Chapter 3
SUSANNA
“Is this what you’re going to wear?” Mara critically eyed the clothes I’d laid out on my bunk.
I rubbed the back of my neck, stretching my shoulders. We’d woken up from our five-month-long cryosleep yesterday. I still tried to work out the stiffness from my muscles and get my joints moving the way they should.
“This.” I pointed at my knee-length black-and-white dress. “Classic is good, right?”
Mara curled her lip, obviously unimpressed. “You know they invented ‘classic look’ for poor people who can’t afford to buy the latest fashion every season. ‘Vintage style’ is for those who shop second-hand, by the way. Like there’s any class or style in wearing someone else’s used clothes.”
I just shrugged. “I am ‘poor people’ now, remember? You are too, by the way. We had to borrow the money for the second ticket.”
“I’m not poor!” she scoffed. “I may be temporarily down on my luck, but I might’ve solved the situation by now, had you not dragged me away from Jason.”
I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath and calling on my patience. It’d been less than twenty-four hours of us sharing the spaceship cabin, and I already felt like jumping the ship to escape my sister’s company.
Thankfully, we’d spent most of the journey cryogenically frozen. Five months in this close of quarters would’ve been real torture.
“Mara, I convinced you to get away from the bad guys with guns and knives who were literally after our heads. If Jason really cares about you, he must be happy you’re alive. And he’ll wait for your safe return when things calm down a bit.”
She brushed me off with a regal gesture of her hand. “Fine. Whatever. We’re getting off this space tin can soon. Some very important people will be meeting us at the spaceport. Government representatives, I imagine. It’s not every day that Earthlings visit Aldrai. It’s kind of a big deal for them there. The first impression is everything.” She raised her chin and declared with pathos, “You’re representing Earth, Susanna.”
“Why can't I represent it while wearing this dress?” I pointed at the outfit on my bunk bed.
“Listen, we may be...” her lips quivered, “...poor. At the moment. But there’s no need to broadcast that to every alien out there. Fake it until you make it.” She cocked her hip with a glamorous flip of her hair over her shoulder. It was impossible not to admire her confidence. Then she tossed a reproachful look at the offensive garment I was about to wear. “This isn’t even Chanel.”
I had sold all the clothes that Mara would find acceptable. All I had left were the outfits I’d worn to work. These were still decent enough pieces, but of course, they all were way below Mara’s impossibly high standards.
“Do you honestly think the Aldraians will be able to tell the difference between a Chanel dress and this one?” I asked.
She propped her hands on her hips.
“Maybe they can. It’s awfully presumptuous of you to assume all aliens are complete savages. A few may be civilized enough to appreciate a decent outfit.” She rummaged through one of her suitcases. The cabin was too small to accommodate all her luggage. We’d only managed to fit two of the dozen or so bags she’d brought.
“Since you’re going to be seen with me, I need to salvage this somehow. Maybe we could at least dress it up a little? Take these shoes, these sunglasses...” She handed me the items as she took them out of her bags. “We don’t have time to do anything about your hair, but here...” She pulled out a pearl-gray scarf. “Hermes. Pure silk.”
She tied the scarf around my head, letting the ends drape down my back, then propped a pair of sunglasses on my nose.
“Voilà! You look like a blonde Audrey Hepburn. Chubbier than her, but still classic, just like you wanted.”
I let the “chubby” comment slide. Mara and I had worn the same size clothes all our lives. Yet she never failed to emphasize my “extra” weight.
I glanced in the narrow mirror on the door of the cabin. One thing my sister was really good at was creating “the look.” If I tied the scarf over my head, I'd look like a babushka from middle-ages Russia. When she did it... Well, it looked classy.
“Thanks,” I muttered.
“You’re welcome. I can’t let my own sister embarrass me in front of the entire alien planet, now, can I?”
* * *
THE MASSIVE METAL DOORSof our spaceship opened, and the wide ramp descended for us to disembark. A puff of fragrant air rushed in. It smelled like freshly cut grass and exotic flowers—a scent I hadn't smelled in like...well, never. This was an entirely new planet, after all.
Bright sunlight burst through. I adjusted Mara’s sunglasses on my nose, taking a step out of the ship to follow the human representatives of the Liaison Committee who came on the ship with us.
It was a warm, sunny day, with our spaceship landing in the middle of a meadow with artfully arranged hedges and flower beds. Green and colorful, the space hardly looked like a spaceport.
“It’s pretty here,” I whispered to Mara as the two of us tottered down the ramp in our high heels.
“Oh no!” she gasped, staring at the group waiting for us on the stone path below. “They’re even uglier in person.”
The Aldraians ranged in color from pale wood to dark walnut and every earthy shade in between. There was a clear difference between male and female Aldraians. The women were closer in appearance to humans, except for the three pairs of breasts in the front. They had no horns, and their long hair closely matched the color of their skin. All the women present were pleasant to look at.
Mara’s comment must’ve been about the males. Huge and muscular, they could be easily mistaken for rock formations. The hard lines and corners of their bodies made them appear as if roughly hewn from pieces of granite. I wouldn’t call them outright ugly, but they sure looked different.
As I studied the Aldraians, they all turned toward us. Their scrutinizing gazes weighed heavily on my shoulders. I straightened my back and adjusted my sunglasses.
“Fake it until you make it,” I repeated Mara’s words in my head, calling on whatever confidence I possessed.
The group included a non-Aldraian. Slightly smaller than them, he was covered in dark-gray fur. He had long, slightly curved horns and a pair of hooves instead of feet—a Voranian from the planet Neron.
He moved his gaze from me to my sister, then back again. I guessed his confusion. We both wore sunglasses. But even if we didn’t, I doubted he would be able to tell who was who. The man clearly needed help.
I quickly touched my hand to the now fully healed scar behind my ear, the place where the translator had been implanted. On Earth, only those involved in interplanetary travel had them. However, people from other planets usually had the translators implanted from birth. All of those standing in front of us must have them too.
“She’s Mara Takolsky.” I flipped my thumb at Mara. “I'm Susanna Riley, her sister.”
“Oh, you’re the nanny,” he stated politely.
Was that what I was?
To obtain the ticket for me, we had to give the reasons for my accompanying my sister. One was to help her look after the children of her new husband.
I guessed I could try to be a nanny. As long as I remained far away from Bolshoy’s people and my head remained on my shoulders.
“I’m the nanny,” I confirmed.
The furry man with hooves took my sister’s hand in both of his.
“Welcome to Aldrai, Madam Xavran Rax,” he addressed her by her new married name. “I’m Alcus Hecear, the Voranian representative of the Liaison Committee.”
Mara arranged her features into a magazine-shot worthy expression. “It’s so very nice to meet you,” she cooed.
Alcus Hecear got hold of my hand next, enclosing it between his in a similar manner. As he bowed his head, I shrank back a little, afraid of being stabbed by his long horns.
“Welcome, Nanny Susanna Riley.”
“Thank you.” I returned his bow with an incline of my head. Like the Aldraians, this man was unusual looking. But his manners were polite and friendly. “I’m glad to be here.”
“Allow me to introduce Madam Councilor Vrux,” he said. “She’s the head official of the Aldraian branch of our Liaison Committee.”