Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 130317 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 521(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130317 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 521(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
“Please—he only wants the kids out of the way so our husbands can have the non-stop fuck fest he promised them in the brochure,” Kissie said crudely. “And no, I don’t miss mine,” she added, speaking to Mia. “I’m a Telurrian—we have litters of up to five or ten at a time! I’m perfectly fine with seeing them once a month—that’s plenty for me, thank you very much. Look—I think this bread is ready to be made into loaves.”
They parceled out the bread into oblong metal tins while Mia tried to think of how to get the answers she needed. What she wanted to ask was if there was any way out of the PPP Dome, other than the single door and the long tunnel that led to the Docking cave. But she couldn’t think how to frame the question without sounding suspicious.
They covered the loaves for a second rise and the three of them washed their hands. As they were drying them, Kissie gave a little jump, as though she’d been stung by a bee, and swore loudly.
“Kissie—what is it?” Teebra looked alarmed.
“Oh, these damn devices—they don’t fit me right!” Kissie stuck one hand down the front of her white dress, looking to Mia like a woman who is rooting around for something she put in her bra. “They keep pinching me,” she complained. “I told Cumbig to adjust the vibration level but he’s too damn lazy!”
“Kissie, you know we’re not supposed to criticize our husbands!” Teebra looked around anxiously, as though wondering if anyone had heard them.
“Well—it’s true! I told him to just leave them off me, but he won’t do it.” Kissie looked aggravated.
“My Dannok won’t take mine off until I’m in need of a milking.” Teebra spoke in a low voice, her cheeks glowing with a purple blush as though she was confiding something embarrassing or private.
“Er…what do you mean, a ‘milking’?” Mia asked uncertainly.
“You know—on the milking mat?” Teebra said, still blushing.
“Every domicile has one,” Kissie added. “But if you’re new here, you won’t have used yours yet.”
“But—” Mia began, but just then Sister Ersla’s powerful voice could be heard shouting,
“Lunch time! Everyone to the far table—lunch time, ladies.”
“Oh good—I’m hungry!” Teebra exclaimed.
“Let’s go see what they’ve got for us today.” Kissie nodded at Mia. “You better stick with us—it gets kind of crowded.”
They made their way to the end of the open aired kitchen to the far table where a large kettle of some kind of stew had been set out. There were fresh baked loaves, obviously made from the pink dough they’d been kneading, and large bowls of something Mia hoped was fresh butter, even though it was blue.
The stew smelled delicious—like a cross between spaghetti and the vegetable beef soup Mia’s mom had made when she was little. But just as she was getting excited to taste it, two of the women put a lid on the pot and, working together, lifted it by a thick iron ring and carried it away. Some other women wrapped up the fresh-baked bread and bowls of blue butter and followed them.
“Hey…” Mia’s mouth had been watering and she watched in disappointment. “Where are they taking the food?”
“Oh, that’s not our food, silly,” Teebra told her. “That was for the men folks—the husbands.”
“You really are new here if you think we’d get real food to eat,” Kissie said, giving Mia a skeptical look.
“Well…what are we going to eat then?” Mia demanded. It had been a long time since breakfast and all she’d really had was the fake grapefruit smoothie from the Nutrient Crème spout—she was getting hungry!
“We’ll have whatever the tubes give us,” Teebra said primly. “Come on—the line is over here.”
She led the way to a long line of women, which the three of them joined. They all filed past a stack of extra large, insulated cups—the size of a massive Big Gulp back home, Mia thought. She took one of the cups since everyone else was. As the line moved along, she saw that it ended in a row of brass tubes that hung straight down from the ceiling, just like the Nutrient Crème dispensing tube in her kitchen did.
“Hey,” she said frowning. “Is this stuff Nutrient Crème?”
“Some form of it.” Kissie shrugged. “They change it up pretty regularly so we don’t get bored with it.”
“All the wives have to drink it—it’s for our own good,” Teebra lectured.
Mia felt a twinge of guilt about consuming yet more of the apparently ubiquitous Nutrient Crème, especially when she remembered how strongly Sev felt about it. But her partner wasn’t there to judge her and she wasn’t about to go hungry just to please him. Pushing her guilt to one side, she moved on down the line.
The three of them reached the tubes and when Mia stuck her extra-large cup under one of them, it belched out a strange, chunky mixture that looked surprisingly like vegetable soup—though of course, she didn’t recognize any of the vegetables in it. It was hot, too—so hot she could feel its warmth even through the insulated cup.