but I’d never been so starved for human contact before.
“Oh God, no. I told you before that I’m not interested.” Candy sat back in her chair. “To be honest, most of the women aren’t. Everyone in the program is here to make money and no one is willing to risk their job just for a bit of sex. Even if it’ll be the best sex of their life.”
“What happens if a woman did want to quit their job to marry a Draax. Is it even allowed?” I said. “Didn’t you sign a year long contract?”
“There’s a clause in the contract that states if you wish to marry a Draax and start popping out babies, it’s an acceptable reason to end the contract.”
“Of course there is,” I said, rolling my eyeballs so hard they were in danger of falling right out of my skull. “This work program thing is bullshit. You know that, right? They only want women here for one thing.”
Candy half-shrugged. “Maybe it is and maybe it isn’t. I know that Sabrina believes strongly in it and even if it is just a,” she hesitated, “way of luring women here in hopes they’ll mate with a Draax, what of it? Everyone in the program was suffering back home. Either from malnutrition, abuse by people who were supposed to love them, or an incurable disease. Four of the women were on the verge of homelessness after losing their shitty jobs, and two were actually homeless. Every one of them joined the breeding program out of desperation, not because they wanted to give a Draax a baby. The work program gives them a chance to do something more with their life, at least. It gives them a choice about whether they want to have a Draax baby.”
She smoothed her shirt down before giving me a frank look. “Honestly, I’m not sure why you’re so bitter about it. You were a lower, right? You know what it’s like to struggle. Are the Draax perfect? No, but they’re trying at least. And they treat us way better than human males ever will.”
I stared down at the table, my cheeks hot and my shame at an all time high. “I know. I’m being a bitch.”
She sighed and leaned forward. “You’re not being a bitch. You’re used to not trusting anyone, and I get that. But I truly believe that Sabrina is doing a good thing for us. She’s giving hope to women who didn’t have much left to hope for. And you know what? The Draax may only be interested in one thing, but in the last week when it became apparent that most of the women aren’t interested in being,” Candy made finger quotes, “courted, they backed off immediately. They respect us and our feelings, and for most of us that’s a really foreign concept.”
Jesus, I was really feeling like a total dick now. I scuffed my foot along the stone floor. I wanted to tell Candy that I wasn’t normally this awful, that deep down I was a nice person, but why would she believe me? Hell, I hardly believed it myself. I wanted to be a good person, I wanted to see the best in others around me, but experience had taught me that if people couldn’t get what they wanted from you, then you were disposable.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“You don’t have to be sorry. I don’t know your life story, but I can guess there haven’t been a lot of happy moments for you and I understand that it colours your view. But don’t judge the Draax for their way of life or what they do for the survival of their race. We owe them a lot as a race and, for some of us, as individuals. The Draax I slept with, the ones who were willing to break the law to barter sex for juice? They saved my kid’s life. Were they getting something out of it? Sure. But how often do humans do something for nothing? Why should we expect that from the Draax?”
“You’re right,” I said. “I’m being judgemental as hell, and I suck.”
Candy laughed. “Well, I’m so high up on my soapbox that the air’s getting thin, so maybe we both suck a little today.”
She muttered a curse when the sewing machine made a weird grinding noise and stopped. I watched as she pulled out threads, still muttering cures under her breath. When it became apparent that she needed all of her concentration, I stood and