Page 25 of Emperor of Draconis

Many of the people looked less concerned, but some of the males looked irritated. “Why can’t we find mates?” One asked.

“You can, but you’ve been told how old fashioned these people are and their females will not often choose a male to support. It’s just not their way and all of you said you understood that.”

“That was when we thought they were an undeveloped country on Earth.” Another man said.

“I wish you luck finding a female under those circumstances, but you signed on for a job and that comes first.”

“Alright. I can understand that.” He agreed.

It was clear these people didn’t truly understand how things worked on Draconis. It would be a sharp learning curve when they arrived. Hopefully they would adjust. For now, everyone seemed to be finishing their food and a few had left room for dessert. She felt relived when they were all dismissed.

“Come, Kitty. I’ll escort you to your room. We have an early morning then we’ll leave orbit.” Torr observed.

The next morning it was early when they met with US officials. “I’m Kitty Smith and this is my assistant, Torr.” They had agreed the people here did not need to know he was the emperor. It was just asking for trouble.

“I’m Jared Kush and this is my assistant Sally.”

“Very glad to meet you both. I hope we can get this decided quickly since the ship is delaying takeoff for us.”

“I hope so too. Why don’t we go over the last contract and see what is still acceptable?”

“Sounds like a good place to start.” Jared agreed. “Here we have the convicts, those violent and dangerous. We’re still happy with the five hundred plus you are willing to take.”

“And that is still for five hundred professional females?” She asked.

“I’m surprised as a woman you find that acceptable.” Jared observed.

“You shouldn’t be. These women will have better lives and they won’t be forced to do anything except work if they don’t find an acceptable mate after a time.”

“That sounds too good to be true.” Jared said.

“Not so. They have plenty of areas available for people to settle. Earth has too many people and other concerns. We can come to a fair agreement, but Draconians will not be taken advantage of.”

“I see. Okay, we can keep that in the agreement. Let’s move on to the orphans. We’d like to receive something in exchange for them.” Jared admitted.

“That’s not happening. We’ll just do without the kids if you need them so much. Next?”

“Alright. Don’t get so excited. We’ll leave them in place for now too. This will be a one-year contract. Maybe we can rework this part next year. Give it some thought. Now tell me. What do you have to trade?”

“We’ve given you most of the medicinal and sustainable clean energy we have so we were hoping to trade some money. Our offer is one hundred thousand dollars a ship load. If we have an advance in medicine, we will give you a chance to take that instead of money.”

“I’ll have to call in the offer.”

“Don’t take too long. There are other planets we can deal with.” She mentioned.

Jared came back. The offer wasn’t a huge amount of money, but they were taking part of the Earth’s overpopulation and giving them something of value. They had no one else to trade with. “They agreed if the contract is on a month by month basis.” Jared said.

“We can do that until we’re able to negotiate something more permanent.”

Everyone signed on the dotted line. She was thankful it was done. Since they were trying to keep technology out of Earth’s hands, the negotiating would get harder every time. Torr had kept quiet during the negotiations, but he had to be pleased. He’d gotten exactly what he’d said he wanted. The only disappointment had been the contract was monthly.

They were free to go now, but she wanted to go to a few stores first. It would be one stop shopping and done quickly. “I was hoping to go to one store before we left.”

“I would love to go with you. I’ve seen little of Earth this trip and this would at least be something.”

She led him to the door, and they exited the building where she waved down a cab. All this would be new for Torr and he seemed excited to experience any of Earth. The cab dropped them off at a grocery store her family used to frequent. Someone would have to pick them up when they were done, and she told Torr that.

“They’ll be waiting when we are ready to leave.” Torr said.

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