Bound by the Ice Alien Read online

  But to be one of the press ganged, the forced, the indentured? I’d always fought against that path. That was real desperation. The last resort. Except here we were, and desperation was staring me in the face. I sighed, a full body movement, crumpling in on myself.

  “I’ll put the paperwork on the desk. You just speak to the officer in the black uniform when you’re ready.” She patted me on the forearm, her caring tone never wavering, but she’d as good as imprisoned me. I wondered how much I was worth to her.

  But maybe it didn’t matter. I knew Mom’s worth to me.

  I stood and stared at her, willing her to move—wiggle a finger, flutter her eyelashes, just take a big breath. It didn’t matter what, I just needed the reassurance that she’d make it. But she stayed perfectly still, her face pale, her expression serene.

  Sighing, I turned to speak to the nurse, but the hallway was empty. A sign on the wall indicated other units and wings, but one listing simply read Terran Program. I sighed again and followed the direction the sign indicated. It felt like I was the only guest at my own funeral as I approached the small desk. A young, gray-skinned woman looked up at me. She was immediately recognizable as a Terran employee in her skintight black uniform, and a familiar fear pricked the back of my neck. Her eyes flashed, reptilian for a moment, and I half expected her to flick out a long tongue, tasting the air around me.

  Instead, she smiled, but her indigo eyes remained cold, and only her mouth moved. Like she’d learned how to mimic the expression but not the feelings that went with it.

  “Tessa Banks?” Her voice was cold too, almost mechanical. It could have easily been AI.

  I nodded.

  “Here’s your paperwork. In return for Gwenda Banks’ care, the Terran Program requires you to undertake ten years of servitude. All terms are clearly spelled out. We simply require your signature to confirm you understand and consent. If you’re unable to sign, I can scan your ident instead.” She recited her words without interest, as if she spoke them many times per day. She probably did. After all. only the desperate walked these corridors.

  I drew the paperwork toward me. It was the new electronic paper, probably hooked up to some massive Terran database where they kept their virtual prisoners. They’d certainly solved the problem of prison overcrowding. Perhaps that was why Earth governments had turned things over to them so completely.

  The woman spoke again, reciting more facts in that strange, mechanical tone. “You have a choice of five locations, depending on how many credits for transport you can afford.”

  My mouth dried as I looked at her. “I need credits to travel?” The nurse hadn’t mentioned that.

  The Terran rep nodded. “You don’t qualify for a free transfer.”

  I studied the list. I didn’t know most of the names of the planets, anyway. Maybe it didn’t matter where I went.

  “How many credits are you willing to spend?”

  I started to shake my head, unwilling to share that piece of information, then stopped myself. The more unsure I sounded, the more she could take advantage of me. “I don’t know my credit balance.”

  There was nothing judgmental in her gaze when she nodded. She simply looked at me. “Wrist.” She held out a scanner as she spoke.

  I drew a deep breath, trying to fill my lungs, but my chest tightened, fighting me.

  “You can travel to Hydronia only,” she said as her scanner beeped.

  She moved it away so quickly that I didn’t even catch sight of how many credits I had. I’d never know if she’d told me the truth. But, determined not to care, I ran my finger down the list of planets as I searched for Hydronia.

  I gasped when I found it.

  Hydronia: Home of Ice & Water Dragons.

  1

  Izon

  I watched the Mayor of Keralt carefully. He was well known for spinning contracts in his own favor and lying about it when pressed. But I’d also heard word of his physical tells while voicing those lies, and I focused my attention on his right ear, waiting for it to shimmer violet at his words.

  When nothing happened, I turned to my chief advisor. “We’ll agree to his proposal.”

  My advisor nodded.

  “Record it for me.” I rose and nodded to the mayor. “We’ll talk more in the future,” I said to him.

  He jumped a little as if my movement had startled him, but I left any bruised inter-island feelings to be soothed by my team. I didn’t have time to run late after my last meeting of the day, and the Mayor of Keralt had pushed me dangerously close.

  “Is my driver ready?” I barked the question at my secretary, and she nodded, her cheeks coloring under my scrutiny. I aimed to soften my tone. “Good.”

  I strode past her, only to find a small man trying to keep up with me. “Yes?” I snapped in his direction.

  “With permission, sire, are you sure you want to personally attend the auction? I can arrange for someone to be present in your stead.”

  I stopped. I didn’t have time to entertain fools, but perhaps this particular fool I could make an exception for.

  “Do you think it wise to leave the selection of my children’s nanny up to someone other than myself?”

  “I…I…” The little man appeared to shrink in stature even more, and I didn’t say anything to ease his discomfort. He looked about, the movement wild, as if searching for someone or something to redirect my focus.

  I crossed my arms over my chest and snorted my exasperation. I almost considered letting my dragon have a little fun. The day had been long, after all. “Well? Is there someone you believe holds my children’s welfare in higher regard than I do? Someone better qualified to select the best person to care for them, perhaps?” As I spoke, my chest ached.

