Chapter Four

After the signing of the marriage agreement, it wasn’t that Beck and Charcoal’s smiles evaporated. It was more like they were not the sort of servants who were used to dealing with someone they had to mind their manners toward, so once the most pressing task of the day had been accomplished, they relaxed. The wedding agreement had already been signed, but Lisbet didn’t get to look at it because Beck placed it in a metal box and shoved off saying he’d be back later to help her sync with the VR. Charcoal led her to an escalator that took her up a floor.

“This is the seventy-fifth floor,” Charcoal said, leading her toward a large set of ornate doors.

They opened automatically on her approach.

“Do the doors open for everyone?” Lisbet asked.

“No one has access to these floors except you, me, and Beck. No one else is even allowed up here, not even to clean. We have robots for that. And I do apologize, but you will be living with Beck and me like we are a family. He’ll be your annoying younger brother. I’ll be your annoying older sister and there is no lock on your door to either of us. If it is of any comfort, this is how Vantz has always lived with us.”

“So you know all about him? What he looks like and everything?”

Charcoal sniffed before answering cryptically, “I know what money looks like.”

Lisbet stepped into the room. It was the grandest space she’d ever seen but in a different way. The lights to the room were out and what was visible was a wall of glass. The wall showed the pink sandscape of Mars above the crater.

Lisbet wandered to the window like a person in a dream and put her fingertips to the chilled glass. The color before her—crimson—usually denoted heat. It looked warm, but Lisbet knew it was never warm on Mars. The sand did not swirl in the wind. There was no wind. It lay flat like it was dead. Like it wouldn’t move unless you kicked it with the toe of your boot. The black rocks that spiked through the sand seemed to denote sickness, like thorns coming through flower petals even after all the roses were long dead.

The sun was small in the distance, more like a star and less like a sun. There were things hanging in the sky, things like metal ships, broken and twisted. “What’s that?” Lisbet asked, pointing at metal clouds.

Charcoal looked at them and said reluctantly, “They’re space crafts.”

“You know,” Lisbet said airily, touching the glass with her fingertips. “It feels like everyone is lying to me. It’s felt like that since I met the client coordinator on Earth. Like everyone wants to keep what’s really going on a secret from me. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t lie to me too.”

“I didn’t lie,” Charcoal replied frostily. “They’re space crafts.”

“Why are there so many? They look broken.”

“They are broken. Vantz will explain later. It’s my job to show you around.”

Lisbet went to turn away from the window as if to get on with the tour, but she accidentally looked down through the window. If she looked down, she couldn’t see the ground. It was too far down. The view at that angle from the seventy-fifth floor made her dizzy and she stepped away.

“This window faces the unsettled plains. Other views from the tower show the city, Noachis. I’ll show you the buildings from another set of windows later. The sky and the landscape will look brighter at a different time of day—more yellow.” Charcoal turned on the lights.

The most notable part of the room was a huge bed. Lisbet turned toward it, the spell of Mars had temporarily broken for her. “That’s Vantz’s bed?”

“Technically, it is your wedding bed. Isn’t that an exciting thought?”

“You don’t need to psyche me up. It’s not like I’m going to be ravished in the night here,” Lisbet said, taking hold of a bedpost and swinging from it a little. She turned to look at Charcoal, but her back was turned.

“You should know that though I have access to everything here and I made that comment about the three of us living as a family, I do not live on these upper floors. I live on the fifteenth floor. I work here during the day, but not every day. I have my duties toward you and you are my top priority, but I have other work in other parts of the building. The person you will be working with the most will be Beck. He has an apartment on the floor above. Regardless of where you sleep and what title you have, you must remember that you are also a servant here.”

Charcoal’s back was still to Lisbet.

“Is that a warning?” Lisbet asked, keeping her eyes on Charcoal’s back. She wasn’t exactly clear as to what kind of warning it could be, but she liked that Charcoal seemed like she was trying to be honest with her.

“Not at all,” Charcoal said, turning back to Lisbet with another planned smile. “It’s just information on your living arrangement. Though I am on the fifteenth floor I will always be available to come up if you need me for the tiniest thing.”

