The Space Queen

~ Marvelosa: 11 ~

I am in a very dark room. Opening up the blinds, I am blinded by the light. There are billboards that flash moving pictures. Hovercrafts fly around, beeping at each other for slowing down, and riding on each other's tails. I see aliens in strange dresses above - wearing silver and gold, walking about like they are either busy doing work or just strolling having leisure time. Eventually - I am able to decipher that it is the workers who have simpler clothing, while it's the upper class that are in more elaborate dresses walking around.

A blue skinned woman with black lipstick, purple eyeshadow, and ridiculously extended eyebrows, wearing  a clear white suit that looks almost medical, walks in. She seems to be on a busy schedule, but she freezes in place when she sees that I'm awake, exclaims, "Oh my!" and then scurries out of the room as if she's afraid of me touching her, shutting the door as well as locking it from behind her.

"Hey!" I exclaim, walking up to the door, and pounding on it. "Who are you?" I sigh, leaning against it. Then, I hear footsteps, and I quickly escape from being slammed between the door and the wall behind it.

A red-skinned woman now walks in with a clear, white suit. She stares at me as if I am a parasite.

"Your name" she barks.

"Marvelosa Reina."

"Well, Marvelosa Reina" she says, pronouncing each syllable of my name like it's a foreign language, "Today is your lucky day. We just experienced the death of our high princess."

"Your high princess? Woah.."

"It's already decided. Your genes bare remarkable similarity to the princess, almost as if you were her exact reincarnation. You will be a perfect substitute. It was a lengthy process of course - having to go through everybody..."

Who knows how many of those "bodies" were sold into slavery? I think back to the members of the Cloud Fleet, their hopes for the future, how their kids thought they were going to a better place, and how they might be moving cinderblocks on colony planets. I also think of the medics that accidentally killed me - I don't think I feel very sympathetic towards them.

"What happened to everyone else?" I ask, as if I didn't know.

"Sold into slavery of course! You can't expect at a whole planet to waste an entire ship of human resources, can you? The Alpha Centaurians ship us a load of them every year, so that they can buy protection for their planets. What, you didn't know that your government was involved in intergalatic slavery? I'm sorry. Anyways, there really isn't time to waste.."

She says it like it's so casual.

The chair I'm sitting in straps over me, and I'm covered with an oxygen mask. An IV is hooked in my arm.

"What the heck?" I yell, which comes off as "Mmm! MMHM!" I trash my fingers and feet, but she feels no empathy to my suffering.

"It will be just a second" she says, looking at the clock on her wristwatch, as the gas pulls me under.

...

I wake up to feeling my hair being singed by a curling iron. My face is caked with cream and powder. A woman is looking at my eyelashes that she curled so poignantly. It feels as if my eyelids have been forced open, and I can't feel my face due to the makeup. Another must be pulling at my hair, for now it is assorted high on top of my head, pulled and twisted so hard that I swear my head is sprouting new hair from the rest of it being pulled out. I look at it now in the mirror, piled on top of my head, with stars, flowers, and glitter that make my hair look like it is a beautiful universe.

"So this is how it works... you already have a memory chip that is implanted in your head. This will help you to go out into the ballroom and be able to answer questions correctly. You will go out and put on your best face to impress everyone, pretending that you've always been the princess,  but focus your intent on pleasing the heads of the Venusian Empire. You will constantly make references to Aphrodite's brilliance and cultural reference - the luxury of the palace where she resides when she escapes from the God-Cloud, and how Venusian architecture is working to make these resort places a reality of upper-class living. Talk about the benefits of the class structure - how you believe that there are "certain elite that are meant to control the world." Talk about the benefits of leadership (this information has already been moved to your hard drive) and WHATEVER you do, do not talk about the hardships that the slaves face in the empire.  Be extra kind, even flirtatious, to the Prince of The Zedini, as his spaceships are laying right outside the kingdom Tell him you will be grateful to accept his hand in marriage. Make it seem like you want to have sex with him tonight, make sure he drinks more than you - the man is a drunkard. Eventually he will be "

"What!?!?"

I'm surrounded by attendants that have me quickly adorned with earrings, necklaces, and jewels that are placed neatly on top of my head. Along with my shimmering silver dress, I look like I came out of a stardust factory.  They spray glitter all over my body, as well as a perfume that they call "Moonbeams" which smell like strawberries dipped in rum, then chocolate, then rum again until you can't tell what it is anymore.

"What happens if I fail?" I ask, as my heartbeat rams into my chest. This might not work. One of these Royals might have my head by the time this night is over.

They don't take time to answer the question - instead, they push me out of the silver curtains.