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A monotone voice came over the speaker announcing that the ship would be leaving Mars in the next five minutes. Anyone who wanted to watch the ship take off should proceed to the top level.
Willow didn’t really care about saying goodbye to Mars. Colony 12 would be just fine without her. As a human child, her family had left before Earth died, before it was completely obliterated. She could barely remember the planet at all. Mars was her home now.
Oh, she’d have to come back home in a month, of course, but there was nothing for her there now. There was nothing and no one waiting for her, not since she’d turned down her mother’s “suggestion” that she marry Anthony Weathermore.
It hadn’t really been a suggestion, Willow knew. It had been an ultimatum: one Willow didn’t appreciate. She could marry Anthony Weathermore and secure her family’s position in Colony 12, or she could fuck off.
She had taken the second option.
She didn’t want to think about it, though. This month was about having fun, about finding herself. This month was about meeting new people and maybe hanging out with Ashley a little bit.
Willow stripped out of her day dress and changed into a black tank top, black shorts, and black sandals. It was a lot of black for someone so pale, she knew. Her mother always complained that Willow dressed a little like a vampire, but that was how she liked it. Black was her favorite color.
Besides, she liked the way her skin contrasted with the dark fabric.
She applied some lip gloss and brushed her hair, then grabbed her room bracelet and slipped it on. The thin metal bracelet was the only way to access different areas of the ship, so she didn’t want to lose it. Hers was programmed to open her bedroom door, as well as other areas she was allowed to access.
The bracelets were how underage travelers were kept out of the club and adults-only area, but were also how the staff members kept track of kids for the on-board children’s programs. The bracelets also enabled you to buy things on the ship. When she had boarded Ship 449302, Willow had added credits to her bracelet that would last her for the duration of her trip.
At least, she hoped they would last. Things were already turning out to be more expensive than she had hoped. Who knew vacations could be so costly? Sure, it was her first solo trip, but at this rate, Willow wouldn’t be able to take another vacation for, well, ever.
Hopefully she wouldn’t run into Ashley when her friend was in a shopping mood. Willow liked Ashley a lot, but not enough to go into crazy debt for. When she went back home to Mars, she’d need to figure out some sort of future for herself. Willow didn?
??t want to. She’d much rather travel around like this, exploring the world, than go sit around some boring colony.
Too bad we don’t always get what we want, she thought glumly.
Stepping into the brightly-lit hallway, she closed the door to her room and waved her bracelet in front of the circular panel to lock it. A bright yellow light let her know the room was now locked. It was secure and she could go explore without worrying that anyone was going to take any of her meager belongings.
“Tricky, isn’t it?” A voice sounded from beside her. Willow turned and looked up at a tall blonde man who was smiling at her.
“I, um, suppose,” she agreed, even though it really wasn’t that hard to figure out. Was he serious? Locking her room was by far the easiest thing she’d done all day.
Figuring out how to get through the decontamination tunnels to actually access her room had been tough. This was a piece of cake compared to that. She shivered involuntarily as she thought of the way the sticky goo had covered her body in the tunnels, then the sucking room she’d had to go through. Vacuum-like robots had sucked the pink slime from her body, along with all the contaminants she carried on her body from Mars.
Interstellar travel was hard enough without spreading foreign germs everywhere. At least, that’s what the brochure said. People chose Ship 449302 because it was so clean, because it was guaranteed not to spread diseases between planets. When people traveled on a cruise ship, they wanted to have fun jumping in Trocklee ponds, not coming down with Iteliansalei Fever.
The blonde man saw Willow shiver and obviously mistook it for cold because he nodded knowingly.
“Chilly, I know. You’re human, right? I know the first time human females travel through space it can be difficult to adjust to the temperature. You know how you can solve that, right?”
“Um,” Willow looked around, but to her dismay, the rest of the hallway was empty. She was basically stuck with this guy. “No, I don’t know,” she said, turning to start walking down the hall.
“Why, a man, of course,” he said. The man followed close behind her, much to her dismay, and placed a hand on her lower back. Was this guy serious? Willow wasn’t especially confrontational, but this was ridiculous. Just because she was traveling by herself didn’t give him the right to get all handsy on her.
“Excuse me,” she murmured. “I have a girlfriend, so if you’ll be so kind.” It was a lie, but he didn’t know that. She motioned to his hand, but the man didn’t seem to take a hint.
“Oh, that’s no trouble to me,” he said eagerly.
“No, I mean move your hand,” she pushed his hand away, and he frowned, but pulled his hand back to himself.
“As I was saying,” he continued, following her down the hall. “A man can help you warm up, you know, in more ways than one.”
“Too bad I have a girlfriend,” Willow repeated noncommittally. She passed several small doors that were identical to the one for her room, then turned a corner. Around the bend, she spotted a central set of elevators and began to walk toward them.
“Are you going to the roof for the farewell ceremony?” The man asked. He stood beside Willow as she waved her bracelet in front of the elevator’s circular side plate to call it. With her luck, she’d be waiting half an hour to get away from the creep.
She wasn’t sure why she felt so uncomfortable with this man, yet she did. He was obviously, human, like her. Was he a resident of Mars? Was he from Colony 12? Something about him made her feel vulnerable and unsure of herself: two things Willow never felt. Ever.