She led Lisbet to the bathroom where there wasn’t really running water even though it was technically a bathroom.

Lisbet looked at Charcoal painfully before admitting, “I have no idea how to use these facilities.”

“I understand. Earth is so plentiful with water, they can use it for toilets. Here, water is scavenged from the asteroid belt and sent here in ice chunks. That’s where we get our drinking water.”

Then Charcoal explained how the sewage on Mars worked. It was messier than on Earth, but Lisbet was living in one of the finest castles on the planet and wouldn’t suffer from the same deficiencies the whole planet had become accustomed to. There was a liquid in her toilet bowl though it was not water. She was allowed to use five hundred milliliters of water for a shower, which was quite luxurious. Showers used in outer space were only allowed to use two-hundred and fifty. She was encouraged to use a hand sanitizer to wash her hands and only to use water in the sink if she was truly filthy.

Charcoal brought her out of the bathroom and showed her a sauna chamber that was intended to be used in place of a bathtub to warm up if Lisbet was chilled to the bone.

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Then Lisbet was led into the closet, which was a revelation. It was huge. The walls were lined with pairs of shoes like they were books. The dresses were lined up like they were people waiting to speak to her. There were bags, scarves, coats, belts, and more. Going through it was not labyrinthine, but it was completely over-the-top. Last of all, she saw a rack of wedding dresses.

“Do you want to look through them now?” Charcoal offered.

“Are we finished with the tour?” Lisbet asked, feeling uncomfortable just looking at them.

It wasn’t that she was uncomfortable with the idea of wearing a wedding dress. As far as she was concerned, there was nothing sacred about a white dress. A dress made with white fabric was not significant. It wasn’t the thing about the wedding either.

She wasn’t even sure what was bothering her. It wasn’t as though Vantz had tried to pretend for one second that this wasn’t a marriage intended to profit both of them… Well, her family and him. Those were the two parties being benefitted. Not her.

That was it.

Even though she was in a new place. Even though it had been nearly a year since she had left her family on Earth… to her it had only been an hour. All those things that had been burning a hole in her heart were still doing that. She wasn’t in a position to be demanding about what she did and didn’t do once she arrived at Vantz’s castle, but… she was still sore and nothing that had happened so far assuaged her hurt feelings. It wasn’t like Vantz stayed to help her settle in or… she touched her lips. He’d kissed her, but that had to sustain her for fourteen weeks. It hadn’t felt like nothing at the time, but it didn’t feel like it was enough.

“There is still the dining room,” Charcoal offered, reverting back to the role of a tour guide.

Lisbet nodded. “Then let’s finish the tour and then I would be happy to try on wedding dresses.”

The dining room was not what she expected because she expected a table and chairs. There was a table. There were chairs. The wall had a dozen machines that gave the same impression as vending machines. It had the feeling of a hospital cafeteria with no nurses.

Charcoal began explaining the situation. “For starters, none of the individual suites have kitchens. Because water is in short supply here, food needs to be brought in. Thus, it is all pre-prepared and delivered. There is a little prep that takes place on the fifth floor, but then it is sent up here.”

Lisbet stood in front of a machine that had the words ‘Taco Tuesday’ written in bold yellow letters. It looked like cheese melting behind glass. Below was a touch screen that helped her customize her taco. Then there was a slot that appeared to be the place where it would be spat out, presumably from the fifth floor.

“I can order a taco?” Lisbet asked with an eyebrow in the air.

“Obviously,” Charcoal said with a hand on her hip.

Lisbet walked down the line. The next machine let her order pasta. The one after let her order pizza. Going along, there was a machine for nearly every region of food on planet Earth. Then the drink machines started. Half of them were fountain drinks and the other half needed to be prepared on the fifth floor and sent up. Then the desserts began.

“I can order all this food?” Lisbet asked, still stunned. The setup didn’t exactly look appetizing, but it did look interesting.

“You can only order your allotted calorie count per day. You are not allowed to turn into a walrus. If you read the menus, the calories are listed instead of the price.”

