Mail Order Bride

Jaena flinched at the dull thunk that she felt through her feet more than heard, her breath fogging the plasglass window of her helmet. Her eyes were drawn up to the red DANGER sign above the circular door that continued to blink slowly for a few moments before finally becoming a solid green READY. A second dull thunk sounded before the metal bar that served as a door handle swung upwards.

Jeana glanced back at the door she had just stepped through while her heart raced, a door that had cut off everything about her past life the moment it had closed before turning to stare at the glare of incandescent lights shining in as the opposite door swung outward.

"You're Jeana?" a scratchy tenor said over the helmet radio.

"Yes," Jeana replied and reached down to pick up the one small cargo container that she had brought with her.

"Leave it'n close the door behind you," the voice said before the man turned and walked away, "I'll come up'n fetch it later.

"It's not safe to go hauling things about until you get your feet under you."

Jeana hesitated with a glance down at all her worldly possessions in a sealed box barely two feet long and one wide before stepping out to push the door closed and swing the metal bar down until it locked.

"Well, come on," the voice said causing Jeana to jump.

Jeana turned to see the man staring back at her several paces down a dingy metal hall that had piles of coarse gravel and dust piled randomly along the edge. Several of the overhead light panels had burned out and not been replaced which only added to the neglected and ill used appearance.

"Are you..." Jeana began and then had to clear her throat, "Are you Sloan?"

Jeana jumped again when a series of loud bangs sounded just before her body rocked forward as if from a small shove. The mag boots kept her from stumbling forward, her feet rooted firmly to the metal floor so that she had to quickly reach out a hand to steady herself against the wall.

"What with your skiff done just undocked and we the only two souls on this rock who else I'd be," the man, Sloan, replied before turning away.

Jeana watched him walk away, the hard shell suite he wore making him into a seven foot tall giant. The metal surface of the suite was scuffed and scratched from use, but well maintained and he moved with practiced, smooth ease. Jeana had to concentrate to walk, each step hesitant while the sensors detected the motion of her foot inside the boot and released its magnetic grip when she stepped forward before latching firmly down the moment her step landed.

There had been training, maybe an hour of actually getting to walk while wearing a suite, but her face still burned as she remembered Sloan's smooth and easy gait.

"It'll get so it's second nature," Sloan said over the helmet intercom.

Jeana glanced up from watching her boots to see Sloan turned back to watch her progress. A large, rectangular pressure door three meters on a side with rounded corners stood slightly open, just enough for a person in a pressure suite to squeeze through into a storage room beyond.

Jeana managed to get through the pressure door and glanced around curiously the moment she slipped into the room. Boxes, crates, cylinders and pallets covered in smaller items held in place with canvas netting were arranged in a much less haphazard way than what she had imagined. Everything was piled if not neatly, then at least in an assigned place with isles between the supplies kept clear.

"This here's for general bulk," Sloan said as he shoved the pressure door closed and locked it in place, "I keep it at fifty k so won't kill you, but you'll be wanting to keep your helmet on anyway."

"Fifty k?" Jeana asked.

"Fifty thousand pascals," Sloan replied, "You went through training, yes?"

Jeana's face flushed again at her slip of mind while she nodded and then blushed even more as she realized Sloan wouldn't be able to see her head move inside the helmet.

"Yes," Jeana replied, "Normal pressure is ninety to a hundred kilo pascals, I just... I hadn't heard it said like that."

After a moment Sloan gave a noncommittal grunt and then gestured towards yet another airlock.

"That's the lift down to the hab level," Sloan explained while he walked over to lift the bar and open the airlock, "You'll start to get your feet back as we go down, the rock's spun up so you'll get two thirds G down below."

"Oh," Jeana said in surprise while she stepped into the utilitarian elevator, "Doesn't...

"Doesn't that make it hard for you to mine if the asteroid is spinning?"

Sloan stepped in behind her and slammed the locking bar down.

"The nannies and bots don't much care," Sloan replied while sliding a collapsible metal gate across the hall between them and the airlock.

