Cora was off work for the long holiday weekend and didn’t have to go in to the greenhouses today. Instead of sitting around feeling sorry for herself, she intended to go to the nearest Draconian Consulate to find out more about the prince she’d been matched with.
After dressing and putting herself together, she packed a bag, just in case. She included a bundle of her most beloved seeds and cuttings. With her suitcase in hand, Cora went out into the cold winter air and waited for the bus to Kansas City.
When her hover bus arrived, she got on and rode all the way through the bio-dome region of Missouri to her destination.
Unlike many other cities, Kansas City had been largely untouched in the Mulgor attack. Most of the original town was still there, but new construction had been added to the skyline, and hover cars and busses dominated the skyways above the old-town street level of the city.
When Cora arrived, she got off the hover bus and stood in front of the Draconian consulate. The Greek-style marble pillars rose up to a domed roof. She pursed her lips and climbed the stairs to the front entrance. The glass door slid open.
As soon as she stepped in, warm air thawed her cold face. She was instantly greeted by the Draconian consulate’s AI communications system.
“Greetings, Cora Brighton. You have been mated with Magmus Murcul, Earth Prince of Galaton.”
Images of Magmus projected three-dimensionally all around her on holographic screens. Cora was enraptured by Magmus’s overpowering masculine magnetism. It stirred emotions inside her, making her tingle all over.
As Cora stood entranced by images of Magmus, the Draconian secretary approached her with a smile on his face. She glanced up at the seven-foot-tall secretary who wore the dark gray skintight Draconian uniform.
“Cora Brighton,” the Draconian said. “I am Secretary Urk. Our records indicate that you have been matched with Prince Magmus of Galaton. Congratulations.”
“What do I do now?” Cora asked, still unclear on what was expected of her.
“You must be aware that if you accept the mating with Prince Magmus, assurance of your safety cannot be guaranteed by the government of Draconia.”
“Why isn’t he coming to Earth for me?” she asked.
“The Galatonian dragons have a warlike culture. When the females die out, the lower level aristocrats fight against the rulers of each land. These are their ways, and Draconia cannot get involved. We do provide transport to Galaton; that is as much as we can do. If you accept the match with Prince Magmus, you will be artificially inseminated with his seed. But I’m afraid that interaction with the prince will be limited.
“Prince Magmus will have already begun his mating thrall. I trust you know what that means.”
“It means he’ll die if I don’t go. No pressure or anything.”
“We at the Mating Lottery apologize for the inconvenience.”
“Has anyone else made it safely to Galaton?” she asked, unsure what to do.
“Three other females have already left for Galaton. The Fire Prince’s bride and the Air Prince’s bride have settled there with their children. They are quite happy.”
“That’s good,” Cora said.
As little as she wanted to spend Christmas alone, she still wasn’t sure that this was a good life choice. As she considered it, images of Magmus filled up every holographic screen in the circular Consulate room.
Magmus was hyper masculine, tall, strong and gorgeous. The images of him did something to her she couldn’t quite understand. It was as if there was some invisible, unspeakable bond between them that was beyond words and reason.
“In these cases, we find it’s best if the prospective bride takes some time to think it over,” the secretary said.
“Okay,” Cora said reluctantly.
She thanked the secretary and left the consulate, feeling confused and alone. Was she really prepared to leave Earth behind to go live on a strange planet with a strange man she’d never met?
Cora hurried down the stairs and down the old-world street of Kansas City. Christmas lights twinkled in the windows and on the streetlight poles. The holiday season was in full swing. Cora’s breath puffed out in front of her as her waterproof shoes crunched over patches of new snow.
She continued down the street, thinking about her past. Cora had dedicated her life to the dream of creating a better world, but now that her parents were gone, she was left alone.
Could she be satisfied with this life as she grew older? Few people seemed to want to settle down and start a family anymore.
She felt too out of touch to get involved in the technological pleasures of new Earth. She wanted something like what her parents had.
If there was even a slight chance that the dragon prince could give her a life and a family, it might be worth it, no matter the risk. She loved her job in the greenhouses, but Magmus lived in a land full of gardens, forests, and wonder. It might be the perfect place for her to start over.
She’d long since given up on finding a human man. Most human men were deeply involved in the hologames and the pleasures of Draconian technology.
She did know that Draconian males were so grateful for females that they lavished their women with everything they could desire.
Cora continued down the street, her suitcase growing heavier in her hand. She came to an old town square that had been converted into a playground. Children were out playing, bundled in coats, making snowmen and throwing snow balls. Cora smiled at their games, glad to see the happiness of children. Her belly ached; she wished that she had a child of her own.
The secretary said the other brides who’d gone to Galaton were happy. Maybe she could be happy there too. If Magmus could give her a child, it would be worth it.
The image of her prince entered her mind. His strong shoulders stood as broad as the wide trunk of an evergreen tree on Galaton.
He was supposed to be her fated mate. But would he love her? Would he be good to her? She didn’t know why, but somehow, she knew he would.
