"So, what are we doing here?"
"I wanted to find a quiet place where I could work and write away from Marcin and everyone for a few hours. Marcin didn't want me going to some little eatery, because he was worried I would get into trouble."
"So, you came here?"
"It was his idea," Gianna said. "They even set me up with this really cool digital keyboard and everything so I could work. It's really neat."
"Okay, so you can write stories. That can't be why you dragged me down here."
"It's not."
She walked over to a door and palmed it open.
Inside was a couple of desks, one was cleared off and empty. The other had stacks of blocky cards and drawers that were opened. It had to be a physical filing system, from the way the words--
"I can read it," Tina said. "I can read the words!"
"They said we'd be able to adapt to reading soon enough," Gianna said.
And I started noticing the names.
Tina.
Gianna.
"These are our files."
Gianna nodded. "Yeah. And there's something you need to see." Gianna grabbed the card that had Tina's name on it and brought it over to the other desk. She plugged it into a slot that Tina hadn't noticed, and a hologram appeared.
At first, all Tina saw was basic info about herself. Hair color, eye color, weight, home world.
It was the line down a bit.
Hold For Thirty Days.
Tina blinked. "Hold? I don't understand what that means."
"Look here," Gianna said.
No medical necessity to prevent home world return if match is rejected.
"But what am I seeing?" Tina asked. Anger started to boil under her skin. Did this mean that she was being lied to this whole time?
Authorization, Re-lee. MS.
By the Intergalactic Dating Agency? This agency lied to her. What else did they lie about? How messed up is this whole thing? Have they lied to people for years? Tina's mind started spiraling with the anger and the fury in her head.
Tina turned to Gianna. "That means I can go home. Like today, if I want to."
She looked at her friend. "I can go back to Earth."
Footsteps made them both look at the door.
In walked Re-lee.
She sighed when she saw what they were looking at. "I really wish you had not seen that."
Tina put her hands on her hips. "You mean, there's no medical reason why I cannot go back to my home right now? Today?"
