Chapter Chapter Twenty Two

The next day, Ornette was picked up from the dorms by Stonic. He was taking her to the Bayara factory (which was only a few hours away), and afterward, he was taking her to the next place on their itinerary, the Sholpan factory.

Ornette got in the front seat of the helocarrier beside Stonic and covered her ears. Stonic barely looked at her. He seemed like the type of person who didn’t properly wake up until mid-morning or early afternoon, so she kept interactions to a minimum.

Glancing over her shoulder, she saw that the back of the helocarrier was more like the inside of an RV than anything else. There were two twin beds set close to the walls. There was a bathroom in the back and a kitchen so tiny, it was a sink and a fridge. There was a wardrobe that had her clothes at the head of her bed. It was clear the back of the vehicle was interchangeable and they had made up the design to handle Ornette and Stonic’s days of travel.

They arrived at the Bayara factory before Stonic had woken up to one hundred percent.

Ornette took off her headphones, fluffed her hair, and went to meet the factory workers.

Ornette should not have been surprised by what the factory was like, but she was. The factory was not a factory. All the pieces needed for the manufacturing of the floating pieces were made elsewhere (most likely Ceres) and they were sent to Venus. The thirty people who worked at the factory were expected to do little more than oversee the machines that put the pieces together.

Westen had sent a personalized care basket for each of the workers, so Ornette went into the factory, had a little tour, and then met every single person who worked there for a special little brunch where she laughed and talked with the workers. Then she handed out the care baskets. They were each a little different depending on how long each employee had worked for the company. Apparently, Westen did not want to hire new employees so he was quite willing to reward the longer-lasting workers. There was no other company hierarchy. No one had a higher position than anyone else, no matter what their job was. They all reported to an HR worker at company headquarters in Nepra, and no one had a position anywhere near Westen’s in the company. It was his company and that was all there was to it. The HR worker in charge of their factory didn’t make more money either. The only reason their job existed seemed to be to stop Westen from having to talk to his employees directly.

That had to be avoided.

Ornette tried to be comfortable. She tried to be friendly, bouncy, encouraging, and everything else a good spokesperson was, but she was very uncomfortable. She knew firsthand that the working conditions on Ceres were unregulated and being with the workers on Venus and seeing their comfortable spaces and their perfect little lives made her a little sick. She found her left arm trembling more often than that.

When she was finally finished, she said goodbye and went back to the helocarrier.

Stonic was passed out in the back. Ornette didn’t wake him. She bet he had a timer set on his bracelet. Someone from Sleeping Beauty Inc. would have set it and they wouldn’t let him sleep longer than he was allowed.

Ornette removed the most painful parts of her outfit: her shoes, her jacket, and her belt before peeling back the cover on her bed and getting in.

She was exhausted as she placed her head on her pillow so it was a bit of a shock when Stonic’s alarm went off.

With no lead-up, he sat bolt upright in bed and almost shouted to Ornette, “It’s time to move into the front seat, Ma’am.”

Ornette rubbed her neck and sat up. “Great. Let’s go.”

She had bedhead when she got into the front seat and put on her earphones. Stonic looked the same as he did before his nap, like his hair didn’t move, like he didn’t wear makeup to get smeared by sweat, like he was used to doing whatever his job required within seconds of achieving consciousness.

They started flying.

The clouds were deep and thick and swirled around them. The strong winds knocked the helocarrier around.

Ornette did not expect Stonic to say anything, which was why she was in for another surprise when he tilted his head toward her and asked, “How are you doing? Are you good? Are you awake or did you go back to sleep?”

“I’m awake,” she answered in her microphone as she stifled a yawn. “I’m awake. I just… really enjoyed sleeping.”

“Missing cryostasis?” he asked with a smile directed toward her.

“There is something pretty magical about cryostasis,” she agreed.

“You’ll be back to sleep again in no time,” he responded with a dark chuckle. “Listen,” he said, changing the flow of their small talk. “Sleeping Beauty Inc. isn’t super impressed with what Papa Bear and the others are doing on their show. They’re annoyed that they haven’t revealed who the owners are to their models and they’re taking matters into their own hands. You have to know who your owner is in accordance with Sleeping Beauty Inc.’s contract with you. Since they won’t tell you, head office is going behind enemy lines to inform each contestant of who her true owner is.”

“Mine is Desmond Falstead, isn’t it?” Ornette questioned.

“You know?”

“He told me.”

“Good. If he told you, you’re the only one who has been told. I don’t know why they’re keeping it a secret when it means they’re violating their contracts. Under normal circumstances, Sleeping Beauty Inc. would cancel the contracts and bring their models home, except for the show, so they'll going to be charged penalties, which would mean more money for the company and the models…” He trailed off, realizing he’d said too much.

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“But because Desmond told me I belong to him, I don’t get the same bonus?” Ornette finished for him.

“Y-yeah,” he stuttered. “Sorry. That must be a disappointment for you.”

Ornette looked out the window instead of looking at Stonic. “Desmond is a shrewd man. There’s no way he would be in violation of his contract. He’s too careful for that. So… I know his name is Desmond Falstead and that he has my bracelet on his arm. I don’t know another thing. Even if it doesn’t give me a bonus, is there anything else you can tell me about him?”

“Off the top of my head, he’s the great-nephew of Silver Ashley.”

Ornette sucked in her breath hearing that. If Venus had anything like a queen, it was Silver Ashley. She used her enormous wealth to build the first of the floating cities on Venus. She was an astronaut, a scientist, a quadrillionaire (even with the forgiving decimal point), and rather famous for being partly mad. It had been fifty years since the end of Silver Ashley’s hay day, but she was still alive. She had her own floating city called Nimbus. Everyone who lived there worked for her. And Desmond was part of her family… which made everything more curious.

