“Hey girls.”

I looked over in the direction of the voice. It was a woman standing in the entrance of a restaurant. “Come over here for a second.”

I looked over at Toni and she just shrugged. I took her hand and walked over to the woman.

She smiled at us. “New to Mars?”

I nodded. “Just defrosted,” I said, referring to just being revived from a cryo-freeze.

The woman nodded. “I thought so. They must have been in a hurry if they didn’t run down a few basic rules for the mall here.”

Toni frowned. “Yeah. They told us nothing.”

The woman nodded again as she folded her arms. “That happens. You’ll get a pamphlet later when you check into your room. But I’ll clue you in on two major rules. You’ve already encountered them.” She lifted one finger. “One, they really do insist you stay behind that red line in front of the windows. Why if the windows are indestructible? Well, the seals can be easily broken. You’d think they’d come up with a different seal, right? Now, at any loss of pressure, the doors all seal automatically. However, if you’re on the wrong side of the door…” She shrugged. “It’s a one way trip to protein reclamation. But don’t worry. It’s not like it happens every day.”

Toni looked over at me with a frown. “Did the salesman mention any of this?”

The woman chuckled. “Yeah, they really do need to shut down those recruitment centers. Be thankful you didn’t enter a Ganymede recruitment center. Those mines are a hell hole.”

Puzzled, I said, “I thought it was all automated there.”

The woman grinned. “Someone has to run the machines. And those men get lonely too.” She extended her hand towards us. “By the way… My name is Doris-341000AZ. But you can call me Dee.”

After Toni and I introduced ourselves, Dee continued, “The second important thing you need to be aware of is really, the most basic rule. You don’t challenge men. If a man tells you to do something, you do it. We are subservient. And there’s no point in complaining about that. The men are under strict rules from management not to abuse that. But it still happens. While men are seldom punished here, all the whores in the whorehouse one deck down are former men who pissed off management once too often.”

I shook my head. “Sounds like a fun place. While not a lot of news about Mars reaches Earth, you don’t hear anything about this shit. No news. No drama shows. If anything, Mars is shown as a great vacation get-away.”

Dee chuckled. “The tourist business is booming on Mars. You won’t find any tourists anywhere near the mines. I’m sure you’ve heard of Martian Gardens.”

“Oh yeah,” I said. “That park where they tried to recreate the conditions on Mars a few million years ago.”

Dee grinned. “Yeah. Big tourist hit.” She paused and studied us for a moment. “I see you still have your V tags. Management tries to take care of that pretty quick.”

I looked down at my front and saw the yellow V pinned to my uniform. “Yeah. That officer mentioned that. What do they mean?”

Dee shook her head and sighed.. “Another thing they neglected to tell you. You could probably guess. Those tags stand for virgin.”

Toni laughed. “Virgin? Not hardly. You can ask any of my former wives.”

Dee rolled her eyes and asked wryly, “Have you had sex with men as a woman yet?”

Toni looked embarrassed. “Um well. Not that I recall, exactly.”

Dee laughed. “Yeah. No men are allowed to touch you until management has fucked you to evaluate you. Any man who so much as kisses you while you’re still a virgin, gets an instant regen and placed among the whores. So while you have those tags, you should be safe from assault. Even without the tags, most men are just too tired to bother you.”

I grunted a laugh. “I wish we’d read the fine print, but I don’t remember seeing any.”

Dee sighed. “It doesn’t show up until after you sign. Hey, are you girls hungry? I run one of the better beaneries in the Martian Mall. And it’s all complimentary.”

I patted Toni’s shoulder. “Are you hungry?”

Toni nodded. “Yeah, let’s eat. So what’s good here, Dee?”

Dee grinned. “This is the only place on Mars where you can get a genuine chicken fried steak. And real beer I brew myself.”

Toni grinned. “Sounds good to me.”

I nodded. “Me too.”

Dee rapped the table top with her fingers and said, “I’ll have that out in a jiffy.” She then turned and disappeared into what I assumed was the kitchen.

Toni looked around and watched two policemen walk slowly down the hall. “I’m glad we found this place.”

I nodded. “Yeah. It’s helpful that Dee likes to talk.”

Toni nodded. “She’s very helpful. But I’ll tell ya, Melissa. I don’t like this idea of being fucked by management. Evaluation? For what? Most of the girls like us won’t have a clue what to do with a man!” She tugged on her V badge and scowled.

Shrugging, I said, “I guess you just do what you hope a woman would do for you back when you were a man.”

Toni shook his head. “The bad thing is, I’m afraid I’m going to enjoy being fucked. I started to get horny with those guards.”

Nodding, I said, “I felt it too.”

After a few minutes, Dee returned with another girl helping to carry our food. It smelled wonderful. Grinning, Dee said as she set the dishes down, “Enjoy, ladies.”

Before she stepped away, I asked, “Before you go, anything else we should know?”

She frowned for a moment and then sat down at our table. “I’ll get in trouble if I tell you much more. Everything I’ve told you already is shit they should have already told you. Be ready. In the next few hours, both of you will be called to management. Immediately after your evaluation, you’ll be assigned a man. All I can say about that is that you must keep your man happy. Things will get hard for you if you don’t. And keep your noses clean.”

Toni looked quizzically at Dee. “How did you get out? How did you get your own restaurant?”

Dee sighed. “I kept my men happy and my nose clean. You can survive your contract and they do pay you a shit-ton of money. Look. Be careful of who and what you talk about around here. There’s some serious shit going on here. The miners don’t know and I certainly don’t what the hell it is they’re mining. It’s more valuable than gold, diamonds or oil.”

I frowned. “Doesn’t seem to be much of a pleasant future here.”

Taking on a conspiratorial tone, Dee said, “You have another option and since you two are so gorgeous you might try it. If you keep your men very happy, you could get promoted to being a high end escort. Next to the tourist side is the business side, investors and the like. Management treats those guys like kings. The girls assigned there all look like high fashion models. Beautiful dresses, beautiful hair, beautiful make-up. The girls there work for the clients and aren’t assigned a man just for them.”

Toni asked, “Why didn’t you try for that?”

Dee laughed dismissively and pointed at her face. “With this mug? Not a chance. But you two definitely have the looks. But you have to be good at pleasing men as well. Okay, girls. It was great chatting, but I need to get back to work.” She suddenly looked sad. “One other thing. You two seem to be close friends. I hate to tell you this, but after your evaluation, you’ll probably never see each other again. Come back here for some good grub. Later, girls.” She stood up and returned to the kitchen.

Swirling the last bite of chicken fried steak around in the gravy, Toni said, “Damn, Melissa. I don’t want to be separated from you. I thought we could kinda stay together.” She swallowed her last bite.

I nodded. “Yeah, that sucks. Maybe we can try to meet up here at this restaurant.”

Toni frowned. “Maybe.”

A guard stepped into the restaurant pointed and asked, “Hey, you bitches over there. Are you Melissa-1123009B and Toni-333GH5?”

I stood up and scowled at the guard. “Yeah. What about it?”

The guard frowned. “Don’t get smart with me, whore. The presence of both you have been requested by management. Follow me.”

I looked over at Toni. She said, “Shit.”

To be continued…