“Re-lee, there’s two more coming through!”
Re-lee turned away. “Already? Great. How fortunate!”
When the bright light burst around her again, this time, Jana covered her eyes. Two silhouettes took shape, and as they came into focus, she swore it was Polly and the other woman, Tori.
Tori came through first. “What is this? Are we kidnapped?”
Polly stepped forward. “Jana! You’re okay!”
Jana blinked three times. What a crazy dream this was! She shook her head.
“This is the Intergalactic Dating Agency,” Re-lee said.
“Wait, what?” Tori asked. “What did she say?”
“The Intergalactic Dating Agency,” Jana repeated.
“You can understand her?” Polly asked.
Jana nodded. About that time, another figure, a person who looked male, approached Polly and pressed a device behind her ear.
“Ouch!”
“It’s a communicator,” he said. “It helps you understand us.”
He hit Tori with the same device.
The brunette brought her fists up, ready to fight, but Jana touched her arm. “Shh, it’s okay.”
“Whatever this is, it is not okay,” Tori said.
Jana wasn’t in a place to disagree with her.
5
“They do not have anyone for us.” Olmed crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.
“You are so positive,” Erzo said, picking up his cup.
“If they did, we would have met them by now,” Olmed replied.
“They probably are getting treated and inoculated or whatever, like we did,” Erzo said with a shrug. He bobbed back and forth, sitting on his tail like it was a seat.
“We should be meeting them,” Olmed said.
“We will when it’s time,” Phares replied, picking up his cup of ale. They’d been brought to a lounge to wait until it was time to meet their mates after they’d left the medical offices. They’d been killing time for a few standard hours, even having been served a meal, though none of them ate much.
They all were nervous about the matchmaking. Olmed was the most obvious because his frustration was rising. Erzo tried to maintain peace about him, but that was just the way he was. Always the peacemaker.
Phares, though, was starting to slip into Olmed’s way of thinking, that maybe this dating association could not find them matches, and he’d be back to hunting for someone to ease his Fever naturally.
He forced himself to watch the galactic data reports that were projected down from the ceiling in holographic form.
“She’s pretty,” Erzo said, gesturing to the new Terran Empire’s queen or whatever she was.
“For royalty,” Phares added.
“What’s wrong with royalty?” Erzo asked.
