Bound to the Stars

Chapter 2

I look around the room at the other women getting ready. There are thirty-two of us now. There used to be forty. I try not to think about the eight empty beds. Some of the women who disappeared had been excited when they were matched. I still don't understand that. Maybe it was easier for them to convince themselves that being chosen was better than spending the rest of their lives here. Others had cried. One had screamed so loudly that I could still hear it sometimes when I closed my eyes. Her name was Leah. She had been twenty-three. Three Valerathyin guards had carried her out while she kicked and begged them not to take her. That was four months ago. We haven't seen her since.

"Hey, Anna, are you okay?" Nadine's voice pulls me from the memory. "Yeah, I’m Fine."

"You were doing the same thing." I know exactly which thing she was referring to, but I would rather pretend that I don’t. It helps me to feign innocence. "What thing?"

"The staring into space thing where you look like you're plotting someone's murder."

"Well, maybe I am."

"Please wait until after breakfast. I'm starving." A smile pulls at my lips despite myself. "I'm serious," she adds. "If you're going to start the human rebellion today, I would really prefer not to do it on an empty stomach."

"You would be a terrible revolutionary."

"I'd be an excellent revolutionary. I'd just require snacks." The doors at the end of the room slide open before I can respond. Every conversation around us quiets. Two Valerathyin guards step inside. I hate that my body still reacts to them. My shoulders tense. My stomach tightens. Every instinct tells me to move farther away, even though I know there is nowhere to go. The Valerathyins look enough like us that, from a distance, someone might mistake them for humans. Up close, there is no chance.

They're taller than humans, for one. Much taller. Even women tower over most human men. Their features are sharper, almost unnaturally perfect, and their eyes have a strange reflective quality that I still haven't gotten used to. But it is their markings that give them away immediately. Every Valerathyin has them. Dark lines twist across their skin in intricate patterns, disappearing beneath their clothing. I have no idea what they mean. I've heard a dozen different theories since arriving here. Family lineage. Rank. Age. Genetics. One woman swears they glow when they are angry. I have no intention of getting close enough to find out.

"Morning meal begins in ten minutes," one of the guards announces. His English is nearly perfect. That bothers me more than it probably should. They learned our languages before they invaded us. They studied us. They knew exactly what they were coming for. And we didn't even know they existed. Nadine steps closer to me as the guards move farther into the room. "Think we're getting eggs today?" she whispers. I glance at her. "That's what you're thinking about?" She chuckles at my comment. "I'm trying to manifest them. I hope it works." Nadine crosses her fingers, hoping.

"Just like you’ve been manifesting pancakes for three months," I retorted. "And one day it's going to work." The guard nearest us looks in our direction. Nadine immediately stops talking. I don't. I stare directly back at him. His gaze stays on mine for several seconds before moving away. "You're going to get us killed," Nadine mutters.

"No, I'm not. They need us, remember?” The words taste bitter in my mouth. That is the only advantage humans have anymore.

The Valerathyins didn't travel across whatever unimaginable distance separates their planet from ours because they wanted our land. They didn't come for our water. Or our resources. They came for us. More specifically, they came because their species was dying. For reasons their scientists apparently still don't completely understand, Valerathyin women had slowly lost the ability to carry children. Their population had been declining for generations, and by the time they discovered Earth, they were desperate. Then they discovered something about human genetics. We were compatible. Not all of us. But enough.

Enough that the Valerathyins looked at a planet filled with billions of people and saw the answer to their extinction. They call it salvation. I call it theft. They stole our governments. They stole our homes. They separated families. They placed millions of humans into facilities like this one and began testing us to determine which of us could bond with one of them. All because somewhere inside our bodies might be the answer to saving theirs.

"Move," the guard says. Nadine grabs my hand. I let her pull me toward the door with the others. Breakfast first. Then history lessons designed to teach us about their society, needs, and other bullshit. Then recreation. Then lunch. Then, whatever meaningless activity they've decided will keep us occupied until dinner. And tomorrow we will do it all again. Unless one of us is matched.

As we stepped into the hallway, I tightened my fingers around Nadine’s. I have prayed for many things since the Valerathyins invaded Earth. For my family to be alive. For humanity to somehow fight back. For someone, somewhere, to figure out how to defeat them. But lately, my prayers have become much simpler. Please don't let me find a mate.

The hallway outside our living quarters is already filled with humans being ushered toward the dining hall. Men and women are housed separately, although we are allowed to interact during meals, recreation, and our daily lessons. Apparently, allowing us a few hours of supervised interaction each day is supposed to make us feel less like prisoners. How generous of them.

