Kolvin glared at him. "You cannot just take a humanoid and call it yours."
"If they say it is mine, then it's mine," Marcin replied.
Kolvin smacked Marcin on the back of the head. "We are not slavers!"
"Wait, no, that's not what it is," Vinka said.
"Sounds that way."
"It isn't slave trade. It's finding your mate, your love match."
"What do you know about it?" Solkan snarled in the corner.
"Believe it or not, some of us have emotions, and wewantto find an emotional connection," Vinka said.
"Emotions are pointless," Solkan said.
Kolvin did agree with Solkan on occasion--though he found it ironic that Solkan would say that since he was the first to fight back in prison. He was confined to solitary many times because of his temper.
"Then partners. Whatever," Vinka said. "This isn't slavery either or ownership. This is about a deeper binding between two humanoids. There are all kinds of legal stuff in the Intergalactic Dating Agency's regulations that cover that. No one is forced to stay with anyone. They have a very high percentage rate--"
"Ninety-four-point-seven, but who's counting?" Re-lee said as she walked into the apartment. "Gentlemen, I take it you are about ready to meet your mates?"
"So, they're taken from another place and brought here?"
Re-lee nodded. "Sometimes, we send the males to the females, but in this case, we're bringing the females to us. It has been most interesting so far."
Kolvin wasn't sure he agreed with that.
"But do not worry, no one is here against their will," Re-lee said, her little antenna on her head bobbing in the air.
"We do not like the idea of someone being taken without permission," Kolvin said. He refused to agree to anything that would be enslaving or imprisoning anyone. He experienced enough of that for himself to last a few lifetimes.
"Of course not," Re-lee smiled. "We want you to be happy, both you and your mate. We work to bring you to the best fitting mate we can find and let you live that life that truly does last through the stars."
Her gaze darted to Vinka. "Officer, can we speak privately?"
Vinka nodded. "Of course."
The two of them stepped outside of the apartment to speak.
"This is not how I expected our homecoming to be," Marcin said.
"We are not home yet," Solkan said.
"We will be," Marcin said.
"You seem optimistic of the future," Kolvin said.
"Anything is better than where we were."
Kolvin nodded. "We should be reconnected with Master System."
Solkan snorted. "We are outside of the blocking from the ship. If Master System wanted us, Master System would have connected to us."
"Unless they did something to us to prevent connection," Kolvin said.
"Master System would have found a way," Solkan said. His body started to tense, and he stepped forward, more aggressive than he had been up to this point.
