Bride Games: (Alien's Bride) Read Online Free PDF Page A

they stood dwarfed in front of it.   The building had a honeycomb shape with each cell as tall as some of the smaller domes.   As they went through the decorated entrance Lenora struggled to read a holographic sign pulsing with more colors than what was visible to humans.   The main language was unreadable, but a Dak-Hiliah translation appeared in smaller characters below it.
    “Downtown Canopania Arena.”   
    “You can read that?” Vivian said, while gaping at the boxy letters and pictograms.  
    “They put a bunch of languages in my head when I was in that deprogramming prison.   I guess it’s finally become useful.”
    “They better language me up too if they want me to marry one of them.”
    Lenora eyed her sharply.   “What are you talking about?”
    Vivian shrugged.   “Just saying.”
    Lenora ground her teeth.   You’ve already lost, haven’t you? She understood the appeal of giving in.   This would be a breeze if winning were inconsequential.   All the stress would be gone.  
    Vivian refused to see what losing really meant.   Lenora clenched her teeth and grabbed her.
    “Listen.   You have to play like your life depends on it.”   She shook her.   “Do you understand me?”
    Vivian’s face blanched.  
    One of the six robots surrounding their group rolled near her.   Lenora let go.   The girl’s face finally reflected the gravity of their situation.   Lenora could hear her swallow.
    The entryway of the arena led into a lavish mall and food court.   It was crowded with the six-limbed aliens.   Lenora stared at them as vehemently as they did her.   Their shape reminded her of llamas, but with an extra small set of limbs to provide them arms.   They were different shades of green or brown, hairless, with long oval faces, nostril holes, small lip-less mouths, and huge bulbous black eyes.   Their clothes struck her as very human, at least pre-Instajant human.   There were vibrant colors to the four legged pants, skirts, dresses, and tunics.   Most hung on their bodies loosely with shimmering fabric.   She saw family units composed of two adults (presumably male and female though she couldn’t tell them apart) and multiple children, some in strollers.   They were shorter than even Vivian.   The adults averaged only four feet.  
    “What the fuck are these things?” a blonde Russian woman in their group said.
    “Dornovonians,” Lenora said.   (She’d chosen not to speak to her competitors prior to this so they couldn’t gauge her for weaknesses.)   “This is one of the Dak-Hiliah’s slave worlds.”     
    Vivian gawked at them.   “They don’t look like slaves.”
    “Hmm.”   True.   This wasn’t what she’d imagined when Elentinus said ‘slave world.’
    They were guided up to a mezzanine that was not infiltrated by the mall customers.   After a quarter mile walk they went down another set of stairs and then entered a large athletic changing room.   There were sets of clothes neatly arranged on a long white bench going down the middle.   One wall was pockmarked with circular cubby holes.   Across it was an open shower area with sleek showerheads hanging from the white molded ceiling and no visible controls.   The wall in front of them was lined with squatting toilets with unusually large basins (designed for the Dornovonians, she presumed).
    “Change into these Bride Game uniforms,” one of the robots said in its deeply muffled electronic voice.
    The women waited.   Lenora wasn’t sure if the other four girls were from their colony (though she vaguely recognized one) but the robots stayed out of their quarters.   She was unused to dressing in front of them.   For a moment she thought they should at least turn around.   Then her foolishness struck her.   The Dak-Hiliah robots had no backs, just two fronts.   Both of their sides were identical.   They never had to turn around whether they moved forwards or backwards.
    One girl began undressing