Alyssa could only stare in shock through the glass as every Helian ship emitted a bright blue light from its core. All the brides and Helians had a unique view in the mothership from space. They could see the rest of the solar system and all of Earth. The lights were directed to Earth as single direct beams, destroying everything in their path. Alyssa's eyes stung, but she refused to allow her tears to fall as she watched the Earth she once knew destroyed. The room was silent as everyone watched in horror as Earth was reduced to nothing. She feared Earth wouldn't recover from this.
Boman felt her despair as his own. Feelings he was all too familiar with when dealing with loss while trying to put on a brave face. He always had to be strong for his people. Because when one faced decisions that made all the difference between extinction and survival, feelings don't matter. Only your survival instinct did.
As he looked at her, he wished she knew that Earth would be okay. He would make sure of it. Helians owed humans that much, after all. They had to sacrifice a lot to get here.
The mothership turned away while the other ships continued the next cleanse phase and headed back to Helios.
"Why are we leaving? I need to see this Boman."
"What comes next, I believe, will be too hard to digest for you humans."
"We're tougher than you think."
"What you're going through. I know it all too well, but your home will be restored just the way it was. We-"
Alyssa couldn't process anything he was saying. All the pain, all the sorrow of all they had lost, now they couldn't go back to their planet. Everything that she had known was gone. Her father, mother, friends, her village, everyone was gone. The only ones that were left of humanity were in the Helian ships.
"Just, please... Stop talking."
"As you wish."
"Brother, aren't you going to introduce me to your bride?" A man that looked much like Boman came and stood next to him with Tinker by his side.
"Not a good time, Desmond." He dismissed him with his hand and addressed the room. "Everyone, take your brides with you back to your quarters. We have a long way home."
Alyssa panicked, hearing the words room and brides in one sentence.
"I'd like to spend time with Tinker. She and I need to talk," Alyssa said as she grabbed her and squeezed her hand.
"I'm afraid that will have to wait. All of us start to wed our brides tonight." As Desmond spoke, Alyssa's mouth fell open.
"Tonight?"
"We talked about this already."
"But that wasn't in the contract." She looked at Boman narrowing her eyes.
"It was. It would be best to read the fine print when you sign something. Silly little things like these can be missed."
"What? No, I'm pretty sure-"
But Boman had enough of her rejection and leaned down to crush her lips with his. What surprised him was that, for all her displeasure, she did not resist him. What started as a rough peck on the lips turned into a mix of sucking and savoring each other's lips and tongues. The more they touched, the more their bond grew, and Boman counted on it.
It was working so well that even after everyone already left the grand hall, their lips did not part. Both of them were now engulfed in a cloud of lust and desire for each other.
"Wife, I crave you." He whispered between open-mouth kisses.
Alyssa pulled away from him, realizing she was in the daze she was under because of the injection. "What is this? Why do I feel a need for you? I've never felt like this for anyone before. Stop this Boman!"
"It's our wed bond growing. It would help if you stopped fighting it, or eventually, it will be painful for you. For us when we're apart."
"This is more painful to me than anything else. I never glanced at any other man on Earth and have always wanted to be with someone out of true love, not this spell you have me under."
"I've never thought of it that way. You see, with my kind, sex is very much detached from love itself. We can do it with anyone without feelings involved. We only care about the pleasure haze. For some of us, it's been too long since we have been with a woman. We've even had to share because of our carnal desires."
"I thought your planet didn't have any women left."
"We have a hundred left at best, and they can only birth men if they get pregnant."
"So they can have children, though? You lied to us?"
"We didn't. We had to stop having sexual relations with them. It's forbidden. If we got them pregnant, male overpopulation would continue."
"So they can have children, just not females?" She shook her hands in a questioning matter.
"We needed to stop more men from being born until we can get more women to reproduce with them. This is why we need you."
"What makes you think we will give you girls and not more men, Boman? This is insane!"
"We've studied your kind and have predicted a hundred percent success rate from our data that it will happen."
"Why do women on your planet can only have baby boys? You have all this technology, and you can't do something?!"
"It's complicated."
"Well, uncomplicate it for me. Mash it all up and explain."
"These are Helian concerns that don't concern you. You are here to give us women. That is all you need to know."
"This is too much." She said as she placed a hand on her forehead.
"Can you just give us a try and stop whining about everything like a child? I won't hurt you. I think you will enjoy everything I have in store for you."
This caused Alyssa goosebumps all over her body, her arousal evident now to Boman. He tried to get closer to her, but she didn't let him.
"I am here, aren't I, Boman? I've accepted you as my husband, to be in a marriage without love or any of my beliefs, and I'm supposed to accept yours just like that?"
"Wife-" He tried to grab her hand with his, but she slapped it away.
"Don't fucking wife me. EVER. You don't get to call me that. We aren't bonding out of love so just don't!"
"Alyssa, I can't love anyone." He pursed his lips after he told her.
"Why not?"
"We just met. I can't love anyone, other than my family, my kind, because we share a different bond, one as old as time. My kind believes love with alien species is just a trick to keep reproducing, and this is something I've grown up with."
Alyssa was appalled. "I'm not an alien! You are the alien here!"
"To us, you are aliens too, you know? Look, I can care for you, but I can't love you. You can't ask me that. I just can't."
"Oh, and you can ask anything you want of me, Boman? Tell me, am I just supposed to open my legs wide for you to screw and impregnate me anytime you want like a good little wife for a fucking decade!"
"That would be ideal. You didn't sign a contract of love. This is what you signed up and volunteered for. This is the truth, whether you like it or not. Think about it, why do you want us to love each other? You will eventually leave back to Earth. Even if I did grow to love you, what kind of future can we have?"
"Perhaps you are right. Still, this isn't how I imagined being wed to someone." Alissa's face turned to horror as she suddenly realized something else from his words. "Oh god, I hadn't thought about when we leave. We have to leave our children with you back in Helios."
"How else are we going to continue to reproduce? We need more women."
What the FUCK? Alyssa thought to herself. Lately, she had been cussing a lot. She vowed internally never to leave her children behind. No matter the cost, their children would know what love really was, even if she never did. These Helian customs made her sick to her stomach.
"Alyssa, the sooner we get on with it, the sooner you can stop worrying about the act itself. I won't force you or touch you unless it's to get you pregnant. You have my word."
"Can I trust you?"
"Have I not kept my word on everything I've told you so far?"
"That doesn't mean I can trust you. Trust is earned."
"You could give me some credit, though."
"I'll... think about it."
"Shall we?" Boman gestured her to take his hand, which she did. As they walked through the ship, Alyssa was as nervous about him ever since she met him. Her feelings were all too alien-like as he was to her. Not knowing where their stop was or how to get out of being with her new husband made her more anxious. Could she delay the inevitable? She started to question herself and how she was feeling about it all. Did she even want to resist him? Did a part of her want him?