Tia felt her eyes opening, then she saw Colleen smiling at her. Her head came forward, and they pressed lips together, gently, holding it, both of them feeling the warmth of their lips. Colleen broke the kiss, with a look of dismay.
"If we weren't surrounded by a room full of women, who are now waking up, I'd want to do a lot more to you baby," Colleen whispered, stroking her cheek.
"I'd be all over you like a cheap suit, I assure you," Tia agreed, smoothing Colleen's long red hair back.
They threw back the covers and quickly got dressed. The viewscreen came to life, and the face of Kal-sek smiled at them.
"Good morning ladies, the dining area is ready with a hearty breakfast, enjoy, and our team will be around very soon, to assess your talents, and give you a suitable task to work at."
Tia and Colleen could smell the delicious aromas, and at the buffet, another feast awaited them. Scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausages, bacon, waffles, toast, danish pastry, a table full of fresh fruit, and steaming pots of coffee. Tia surmised that the Calto race had studied them very well during the month of unconsciousness, and she dug into her breakfast with gusto, Colleen matching her enthusiasm, as she attacked her breakfast with equal vigor.
Tia looked at her watch, it was just past 8 AM. At 8:30, one of the walls opened, and they got their first up-close look at the Calto race. They looked fairly human, there were minor differences, like Caltos having 4 fingers, and larger eyes and arched ridges over the eyes. The body shape was similar enough, and Tia felt herself relaxing. Although she scoffed at the idea of pulp science fiction stories of "little green men", she was relieved to see that they weren't that different, or grotesque.
Two of the beings stopped in front of her, and their eyes seemed to size her up quickly. They turned to each other and spoke in their native language to each other. They gave the same look to Colleen and again exchanged incomprehensible language.
Changing over to the English language, one of them said to Tia, "I am Gal-tor, and my companion is Con-set. What is your name, please?"
She answered, "I am Tia Amadore."
Con-set asked Colleen for her name, which she quickly gave. She was in no mood to try and make trouble, she had a feeling that they would brook no dissent.
Their names were fed into a handheld device, that resembled a tablet-style computer. The aliens looked at the readout, nodded, and Gal-tor said, "Come with us please."
Colleen stiffened, and Tia was not exactly feeling reassured either. The exchange had not gone unnoticed, as Kal-sek, who had been watching from the view screen, said, "Tia Amadore, and Colleen Hamner, look at me please."
As they did so, he continued, "Remember what I said yesterday. If we had wanted you dead, we would not be having this conversation, as you both would no longer be alive. We are not here to mistreat you. You will not be tortured or used in horrible medical experimentation. Your own kind has done that, the history of mankind is rife with such barbarity. We are not like that, you are just to be assessed for your strengths so that your work will be of the greatest benefit."
The way he said it, and his expression touched a chord deep inside Tia. She had a strong feeling that he was sincere and that she and Colleen were not in danger. She looked at Colleen, smiled reassuringly, and said, "We'll be okay, we can trust him."
Colleen relaxed, she had really come to trust Tia, and what Tia said to her, was more than good enough for her. She gave back a smile, and Tia said to Gal-tor, "Lead the way."
They went down a few flights of staircases, and onto the street. Tia looked around, they were in a usually deserted area of the city, full of old, large, vacant warehouses. They were led to a bus, and climbing aboard, they saw several women already seated. They exchanged smiles, some looked very nervous, others seemed stoic, and Colleen and Tia swung into one of the double seats. Several more women joined them, Gal-tor and Con-set climbed aboard and began to converse again in that alien language, as the bus pulled away, and started down the street. The streets were almost totally deserted, Tia found it to be surreal, with a city population of over 500,000, the streets at this time of the day would normally be busy with traffic and people going about their daily routine. The utter emptiness of the streets made her think of a movie set, a backlot with all the appearances of a real-life city landscape, but the actors not yet in place to play their roles.
Colleen was thinking very much the same thing. She had been a real estate agent, but she was more than sure that was over, for good. She had been starting out, it wasn't very profitable, but she had been able to pay the bills, and put away a few dollars in savings. That's probably all gone too, the idea of everything being swept away, and replaced with a totally unfamiliar matrix, was something she was having a hard time processing. Colleen thought, Well, there's nothing we can do about it, they have the power, and we have to try and adjust to whatever becomes the norm.
Ten minutes later, they turned into the driveway of Memorial hospital.
Colleen whispered, "What do you think this means?"
Tia whispered back, "Probably a medical checkup, to see what we are fit for, as far as work goes."
They were led into the hospital, and a group of aliens stepped forward, and they led to different examination rooms. When Gal-tor and Con-set were about to separate Tia and Colleen, Colleen clung to Tia's arm, and said, "Can I please stay with Tia? I won't cause any trouble, I just want to stay with her."
