Authors: Leora Gonzales
Poppy awoke the next morning thankful that she didn’t have a
day job to go in to, considering she’d slept like ass. Cracking her neck to
loosen the knotted muscles, she looked at the papers next to her bed. After
she’d tried to fall asleep for the second time, she’d given up and reached for
her vibrator. Her “pocket rocket” had been her best friend lately and the only
outlet for sexual release she’d had in six months. Picturing the warrior from
the press conference, Poppy had no problem going off like a rocket alone in her
bed. In fact, she could have gone another round if she hadn’t been so damn
tired.
After tucking her little friend away in the nightstand,
she’d stared at the papers resting on the tabletop until she’d fallen asleep. Poppy’s
dreams had been riddled with thoughts of aliens and the man she’d seen
yesterday.
Deciding she’d stretched enough, Poppy crawled out of bed
and glanced around her room. Her apartment was small and plain and that
included the bedroom where she stood. Her furniture had seen better days and
was the stuff college kids bought until they got “real jobs”. Poppy’s problem
was that she’d never gotten a real job. Particleboard was the material of
choice at her place.
Kicking a T-shirt on the floor out of her way, Poppy mused
out loud, “I’m really going to do this.”
She decided she might as well get it over with and dialed
Pixie.
“Hello?” Shuffling papers accompanied Pixie’s greeting.
“Hey, Pix. Do you think you can come over tonight?”
“I should be able to. What’s wrong?” “Big Sister” mode
seemed to be second nature to Pixie.
“I need your help filling out an application.” Hoping Pixie
would assume Poppy had found something in the classifieds, she left it at that.
“Sure. Want me to bring dinner? I can order whatever the
special is from the restaurant and head over straight from work.”
“Sounds good. Text me when you’re on your way.” Hanging up
quickly before Pixie could ask any questions, Poppy decided to get showered.
Then she planned on getting as much of the application filled out as she could
before her sister came over later.
By six o’clock that night, Poppy was on pins and needles.
Pixie had messaged saying she was on her way and Poppy set out the paperwork on
the kitchen table. A majority of it had been easy to do herself. She had come
across some problems when needing to answer family medical history though,
which was where Pixie would come in handy.
Poppy’s phone buzzed, signaling a text message had arrived.
“
I parked. Need you to open door. Hands full.
”
She smiled, knowing Pixie had probably ordered them a feast.
When her stomach growled, Poppy realized she’d been so keyed up all day she’d
forgotten to eat a meal and just snacked on a granola bar and some fruit. No
wonder she was so hungry.
Opening the door to see Pixie making her way up the stairs,
she yelled out, “Faster, bish! I’m starving here!” Laughing when her sister
tried to give her the finger while holding food bags, Poppy opened the door
wider to let her sister pass.
“God that smells good. What did you bring me?”
“I got a couple orders of lasagna and some salads…along with
tiramisu.”
“Do you have anything to drink?” Pixie asked as Poppy opened
the takeout containers and dished up their food.
“I should still have some cider in the fridge. Get us each a
bottle.” Poppy put their plates on the small bistro table that they ate at and
moved the paperwork sitting on the table closer to her plate.
Pixie sat down in the other chair and the women dug in to
their food as if they hadn’t eaten in years. Between mouthfuls of cheese and
sauce, Poppy mumbled, “Your restaurant has the best food ever.”
“I know. I’ve gotten a little sick of it though. I try to
only eat there once a week now. Plus, my ass was getting mad at me every time I
ate there. I think I’ve gained twenty pounds since I started that job.”
Poppy rolled her eyes at Pixie. “You weigh less than I do,
and your ass is fine.”
Watching Pixie fiddle with her fork, Poppy had a feeling
that something was wrong.
“What’s up, sis?”
“I don’t know. It seems that since I gained a little bit of
weight…” Pixie stopped when tears filled her eyes.
“What?” Reaching across the tiny table, Poppy gripped her
sister’s hand.
“Brian doesn’t seem too frisky lately, that’s all.” Rubbing
her nose, which was now running, Pixie looked everywhere but at Poppy. “And
he’s been working all the time. Do you think he’s avoiding me?”
Poppy squeezed the hand she was holding and smiled at her
sister. “Don’t be an idiot. Brian loves you and I’m sure he’s just been really
busy at work lately.” Shrugging, she went on, “If it really bothers you,
though, you need to talk to him about it.”