  I didn’t want to have to do this job at all. But my Lyra, my Queen, had died seven months previously while giving birth to our youngest child. I couldn’t put off finding someone to care for the children any longer. They were unsettled by the constant rotation of my staff as they each took turns at babysitting them among their other duties, and I needed to find a full-time solution. If only I could do it myself. My children deserved to be more than just a few timetabled hours in a secretary or housemaid’s day. I saw them as often as I could. Spending time with them both healed my heart and shredded it anew. The baby had giggled at me when I said goodbye to him last time, and the beautiful sound had been like claws through my chest.

  The household was also hanging together by mere threads of kindness, and I needed someone to take charge there too. In short, I was headed to the auction to buy a miracle. The idea had only occurred to me when a high-ranking businessman had attended a meeting on commerce issues last week and mentioned his own experiences with purchases from the Terran Program. Initially, I’d laughed. Buying help that way seemed a little…desperate. A last resort, even.

  But in bed that night, I’d admitted it to myself. I couldn’t avoid it anymore. Desperation was staring me in the face.

  I couldn’t wait any longer for this damn fool staff member to answer me, and I turned and continued down the corridor. He didn’t try to follow.

  My car was waiting directly outside the front entrance to my offices, and although a footman tried to open an umbrella to walk me to the vehicle, he was too slow. I brushed by him, opened the car door for myself, and slid onto the long bench seat.

  “The dock, please.” I instructed the driver. We were already moving, and he probably already knew where I wanted to go.

  From there, a boat would take me to the Terran ship’s dock. It anchored out to sea and floated above my planet whenever it visited.

  My guard sat in the seat next to the driver, their large forms oddly comforting, and I closed my eyes, trying to run through the list of things I wanted to achieve from this purchase.

  The car drew to a gentle stop, and my door was opened before I even reached the end of my list. I sighed. I’d have to just wing it as best I could and let my instincts guide me.

 
The boat ride out to the wooden dock that anchored the rickety stairs into the sky was short. We nudged sweet smelling ocean lilies out of the way as we ploughed forward.

  My guard led the way through the throng of traders and buyers waiting to board the docked spaceship, and I walked onto the great hulking piece of metal. Dents and corrosion covered its surface, as if not even Terran respected the lives of those it transported.

  I sat on a hard, wooden bench—just a single plank of wood, really—behind a one-way mirror. This allowed me to see the human women, but they couldn’t see me. Row after row of them stood before me, each wearing the same expression of desperate shock. Scrutinizing them, I made quick but random decisions, giving the order for all but three of them to be dismissed. The dismissed were taken to another room to be sifted through by other powerful or high-ranking dragons. If I saw someone I liked, I’d need to make note of her number on a small handheld device and bid on her accordingly. Guilt and self-disgust crept over me at just being here, but perhaps a life taking care of my children would be better than whatever they had come from.

  I flicked the switch to activate the microphone so I could talk to them. “Greetings, humans, on your arrival on Hydronia.”

  They flinched as my voice boomed around their room on the other side of the glass, their gazes wild and fearful as they looked around for the source.

  “I have some questions for you to help determine if you will be suitable for what I require.”

  They stilled.

  “Do you have any childcare experience?”

  One by one, each woman shook her head, and I sighed. That pretty much ruled them all out straight away, but I had two further questions to ask.

  “Are you able to manage and prioritize conflicting tasks?” My children were all different ages with different interests, so this was also important.

  They nodded but they all looked uncertain, like they weren’t really sure what I had meant.

  “Lastly, do you like children?”

  The first girl nodded emphatically, but I’d made an error—she seemed little more than a child herself, so I struck her number from my list. The second girl wrinkled her nose, and the third one shrugged as if the existence of children didn’t affect her either way. I made two more strikes through the remaining numbers and sighed. Perhaps I shouldn’t have chosen so randomly, this had probably been a bad idea. As the three women left the room to be judged by the other bidders in the room to my right, I rose from the bench.

  “Wait, sire.” My guard gently halted me. “They’re sending someone else through.”

  I looked back into the room as a red-hued Grug warrior dragged a human woman through the back door. The Grug released her, leaving her alone in the room. As she glanced around the empty room, defiance was written across her face, my breath left me in a rush and my cock stirred awake. What the—

  My dragon rumbled through my chest and my gums ached as my fangs began to extend. Possessiveness ran unchecked through me, and I caught my breath. Is this…? I wanted to own the human in front of me. Simple as that. I swayed in my seat from the strength of feeling.

  I drew a shallow breath, trying to regain control of myself.

  The silence in my booth stretched as too many thoughts whirled through my head.

  “Well, sire? Do you desire to ask this specimen your questions?” My guard prompted.

  I nodded. What questions, though? What could I possibly have to ask this human who had the same sandy blonde hair and big eyes as Lyra? “Do… do you see it?” I croaked out.

  My guard looked at me. “Yes, sire. It’s waiting to find out if it’s going to be dismissed to move to the next room.”

  I shook my head. Maybe it was just me, but… The resemblance was so strong. I flicked the microphone back to the “on” position and cleared my throat.

  Her eyes narrowed in suspicion, and she focused on the speaker above her. Already, she had more wits about her than the previous specimens.

