Candidate (Selected Book 4) (33 page)

"They know."

"And tonight there is a reception. It is female only, a chance for those women here who wish only a female mate to meet those of you who wish a female mate." I looked back to Jasmine. "Only the willing females?"

"No. Any females who wish a female mate."

"Good. Thank you. I'll see some of you later." I turned to Cherish. "Care for a race?"

"I would love a race, but you know you will lose."

And I did, but it was exercise, and I felt good at the end.

* * * *

All of us met in one of the conference rooms. Dark Skies had set up a bank of computer monitors, and we watched the women. They woke at different rates, but they all woke within a half hour to hour of our visit. We'd gone in early, well before our normal wake up time, and so the earliest to wake had to wait for breakfast to arrive.

I think the screen was for my benefit. I was sure everyone else would normally use her visor, or eyes, or whatever they had. I decided to access the feeds from my visor, and I kept an eye on "my" four women. Their reactions to the situation were all similar -- and quite similar to my own.

I didn't turn on the audio. I didn't want to hear them yelling or crying.

On the main screen, I saw that reactions to breakfast varied. Some were calm and accepting. At the other extreme, several threw their trays across the room. Three tried to turn their trays into weapons, and I watched as the trays crumpled into dust. Each time it happened, someone said something, and one of the screens turned to highlight that woman.

I was a little sick by all of it, and I made another vow to do what I could to help these people. I didn't know how much that would be.

We didn't actually have a prearranged schedule for when we would talk to the women. It depended on the woman. Those who were calmest, who appeared most complacent would be collected first. The most violent were allowed to stew.

Jasmine and her three senior event coordinators discussed things. I listened but contributed little. Finally Jasmine said, "All right. Let's get started."

At that, we broke into separate conference rooms. Dark Skies and I stayed where we were, but we used the monitors to watch what happened.

There weren't that many guards, and they were kept busy. We watched as four of them approached a cell. Dark Skies turned on the audio. When the door opened, the mating candidate scrambled from her bed and to the furthest wall, pressing her back against it. She began crying and begging for them not to hurt her.

The four guards exchanged looks, and then the two women stepped forward, closing a portion of the distance.

"We're not here to hurt you." I realized that was Dilly. "We're here to take you to someone who can answer the questions you certainly have."

"I was in Testing. Where am I now?"

"We can't answer questions like that," said Piper. "We can tell you what is going to happen for the next few minutes, but that is all. Someone else will explain."

"You're giving me to them, aren't you. To the aliens?"

"We are taking you to someone who will answer your questions," repeated Dilly. "Then we will bring you back here."

"Are they going to do
medical experiments
on me? Is that what they want?"

The two women glanced at each other. "We're not supposed to answer questions. If you agree to cooperate, we'll answer that one."

"And one more," she said. "Are they going to hurt me?"

"You're not here for medical experiments," said Piper. "And no, they will take very good care of you. They need you for something. That's all we can say, and we're not supposed to say that much. Now, will you cooperate? We can use force, but it's better for you if you cooperate."

"Do I have to?"

"You're going with us. We can drag you, but I bet you would rather walk."

She sighed. "I'll walk."

"Then turn around. We have handcuffs for you."

She turned meekly. They cuffed her the same as they had me countless times, then they slowly lowered a hood.

"That one went easier than some," said Dark Skies.

We used one monitor to watch the two women escort the mating candidate to Bay. In the meantime, the two men joined two other female guards to see to the next woman, and then the next, and the next. And soon Jasmine and her three event coordinators were in consultations with their women.

We tuned into Jasmine's, talking to a beautiful 27-year-old ebony black woman from New Orleans. The woman spoke in calm, cultured tones, but I could see her practically trembling with rage. I didn't blame her.

Jasmine remained calm.

The woman -- without raising her voice -- issued dire predictions for any
filthy alien asshole
who dared touch her.

"I thought these weren't xenophobes," I said to Dark Skies.

"They're scared and angry. We get called a lot of names. Some calm down long before they leave here. Some leave while casting down dire wishes on us and our offspring for generations to come. You can't blame them. I believe you used a few names."

"Yes, and someone would be dead by now if Jasmine had tried to give me to a male."

"We get that threat a lot, too. No one has died yet, but there have been trips to the medical bay."

Jasmine's woman listened to Jasmine then went on a five minute rant -- delivered as calmly as I could ever have imagined -- before she demanded to be taken to her jail cell. She needed to think about how she was going to slice off the manhood of a toothless alien ... I can't even bring myself to repeat her words.

Guards were waiting, and Jasmine's woman was returned to her cell. We watched her, and darned if she wasn't doing exactly what she said. She was going through the motions of grabbing a man's sensitive bits, yanking them forward, and chopping them off with her hand.

"She looks... determined," I said.

"And just think. Tomorrow we'll give her a knife or two, and she can try to do just that. We get a few in every batch who give it a solid go, but so far we haven't had more than a nick or two, at least that way."

"Pity, that," I said.

I watched and listened as Jasmine took one more woman, and then I said, "Okay, one of mine is coming."

"Right." Dark Skies scrambled to her feet, and it took her under a minute to clear out of my conference room, taking her monitor with her. I switched to using my visor and watched the woman brought to my room.

