The trail of white lights led her way across the hall towards the boarding gate, her eyes ached as the light reflected mercilessly on the immaculate white surface of the ceramic tile at her feet and she squinted fastening her pace, finding the whole extension of the platform empty. She had overslept and therefore she was arriving late to work, she groaned at herself for almost missing out on the first day of her new life and started running down the deserted corridor with her duffel bag bumping heavily on her back, she had crossed this corridor so many times before and she had to admit its emptiness just made it look ten times more threatening, than when it was crowded with happy families and fellow crewmen, she suddenly crashed on someone's back when she turned on the last corner and gasped somehow relieved she wasn't the only one late.
The bearded man she bumped on, turned around in annoyance and she went to apologize but as soon as he noticed her crew uniform his attention went back to his wife beside him.
"Of course you had to stop for a beer so early in the morning, now we are barely going to make it!" his short haired brunette wife scolded in a cold tone that denoted how much trouble he was in.
"We are going to space," the man said in return like that was all the justification he needed.
"Come on Henry," the woman said keeping up her pace as she pulled from her eleven year old son's hand.
The boarding gate consisted on three full sized scanners for adults and one little version for children similar to the airport scanners, there was some people still in line and they all had to wait for a while as the security members shouted instructions for everyone to follow. The brunette who was lined up behind her child, made him turn around and bent down to be at his eye level.
"Are you ready honey?" Emma heard her ask the boy.
"I think so mom," the kid shrugged like it was no big deal, the fact that they were about to start an interstellar trip to a new life.
"The lad will be okay," her husband said behind her placing a hand over her shoulder and she automatically shrugged off his touch, she then straightened her back and turned around to face him, she pulled him from his tee shirt collar and when his head was at her petite frame height level, she leaned over to whisper in his ear, Emma stared stunned at the beautiful features coming in her sight rate and glanced from her close distance the exact moment they became a threatening wince.
"Next time, I'll rip it off," she said and Emma's eyebrows darted to her scalp.
Wasn't all the colony families just perfect little nests of love and brilliantness?
Emma blinked perplexed at the woman now kissing the man's ear in a fake display of love and started choking on her own saliva when the petite woman winked in her direction right before she went back to her son.
Emma scoffed getting in one of the scanners that had just been emptied, the man in front of her took the one at her right and the woman the one beside her son's, the laser light in the cabin scanned her from head to toe and an AI voice commanded her to press her palms on the screen in front of her and to rest her chin on the little facial scanner so the machine could run the automated biometric identification of her iris.
"Emma Swan, Zero Gravity engineer, reporting to works one hour late," the machine blared in her ears and she felt her cheeks flush crimson as she stepped out of the scanner.
The bearded man snorted at her side also stepping out of his scanner and Emma knew the machine's statement had been heard by every single person in the boarding gate, she run to the little line of crewmen in the hallway, where the last of her coworkers standing there were making fun of her, her manager scowled at her pushing a clipboard on her chest forcefully enough to make her step back, but she didn't complain and instead formed integral waiting line, to be assigned to one of the families in front of them.
Each crew member in front of her departed the boarding gate with one of those families and she being the last one in line, was undoubtedly assigned to the family she had just seen board the last.
"At least you two have a lot in common," the brunette said smacking her bag on her husband's chest, "maybe you'll become the belated golden duo of the new colony," she said ironically walking towards the blonde.
"Emma Swan, at your service," the blonde said biting her tongue hard having heard the biter comment and afraid to say something since she felt the eyes of her manager stubbing her on her back, she extended her hand for the woman to grab and she just looked at it derogatorily.
"I'm Henry Mills and this is my mother Regina," the little boy beside the woman said shacking her extended hand, "she looks harsh but if you play your puppy eyes right, she will always pretend she didn't see you stealing more than one cookie from the jar," he told her in a secretive way and she had to bite her tongue again, this time to don't laugh at his mother betrayed expression.
"That's very good to know," she smiled, "here is my chart Henry and here is your family pod keycode," she said handing the clipboard with her information and a shiny card to the boy, instead of his mother as it was expected, the boy smiled back at her, "now if you may follow me, I'll lead your way to your pod.
She saw her manager fuming with her peripheral vision, but she just shrugged it off and continued walking down the hallway followed by the family.
