When all the models were changed into their identical black dresses, they were lined up and led into a domed outdoor theater.  

There was nothing unusual about being under a dome on Venus.  Every colony on the planet was built on a floating island.  From space, Venus was a mottled orange and yellow with black streaks across it.  The floating cities looked like scraps of bubble wrap with uneven bubbles covering the skyscrapers.  However, those buildings were mostly for show.  The majority of the people lived with the domes high over their heads.  

Ornette had had two previous contracts on Venus.  One was working on styling a millionaire who had a serious problem controlling his temper.  The second had been designing clothes for a man who fancied himself a clothing designer.  What that meant was that he owned four Sleeping Beauty Inc. models who designed clothes for his collection.  He chose his favorites and claimed the credit for designing them.  All in all, he had been one of the best owners she had ever had—definitely in the top three.  She didn’t care if she got credit.  She was getting her fee and she had the freedom to try all kinds of bonkers designs.  He often took her work and paraded it around in high Venusian society where he received top marks for it.  He mostly kept his hands to himself because his clothing designs got him down the pants of women much fancier than her… Most of the time.

It was a shame Ornette couldn’t remember his name as she stood under the dark yellow sky where she could see the clouds whipping overhead with the speed of the wind.  The air on Venus wasn’t breathable and the wind made everything unstable.  The humming of the wind stirring the heavy metal under her feet never stopped on the yellow planet.

Again, it was a shame she couldn’t remember that designer’s name because of the fifty men staring at her, he was in the forefront.  

It was okay.  She had time to think it over.

He couldn’t come up to her immediately.  She was part of a show and he was part of the audience.  

In front of the women, lined up all twelve in a row, there were three thrones—seats of honor.  Her old boss was not included in the three head organizers.  There were two wings of men flanking the thrones.  There was more than one row.  She did the math quickly and saw that there were twenty-five men on either side.  The show wasn’t just for them though.  There were still cameras floating and sticking out everywhere.  It was being filmed for a later broadcast.

Ornette did everything she could to keep her chin up and to keep her expression neutral with a slight tick toward the positive.  Looking scared wouldn’t win her any points here.  Now, if only she could remember the name of that designer.    

Once everyone was in place, the man in the center throne had an assistant in a black baseball cap adjust his microphone and step forward.  

Ornette didn’t have a microphone.  She wasn’t going to need to talk at this phase of their show.

“Welcome!” he said again (he was clearly the owner of the voice that spoke to them over the speaker system when they first awoke).  “Welcome, My Beauties from Sleeping Beauty Inc.  Welcome to the first episode of the new reality show, Goldilocks Zone.  I’m your Papa Bear, Varner Hutchings.”

The man calling himself Papa Bear looked like a retired Ultimate Fighter champion.  He had muscles bulging from everywhere.  The man was even wearing a suit and he was causing the lapels of his suit to widen and open to accommodate his pecs.  He had been waxed and tanned to perfection, his brown eyes shining under his dark eyebrows and his weirdly exact hairline.  He was precisely the kind of man who scared Ornette most because she was built like a bird.  If a man built like that decided to take a swing at her, he’d break open her braincase.  

Her left hand started shaking.  Her dress had enough folds for her to hide the telltale sign.

Varner drew the two men on either side to join him.  “This here is Rolf.  He’ll be your Uncle Bear.  And this is Tommy.  He’ll be your Brother Bear.”

Rolf bore enough of a similarity to Varner that Ornette immediately categorized him as another Ultimate Fighter.  

Tommy was blond and round.  He wasn’t really round, but when he stood next to Varner, he looked pudgy, round, and short.  He stopped looking that way once he took a step away.  A few paces off, he looked kind of cute in a non-threatening kind of way.  The freckles across his nose made him look harmless, but Ornette had been fooled by that look before.  As she was now, she’d bet her braincase he was more dangerous than he looked.  

Varner had the look that made him appear the most dangerous.  

“In this Goldilocks competition, we aren’t looking for the woman who is ‘just right’.  We’re looking for the one who is too hot.”

Screens lit up on either side of the models with the words, ‘Too Hot!’

Ornette struggled not to roll her eyes.  She bet she knew what this competition was about.  She hoped they offered good rewards because otherwise, it was going to get boring fast.  

“As some of you have already guessed, all of you are Diva models.  This is going to be a fashion competition with rewards and penalties.  On this side of me is a collection of clothing designers who will be participating in challenges with you and judging your efforts.” 

That was the side Ornette’s mystery designer was sitting on.

“On the other side, we have prominent businessmen who will provide opportunities for collaborations and judge you with their votes at the end of episodes.”