He had to slam the gate into the latching mechanism three times before it finally caught and then punched a button on the wall. Jeana saw that there were only two buttons, both lit so that they glowed a dim yellow with one being a triangle pointed up and the other a triangle pointed down. The lift rumbled to life and Jeana was surprised to see the walls slipping slowly past. What she had taken to be an enclosed elevator was little more than a platform that rode up and down the shaft. Jeana could feel herself getting heavier with every instant the lift rumbled and jerked downward.

The trip out had taken nearly three months, three months that she had been accustomed to floating through the air like a mote of dust slipping through a sunbeam and she reached out to steady herself only to find Sloan gripping her arm to keep her from falling.

"Thank you," Jeana said with a nod of thanks before rolling her eyes at the useless gesture.

"Almost there," Sloan said several minutes later.

A second metal gate suddenly rose up into view just before the lift gave a heart wrenching jerk.

"Oh!" Jeana gasped and again would have fallen except for Sloan's arm holding her upright.

"You can turn your mags off now," Sloan said and unlatched the metal gate before collapsing it against the wall.

Jeana had to concentrate on the training she had gone through before remembering the steps to bring up the heads up display menu on the inside of her helmets plasglass face shield. The functions were controlled by tracking her eyes and by her blinking, something people had told her would become second nature, but she still fumbled through the steps.

Sloan had opened the airlock while she struggled her way through the menus until the magnetic boots suddenly released and caused her to stumble.

"Slow and easy till you get your feet," Sloan said and stepped through.

Jeana followed, her steps much easier without the magnetic boots clamping down on the floor with every step and quickly found herself in a spacious and surprisingly clean locker room. A bench ran down the center of the room with a half dozen metal lockers as well as four hardshell docking stations lining both walls. Sloan closed and locked the airlock door to the lift shaft before holding up a hand.

"Let the pressure equalize and then we can crack the seals," Sloan said.

The minute that slipped passed seemed more like hours while Jeana watched the pressure readout on the inside of her helmet climb.

"Alright, that's it," Sloan said when the pressure reached 950kPa.

Jeana couldn't help but stare as Sloan reached up to twist the locking ring at his neck before lifting his helmet off to reveal a mop of shaggy black hair. He reached up to vigorously scrub his hard suite fingers through that thick, black mop before walking over to face into the closest hardshell dock. The moment his suite was in the indentation the dock latched onto him with a series of loud clicks.

Jeana's fingers fumbled at the locking collar of her own helmet, but her heart wasn't in it as she tried to catch the first sight of Sloan's face. The back of his hardshell swung open from the hips up to the shoulders to reveal Sloan's back before he began to struggle to climb out. It was always a bit of a comedic contortionist's act getting in and out of the hard shells, but laughing was the last thing on Jeana's mind. She could see the muscles of his wide shoulders moving and flexing beneath the dark green one piece work jumper, but still couldn't catch a glimpse of his face.

Her fingers were still fumbling at the locking ring of her helmet when he turned around and she saw gray eyes framed by crows feet and an unkept black beard sprinkled with gray staring back at her.

"You'll be needing help?" Sloan asked, his deep tenor making Jeana bite the corner of her lip.

"Oh... ah... no, I'm just..." Jeana started to say before trailing off.

"Nerves jumpin', same's me," Sloan replied and walked slowly over before reaching up to rotate the locking collar at her throat.

There was a slight hiss as the pressure inside the helmet equalized before she suddenly smelled the sharp tang of burnt metal and gunpowder and had to fight back a sneeze. Sloan slowly and carefully lifted the helmet up over her head before holding it while he stared at her in slack jawed wonder.

Now that he was outside the hardshell he was no longer a seven foot ogre, but Jeana still had to look up to see Sloan's clear gray eyes, eyes that were flicking over her hair and mouth, chin and ears in wonder as if he had never seen a woman before in his life.

Or more likely not in a decade or two.

She had a moment to wonder what he thought of her close cropped auburn hair since his was so long and full while cursing the training classes that had required her to shave her head almost bald before allowing her to proceed.

"Which..." Jeana began and had to clear her throat, "Which docking station should I use?"

"Oh," Sloan said with a shake of his head as he came back to his senses with a wave of his hand at the nearest dock, "There's fine."