“You’re right.” Gathering up their empty plates, Pixie gave
Poppy an affectionate shoulder bump as she walked by. “Where’s the application
you needed help with?”
Poppy took the last gulp of cider from her bottle and
decided now was the time to pretend she had balls. Big balls.
“Well…first I want to let you know that I’ve thought about
this a lot,” Poppy started.
Pixie stopped what she was doing and turned her attention to
Poppy. Eyebrow raised in question, Pixie waited.
"And I’ve decided to apply for the Bridal Pact.” The
words rushed out of Poppy’s mouth so fast they slurred together.
“I can’t believe you’re actually going to do this!” Pixie
yelled.
“Okay, Pix, calm down. I’ve thought this over for a while,
and it makes sense.” Holding up her fingers to tick off her points, Poppy began
her prepared speech. “I have no job. I have a shitty apartment. You are my
only
family. And I haven’t had a successful date for a while now. I’m lonely. You
have Brian and I have nobody. I’m starting to feel like the third wheel every
time we go out somewhere. It’s uncomfortable and depressing.” Stopping to take
a breath, she then said in a softer voice, “Something’s got to give, Pix. I’m a
step away from going to the doctor and getting something to make me feel better
about just being me… That’s not good.”
Both sisters sat staring at each other, each one hoping that
the other would give way first and blink. Pixie must have read the
determination on Poppy’s face, because her face softened and she nodded once in
understanding.
“You’re right, Pops. I just worry. If anyone has thought
this through to the point of obsession, it would be you. Tell me everything and
don’t leave even one tiny detail out. I have to know what’s going to happen if
you get selected and how to find you if I start to wig out.” Pixie took a huge
sip of another hard cider she’d snagged from Poppy’s almost bare refrigerator.
“And by the way, I am going to need something
sooooo
much stronger if
I’m going to be able to process this. Do you have the stuff to make ’ritas?”
“I think I’m out of the mix, but I might have straight
tequila somewhere in the cabinet. We should probably try to stay sober though
if you’re going to help me out with this packet,” Poppy pointed out, waving it
in the air before setting it down.
Getting herself another cider from the fridge and grunting
over the stubborn cap for a second gave Poppy the time she needed to compose
herself enough to figure out where to start. She picked up the Galactic Bride
Welcome Packet off the coffee table again.
“Okay, it says here women are compensated based on how much
of the actual process they complete.” Poppy had to admit that the money was a
nice touch. With the resources they’d been spending on trying to secure other
energy sources now freed up, the government was able to pay debts and more
importantly pay brides to apply.
“I get ten thousand dollars for completing the application
and signing the contract and that’s even if I don’t get selected! Do you know
how many bills that can pay off?” Poppy pulled out some papers from her welcome
packet. “See here. It says if I fill out all questions, provide a doctor’s
report and sign the contract, then the first portion of the stipend is mine as
long as everything is verified.”
She sorted another paper from the stack and found the FAQ
sheet the Intake Center had included in the packet. “This says that the aliens
have implants to be able to speak English as well as other languages and I’ll
have the option to get one as well in case I want to understand their language.
Well, I guess that beats the hell out of me flunking out of Spanish, like in
high school.” There seemed to be so much information to go over in this packet
that her head was starting to spin a little.
“I really need your help with the medical part. It asks some
stuff about family medical history on the second page that I wasn’t sure of.”
“What kinds of questions are these?” Pixie asked, skimming
the first part of the packet.
“You know, the normal…age, weight, height, sexual
experience…” The last couple words were mumbled into her bottle of cider and of
course that was the part Pixie decided to latch on to.
“Did you just say ‘sexual experience’?”
“Pixie, c’mon now, you know the whole reason they’re needing
brides is to procreate. You can’t be surprised that it’s a question on here. It
really does make sense. Plus those aren’t the questions I need help with. I’m
pretty sure I can recall all of my dismal sexual experience on my own. The
harder questions are the ones I got stumped on. Do you know if Mom or Dad had
any medical problems before they died?” Poppy asked in a calm voice.
“No, they were healthy as horses. I’m not sure about our
grandparents though. So what else other than medical crap do you need help
with? This bundle seems huge. There has to be at least fifty pages of questions
here. Why didn’t you just fill this out online?”
“Because my crappy laptop decides to shut down every thirty
minutes no matter how much charge it has and after that press conference with
the hotties on it yesterday, their website keeps crashing. I actually prefer
paper though anyway. It’s easier for me to flip back and forth. It is a lot to
digest, but they probably have a bunch of questions to weed out the crazies and
make sure the matches are as good as they can be. The more questions there are,
the more I actually feel like this might work.”
