Betrothed Episode One, Page 2

  Chapter 2

  The Alpha System was incredible.

  Space travel, not so much.

  I hardly had any savings, so I’d booked a transport I could afford. A stinky, cramped freighter hauling borinian ore.

  It had terrified me when I’d boarded, but the longer I’d spent in my cramped room, the more I’d calmed down.

  It was kind of crazy to travel all the way to the Alpha System just to apply for a goddamn job.

  It felt right, though.

  I’d been at the institute too long. I needed to find myself.

  I wasn’t brave – at least not now. The old me had traveled everywhere. The old me had enjoyed packing up, grabbing her wallet and passport, and traveling wherever the wind had blown.

  The new me – who’d wound up 400 years in the future without family, friends, and far away from anything she’d ever known – was different. The new me was scared to leave the building.

  The new me figured that the moment I set foot outside was the moment the universe came crashing down around my ears.

  But I was still doing this.

  I landed on the main planet in the Alpha System, a cheery rock called Begia Prime.

  It had spectacular scenery. It was like New Zealand on steroids. Enormous snow-capped mountain ranges plunged down into azure blue rivers. Forests of sprawling, knotted alien trees clung to hillsides, giving way to golden-grass plains.

  And in the middle, for no good reason, was a dirty, stinky city.

  There I would find the application office.

  Mark had made me promise to call him after I’d applied. He’d mumbled something about needing to ensure I hadn’t been assigned to the role of president.

  President of the universe? Yeah, right. If my family were still alive, they’d tip their heads back and laugh at the thought that flaky Annie would ever amount to anything, let alone president of the goddamn universe.

  I figured I’d get my application out of the way before exploring the planet.

  And even then, I’d probably have to go back to my tiny habitat pod – my accommodation – and chew my nails for a few hours to muster up the courage to head out into the wilderness.

  It wouldn’t be dangerous – the Alpha System was a premier tourist spot.

  I was just agoraphobic from spending three years in the institute.

  It didn’t take me long to find the application office.

  I walked inside to face an opaque black window.

  There was no one else around, and for a few awkward minutes I stood there and did nothing.

  Then I cleared my throat.

  With a click, the window disappeared, revealing a squat alien behind a counter. “Application, please.” He shunted one of his pudgy hands toward me.

  “Ah,” I hesitated.

  “Application.” He twiddled his ten fingers.

  “I-is this the application office for the Foundation Government Corps?”

  “Of course it is.”

  “So… I just hand you my application then?”

  He twiddled his fingers and nodded.

  I handed him my data pad.

  “Step forward and place your hand on the biometric scanner,” the alien said in a bored tone.

  I complied.

  After a few seconds, there was a beep.

  The alien sniffed. “Alright then, looks as if you can’t apply yet.”

  “Ah, what?”

  “There’s a contract out on you. No one can apply for a job in the government until all existing contracts taken against them are satisfied.”

  I frowned at the clerk. “Sorry?”

  “There’s a contract out on you,” he said slowly as if I was hard of hearing. He had an impassive, blank expression, and brought a two-pronged finger up to scratch his ear.

  “… Ah, sorry? You… y-you mean someone wants to kill me?” My heart skipped a beat.

  His eyebrows flattened, and he shot me a quizzical look. “What?”

  “Y-you said there’s a contract out on me—”

  “It means someone has some controlling interest in you.” He shrugged his shoulders and started to shuffle the datapads on his desk again.

  “… What does that mean?”

  “It means, humie, you can’t take this job until you get your contract satisfied. There are strict universal laws about that kind of stuff.”

  “I, um, I, ah… what kind of contract are we talking about here?” I was floundering. My face was red, my hands were sweaty. Just when I thought I was settling into the future, it was throwing me more surprises.

  I had never heard of contracts.

  The clerk shot me a bored look. “How should I know? You could be indentured, you could have an inheritance, you could be betrothed.”

  I latched onto one word. “Sorry, betrothed?”

  “You know, legally obliged to marry someone.”

  “That’s a thing?” My voice pitched and shook.

  “Of course it’s a thing.” He shot me another bored look. “Now, you gotta go find out what contract is out on you, and you’ll have to satisfy it before you can apply for a job with the government.”

  “H-how do I do that?”

  I didn’t know if the clerk’s race rolled their eyes, but this guy sure looked like he wanted to. He leaned over his desk, his pudgy pronged fingers disturbing the heaped pile of tools and datapads, sending a few scattering to the floor. “Lady, don’t you know anything? You been living under a rock your whole life?”

  “I’m a newfound one. I only woke up 3 years ago,” I admitted as I slid my gaze to my hands.

  “Oh.” He appeared to relax. “In that case, listen carefully. You have to book a transport to the Central System. Then you need to visit Cluster. When there, you’ll need to visit the Contracts Office. Depending on the type of contract out on you, you’ll probably have to head to the Identity Office too. Then, when the contract is confirmed, all you have to do is satisfy it, and once that’s done, you can reapply for this job.” He shoved my application back at me, receded into his chair, punched something on the panel in front of him, and flicked me a smile as the window to his office turned opaque. “Good luck,” he called before his voice cut out.

  “Ah ha,” I managed after a long pause.

  My body stiff, it took me awhile to turn away.

  My hand shook as I held my application.

  There was a contract out on me. I could be indentured – and god knows what that would entail. Or I could have inherited something.

  Or… I could be betrothed.

  I’d come here today to get my life sorted – to join the modern galaxy.

  Before today, I hadn’t even known about contracts.

  … Christ.

  I wiped a hand down my face and forced myself to walk away.

  I barely had any money, and the few savings I had would now be burnt away.

  Great.

  Back to square one.

  I hated the future.