Ornette didn't know what any of that meant.  She was focusing on the men and trying to spot anyone else she knew besides the designer on the first row.

She found one.  Desmond was sitting among the businessmen.  He was in the back, but he stood out enough to be noticed with his shock of white hair.  His legs were crossed in a careless way and he looked painfully bored. His eyes were directed away from the ladies on the floor.  

Varner was still explaining.  “We’ll spend the first two episodes getting to know you and helping you to get to know our panel of designers and businessmen.  This week is merely a meet and greet.  Next week you’ll be assigned a designer who will present you with one of his creations.  You’ll participate in a fashion show and then attend a wine and cheese reception with all the designers, businessmen, and us, the three bears.  Depending on how well you perform, you could end up with a public contract as an understudy to a famous designer, or you could be the face of a lucrative company, or you could end up as the woman on the arm of one of us bears!  That would be the best of all three worlds, a career in fashion, fame, and enough money so that you’ll never have to sell yourself again!”

All that sounded too good to be true to Ornette.  There had to be a catch.

For starters, Ornette did not care for the theme of the show.  Being a Cinderella model was bad enough, but being cast as Goldilocks was terrible.  What kind of awful challenges had they thought up?  Eating something too hot or too cold?  Sitting on some man’s lap like it was a chair and letting him decide whether her ass was too hard or too soft?  Or getting into someone’s bed and someone judging her on whether or not she was too hard or too soft in the sack?   

Not only that, but considering who was there, what they were offering, and how things normally went when poor people came into a sudden flush of cash, Ornette had a hard time believing that any of the possibilities Varner offered were even possible.  If her contract came into the ownership of her past designer (who she still couldn’t remember the name of), she knew exactly what would happen.  She’d make designs for him that he would take credit for until her contract was up.

That wouldn’t be that bad.

If her contract ended up being the property of one of the businessmen, that would be worse than getting a greedy designer.  She knew how that would go too.  She’d become a model exclusively, she'd never get to design clothes, and modeling all the time meant starvation to a woman her age.  Not to mention how handsy drunk businessmen got.

As for getting one of the three bears to choose her, Ornette did not think there was even the vaguest possibility that would happen.  The competition would be insane and dangerous.  Ornette decided to do everything she could to help the other models know that she was not trying to get the attention of the three bears.  She would point to her old designer owner and claim that she only wanted to get a contract with him until she was blue in the face.  Anything to avoid unnecessary conflict.  If only she could remember what his name was.  

For the rest of Varner’s speech, Ornette focussed on keeping her left hand steady and not rubbing away the lines of frustration that were peaking between her eyebrows.  

“There will be elimination rounds most weeks, and there will be ways to get immunity.  I actually have a surprise for you all.  I wasn’t going to award immunity to any of the models for the very first elimination round, but I was told there was an unusual act of bravery performed by one of the models.”

Ornette felt choked.  What was Papa Bear saying?  Papa Bear couldn’t be saying what she thought he was saying.

“Ornette Cleft…”

He was saying her name.  He shouldn’t be saying her name!

“Ornette noticed that her neighbor’s cryochamber was malfunctioning and before an assistant could come in and fix it, she had already finished the rescue.”  At this point, Varner started walking around casually.  “One of the things I was told when I pitched that I wanted to do this show was that Sleeping Beauty Inc. models would tear each other to ribbons if they were in competition with each other, but more specifically that Divas, Sleeping Beauty Inc.’s fashion category, would kill each other for the contracts we’re offering.  Ornette didn’t know what we had planned.  She didn’t know this was going to be a reality show.  Now ladies, you know and I know that we want drama for this show.  We want excitement, but we don’t just want to see fierce competition.  We also want to see the kind of thing Ornette displayed.  It warmed our hearts and it has won her immunity from the first round of elimination.”

Ornette’s thoughts raced in all directions.  None of the other models other than Clandestine knew who she was.  The last thing in the world she needed was for Varner to make a big deal out of her and make it look like she was way ahead of the other models in their competition.

Her eyes met his.  The broad grin on his face was daring and threatening all at once.

Ornette dropped a shoulder and smiled at him.  

He was a pile of poo.  

He was a huge pile of poo.  What he was saying was not what he meant.  He was trying to draw attention to her, trying to make the other girls envy her, trying to cause drama right at the get-go. His words were painting a target on her face.

A waiter arrived at Varner’s elbow with a tray of champagne flutes.  Papa Bear himself took one from the tray and strode up to Ornette deliberately.  Handing her the glass of bubbling liquid, he said indulgently, “Welcome to Goldilocks Zone.”