  “Do you have any childcare experience?” My voice sounded hesitant and meek, and my guard turned to look at me.

  “Are you well, sire?” he hissed, and I waved him away.

  The human female nodded. “Yes, I do. I babysat for children all over The Glass City on Earth before I was employed as a housekeeper.” She spoke the words clearly and turned challenging eyes to the glass between us, almost as if she could see me.

  Housekeeper? I liked the sound of that, too. Experience tidying up after others was a plus. I nodded before I caught myself. She couldn’t see me. “Can you prioritize a variety of tasks, some with conflicting requirements?” I enunciated each word, glued to her face as I waited for her response. She lifted her eyebrows. “Yes, I can.”

  I waited for more, but apparently that was all she wanted to disclose.

  My guard sighed. “Perhaps she wastes our time,” he whispered.

  I shook my head. Something about her made me believe her answers.

  Suddenly, she scoffed “Of course I can prioritize conflicting needs. Being here in the first place is all about priorities.”

  She must have heard my guard, and her response to him amused me.

  “Lastly,” I said as I made a note of her number and circled it three times, “do you like children?”

  Unexpectedly, she laughed. “As much as anyone who was a child once, I expect.”

  A laugh rumbled through me too, but I switched off the microphone before she could hear. Finally, she left the room to face the other bidders. As King of this planet, I alone had the luxury of interrogating the humans by myself. The other bidders present at the auction had to compete to get their questions answered.

  But for now, I waited.

  Finally, the buzzer sounded, signaling the start of the auction. Human lives were traded and sold for pitifully small sums of credits, and I sighed at the brutality of it. I began to wonder if obtaining the solution to my problem could really be this easy.

  Eventually, the last human’s number flashed up on the screen in front of me. It was immediately obvious that she had enchanted more than just me. Bidding was fierce, but no one else had the reserves of the King of Hydronia, and outbidding them was a simple endeavor. I didn’t feel any regret for my success in securing the only human who’d interested me. After all, I had my children’s lives to consider, and I wouldn’t have wanted to leave them in the hands of the other three unsuccessful humans. I tried to ignore the remorse trickling through me at the brutality of purchasing living beings.

  But by the time I stood from the bench and my guard had clapped me on the shoulder in congratulations, any lingering remorse had lifted.

  “Well done, Sire!” He beamed at me, and I almost grinned at the strange pride shining from his expression. “You’ve navigated your first Terran Program auction.”

  I nodded, although I hoped it would also be my last. I didn’t want to come back here to select further care for my children any time soon. I needed this woman to fit seamlessly into my children’s lives and not cause me any trouble. I also needed to be close to her. For personal reasons.

  The door to my little booth opened and a gray-skinned man entered, bent in a permanent half-bow. “Good evening, Your Majesty,” he said, his strange flat voice formal. “If you’d like to follow me to complete the transaction, we can ensure your full satisfaction with today’s purchase.”

  I rose to my feet and ducked my head under the doorframe as I followed the man out into the corridor. The spacecraft smelled musty and dank, and I’d be glad to return to air that smelled of water, salt, and the huge lilies blooming across some of my oceans.

  We entered a tiny office with a desk and two chairs. The man stood by a chair and gestured for me to sit in the second.

  “Have you ever made a purchase through the Terran Project before, Your Majesty?” He still showed no desire to look at me, and his strange AI voice began to grate on my nerves.

  “No, I have not.”

  “Then allow me to quickly run th
rough what happens next. On the journey from Earth, the humans were thoroughly cleansed, received any relevant inoculations and treatments, and they were all made aware of the length of their servitude contracted terms with the Terran Project.” He hesitated and dared a glance in my direction. His violet eyes shimmered. “Do you have the number of your purchase?”

  I handed him the small black screen used to track the humans I’d interviewed. But I could have recited the number from memory. Earthling 7674TES8.

  “Very good, very good.” The man tapped the screen several times. “Your purchase’s name is Tessa Banks, and the length of her servitude is ten years.”

  Relief washed through me. I hadn’t given any thought to the length of time she’d stay, but the longer the better so the children had some consistency. I wanted the arrangement to be long-term.

  “Do I take her now?”

  The man’s eyes widened. “N…no, Your Majesty. The Terran Project arranges everything for her delivery to you. We will take care of checking her tracking chip. She wears an ident bracelet, and there will be a chip embedded in her skin just beneath that. You can ask her to show it to you. In fact, we recommend you do, as some humans have been known to remove them. It is used as her TerraLink Adaptor, and looks like a face.”

  “Her TerraLink Adaptor?”

  “Yes, Your Majesty. It marks her as the property of The Corporation until her debt is paid in full. It allows us to apprehend her should she try to abscond before her servitude is complete.”

  “And once the ten years has passed?” Something about this system fascinated me, but I still wasn’t sure I was entirely at ease with it.

  The Terran Program employee shrugged. “She becomes of no further interest to the Terran Program, Your Majesty.” He tapped on the screen again. “If I could just ask you to sign on this last page. That will authorize transfer of funds to complete the purchase today. Then I will arrange transportation of your purchase to a location of your choosing.”