The idea made Adryel smile.
But the poor alien!
“Don't be an ass,” Adryel snapped at her. “Every one of us has a chance.”
“Sure. In theory,” Roemary said and stalked off, her glossy perfected hair shining in the light. She turned to Sereya and smirked. “They're so cute, thinking they will find someone.”
Adryel spit out a curse she’d learned when she was a kid. If they fell out the air lock, she wouldn’t miss them.
There was something about Roemary that made Adryel see red.
One of these days, Adryel was going to punch her in the face.
Janae started scratching at her brow again. The little white flakes fell off her skin, revealing thicker marred red skin underneath.
“Stop,” Adryel whispered to her.
Janae put her hands in her lap. “Sorry,” she whispered back.
“Are you girls ready?” Graecey approached Adryel and Janae, her warm smile spreading out over her face.
They weren't alone in the common area, most of the females who were part of the program milled about in their little clusters. Excitement bubbled from every little group. Normally, Adryel would make fun of everyone's enthusiasm, but she couldn't. Not without making fun of herself as well, because she was a little excited too.
Underneath that excitement was tension, between everyone. Nerves started to get higher and anxiety was mixing with the excitement, and it made a weird energy. Not bad, but every one of them knew that this was going to be a life-changing day for just a few of them.
But there was no way to know which one of them that would be.
“Think so,” Janae replied, her voice low and meek.
“It's a battle,” Adryel said, her gaze darting back to Roemary. Roemary happened to glance over as well, and once again, that hot, angry feeling ran over her.
Roemary just made her angry.
She had to ignore Roemary, and get on with this. Adryel had a purpose and a plan, and she had to stick with the plan. Stay away from Kerde and the Rhysgarrds.
“Knowing what aliens choose to like, well, that is a hard thing to predict. Especially in this situation,” Graecey said, jarring her attention away from Roemary, and back to the impending arrival.
“Why do you say that?” Adryel asked. What was special about this situation? She'd seen all the images at their office. They did this all the time, bringing together different species.
Some of those little alien mixes were cute little things.
She glanced at Janae, who was listening, but not. She'd seen her friend's expression when she didn't want to be there. It was her nerves; worry marred her features.
“This is our first time bringing females to the Kantenans.”
Adryel blinked. “I thought this was standard procedure.”
“This experiment is. But a planet must apply and be accepted into the program. We've brought females to many different worlds, but each world had to apply and meet certain criteria.”
“What criteria?” Janae asked.
“They had to have a need for infusing the population with new genomes, for one.”
“And do the Kantenans?” Adryel asked.
Graecey nodded. “Yes, they do.”
“What else do they have to do?” Janae asked.