“He’s her sister’s grandchild,” Stonic supplied.

“So why would a guy like that choose the cheapest model to play his game?” Ornette questioned, keeping her voice neutral in the microphone.

“How am I supposed to know that?” Stonic groaned. “All I know is that Silver Ashley has a lot of nephews and great-nephews. He’s one of them, but he’s one of the boys who has a good reputation with her. A lot of the members of her family have been disinherited, but he hasn’t. He’s a good boy.”

“Even with this game, he’s playing publicly?” Ornette asked with a snarl of her lips.

“Silver Ashley has no problem buying and selling slaves. They say that she has a man locked up for her personal use. The rumor is that she didn’t buy him. He’s involuntary.”

“That’s awful,” Ornette snapped. Even though Ornette had been cheated and scammed through the voluntary slavery machine, the thought of involuntary slavery practically made her break out in hives.

“Well, we know that Sleeping Beauty Inc. didn’t sell him. Jewel Girls didn’t sell him. Risky Boys didn’t sell him. No one sold him,” Stonic said, canceling out agencies.

“It could have been one of the smaller companies,” Ornette hoped rather than believed.

Stonic cocked his head. “We’re not going to know. It’s not like either of us have an invitation to Nimbus City, but who knows where your relationship with Desmond could take you?”

Ornette chucked. “It’s not going anywhere. He’s going to allow me to be sold off on the show and that’s fine. That’s what I was sold off to do and as long as I’m on the show, I’ll have fourteen weeks without a proper master. It’s practically a vacation.”

“Isn’t it more work having to impress a different man every week?” Stonic asked with a half smile.

“Nah. It’s easier. The first week at work is always the easiest. For some reason, the master always wants to start on the right foot. They behave themselves almost perfectly for the first week. Things just get shadier from that point on. Besides, don’t you know that? Haven’t you been sold in a contract before?”

“Not as such,” Stonic said into his microphone. “This is a good job.”

“Is it?” Ornette asked curiously. “Maybe I should have trained for a job like yours.”

“Mine’s taken,” he reminded her.

“Forget it,” Ornette said, putting a hand in the air to stop him from getting carried away. She was already bored with the idea. “Getting back to Goldilocks Zone. I want to know if I understand this correctly. Desmond and a bunch of his buddies purchased a dozen girls. That way they share the largest financial burden of the show?”

“Something like that.”

“Okay. Good to know.” For Ornette, that explained Desmond’s financial interest in the show.

“Are you going to stay on the show until the bitter end? If you do, you’ll end up getting bought by Papa Bear. Is that what you want?”

Ornette refrained from laughing, even though she wanted to. “Look, if that’s what happens, it won’t be that I ended up with him. It will be that he ended up with me.”

“You’re that much of a fighter?”

“Normally, a man his size isn’t allowed to buy a woman my size, is he?” Ornette wondered intently, as she stared off into the clouds. She was sure of it, but she would appreciate Stonic’s confirmation.

“Not normally. If you qualified as a Thumbelina model, he definitely wouldn’t. Those women are reserved for smaller clients. It’s close. How much does he weigh?” Stonic thought it over. “I bet he weighs more than a hundred pounds more than you, which goes against Sleeping Beauty Inc. regulations. If you want to get out of being sold to Papa Bear, you might be able to use that as an excuse to get out of it if he does bid on you. He gets you if he bids on you. That’s how the Goldilocks Zone works, isn’t it?”

“And if he wins me through Goldilocks Zone instead of buying me in a showroom?” Ornette asked, refusing to let her trembling left arm be seen by the pilot.

Stonic sucked in his breath. “I imagine it would be the same. He could win you, but he couldn’t take you home with him without meeting Sleeping Beauty Inc.’s requirements.”

“Mikayla didn’t have a problem that way, did she?” Ornette asked, remembering the previous episode.

“No. That guy weighed less than her. He was wearing those shoes that look like sneakers, but are actually high heels.”

“Fascinating,” Ornette said, letting her cynicism out in her tone. “Of the men who’ve had me for a week, they were all under the weight cap? You’ve been watching the show, right?”

“I’m not sure if Fen was, but the other three guys are definitely ideal buyers–weight-wise.”

“Three?”

Stonic laughed. “Are you not counting Westen?”

“I guess I wasn’t. He wasn’t very interested in me. He didn’t even want to play dress up with me and dudes who buy girls love watching their girls play dress up. It’s their favorite thing… Unless they’re hiring her to work on their design floor.”

Stonic shrugged his shoulders and kept his eyes on the clouds. “Has Desmond been good to you so far?”

“He could be better, if you know what I mean,” her tone indicating that he hadn’t been fooling around with her.

Stonic acted scandalized. “I didn’t think Sleeping Beauty Inc. models welcomed that kind of attention.”

Ornette started listing his virtues. “He’s rich, he’s fit, he’s stylish, he’s nice to me, his face isn’t bad to look at, and he’s my owner. I’m not really in a place where I can ask for more.”

“He’s not going to give you that kind of attention if he doesn’t win the bid on you,” Stonic retorted. “Forget making out with the contestants, those guys weren’t supposed to tell the models who had bought who. He reads contracts and follows them. That man is going to keep his hands to himself.”

“Well, he told me…” Ornette trailed off. She suddenly realized two things. One was that Desmond was wearing slavery bracelets. He had one on one wrist that was connected to her bracelet. Then he had three on his other wrist. What did she want to bet that those were connected to his family and that was how he had stayed in their good graces? He was essentially their slave. The second thing she remembered was that he promised to sell himself to her for a month. That offer couldn’t possibly mean anything if he was Silver Ashley’s great-nephew.

It had to be a manipulation. That idea made her sad. She really wanted some time with him.