallway down the middle. She could see women in the cells directly across from her and one cell to the right and left, only if they came to the front of their cells.
Those females were not human but humanoid. The young female across from Angie was adorably elfin with pointed ears and large violet eyes that dominated her face. Because all the females in the Many Worlds program were given full-spectrum organic language implants, they could understand each other.
“Please, everybody, stop crying! I can’t stand it anymore,” the elfin screamed. Who knew such a big voice could come out of such a petite female?
“I’m sorry,” Angie sniffed and wiped tears from her face with her fingers. “I can’t believe those assholes scammed us, and we paid money for it.” She unfolded her legs and stood, stepping to the back of her cell, where the toilet stood with a tiny sink over its tank. She splashed water on her face before realizing there was no towel to dry it. She brushed it off with her hands, then went back to the front of her cell.
“Hi, I’m Angie.”
“Jazee,” the other female responded.
“Do you know where they are taking us?”
“No, they didn’t tell us anything. We think maybe to a slave sale or to be breeders.”