By this time, Pixie had moved on to the last cider in the
fridge.
“Let’s open up that tiramisu you brought,” Poppy suggested.
Pixie nodded. She’d chilled out a little between the last
cider and this one, and Poppy was sure she was going to ask for a smoke break
on the deck when she realized Poppy wasn’t going to change her mind. Pixie and
Poppy were both emotional smokers. When the shit hit the fan, the cigarettes
came out.
Poppy decided they could eat their dessert straight from the
to-go containers. She headed back to the living room to see Pixie gathering her
stuff up.
“Sorry, Pops, stupid payroll problem at the office and of
course it has to be cleared up tonight before it can go for auto deposits
tomorrow. I can be back in an hour or two depending on how much my assistant has
fucked it up.” Blowing air kisses as she walked, she was already reaching for
her phone again, most likely to yell at whoever’d messed up the payroll.
Poppy ended up filling out the rest of the forms on her own
that evening. She admitted that her sister had not been necessary for her to do
it. Poppy had really just used that excuse as a way to break the news of
applying to Pixie. Her plan that her sister would be more supportive if she’d
felt as if she were involved in the process must have worked, because Poppy had
expected a much bigger protest from Pixie.
Poppy cleaned up the rest of the kitchen and got ready for
bed. She set the completed packet down on her nightstand and smiled. Hopefully,
having finished it would give her a chance to relax. She gazed up at the
ceiling as she lay down, her belly fluttering at the thought of the future and
having her own handsome warrior to keep her company at night. Letting out a
sigh, she reached for her bedside drawer. As she picked up the vibrator from
inside it, she admitted, “I know who I’m going to be thinking of tonight.”
Driving up to the Intake Center in her ancient Honda, Poppy
noticed the building was flooded with protesters outside its front gates. After
parking, she jogged up the steps, hoping this would be a quick trip in and out
with no lines. For one thing, the grocery store was calling her name since she
wasn’t in the mood for leftovers and all her hard cider was gone.
The armed guards waiting by the door made her pause in her steps.
All of a sudden the building seemed much more daunting.
“Do you have an appointment, miss?” one of the guards asked.
Her yoga pants and
Star Wars
T-shirt didn’t make her
seem as if she were there on business. Pixie would have been totally right
about the jeans and nice top today. She hated it when Pixie was right.
“Ummmm…yes I do. I mean, no I don’t, but I’m just dropping
off my packet to the office,” she stuttered, taking in his military dress and
intimidating gun.
“We will need you to walk through the security zone and also
see your ID for the sign-in sheet.” He opened the door and steered her to the
area indicated. Her apprehension at all the security she was seeing made Poppy
rethink her decision.
“Miss? Miss? You need to keep moving through security.” The
loud voice was coming from one of the desks located in the security area.
Poppy walked to the counter just past the entrance and
smiled weakly at the guard sitting there.
“Good afternoon. I’ll need your ID and also a signature. Are
you just turning in your packet?” He nodded toward the folder Poppy was
clutching to her chest.
“Yes, sir, I am. What’s all this security for? Did something
happen?” She could feel she was being filmed and glanced up to see cameras on
the ceiling about every ten feet.
“Unfortunately, we received a bomb threat last night. The
State Department has decided that we need to up our security so they sent in
the National Guard until private security measures are implemented. The
protesters showed up last night right before the bomb threat so my money’s on
them being the ones behind it, but better safe than sorry. I’ll also need to
check your purse and take your cell phone while you’re inside.”
After walking her through a set of metal detectors, he
handed Poppy her bag and ID and pointed to the elevator she needed to take to
turn in her papers. Nodding at her to continue moving on, he turned to the next
woman coming in behind Poppy.
She hurried to the elevator. Once on the third floor she
found the correct door and walked inside. An older woman was sitting at the
desk facing the door, sorting papers. She smiled warmly as Poppy walked up to
her.
“Welcome to the Intake Center, miss. My name is Suzie. Is
that your application to turn in?”
“Yes, ma’am. I finished it last night. I still haven’t had a
chance to get my physical yet but I wanted to get the ball rolling.”
“Poppy? Is that your legal name or a nickname?” Suzie peered
up over her glasses with another smile.