The MS-108 pod was one of the luxurious ones, it had more rooms than what the little family could possibly need. It was designed for families of at least ten, Emma rolled her eyes knowing exactly how much money they must have paid for it, when they could have paid a three times cheaper amount for one of the little ones, apart from more space, there was nothing luxurious about this pod, that the other ones didn't have, they were all the same.
"Home sweet home," She said borrowing the key code card from Henry when they arrived to the pod, she inserted the card on a slot in the wall and inserted a number sequence on the screen beside the door, "the pilot should step forward and place the right hand on that hole on the wall," Emma said waiting for the husband whose name she still ignored, to step forward and follow her command, but instead Regina moved forward and she looked at her surprised.
"Sweetie remember I told you, we were getting some microchips on our wrists?" She addressed to her son before she put her hand in the hole, Henry nodded, she winced for a second as the chip was implanted, "it just hurts for a second, see?" Henry nodded again.
"Now either of you," Emma told both Henry and the man.
Henry hesitated for a second, but then he stepped forward and put his hand in the wall just as instructed and so did the man and Emma after him.
"The microchips will grant you access to every part of the pod and it's computers, as you already know, I will be accompanying you during the entire trip, I'm gonna be your engineer and I'll make sure your pod is a always in the best condition and have an excellent performance.
Henry run off into the pod before she could even finish speaking and with a silent order of his wife the bearded man went after him. Emma was still by the door, somewhat waiting for the woman to invite her in.
"So, how does this work?" Regina said checking the information in the clipboard Henry had left behind it his exploring rush, "should we treat you as a maid?" Regina asked and a corner of her mouth twitched up into an evil smirk, Emma bit her lip and scratched the back of her neck briefly.
"If that's what you wish ma'am," Emma hissed, really hating the company policies of always giving the families what they asked for, unless their request put their lives at risk, her job was making the family members' wishes come true, make them always feel at home.
She wasn't hired to clean or serve, but in previous occasions she had indeed been asked to do so and found herself helplessly obligated to comply, since her manager's answer to her complaints was always the same, you don't want to do your job? Don't worry, there will be certainly other person that will, you are not irreplaceable Ms. Swan, someone else would want the chance we gave you. She was being paid very generously for her job and more importantly, she only had to do this one last job to finally be accepted in the colony, she would certainly do whatever this family asked from her, hell, she would kiss the floor they walked on, if she had to.
The woman's chocolate eyes lifted from the clipboard when she answered and she started scanning the blonde excruciatingly, probably trying to decide what kind of chores she could command her to do first, for a moment Emma felt as though she was being stripped of her every thought, under that intense gaze and when the woman smiled wickedly at her, she actually feared the woman could indeed know what was in her mind in that precise moment and she pictured herself kissing the ground the brunette was standing on.
"Come here Ms. Swan," the brunette said never dropping her wicked smile and this made Emma gulp as she walked inside the pod, "how would you like to give me a massage?" The woman asked turning around as soon as she reached her position.
"Excuse me?" Emma choked out.
"Yeah I'm a little tense right here between my shoulders," the woman purred and Emma just froze staring down at the the hands now holding the short hair out of the way, revealing the silky skin underneath.
What the hell was going on? Was this the same woman who threatened her husband minutes ago just because he dared to place his hand on her shoulder? Was she really being serious?
The woman waited.
Emma didn't move.
The woman's neck remained exposed.
Emma gulped once again.
Tender olive skin.
Hands ghosting the skin.
Laughter erupted, echoing through the pod.
"I really hope you are being paid enough for this job," Regina said dropping her hair and turning around to face the now flustered blonde, "according to your chart you are the brightest Zero-G engineer in the crew and you still considered giving me a back massage, are you being paid in diamonds or what?" She chuckled rising an eyebrow expectantly.
"Not quite," Emma shrugged, " let's just say sometimes you have to debase yourself to be accepted, when you are friendless orphan in a families only new world," she shrugged.
"Let me tell you something dear, most of the times families are heavily overrated," she said sympathetically and something told Emma that comment had a name and a specially well groomed beard, "let's go find ourselves a bunk before the idiot and my son start claiming them all."
Yup! Definitely that comment had a very well groomed beard.