Mom waved her hand. “You’re right. I heard that if it says you’re a match, you’re already married by their laws, but get to have a wedding and honeymoon. You’ll need to call me immediately so I can sort out tunes and find you a place."
Dad and I stared at her in disbelief as she moved so swiftly from being sad her baby was grown up and going into space to work to deciding I was obviously going to be one of the rare matches and starting wedding plans.
She clapped her hands together. “I know! You can get married here in our yard! The honeysuckle is blooming, and you can stand under the arch! We’ll just livestream it for anyone who can’t come on such short notice. I can make a 2 tier cake and put a topper on it, and we can have cake and punch afterwards, and then Dad and I can take you both out to The Olive Garden.” She smiled triumphantly. “It won’t be anything fancy, but then that’s never been our style.”
“Shirl, that arch is over the front gate! We can’t ask them to stand in the gateway!” Dad’s flabbers were well past being ghasted. Mine weren’t, as Mom had come up with such doozies over the years. Like the time she up and decided to buy a plastic kiddie pool to throw me a pool party, when I was 12. Dad ended up saving the day by getting some rubber ducks and rigging it up like a carnival game, as well as setting up a corn hole set and a few other outdoor games he could spin as being on theme. “As for the restaurant-”
“The Olive Garden’s fine,” I hurriedly interjected. It was Mom’s favorite restaurant, and she was right - I didn’t like fancy pants. A delicious family meal, somewhere we had many happy memories together, was a wonderful way to start.
“Fine,” Dad mumbled. “But I stand by what I said about the gate.”
“The few guests can come in through the drive,” Mom declared. “We can go to the garden shop and pick up a planter with a trellis behind it and dress it up with a bunch of fake ivy. That gives it a backdrop and blocks the gate.”
“The guests will all be facing the street and the neighbors’ houses there.”
“So we’ll need to measure and get some more trellis planters and maybe some fake flowering trees,” she mused.
I knew this was a lost cause, and to be fair, if I did get matched, I wouldn't have cared if we had a human type ceremony or not, except for how important it was to her. So, she could arrange whatever, and we’d figure out how to make it work. Besides, no matter how much I might wish otherwise and dream of finding that special forever guy, the odds were higher that I’d win a triple roll over Lotto jackpot after stopping to buy a ticket at random and letting the machine pick the numbers for a single row.
I pointed my thumb over my shoulder. “I’m just going to go sort out what I want to pack.”
Dad sighed. “I’ll go find where Floof’s carrier got put in the garage after we put the tree and stuff back in there after Christmas.”
“Thanks, Dad,” I called over my shoulder, my feet already taking me towards my room.
“I’m going over to Judy’s,” Mom said. “She makes cards. I bet she could whip up invitations just fine.”
I only hoped that when I didn’t get matched this afternoon, she wouldn’t be too disappointed, as she seemed really invested in that a lot more than my job. Or maybe not.
“And if you’re not matched, some nice notecards I can send out telling everyone about you getting into that program. Everyone knows the Mylos provide an elite education, and their job benefits are literally out of this world.”
I chuckled under my breath. Yeah, okay. I’d give her that one.
6
ALEC
As promised, a car pulled up outside just before five. One long, bone crushing hug from my mother and a shoulder clap from my dad later, and my few boxes and a duffle bag were stowed away in the trunk while Floof and I climbed into the back seat.
“My name is Jimilok,” the Mylos driver informed me, his voice soft, surprising me as his size had me expecting a much deeper voice. “You may call me Jimmy, though.”
”Hi, Jimmy. Thanks for picking us up.” It was no problem. I had to return to my own apartment nearby and grab a few things myself, as you no doubt noticed while I loaded your things in. And if you’d like, you are welcome to sit up front instead of the back.”
“Ah, that’s okay, Jimmy. There’s more room for Floof’s carrier back here, and he’s less likely to start yowling if I’m next to him where he can see me.”
Jimmy grinned. “Understood.” He started the car and began to drive away. “I had planned to go to the local shelter this weekend to see about adopting a pair of bonded senior cats, but sadly, I do not think I will be able to do so now.”
”Why not?” I asked, my interest piqued.
“I am one of the recalled,” he replied.
”Recalled? Why - has something happened?” The last time the Mylos did a personnel recall, it had been because of some serious trouble. I really hoped this wasn’t the case now. Eventually, they would get tired of the bullshit and say fuck it and leave, and we’d all be worse off for it. Their presence had done a lot of wonderful things for our planet and the people and animals living on it.
He chuckled. “You could say that, but it’s nothing bad. Your leaders will be announcing it on the ten o’clock news anyway, so there’s no harm in telling you now. You’d hear about it on the shuttle as well, even if I didn’t tell you first. The Dragonii have signed a mating deal with your planet, and several of us have been recalled to help get the new program off the ground, as in some ways, we’ll be working together.” I blinked. “The Dragonii? You mean those dragon guys, like the one who was also a Mylos and was all over the internet and TV?”
“Yes, like him in that they are the same biological species, but also no, as in unlike him, the one agreeing to be mate matched would not be applying for a scholarship paid by the Dragonii, but for a place as a colonist on one of their colony worlds.”
My mouth hung open. “Wow. Do you have any idea how many people applied to become a Mars colonist before you guys even showed up? We didn’t even have a ship that could take them, just a promise that as soon as a ship design was figured out and built, they’d get to go as long as their health held out and they didn’t get too old in the meantime. Hundreds of thousands of people, from all walks of life, and every corner of the globe. And now the Dragonii, who not only have safe ships but an actual colony ready to accept them? They’re going to be overrun, even if they have to be actually mate matched to get a spot.”