They were meant to be together. With that firmly in her mind, Cora made her decision. She would go to Galaton and her dragon prince.
She headed back to the Consulate, feeling lightheaded and giddy at the prospect of being implanted with Magmus’s seed. Maybe it was irrational, but she didn’t care. Magmus was her fate, and she would have his child.
“Have you made a decision already?” Secretary Urk asked.
“Yes,” Cora said. “I want to have Magmus’s baby.”
“Wonderful.”
“You said communication would be limited. But when can I talk to him?”
“That is up to his discretion, I’m afraid.”
Cora desperately wanted to speak with Magmus, so she could give some kind of rational foundation to her feelings. She needed to be with him. The feeling of it was becoming so overwhelming, it almost scared her.
She knew now more than ever that she had to do it. If she couldn’t speak with him yet, at least she would have his baby put in her belly.
“When do I get inseminated?” she asked, not wanting to waste any more time.
“You can leave to the waiting bride ship Morning Glory now. Once on board, you will be inseminated with the prince’s seed.”
“I then spend a year on the ship?” she asked.
“Yes. The Morning Glory will stop at Draconia to drop off the brides matched with dragons there. Then it will continue on to Galaton.”
“This is a lot to take in,” she muttered.
“Are you ready to proceed?”
Cora took a deep breath and let it out.
“Yes. I’m ready to go. I brought my suitcase just in case I left today.”
“Very good. Right this way.”
Secretary Urk led Cora across the Draconian Consulate and slid his finger down a holocom at the other end of the room. A door slid open into a chamber that looked like a tech bay.
Against one wall stood banks of computers. There was a holographic screen
against the opposite wall. Secretary Urk strode to the holographic screen and began to input information. A wall slid away, revealing the deck of a space pod. Cora saw rows of seats inside. Secretary Urk took her suitcase and led her into the pod.
“Have a seat,” he said.
She sat down, and he helped her into her harness. After she was securely strapped in, Secretary Urk walked to the helm of the space pod and began tapping on the control panel.
When he’d completed inputting the information, he turned to Cora with a kind smile on his handsome face.
“Congratulations, Cora Brighton. Draconia and Galaton thank you.”
Secretary Urk hurried out of the space pod just before the door slid shut. Cora sat alone in the pod as it rumbled under her seat and then began its ascent, pressing Cora downward as it jetted up through the roof of the Consulate. Outside the window, she could see the blue sky and the world moving away below her.
The pod approached the upper atmosphere faster than she could comprehend. Cora closed her eyes and gripped her seat. The blazing light burned through her eyelids as the space pod shook and shuttered, breaking through the atmosphere.
When the shaking stopped, Cora opened her eyes and she gasped at the sight outside her window. The dark void of space stretched out before her, pierced by the light of an infinite multitude of stars.
She beheld the sun, rising behind Earth. The Draconian armada orbited her planet and satellites sped past.
Her little space pod navigated through the traffic, moving toward the bride ship Morning Glory. Finally, her pod docked and the door slid open.
Cora let out the breath she’d been holding and started to fuss with her harness, which she couldn’t seem to remove. A Draconian in a white coat stepped into the doorway and greeted her.
“I am Yuma, medic for the Morning Glory,” he said, stepping into the pod to help her with the harness.
“Thank you,” Cora said.
“We must begin the insemination process immediately. Please follow me.”
“Already?” Cora asked.
“Is there a reason to wait?”
“No. I guess not. I just thought maybe I could get settled first.”
“If you would prefer it, we can wait until after we pass the wormhole. That will be tomorrow.”
“Christmas day,” Cora said.
“Yes. It is a human holiday tomorrow, Earth time.”
“I’d like to do that, then. If there isn’t a problem.”
“As you wish. I will show you to your room.”
Cora followed the medic down a wide, well-lit hallway through the Morning Glory. Other human girls passed on their way to their own rooms.
Medic Yuma brought her to the room that would be her home for the next year. The place was quite nice. Even nicer than her apartment in the bio-dome. It was furnished with a mixture of human and Draconian styles, and she liked it. There was a well-equipped kitchen with a food replicator.
The living room was furnished with white couches, using curves and angles for a modern look. A bit more modern than she preferred, but it was still nice. The largest couch faced a bank of windows, with a view of the spinning Earth. Her home. The planet she would soon leave forever.
Through a pair of double doors, Cora found a bedroom with a king-sized bed. She tested the mattress. It was soft and yielding Draconian memory foam.
When she turned away from the bed, she noticed a walk-in closet full of fashionable clothes. As a gardener, Cora had never been big on fashion, but she couldn’t help but be excited at the sight of them. Draconian gowns. Trendy colorful Earth fashions. High-end handbags and jewelry. It would have made any reality TV star jealous.
“Make yourself comfortable,” the medic said. “I will come to attend to you when we approach the wormhole.”