I was standing when they brought her in. It wasn't Dilly and Piper, and I didn't want to think about them quite yet. I gestured, and they moved the woman to the chair. I used my visor to command the chair, and then when they pressed her arms into the table, I commanded the table. Then I nodded, and they gently removed the hood from her, setting it aside.

It was Jackie Yoo, the woman with Korean heritage. She looked around the room frantically, noticed me watching her, then looked down at her hands and struggled with them for a while.

"That won't work," I said. "Or at least it doesn't for me. Maybe you'll have more luck."

At that, she looked up. "Who the fuck are you?"

I moved to the table and sat down across from her.

"My name is Andromeda."

"You're one of
them
," she said. "Fuck you."

"I was born in Minneapolis," I said. "Two weeks ago I worked for a company called Westwood Foods. Then I had a really, really bad day. I got fired, and then the aliens decided to send me back to be Tested. I wasn't real happy about that, as I was Tested six years ago, and I was having a bad day besides. But they mentioned there might be a job offer in the mix, so I foolishly went. I fell asleep in that damned chair and I woke up in that thrice-damned jail cell. That was about ten days ago."

"You're lying."

I was expecting that. I had a tablet. I grabbed it, turned it on, and then rotated it. "This is a press clipping. That's my boss. And behind her, that's me. I know it's a bad picture."

She stared at it but said nothing.

Then I had a video I'd put together. Jasmine had allowed me to access the video they had of me and taught me how to edit what I needed. They had me showing up at the Testing Center.

"What are you wearing?"

"I'd been painting. They just sort of showed up."

"I had two weeks notice."

"They were willing to give me three days, but I thought, why put it off?" I sighed. "What's done is done." The video skipped ahead to me getting into the chair. And then it skipped again to me asleep in the cell, waking up, screaming for a while. It fast forwarded until I was seated like she was.

"Now
that
," I said, "is one of
them
."

"So you got one of
them
," she said. "And I get
you
."

"Yep, but if you want to hear the bad news from her, I can call her in."

"Oh god. They
are
going to do medical experiments."

"It's far worse than that, Jackie," I said. And then I calmly told her what was going on. She stared numbly through most of it.

"But I have a boyfriend."

"I like girls," I said. "Were you in love?"

She glared at me then lowered her eyes. "Actually, he's kind of a dork. It was my mom that pushed me at him."

"Ah, so this isn't all bad."

"No, now it's someone else pushing me at someone."

"Yeah, but there's a good chance you'll get to go to the space station."

She paused at that. "Okay, that might be cool," she said.

"And access to all the really awesome toys they don't normally let us have. You'll notice one of them across my eyes."

"All right, the visors are cool."

So I told her the rest. And I did what I could to give her an idea of the different species should could encounter.

"What about that one," she said, gesturing with her nose to the tablet.

"Ah. She's Catseye. She's not your type."

"That's a woman."

"Yeah. Catseye are all female. No guys."

She cocked her head. "How do they make babies?"

"You know, that's a really good question, and you are asking the wrong woman. I'm just a glorified grocery clerk."

"I bet you were more than a clerk."

"Still. Jackie, would you want to be married to a female?"

She made a face.

"That's what I thought."

"She looks kind of small, though. Maybe I can take her."

"Maybe you can, although she has more than a few tricks up her sleeves. But Catseye don't do that. They like their mates willing."

"Can't you talk them into sending me home?"

"I haven't managed to talk them into sending me home," I said. "And believe me, I've tried. They went through a lot of work and they seem pretty steadfast. You have two ways you're going home. You can win the arena or challenges, or you can let them have their three months and then demand to go home."

"So, it's that easy? They cart me off somewhere. I tell 'em to fuck off, and in three months I get to go home."

"It might not be quite that easy," I said. "But that's what they've told me. I believe them. But I don't think you should underestimate how convincing they can be."

"Convincing?"

"Ever had a guy who treated you like you were his entire world? Who took care of you, who was kind and sensitive and just entirely focused on you and making you happy?"

"No. They all expect me to act that way."

"Well, the shoe is now on the other foot. But I think that kind of attention might be really hard to resist, and you don't get to tell 'em to fuck off and lock you in a closet for your three months."

"Will he... rape me?"

"They tell me no. And I'll add this. They're guys, okay. And guys are guys. Some are nice. Some are jerks. Some of them are really, really nice, and even before they leave, some of the women are accepting affection. I saw one woman lose her final challenge and then demand a kiss. I've seen other women congratulate their challengers. I've seen hugs and arms around each other. And everyone arrives the way we did, and from what I can tell, we all react pretty much the same."

"Totally pissed off with a lot of crying in the mix?"

"Pretty much, yep."

"So now what?"

"Well, you have some decisions. First, if you want a female-" and she made a face. "All right then. Moving on. If you will offer yourself without the challenges, then there is a sort of interview process, and one of the races who prefers a willing mate will make an offer. You might be allowed to decline an offer or two, but if that goes on too long, see option two."

"That gladiator thing you described."

"Yeah. I've watched video of two of those." I covered my eyes for a moment.

"Oh god," she said. "They'll beat the shit out of us."