"Right there, just on the other side."
The two of them stepped through the arch.
A bright white light blasted them in the face, and everything felt like it stretched and tilted all around her.
A second later, Tori blinked.
Her foot hit the ground like she'd just stepped over a giant stair. But it wasn't the concrete pad she'd just been on in the park.
This was a metal grating over a floor.
She looked around, and Polly was right next to her. Polly grabbed Tori's arm.
"What is this?" Polly asked.
"I--" A sharp pain hit her on the side of her head, like a wasp sting just behind her ear. "Ouch!"
Polly winced as well, and Tori realized a dude had this gun thingy in his hand and was tucking it away.
"What did you do to us?" Tori demanded.
"It's your universal translator. So you can understand what I say."
Tori rubbed the spot, and felt the little metal disk there, just behind her ear. "Is it going to give me cancer or something?"
"If it does, we have the antibiotics for that," he said. "You'll all have to get vaccinated anyway, and we'll take care of anything like that in your system."
Polly blinked and touched Tori's arm. "Did he just make cancer sound like a cold?"
"We fell and hit our heads," Tori said.
"Think we all did," Jana said as she approached them. She looked confused, but at least she seemed okay.
"Welcome to the Intergalactic Dating Agency ladies," a pink woman with antenna on her head and big smile.
"The what?" Tori asked.
"The Intergalactic Dating Agency. Where we find love matches all across the stars."
Tori glanced at Polly. "Uh, I think we're dead."
"Something happened, that's for sure."
5
The lounge that Re-lee had brought them to had very few patrons at the moment, but there were holographic displays all around the room that created a soft hum of noise that reported the latest happenings around the galaxy. One came down from the ceiling over the center of the table, a smaller display of some of the bigger ones around the room.
Olmed watched the screen but he didn’t really register the words. He was more focused on the fact that they had been there for hours waiting, and no update.
He wanted to get on with his assignment. Get this done and move on.
Be released from any obligation to Dhomhes.
“They do not have anyone for us,” Olmed said as he 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.