“Legal name, ma’am. My parents weren’t exactly traditional
with naming their daughters. My sister’s name is Pixie. I think they may have
been closet hippies.” She smiled at Suzie and noticed that all the other
folders on her desk were also applicant packets. “Can I ask how many applicants
you have so far? What are the chances of being selected?”
“Well, so far we have about thirty at this center. There
would be more but the protesters have scared some women off and then our
computer system was hacked and some applications deleted. So it’s actually a
good thing you filled out a paper application, otherwise you would be needing
to go over all this again.”
Poppy smiled again and said, “You know, if I don’t get
selected, maybe I could apply for a job here? It seems like you could use some
help with this stuff and I have office experience.”
Suzie leaned across the desk and patted her hand. “Well,
aren’t you just a sweetie! It actually isn’t too bad. I just scan all this in
and don’t actually have to read or retype any answers into the program. It’s
pretty simple but it does set me back a bit when somebody fudges with my
computer.” She started flipping through the packet and noticed the dates of
Poppy’s last medical exams. “Do you have appointments set up for these or would
you like to use our physicians on the sixth floor while you are here today? We
can bill your insurance.”
“I didn’t know there was a medical center here. I thought
the whole building was just an Intake Office.”
Suzie walked around the desk and reached for a pamphlet in a
clear holder on the wall. “Here, sweetie. We have doctors available that take
most insurances so our applicants don’t have to wait for appointments to become
available at their family doctors. The doctors here are all certified and
working through contracts with the State Department. Would you like for me to
see if one is available?”
“Sure, I’d just planned on grocery shopping so I can even
wait a bit if they can’t fit me in immediately. I haven’t even called my doctor
yet to see when the soonest he could get me in was so this would help me out.”
Poppy searched for her cell to text her sister before remembering it was at the
security office. “Can I borrow your phone? I need to call my sister and let her
know I may not be out of here when I said I would.”
Suzie smiled and said yes while marking down a room number
on a card. “Just hit which line you want to dial out on and go from there. They
have an opening in about thirty minutes so your wait won’t be long.”
After calling her sister and leaving a voice mail, Poppy
took the elevator to the medical offices and proceeded to wait for her
appointment. Heck, even if she didn’t get selected for the program, at least
she’d be able to get her physical out of the way early this year.
One Pap smear, physical exam and blood draw later, Poppy was
heading back to Suzie’s desk. Amazingly enough, the medical reports had already
been sent down to Suzie by the time the elevator brought Poppy back to her
office.
“Okay, sweetie, I just have to notarize these items and you
will be assigned your liaison. Any questions that you have they can answer.
They will have a packet of information for you to go over regarding the
different Warrior breeds you may be matched with. This is information that the
Phaeton Warrior Council has put together so you could learn something of their
culture and be somewhat prepared for your match.”
Suzie had been skimming through Poppy’s paperwork and
stamping and signing away when she paused for a moment. She looked up with a
smile. “And, sweetie?”
“Yes?” Poppy asked, trying to get over the feeling that
things were moving way faster than anticipated.
“Good luck!” Suzie followed her words with a wink.
The top piece of paper Suzie passed her was a welcome form
with Poppy’s liaison’s name.
Valerie Bennett.
Well
, Poppy thought,
Valerie had
better be prepared to answer a shitload of questions.
* * *
* *
Valerie actually ended up being a woman close to Poppy’s own
age. She had brown hair with red highlights Poppy was sure had never seen a
frizzy day. Wearing a tailored white button-up top with a pencil skirt, she
appeared professional yet sexy. Poppy studied the outfit in admiration, knowing
that if she didn’t get selected for the Bridal Pact, she would want to invest
in an outfit like hers for job interviews. After introducing herself with a
firm handshake and a warm smile, Valerie led Poppy to an office down the hall,
her heels clicking as she set a quick pace.
“So, I’m sure you have many questions and by the expression
on your face you’re overwhelmed. Maybe we should do this over coffee,” Valerie
quipped with a grin.
“Dear god yes. I didn’t plan on doing anything but turning
in my paperwork today. All of a sudden I have my doc’s appointments out of the
way and I’ve been here almost three hours.”
Poppy flopped into the chair on the other side of a large
mahogany desk. Accepting a cup of coffee from the personal coffeemaker Valerie
had on the table behind her desk, she took a sip and tried to relax.
“Okay, Poppy, you have the hard part done already. Suzie is
actually scanning your questionnaire now. Once it’s uploaded, the system will
start to sort your answers and match them with a potential husband. Suzie noted
that you were interested in your odds of being selected. Well there are only
about one thousand applicants in the US and we have about ten thousand profiles
from the Warrior Council submitted so far.” Valerie said this so
matter-of-factly Poppy didn’t immediately digest what was said.