4
Cora watched the Earth drift away outside her window, growing smaller and smaller as the Morning Glory drifted through space. The knowledge that she would never see her home world again gripped her heart and twisted inside her gut.
She’d made the choice to go to her dragon prince to be his bride. Soon his seed would be planted inside her womb, giving her a chance to be a mother and a wife.
Cora stood from the bed and turned to a door off to the side of the bedroom. She strode over to the closet to look inside. She decided there’d never been a better time to try on clothes than right now.
First she tried a bright pink and yellow trendy outfit that she knew was from the latest line of winter fashions on Earth.
The last couple of years had seen a new trend in very bright colors, which she liked. It reminded her of flowers.
She’d inspected herself in the mirror, wearing a yellow miniskirt and pink tube top. Maybe it was a little bit too young for her, she thought. But it was pretty sexy. She wondered if her prince would like it.
Next, she tried on one of the Draconian gowns. The ladies on Draconia liked their dresses flowing and silky with printed designs. She tried one on and liked the way the deep purple hue looked against her skin.
It was more stately and classic than the trendy neon pink and yellow outfit she tried on before, and she preferred the way that she looked in it.
After pulling out of that gown she climbed into a pair of fuzzy flannel PJs and went back to the living room where she curled up in front of the bank of windows with a cup of hot chocolate from the replicator.
She turned the window into a holo-screen and uploaded her favorite movie from her wrist holocom. She spent the rest of the evening watching a romantic comedy and drinking hot cocoa. It wasn't a bad way to pass the time.
After she was done with her movie, she decided to unpack her bag. Cora had brought almost a pound of seeds and more of cuttings with her from Earth that she intended to use to start her own Earth garden when she arrived on Galaton.
The thought of spending an entire year on board a spaceship felt not only daunting but also a little bit lonely.
She wasn't sure how long she could go without sprouting seeds and watching them grow. Cora considered for a moment and went to the kitchen replicator. She asked the machine to replicate her some growing substrate and pots.
The replicator was not just for food. It could reproduce almost any simple item she needed. It took longer to process than usual, but the result was good and she was happy with what popped out of the counter.
She took the substrates and pots and put them together on a ledge in front of the windows that looked out on space.
All she needed now was some extra lighting to grow her little seeds. She looked all around her apartment and found some powerful florescent lights in her bedroom. She unhooked them and set them over the pots. Finally, she watered the substrate.
Once that was done, she planted a few seeds and sat back on the couch, feeling satisfied. That's when medic Yuma came through the door and informed her that it was time to get ready to go through the wormhole.
He went to the back wall of her living room and slid his finger over the holocom control panel, bringing a safety chair out from the wall, which she approached.
"Do I have to sit in there while we go through the wormhole?" she asked.
"Yes, your safety is our highest priority," medic Yuma said.
She sat, and medic Yuma helped her strap into the seat. He had another chair pop out from the wall, and he sat in it beside her.
"I'm going to ride through the wormhole with you just to make sure that everything is in order on the other side," he said.
Cora could see Pluto growing smaller as the Morning Glory drifted through space. She gripped the straps on her chair as they approach the wormhole. The entire ship began to shake violently as they started to enter.
Cora felt as if her entire reality was flipped upside down. The gravity in the ship continued working as normal, but her body felt as if it were being ripped apart. She let out a scream, but it didn't seem to register in her ears. Out her window she saw flashes of light and darkness strobing past at
incredible speeds. Her mind felt as if it might crack in two from the weight and the pressure of going through the wormhole.
It stopped almost as quickly as it began. The strobing light stopped and the Morning Glory came out of the wormhole on the other side. The space around them was calm and quiet. She could see the distant stars and the edge of the planet Draconia.
"Very good," said medic Yuma. "Now it is time for you to be inseminated. Inside the bathroom, you will find further instructions. The ship’s AI system will tell you what to do. If you have any additional questions or need any assistance you can call me on your wrist holocom," medic Yuma said.
"I have to do it myself?" she asked.
"We find that the brides prefer to do the insemination without the interference of a medic. It allows for a greater bond to be created between the bride and her mate," medic Yuma told her.
He stood from his chair and exited her chamber, leaving her alone. Now there was no turning back. She was going to be implanted with her mate’s seed, becoming pregnant for the first time in her life.
She could barely contain her excitement. At thirty-seven years old, Cora had truly believed that the time for a child and a husband might have passed her by. But now she was getting a second chance at the life she had always secretly wanted.
She walked into the bathroom and found the normal human appliances, as well as a huge Draconian bathtub in the center of the room. It was seven feet tall and made out of stacked stone, and she knew they had become very popular on Earth in the last thirty years. She walked in front of the mirror and looked at her reflection. Standing in front of the mirror awakened the AI, and it greeted her.
"Welcome to the Morning Glory, Cora Brighton, mate of Prince Magmus Murcul, Earth Prince of Galaton," the AI stated. "To begin the insemination process, you must first remove your clothing and apply the provided solution to your entire body."