  …

  I couldn’t calm down. My body was wired, my mind filled with crazy thoughts.

  I could inherit a small moon, or I could be indentured to a crazy alien warlord.

  I’d gone back to my accommodation – a small pod on the outskirts of a transport town. It had an incredible view of the wild wilderness of this planet on one side, then the dingy transport town behind me.

  I stood there and stared at the tall majestic mountain ranges, my gaze drawing toward the horizon as dusk set.

  I needed to talk to someone, someone I could trust.

  In this lonely galaxy, there was only one man.

  I called Mark.

  “Hey, kid, how did your application go?”

  “Ah, not great,” I couldn’t control my tone.

  “What happened?”

  “Um, Mark, have you ever heard of contracts?”

  “… Sure. Why are you bringing them up?”

  “Like, I don’t mean ordinary legal contracts, I mean… Christ, I d
on’t know what I mean. Some kind of universal, ah… thing.” I couldn’t find my words. I stared at the view with wide open eyes and a pounding heart. I rubbed my hand back and forth along the window ledge until the smooth metal started to grate against my fingers.

  “Yeah, I know what you mean. Universally Binding Contracts. Why are you bringing them up?”

  I paused. I couldn’t speak. My breath had stuck in my chest.

  I patted a hand on my middle, crunching over.

  “… Annie?”

  “I have a contract out on me,” I blurted, “I have no idea what it is. But if I don’t satisfy it, I can’t apply for this job. And I need this job, Mark. I feel so freaking useless most of the time, and totally out of my depth. And now this has come along,” I sucked in a breath, “and I have no idea what it is. I could be betrothed, Mark – betrothed.” I couldn’t stop the torrent of thoughts from spilling out of my mouth. “The clerk at the applications office told me I have to go to the Central System, and to the Contracts Office and then the Identity Office. But I hardly have any money, Mark. It will take up all my savings, and then some. I don’t know what to do. Just when I thought I was getting used to this future, this comes up.”

  Mark didn’t interrupt. I fancied wherever he was, he had a calm smile plastered across his lips.

  I took an enormous breath and flopped onto my butt. I could still see a slice of the horizon through the windows, and I concentrated on the white sleek mountain peaks beyond.

  I stuck a fingernail in my mouth and started to chew it.

  “Take a breath, Annie, it’s all going to be okay. First things first: it isn’t that unusual to have a contract. It won’t be that hard to find out what it is. It won’t take up all your savings either – as a newfound one, you can apply for a grant to head to the Central System to get this all sorted.”

  “… Oh. But – but what if I’m indentured, or betrothed!”

  He laughed. “I like how you’re more scared of being betrothed than you are of being indentured.”

  “Mark, this is serious!”

  “Yeah, I haven’t heard you give a thought dump like that since your first year after waking up. Anyhow, there’s nothing to worry about.”

  “Yes there is—”

  “Annie,” he interrupted before I could get going again.

  I shoved my thumb further into my mouth, grating my teeth back and forth over my nail.

  “You aren’t betrothed,” he said confidently, “nor would you be indentured.”

  “What? I’m not? How can you be so sure?” I jumped to my feet.

  “Because you’re over 400 years old, technically.”

  “… And?”

  “Come on, Annie, think. You were born a long, long time ago. You can’t possibly be betrothed to someone, nor indentured – the contract holder would be well and truly dead by now.”

  “But… what if the contract holder came from a really long-lived race?”

  “Why would someone have indentured or betrothed little Annie Carter from 21st century Earth? Earth wasn’t even part of the Foundation Protectorate 400 years ago.”

  “Oh,” I conceded, my shoulders finally dropping from up around my ears.

  “There’s really only one possibility – you’ve inherited something.”

  “But who would leave anything to me? As you keep saying, I’m more than 400 years old.”

  “The Contracts Office picks up and deals with contracts from every member of the Foundation. My guess is 400 years ago, someone put you in their will with a clause that should you be woken up, you get the cash – or whatever they’ve left you.”

  I blinked, suddenly feeling extremely stupid. I stared at my feet sheepishly. “Oh. Ah, yeah, that makes sense.”

  “Yeah, it does. So can you do me a favor and stop chewing your nail?”

  He knew me well enough to remember what I did when I was nervous.

  “I stopped chewing it a few seconds ago, actually.”

  “Alright then. Now, all you have to do is contact the Contracts Office, prove your newfound status, and they’ll help arrange transport.”

  “Why can’t I just get them to look into my contract for me? I mean, do I really need to travel all the way to Central?”

  “Yep, unfortunately you do. They’ll have to do a full atomic scan of your DNA to check it’s really you. But hey, it won’t be so bad – you keep telling me you want to travel.”

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  “Just don’t overthink it, Annie. Go claim your inheritance. Who knows, with interest, maybe you won’t have to apply for that job after all – you might be inheriting a small fortune.”

  “Mark, we’ve talked about this – I want to give back. I want to do something worthwhile. I’m sick of sitting around doing nothing. I feel so useless.”

  “You’re not useless, Annie. You’ve got an incredible head on your shoulders.”

  I blushed.

  “Keep me in the loop. If you have inherited a fortune, I expect you to take me out for a drink.”

  I let out a soft laugh. “Sure thing.”

  “Let me know when you’re headed to Central, too – as I might be around those parts. We could meet up.”

  “Mark, that would be great.” I smiled, tucking my hair behind my ears as I did a quick turn on the floor, heading toward my luggage.

  “Alright then. Keep safe, Annie.”

  “Always.”

  “See you around, kid.”

  “Thanks so much, Mark.”

  With that, he ended the call.

  I stood staring at the view, feeling extremely foolish.

  Of course it was an inheritance, and of course it wasn’t that serious.

  I sighed, shook my head, and turned around to call Central.