Then it hit her.
Ten thousand
warriors.
“Did you say ten thousand?” Poppy’s gulp was extremely loud
in the quiet office.
Valerie smiled and held out some papers. “Yes, we have ten
thousand so far and are actually expecting about three times that amount when
we’ve finished with their profile intake. Apparently they used a lottery system
to figure out who would be the first warriors to apply for brides. They didn’t
want to overload the system from the get-go so they’re going in groupings of
ten thousand. When the first group is matched, we’ll move to the next lottery
group and go from there. Our hopes are to have enough volunteers to accommodate
their large number of profiles. We’ve been open for a while and the small
amount of volunteers is discouraging but we hope once we have our first
successful matches, others will follow.”
Poppy realized she was still holding the papers she had
taken from the liaison and began to go over them.
Warrior Breeds
was
printed at the top. “Suzie mentioned there were different types of warriors but
I didn’t really let that sink in… What does that mean exactly?”
“Well, simply put, their society is made up of different
classes of warriors. There are the scientists, diplomats and military breeds,
from what we gather. The scientist breeds make up their doctors and engineering
warriors, then the diplomats are usually all political figures, and well the military
breeds…that’s pretty self-explanatory.” Valerie started pulling up pictures on
her computer and tilted the screen toward Poppy.
“Military breeds are the larger of the race, normally at
least seven feet tall and bulky. Among their society they’re called
Skrammon
.
They still fight physically in battle so they’re built for it in height and
bulk. Most of the profiles I’ve seen show they have tattoos around their
temples and dreadlocks.”
The computer screen showed a darkly tanned man who seemed
attractive even though he was different from anyone Poppy had seen before.
“The
Healson
are the diplomats of the group. Most of
them are political figures and are known for being keen negotiators when it
comes to arguments. They’re the ones who developed the lottery idea when it
came time to figure out who would get the first shot at matches.”
The screen now showed a slightly smaller, lean warrior with
shorter hair and no tattoos on the temples. The alien’s height was still listed
as six foot ten, so height must be something they all shared across the board.
“The
Brakken
warriors are the science guys. They make
up the majority of the doctors, engineers and teachers of the race. They are
extremely smart but also strong. We’ve been told they’re always tinkering with
things and can fix almost anything.”
Tall, dark and handsome popped up on the screen. This
warrior’s skin was slightly darker than that of the previous two, more of a
cinnamon tone versus what Poppy would have called an African-American skin
tone. He had similar tattoos on his temple, but they seemed to be higher on his
forehead than the previous Skrammon breed and this warrior was smiling in his
photo.
“Will I get to choose a preference when it comes to my
match? From what I’ve heard so far, I’m not sure how well I would mesh with a
politician or a warrior.” Poppy was trying to absorb as much as she could but
felt a panic attack coming on. Considering she’d expected to be shopping the
freezer section at the local grocery store right about now but instead had her
profile whizzing through the government database made her feel nauseous all of
a sudden.
“I’m so sorry, I spaced out. Can you repeat everything you
just said?” Poppy smiled weakly as she tried again to relax. “I honestly didn’t
expect this to happen so quickly. I had just planned on turning in the packet
today…not actually completing the whole process in a couple of hours, and now
I’m a step away from instant alien husband.”
Valerie smiled and tilted the computer screen back around.
“Take a couple deep breaths. I’m sure you feel like you want something stronger
than coffee but this is all I have right now. My job is to make sure you are
comfortable and informed throughout this whole process. I hope we can be
friends through this. You are my sole concern right now. Liaisons are assigned
only one applicant until the process is completed so all my focus is on you.
That includes knowing when you need a breather or even a drink.
“Are you ready to continue?”
At Poppy’s small nod, Valerie started again. “Let’s go over
the contract portion of the bridal packet. Most people have those questions
first so we can knock those out of the way early and I’m sure it’ll make you
feel better.” Valerie walked around her desk and took the chair beside Poppy.
“Once a match is made, we will notify you within twenty-four
hours. At that time, you will need to start getting prepared for a
meet-and-greet. At the meet-and-greet, you’ll meet your warrior and at that
point a thirty-day clock will start. The thirty days is essentially a trial
period where you will go and actually stay with your match on the aliens’
spaceship. You are not required to have any type of intimate contact during the
trial period.”