Participants acknowledge that Tigris cultural pairings place significant importance on fertility, biological compatibility, and long-term household viability.
Household viability.
I almost laugh. Such neat words for ugly truths. Can your body carry children? Will you survive the pairing?
The clerk behind the desk says, “You’ll hold up the line if you don’t move.”
Heat flashes in my face. I press my thumb to the consent screen.
Inside, the building is white light and quiet floors. No shouting. No coughing. No children crying. Just cold air, polished surfaces, and the kind of silence money buys.
They guide me into a waiting room where women sit in rows wearing numbered wristbands. Some stare at the floor. Some look around too fast. One woman across from me is praying under her breath. Another keeps reading the compensation chart on the wall over and over like if she stares at it long enough the numbers might change.
I read it too. Base relocation stipend. Nutritional support package. Housing protection. Medical care. Higher compensation for fertile candidates selected for elite pairings.
Elite.
The girl outside said royal.
I push the thought down before it can grow. I am not here for dreams. I am here because there is a red warning screen on my wall and a lockout waiting for me if I fail.
A door opens.
“Applicant seventy-two.”
I stand. The band on my wrist glows faint blue.
The first room is for blood. A woman in a pale uniform motions me into the chair without much expression.
“Name?”
“Keandra Valein.”
She enters it into her screen.
“Age?”
“Twenty.”
“Any prior pregnancies?”
“No.”
“Any prior pair-bond contracts, legal marriages, or reproduction agreements?”
“No.”
She glances up just long enough to confirm I match whatever she expected from my file.
“Hold still.”
The needle slides in. Dark red fills one tube. Then another. Then another. I wonder how strangers can look at three small tubes and decide whether a woman’s life is worth moving across planets for.
When she caps the last one, she says, “Next room will handle hormone and pheromone sampling.”
I blink.
“Pheromone.”