“How many calories am I allowed to have per day?”

Charcoal checked her tablet. “Sixteen hundred.”

Lisbet pulled a face. “Hopefully, I can survive on that.”

“If you start losing weight, you can petition for more calories. That’s something you can talk to Vantz about once Beck gets you hooked up to the virtual reality program. That’s another room I can show you.”

The door to the VR room looked like a closet door. Lisbet had thought it was a closet, but it was silly for her to have thought that. She had already seen the closet and it wasn’t a little cupboard, it was as big as the bedroom.

The VR room was a small room with a machine in the center. Once someone had their eyes covered by a faceplate, their ears covered by headphones, their hands in pressure gloves with portable joysticks, and they stood on the black square, they could walk in any direction and not move at all. The floor would move under them like a directionless treadmill. There was also a chair, quite plush really, for her to sit on.

“This is where I’m going to meet Vantz?” Lisbet asked.

“He does VR meetings with everyone. That’s how he keeps his face a secret.”

“Why does he do that?”

“I’m sure he can explain it to you. That’s the end of the tour. Do you have any questions?”

Lisbet looked around and thought of a few. “Why isn’t there a living room?”

“You don’t need one. You are forbidden from bringing guests here.”

“But I’ll be going places? He didn’t buy me that huge closet full of clothes just for me to sit and chat with him on VR, did he?”

“Certainly not. You’ll be going out. You’re just not allowed to bring people back here. It’s not unusual in Martian homes for the living room to be omitted. No one needs them. Martians meet in public places. The only reason you’d bring someone home would be…” she trailed off, not explaining the reasons for bringing someone home to your home that only had a bed in it. “Any other questions?”

“I notice you have an armband like mine,” Lisbet said, looking at the pink metallic bracelet around Charcoal’s wrist. “Were you also purchased from Sleeping Beauty Inc.?”

“I’m sorry. That’s classified,” she said, displaying her first touch of disdain. “Would you like to try on the wedding dresses now? Your photoshoot is scheduled for the day after tomorrow and even though the dresses were made to fit your measurements, I was asked to get you to try them on as quickly as possible in case the one we choose requires adjustment.”

Lisbet nodded and motioned for Charcoal to lead the way back to the closet.

Lisbet walked in and started peeling off the black dress she was wearing.

“What are you doing? Aren’t you going to get behind a privacy screen?” Charcoal asked, a little horrified.

“What the hell for?” Lisbet replied. “You’re my personal maid, presumably in charge of me and all these clothes. You don’t cook for me or clean for me. Isn’t this what you do? Make sure I look good in my clothes? Why should I go through the trouble of preserving my modesty? You’ve already informed me that you and Beck can walk in on me at any time. We need to get to work. What is the problem?”

Charcoal turned her face away and handed Lisbet the first dress without another word.

Lisbet tried it on.

Walking across the room, Charcoal picked up a red item and brought it over. It looked like a toy. It was squishy like a clown nose, but it was in the shape of a strawberry with green leaves. In the middle of the leaves was a button.

“What’s that?” Lisbet asked, buttoning her cuffs.

“It controls the shutter for taking photos with that mirror. Vantz wants you to send him pictures of everything you try on. Obviously, I won’t always be around to take pictures of you. He ordered that mirror and every time you press the button on the strawberry, the mirror will take a picture of you and send it to him.”

“Why is it a toy? That seems so old-fashioned,” Lisbet said.

Charcoal pulled a face. “If you use a voice command, it will mess with your facial expression. If we put it on a timer, it will take up too much of your time as you wait for the camera to take the picture. Having this little softy clutched in your hand is the least intrusive. Try not to be too unappreciative. Having a photographer here all the time would be really annoying. You’d have to hide behind the screen to change and you have to try on every piece of clothing in here. Vantz doesn’t just want to pre-approve your wedding dress, but every piece of clothing you wear outside. You’re his wife and you’re representing him.”

Looking around at the miles of clothes ahead of her, she realized there was a lot of work for her to do if she was going to try on each piece and get her picture taken in each one. She whistled.

“You said it,” Charcoal hissed.