Gabriella Haller walked solemnly down the hall, escorted by two court officers, to the entrance to the courtroom. She was dressed in a tight white blouse and dark navy blue miniskirt which showed off her lean, sexy figure and long-toned legs. To soften the sexiness and look more business-like, she wore black dress shoes. Her long brown hair was made straight and flowed below her shoulders, and she had a beautiful face that couldn't be ruined by her sadness.
The court officers punched some buttons on a keypad in the wall and announced their presence; the doors slid open in response. They then escorted Gabriella to her lawyer who was seated at the table; she could feel the hate in the eyes of some in the audience. She took her seat by her court-appointed lawyer and awaited the judge.
The judge soon entered, and the court proceedings began. Gabriella was convicted last month of manslaughter, gang involvement, and several controlled substance charges, and therefore was facing life imprisonment. Upon the advice of her lawyer, she requested leniency due to life circumstances, as she was raised by parents who were gang members and introduced to narcotics by them.
"After listening to the testimony of the probation officer, rehabilitation counselor, and victim's family, I grant Miss Gabriella Haller's request: to serve out her life sentence as spouse to Doctor Orwin Altman," the judge concluded.
Gabriella let out a sigh of relief; she was so happy that after she requested a spouse to supervise her life sentence, it was Orwin Altman she finally matched to. She gladly shook hands with her lawyer who first proposed the idea.
After her conviction, Gabriella was distraught, as she had killed her drug dealer boyfriend in a fit of rage. However, her boyfriend was also the leader of the infamous Below Decks Bruisers gang and if she went to prison, she knew the Bruisers there would kill her in retaliation.
So at first she fully cooperated with the police and told them everything she knew about the gang, allowing them to break their criminal ring. Unfortunately, this made her a lot of enemies and wasn't enough to convince the prosecution to drop the charges.
That's when her lawyer suggested the option of life as a spouse sentence. Since humanity needed to have a certain number of babies every year to survive, the life as a spouse sentence option was created to keep young fertile women available to ensure that the probability of increasing the population was always there.
So Gabriella's lawyer provided her with some sexy lingerie, which she wore for the court photographer to photograph her. The pictures were posted on a general website of felons hoping for life as a spouse sentence, and eligible men could apply. The caveat was that the felon had to pick someone that would sign the agreement; luckily Gabriella was a gorgeous brunette and was able to attract a lot of potential spouses.
The sentence required Gabriella to agree to have the spouse's babies; she figured having some fat, disgusting man's baby was better than spending the rest of her life in jail constantly looking over her shoulder. Plus she could go anywhere she wanted, so long as she was accompanied by her husband. A much better life sentence than prison by far.
Her lawyer accompanied her on the long walk out of the court section, to the exit door where an officer was awaiting her.
When she reached the officer, Gabriella turned to her lawyer with tears in her eyes.
"Thank you for saving my life," she sobbed.
"Life gave you a bad hand, and I just helped the jury and judge see it, that's all. You have a second chance now, make the best of it," her lawyer said, and with that, he walked away.
Gabriella turned to the court officer and noticed he was not carrying her belongings.
"Where are my things? I thought that my things would be returned to me, now that I have been released from prison," she asked, confused.
"Don't worry, ma'am. Your husband had already arranged for them to be shipped to your new home," replied the officer.
With that, they exited the court section and took an elevator down to the garage, where a commuter vehicle was waiting for them. She took a moment to look at the clean electric vehicle with open seats; it had been a while since she rode in anything not meant for prisoners.
As the vehicle drove them to the bus depot section, she took a moment to absorb her surroundings. She was being driven in a well-lit large tunnel with other smaller private electric vehicles zipping by; in the center was an electromagnetic public train filled with commuters. On the side was a beautiful ancient forest with tall trees. Gabriella wondered if the train was headed for the lower decks or not as it had been so long that she had forgotten the directions.
Finally, they arrived at the public transit hub, and the court officer took Gabriella on a moving walkway to a small room; its entrance had a monitor overhead indicating this was a port for private transport only.
"Why am I here?" asked Gabriella.
"Dr. Altman arranged for a private shuttle for you. He figured it would probably be more comfortable for his wife than to put her on a public shuttle bus loaded with people that have seen your trial on the news," the court officer replied dryly.
He had a point, thought Gabriella. She wasn't expecting a warm welcome after everything she had done, but at least the judge saw how the gang had groomed her and ultimately abused her, and that she was tricked into getting addicted to narcotics. Hopefully, her new husband would understand.
Suddenly, Gabriella heard a loud noise as if something had bumped hard against the outside wall. She then heard the noise of a door sliding shut and realized the door behind them was now closed. The light in the door in front of her turned green.
"OK, the airlock is sealed now. Watch your step," the court officer said, as the door in front of them opened.
Gabriella looked through and saw the entrance to the private shuttle on the other side. It was lit and she noticed that it had ten comfortable leather passenger seats. She had never ridden in a private shuttle before.
Gabriella carefully crossed the way into the private shuttle and chose a seat next to a window. Outside was all night sky, with a few blinking stars, and some metal. She had never seen the outside; her whole life she spent with the Bruisers hiding in the lower decks, and prisoner shuttles did not have passenger windows.
"Put on your seatbelt. Once we detach from the dock, we'll lose gravity fast," advised her court officer.
She took his advice. Gabriella was very nervous as this was her very first time traveling in space; she had lived on the lower decks of the colony spaceship she just stepped off all her life.
"Welcome aboard. This is the bus driver. We are cleared for take-off and the flight plan has been approved. We are departing in five minutes," the driver said.
With that, the shuttle door was closed and sealed tight by the flight attendant. As the flight attendant sat down and buckled up, the shuttle shook as it was released from the docking clamps.
Gabriella looked out the rear window, seeing the USS Washington DC 3 from the outside for the very first time in her life. It looked like a giant rectangular plate, with several glass bumps on top that housed buildings and offered a view of the vast expanse of deep space. As the giant ship shrunk from sight, all she could see was a white thing with blinking lights and several radio antennae fixed to the bottom pointing downward; she also felt herself getting lighter, and a little nauseous.
As the shuttle flew, they passed by other similar ships, some larger, some smaller, all following each other in a line that was slowly spiraling around an invisible axis far away. Gabriella stared in awe as this was the very first time she had seen the human fleet with her very own eyes.
"Attention passengers. We are approaching USS New Jupiter Island, Florida squadron. We'll be landing in five minutes," reported the pilot.
Gabriella stared in awe as they approached the colony ship; it was not as big as the Washington DC 3 ship but had several smaller domes around the edge and a giant one on top. Additionally, all the decks seemed to have windows with lights turned on; it looked like a luxurious cruise ship.
"You better grab that pen. Once we are fully docked, we'll be spiraling with New Jupiter Island and have gravity again," remarked the court officer.
Gabriella reached up and grabbed the pen floating above her.
A large boom reverberated through the shuttle bus as they were docked. Once the airlock was sealed, Gabriella excitedly got up and exited the spacecraft.
When she stepped onto the New Jupiter Island colony ship, the first person she saw was a short, stocky balding man who was cleanly shaven with light brown hair circling the sides of his head. Could this be Dr. Orin Altman? She wondered because the pictures he sent portrayed him as fat and slobby; this man was neither.
"Gabriella? I'm Orin," the man said.
Gabriella's heart leaped; he was more than she thought she was getting. She could only smile and nod.