Betrothed Episode One Read Online Free Page B

to.
    There
were no signs. I had absolutely no idea where I was going. She
hadn’t said anything, either. For all I knew, she could have sent
me back to the start of the line.
    With a
heavy heart and by now a rumbly stomach, I walked off down the
hallway.
    After a
few lengths, the architecture around me started to change. Gone was
the sleek white modern feel of the main hall, until I found myself
in a narrow winding corridor interrupted every 20 meters or so with
spiral staircases.
    The
design was a hodge podge, and made me feel as though someone had
taken an old castle from Earth and smashed it together with a space
ship.
    At least
it distracted me.
    I kept
walking until I reached a checkpoint. A security officer scanned my
implant and waved me on.
    I tried
to ask him where I was going, but he ignored me, turned, and
started chatting to his buddy.
    I caught
a few snippets of their conversation. It was the same topic
everyone in Central seemed to be discussing – the upcoming
Illuminate wedding.
    I hadn’t
been paying attention, but as I thought about it now, I wondered if
that jerk Illuminate in the main hall had anything to do with
it.
    If it
was his wedding, I hoped he was getting married to someone awful
who’d ruin his life forever.
    ....
    Okay,
that was mean. I’d been brought up as a good girl. But honestly,
some people were beyond kindness.
    I
continued down the winding corridor, wondering if I’d reach my
destination before I succumbed to hunger and thirst. If I’d known
trekking through the contracts building would be like traversing a
city, I’d have brought supplies.
    I tried
not to let my spirits slip as I trekked on, reminding myself I
would be picking up an inheritance soon. It could be anything, from
a small moon to a box of my grandma’s old gnomes.
    Finally
the corridor widened into a large room. Just like the main hall
above, there was an enormous bench, this one made out of gleaming
white metal trimmed with gold.
    There
was an alien man on the opposite side of the counter.
    He
didn’t look up as I approached. I was the only person in this
enormous room other than him, but he didn’t register my presence at
all.
    It
wasn’t until I’d cleared my throat for the tenth time and managed a
timid, “excuse me,” that he bothered to roll his three eyes towards
me.
    “ Can I help you?” he asked in the standard tongue.
    “ Ah, yeah, I was sent here by the lady at
reception.”
    He
didn’t respond. He looked at me with those three luminescent eyes
and appeared to wait.
    “ So, ah, do you want my biometric scan?” I hazarded through a
swallow.
    “ I already have it.”
    “ O-kay ... so what do you need me to do?”
    “ Nothing.” He turned to look at something on the sunken panel
embedded in the smooth counter before him.
    I stood
there and waited.
    And
waited.
    And
waited.
    Had I
already mentioned how much I hated this modern universe? If I’d
thought 21st century Earth had been beset by irritating useless
traditions and bureaucracies, I’d been wrong. Give me a line up at
a toll booth any day.
    “ ... Ah, so what contract do I have?” I broke the
silence.
    “ I don’t see why you’ve come here to ask.”
    I
blinked my eyes slowly. “Y-you, what? I, I was sent here from
reception. I’m just trying to find out what contract I have. I’ve
come here all the way from the Alpha System,” I began to babble,
“to find out why the heck I can’t get a job with the government.
The clerk at the applications office told me there was some kind of
contract out on me and I’m here to find out what that is.” I
pressed my lips together, realizing ranting would get me
nowhere.
    “ You are a newfound One, yes?”
    I
nodded, stomach sinking. I was about to get another lecture on
proper modern universal etiquette, wasn’t I? Maybe that jerk of an
Illuminate would swan in to berate me too.
    Instead
of launching into a spiel about how ignorant I was, the alien
looked confused for a moment. “Then