“You two know each other?” Swift asked, seemingly pleased.
“Zadie’s family owns the dairy farm down the road from my family,” she explained as they separated. “We grew up together.”
“Alys taught me how to read,” Zadie added. “My father would send me to her house for school in the afternoons after my chores.”
“Are you a teacher?” Tirade asked.
Alys shook her head. “I taught my younger siblings and a few others like Zadie. Only simple things like reading and some math.”
“And cooking and cleaning and sewing and knitting and gardening,” Zadie corrected. “I didn’t have any older sisters to teach me homemaking skills. If it wasn’t for Alys, my daddy and brothers would have been walking around with holes in their socks and empty bellies.”
“I only did what any older sister would do,” Alys demurred, her face hot from the unwanted attention.
Swift must have seen that she was uncomfortable, and he explained the situation with the ship to Tirade who agreed to fly as a copilot. Swift placed his hand on her back and led her away from the tents. They collected her small bag and Zadie’s from the searched baggage and made their way to the ship.
“You fly this?” she asked, staring up at Swift in awe.
“It’s not my usual aircraft,” he answered, “but I’m rated to fly every ship in the fleet.” Clearly disappointed, he said, “I wish it was a Bolt. We really could have had some fun on the way back.”
Tirade laughed. “I think a nice, easy ride on this transport ship is a better choice for their first trip to space.”
“Nice and boring,” Swift grumbled. “Come on, darling. Let’s get you and your friend situated.”
Alys marveled at the ship. Her family had plenty of farm equipment, some pieces rather large. This was something completely different. She couldn’t imagine how a ship as big as a barn could possibly lift off the ground and fly into the sky and then out into space.
There was an area called the cargo bay that was empty right now. A level up there were rows of seats. She counted space for one hundred people, fifty on each side. There were lavatories and even a small kitchen that was stocked with packages of food and drinks with the strangest labels she had ever seen.
“What is a nutritional bar?” Zadie asked, holding up one of the boxes.
Alys shrugged. “What is electrolyte fluid replacement?”
Zadie grimaced. “Do you think all their food is like this?”
“Surely not! The agricultural report in the paper has a breakdown of all the tons of fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, dairy and grain that are sent to them per the quotas.”
“What if it gets shipped somewhere else? Their home planet, maybe?” Zadie turned one of the boxes over and frowned. “What is a calorie?”
“Something they’re very serious about,” she said as she read the information on the back of the box of fluid she held. “This whole box is a single serving!”
“That box is big enough for four people!”
“Well, they are really big men,” Alys reasoned. “They probably require outrageous amounts of food to stay healthy.”
“Can you imagine trying to stock a larder for the winter for one of them?”
Alys did some quick mental calculations. “We would use our entire cellar just for Swift. He could probably put away two hundred pounds of potatoes in a year.”
“Easily,” Zadie agreed. “Corn, tomatoes, flour, oats, butter, milk....” She shook her head. “It would cost a fortune to feed them.”
“Which explains why their quotas of food from our planet are so high.” Alys started to put the box back on the shelf but decided to keep it. Swift and Tirade had told them to find something to eat and drink for their trip back to the Valiant. “Do you want to try this one with me?”
“I suppose we should know what we’re getting ourselves into,” Zadie agreed and took one of the boxes of nutritional bars.
They took seats in the front row and followed the diagram on the side of the box to figure out how to open the beverage. She pressed in along the dotted white line and discovered the hidden spout. She tugged it into place and hesitantly lifted the box to her mouth. She sipped the smallest bit and let it wash over her tongue.
“It’s good!” She took another drink, this one longer. “It’s juice. Some kind of berry?”
“Your lips and teeth are blue!” Zadie laughed and pointed. “You look like you’ve gotten into a blueberry bush.”
Alys laughed and touched her mouth. She looked at the spout on the box and saw droplets of bright blue juice clinging to it. “Here. You try it.”
Zadie gave her the box of nutritional bars and took the juice. While Zadie quenched her thirst, Alys opened one of the bars and examined it. Zadie poked the unappetizing beige rectangle. “Looks worse than my first attempt at making oat bars.”
Alys brought it close to her nose and sniffed. “It smells similar to an oat bar, but it’s so dense and flat. No oats. No dried fruit. No honey.”
“Taste it,” Zadie urged.
“Why do I have to go first? I tried the juice!”
“Fine!” Zadie snatched it from her hand and took a big bite. Almost immediately, she seemed to regret it. She grabbed the box of juice and quickly gulped, washing down the horrible bar. “I wouldn’t feed that to the hogs!”
“That bad?”
Zadie nodded. “It’s salty and has a strange taste.”
Alys decided she had to see how bad it truly was. She allowed herself a small nibble. Instantly, she understood what Zadie meant. She chewed it thoroughly and swallowed it. Eventually, she remarked, “I think it’s beans? Maybe lentils?”
“I can’t survive on this.” Zadie looked panicked. “I’ll starve to death.”
“I’m sure there is real food on the main ship.” Alys wasn’t actually sure of that, but she hoped it was true. Mostly, she didn’t want Zadie to start crying or panic. They are here now. They had been claimed and collared. There was nothing to do but move forward and try to make the best of it.
Zadie wrapped up the remainder of the bar that neither of them wanted to eat. She tucked it back into the box and set the box on the empty seat next to her. She glanced around as if trying to make sure they were truly alone. Reassured that she could speak freely, she leaned closer and said, “I know what happens on a wedding night.”
“As do I,” Alys said, wondering where Zadie was going with this.
“Have you...?” She stopped abruptly and glanced around again. “Have you heard about their peculiar tastes?”
“What do you mean? Peculiar how? These collars?” She touched the leather around her neck.
“No, more peculiar than that.”
“I’ve heard they discipline, but that’s not so peculiar considering our fathers strapped us every chance they got.”
“It’s a different kind of discipline, I think. You know how Edmund works at the outpost sometimes?”
Alys nodded. Zadie’s older brother Edmund was one of the best carpenters in the area, and he had built many buildings at the outpost. It had caused friction between Zadie’s father and her own.