Jeana looked up to meet Sloan's clear gray eyes before nodding and walking over the docking station. She stepped up and leaned into what appeared to be a molded impression of a pressure suite, umbilicals and weight supports automatically reaching out to attach themselves to her suite before gently pulling her into a mechanical embrace. Tell tales along the neck rim changed from green to an amber standby before she felt the lurch that indicated the back of her own suite swinging open.

"Here, let me help," Sloan said quickly and she felt his strong hands taking her beneath the arms to help lift and guide her backwards as she struggled up and out of the hardshell.

Jeana stepped down onto the cold metal floor and turned around, her head rising up to meet Sloan's eyes staring down at her.

"They'd not even bother giving you ship shoes?" Sloan asked while looking down at her bare feet.

Jeana's face flushed as she glanced down. She was wearing a ship's work jumper almost identical to Sloan's, but hers a bright red that distinguished her at a glance from the crew of the skiff that had delivered her. The one piece elastic garment hugged her figure tightly and did nothing to conceal the outline of her small B cup breasts, narrow waist and wide hips which only made her face flush more.

"I... I left them in the locker on the skiff," Jeana confessed while staring down at her bare feet, "They were too loose and kept slipping off and I didn't want them to come off inside the suite when I tried to walk."

"Oh..." Sload began while shuffling uncomfortable from foot to foot, "Mine'll likely be even bigger on you.

"I'll get a proper size pair made up in the fabber for you."

Sloan continued to stare at her almost as if in amazement for another moment before abruptly turning away and walking towards the end of the locker room.

"The hab level's laid out in a ring with this locker room the only way in'n out," Sloan began as he led the way to a metal and plasglass door, "Clockwise is the reactor pile, recyclers, fabber, workshops and storage..."

The door opened automatically and Sloan stepped into a brightly lit hallway three meters across with an arched roof made of projection panels that gave an illusion of a brightly lit blue sky with brilliant white clouds drifting slowly by.

Jeana froze and stared up at that amazing blue. Growing up in the Chicago Residential Blocks she had seen the sky before even if only glimpses in narrow strips between the four hundred and fifty floor ceramcrete towers, and the real sky was tinged a hazy yellow and nothing like this fanciful blue and white.

"Counterclockwise is hydroponics, rec and living quarters," Sloan continued and started walking to the right without noticing Jeana's frozen stare, "You'll not get lost'n end up where you began if you just keep walking."

Jeana pulled her eyes away from the ceiling and hurried to catch up with Sloan who had reached a wall in the hallway with another metal and plasglass door.

"This here's hydroponics," Sloan said with a glance back at Jeana and then stepped through.

Jeana followed and then froze in her tracks. For one thing the floor was covered in a bright green carpet with strands of the fibers ankle high that kept slipping through her toes to send shivers through her body, but for another the room was filled with giant plants that reached up three, four and even five meters high! There were dark brown poles scattered around with arms stretching out in every direction and tipped with what looked like green paper cutouts, raised rectangular boxes filled with more green interspersed with splashes of red, yellow, and orange, and even the walls were covered in dark brown ropes sprinkled with more green paper cutouts.

"I've got tomatoes, peppers, onions'n beans growing over there," Sloan was saying while Jeana stared around in amazement, "Dwarf lemons and pears, even managed to trade for some dwarf corn a few years back.

"There's miniature walnut'n oak too, but you can't go eating the acorns no matter what they say about the genie's not tasting bitter anymore."

Jeana turned a slow circle while trying to take everything in. The ceiling was at least ten meters overhead and again covered in projection panels that gave the illusion of a bright blue sky and white clouds that she was sure had never ever existed. She suddenly realized that the floor wasn't the hard, cold metal of the locker room or even the rubbery padding of the hallway, but a soft, warm spongy material and glanced down in amazement as she realized that she was walking on dirt.

"It's not much, but it'll be enough to feed both of us with fresh greens and such so we won't have to eat algae based crap every damn day," Sloan said while watching Jeana carefully, "I've even got beef'n pork starts in the vats so we can have meat two or maybe three times a week."

"What?" Jeana asked in bewilderment, the idea of being able to eat real, actual meat once a year let alone every week more than she had ever dreamed of.

"Well, I did have a chicken start growing as well," Sloan said defensively, "But that vat went sour and I can't even get any of the beef or pork to grow without it turning.

