Living With Syn

Chapter 1-3

Syn Sinclair and about four-thousand-five-hundred other women stood in long line upon disembarking from the Sarran Starship Brightstar. She held Duchess lightly in her arms, the basket at her feet. The women already claimed by their WarriorPairs were hustled through a separate line, presumably on their way to their new homes. Syn and the others snaked through a queue branching off to ten counters where the Sarran WarriorPairs processed paperwork, assigned housing, and checked the cargo bays to make sure each fem was reunited with her household goods. From Anya, Syn learned that Jonal and Tonas, Anya’s BondMates and the Admirals of the Brightstar Fleet, decided that the Earthen fems would be more comfortable with their possessions around them. Surprisingly, two cats made it up to the ship, her Duchess and Anya’s Tigger. In her less logical moments, she thought that both Duchess and Tigger put themselves in a position to make the trip. Something about those two felines together made the hair stand up on the back of her neck.

After learning the extent of her cat’s intelligence and abilities, Syn wondered who took care of whom.

::I take care of you,:: Duchess replied with a sniff. Syn giggled, gave her white beauty a kiss on the nose, and leaned down to place her back in the basket.

The line moved quickly. It seemed to Syn that the line served the purpose of exposing the women to as many WarriorPairs as possible, as if they were on display. She thought the Sarrans used the queue to give the WarriorPairs who stayed planetside the opportunity to pick up the telepathic signal of a potential BondMate.

They stood in accordance with their assigned geographical boarding unit. She guessed that the Sarrans felt the Earthen fem would be more comfortable with those whose culture and mores most closely resembled their own. In her case, they got it dead wrong.

It meant that somewhere either ahead or behind her lurked Madeline Dixon-Howard, once a fellow resident of Philadelphia’s Main Line and a friend of Syn’s in a big sisterly sort of way. After the abuse began Maddy shunned her. When she ran away, her reputation became as tarnished as the family silver after the butler quit.

Maddy made it extremely uncomfortable for Syn on board, pointedly telling anyone who would listen that Syn was a fallen woman and worse still, a former prostitute. She couldn’t defend herself because in part, the accusation was true. She spotted Maddy about twenty yards in front of her. Syn possessed very sharp hearing, sharper still since surviving the plague. Unfortunately, she could hear the vitriol Maddy spouted.

“Yes, she does resemble a sluttish version of Marilyn Monroe with that platinum hair. Even in a prim navy suit, she can’t hide the fact she is a slut.”

The young woman next to Maddy attempted to change the subject but Maddy continued determinedly.

“She has violet eyes, can you believe that? I used to think she used contacts, but they’re real. Poor thing always was top heavy. In eighth grade, she wore a size thirty-two D, even though she is only five foot six, and she didn’t attempt to hide her pulchritude.” Syn imagined the vicious look in Maddy’s eyes.

Of course she had more to say, “She even wore cashmere sweaters, which called more attention to her figure. She had to wear one of those bras, you know—over shoulder boulder holders? No matter what she wore, she resembled w*********h or a high-class hooker. Surely makes the case for what’s outside being a portent of what hides within.”

Syn closed her eyes, hoping that if she couldn’t see Maddy she would be unable to hear her. However, it seemed to Syn that the WarriorPairs in the line of Sarran men leered at her while listening to Maddy’s monologue.

“During the attack before landing, Admiral Jonal put her in charge of our section. He claimed her to be a friend of his bonded. I attempted to tell him what kind of trash he put in charge, but he had no time to listen. That association will be short lived once they find out she trolled as a street whore.”

Syn saw Maddy’s audience shrug their shoulders. Again Syn’s mind drifted to her night with Anya.