Nadine stays close beside me as we move with the crowd. Her hand has since dropped from mine, but our shoulders occasionally bump together as we walk. We learned pretty quickly not to get separated during transitions. There is something comforting about having another human close, especially one I knew before all of this happened. Nadine and I have been best friends since college. Of all the people I could have ended up imprisoned with, I suppose I should consider myself lucky that I ended up with her. Lucky. I almost laughed at the thought. My luck has really gone to s**t.

The dining hall looks exactly like every other room in this place. White walls, gray floors, metal tables, and absolutely nothing that could be considered decoration. I sometimes wonder if Valerathyins simply hate color or if they intentionally designed these places to be as depressing as possible. We had barely made it through the doorway when Nadine grabbed my arm. "Do you smell that?" I glanced over at her and found her practically sniffing the air. "No."

"Anna." The urgency in her voice makes me stop walking. For half a second, I actually thought something was wrong until she turned toward me with wide eyes. "I think that's bacon." I sniffed the air again, mostly to humor her, but sure enough, the unmistakable smell of bacon was coming from somewhere ahead of us. "Well, shit."

"I told you manifesting works." Nadine looks entirely too pleased with herself as she begins moving toward the serving line. "You manifested eggs," I remind her, following behind. She hushes me, “Don't ruin this for me."

We grab our trays and move through the line. Breakfast consists of scrambled eggs, bacon, some type of fruit I don't recognize, and toast. Actual toast. I haven't seen bread in at least two weeks. Maybe today isn't completely useless after all. We find two empty seats near the end of one of the tables, and Nadine immediately takes a bite of bacon. Her eyes close as she lets out a small moan. "Oh, my God."

"You're being dramatic." I pick up my fork and poke at the scrambled eggs on my plate. They look normal enough, although I've learned that doesn't necessarily mean anything around here. "I haven't had bacon in six months. Let me have this." I shook my head and took a bite of my eggs. Surprisingly, they're good.

That's another thing I hate about the Valerathyins. I want everything they give us to be terrible. It would be much easier to hate them if they fed us disgusting food and treated us like animals. Instead, they keep us healthy. Very healthy. Three meals a day. Mandatory exercise. History lessons. Vitamins. Eight hours of required sleep.

When I first arrived, I thought maybe it meant they actually cared about our well-being. I know better now. You take care of the things you need, and the Valerathyins need us to be healthy. "Do you know what today's lesson is about?" Nadine asks, interrupting my thoughts. I shake my head while reaching for my toast. "No, but I'm sure it'll be another fascinating hour of learning why the Valerathyins are the greatest species to ever grace the universe." Nadine ignores my sarcasm. "Mate bonds." My hand stops halfway to my mouth. Of course, it is. I slowly lower the toast back to my plate. "Sounds riveting."

"I heard they're going to explain what happens after someone is matched." That catches my attention. "Who told you that?"

"Caroline," Nadine says, as if Caroline is a credible news source instead of another prisoner who spends most of her free time collecting rumors. I glance toward the other side of the dining hall where Caroline is sitting with a group of women from another living quarter. She's been here longer than either of us. She always seems to know what is happening before everyone else.

"Caroline also told you they were releasing unmatched humans after one year," I remind her. "She heard that from someone."

"She heard it from Beth, who had heard it from Sarah, who supposedly heard it from a guard who probably never said it in the first place." Nadine lets out an exaggerated sigh and reaches across the table to steal the strange piece of fruit from my tray. "Can you let me believe one good rumor?"

"No." I pull my tray slightly closer even though I had no intention of eating the fruit in the first place. "You're exhausting,” Nadine says while rolling her eyes.

"Oh, so I've been told." A tone sounds throughout the dining hall, signaling that we have ten minutes remaining before lessons begin. Nadine immediately begins eating faster, as if someone might come snatch the bacon directly out of her hands if she doesn't finish it quickly enough.

I watched her for a moment before shaking my head. "You know nobody is going to steal your breakfast, right?"

"I'm not taking any chances." She points her fork toward my tray. "You should eat that fruit." I look down at the pale purple thing she placed on the edge of my plate. "I don't know what that is."

"That's exactly why you should try it. As you mentioned before, they need us. What are they going to do, poison us? As if,” Nadine realizes that she is not going to win this one and reaches across the table, taking it for herself. "Problem solved." I smiled and returned my attention to my breakfast.

For a few minutes, surrounded by conversation and the sounds of forks scraping against plates, everything felt almost normal. Almost. Then the large screen mounted against the wall changed, and I remembered exactly where we were.