"I did hear there's a rock rat plus ten degrees of Hygiea that has chicken, maybe if I can get a new vat I could maybe see what he'd be willing to trade for a start!"

Jeana turned back to stare at Sloan, the long blades of green tickling at her feet causing her to glance down.

"What... what is the carpet made of?" Jeana asked.

"Carpet?" Sloan asked and then glanced down at Jeana's bare feet and the strands of green slipping between her toes, "It's grass.

"I mean, it's a genie too as much as all the rest, but yea, just grass."

"Grass," Jeana said softly under her breath, "And this?"

Jeana reached out to take one of the thousands of green slips of paper between her fingers, the feeling soft with an almost waxy feel to it.

"It's just a leaf," Sloan replied with his head tilted slightly to the side, "That one's'n oak leaf.

"That there is one of the walnuts, beyond a bit is a cherry tree, I even have maple trees although I don't know what for."

Jeana stared as Sloan pointed to a different brown pole that reached up towards the ceiling while giving each a different name. There had been green astroturf growing up as a child bald in many places to show the ceramcrete beneath, play structures most often broken and rusting from neglect, but nothing like this fairy tale kingdom of grass and leaves, or magical sounding things like tomatoes and lemons and walnut. A flicker of bright yellow flashed through the green leaves filling the room, Jeana's eyes turning to track the movement until she saw a small bright yellow creature land on a limb.

"What... what is that?" Jeana asked as she heard a high pitched twittering sound she had dismissed earlier as some mechanical malfunction.

"Oh, them damn things," Sloan replied, "Them are canary birds.

"Worst thing I done set loose in here since they go'n shit over everything and peck at the tomatoes and beans!"

"I was thinking on catching them for a trade with another rock rat, let them clean up the shit instead a me!"

"No!" Jeana gasped as she saw a second tiny bird land next to the first.

She wasn't sure if it was her imagination or not, but it seemed the first bird moved closer, even pressed against the newcomer for a moment before they took flight and disappeared. Jeana tried to watch where they flew, but their darting path was quickly lost among the green leaves and branches. Jeana's wide eyes looked down from the maze of green to the blades of ankle high grass that slipped through her toes and caressed her foot with every step and then finally back up to meet Sloan's eyes.

"Please don't," she was finally able to say.

"Alright," Sloan said in his slow, deep tenor, "I'll not argue that the added phosphorus hasn't helped."

Jeana again looked slowly around, this room so completely different from the gray ceramcrete walls of the Residential Blocks packed to overflowing with the millions of people who called New Chicago home. Try as she might she couldn't even place a name on all the colors she could see all about her and wondered if the bright yellow ovals that were hanging from a nearby limb were what Sloan had called walnuts.

"I do hope you'll come to like it here," Sloan said hesitantly after Jeana was silent for several minutes.

"Like it?" Jeana asked in amazement, "Sloan... this is, this is like nothing I've ever seen!

"It's wonderful!"

Sloan gave her an odd look and glanced around himself as if seeing everything for the first time, "But... you grew up on old Earth, least that's what the paperwork said."

"I grew up in New Chicago," Jeana admitted, "But this!"

Jeana held out her arms and turned in a circle while she laughed in delight. She had found heaven when she had been afraid that she was being sent to a purgatory worse than hell.

Her choice had been simple after being arrested for unregistered prostitution, serve the Fleet in the profession she had been caught plying or be placed with a Warden in Good Standing. Serve the desires of a thousand men until she died or serve the desires of one.

If she had only known she would have made sure to have been caught selling herself for a few extra calories years ago.

"I know it's not much," Sloan replied defensively, "But the claim is making more now and is only growing.

"A few years I'll be able to expand the hydroponics, maybe even get some real live chickens! I've always wanted to try an egg!"

Jeana laughed and turned back to face Sloan. She had no idea what an egg was but her heart was starting to race again while she looked up into his gray eyes staring into hers.

"We're married now?" Jeana asked and couldn't help but bite her lip.

"Well, least that's what the paperwork says," Sloan said with a crooked grin.

"And it's legal," Jeana added in a rush, "It's legal that my autoinjector was taken out?"