Page 8 of Doran

“Why, thank you, ma’am,” he replied as he walked us outside. Both of us ignored Caleb’s muttered “Gross” at my comment. He glanced around. “Where are you parked?”

“We took the bus,” I admitted.

“We don’t have a car,” Lucy piped up.

“Please, let me drive you home. Or if you’re not comfortable with that, call you an Uber or a Lyft.”

It was dark and cold, and the bus stop was three blocks from our home. It would be nice to not have to take two different buses and then walk, so I caved.

“Well, everyone knows we were with you, so I reckon we’re safe accepting a ride.”

“I promise I’m good to drive.”

It had been a small bottle of wine, and we’d followed it up with ice water, plus we’d had a large meal with plenty of carbs, and had been there nearly two hours thanks to how slowly Caleb and Lucy ate, so I was certain he probably was.

“I trust you,” I replied.

“Mom, there’s no seat for Lucy,” Emma reminded me.

“Oh, she’s right. Um, we best not then.”

“I’ll call you an Uber then,” he smiled, pulling out his phone. “There’s a car seat option. I’ll have them provide her a booster seat. There you go. It’s a guest ride, so just count it as part of my share for tonight. It says it’s fifteen minutes out. Let’s go wait in my car so we’re out of the cold.”

“Thank you.”

He really was a nice man. It wasn’t meant to be between us, but it gave me hope. Somewhere, some day, I’d meet another nice guy, and he’d be the one. Maybe he’d be someone who came to visit the colony for work even some kind of space trucker delivering goods. I inwardly smiled at the thought. It didn’t matter, anyway. Soon, I’d have a paid-for home and business, securing our futures, no man required. I just had to show up and take that test tomorrow.

5

SARAH

I’d enjoyed a restful sleep, a feeling of calmness filling me after last night’s dinner. Having all the uncertainty surrounding our living circumstances lifted filled me with a confidence I hadn’t felt in years. I might be on my way to take a mate matching test as part of my colonial application, but regardless of the outcome, I’d secured us all a safe, comfortable future.

My appointment was for eleven in the morning, so I was able to see the children make it onto their respective school buses and pack what we needed to bring with us right away, like the instructions the Center sent me along with the contract that came with my appointment confirmation had said. Today was the last day we’d be here, mate or no mate, so when the Mylos driver pulled up, I handed him our bags and Sweetie’s things, then got into the car with her. It was a short ride, and the Mylos male opened the door for me to get out, wished me good luck, and began unloading my stuff and bringing it inside.

I was one of three women there for the eleven o’clock testing slot, it appeared, along with two men.

“I’m Krychek, the Mylos officer in charge here,” another Mylos male said from behind the desk.

A Dragonii with light green skin and scales of a darker green inclined his head. “And I’m Kharok, the Dragonii half of our team. If you’ll please come up and confirm your name and take a data pad, we’ll take your drink orders. You may help yourself to the lovely donut holes on the table in the seating area.”

We lined up, and two at a time, gave our names and accepted one of the alien data pads. Kharok hadn’t been kidding about the drinks order - they noted down if we wished tea or coffee or something else and came out with it after settling us down with instructions on how to access the data pad, which was easy enough. All we had to do was press our thumb to an area of the screen and then hold it up to scan our eyes. After that, we simply tapped the flashing icon to access the written part of the test, typed our name into the relevant section, and we were ready to start answering the questions.

The questions were like the most thorough dating profile ever, combined with some designed to discover our sense of ethics. I suspected they were a bit personally tailored by the Mylos’s famous sentient AI, Xeranos, once we logged in, as mine had a series of questions related directly to running a small inn. I indicated in my answers that I wished for it to be both long and short term in nature, so I could meet more of the needs of whichever colony I went to.

I see it as a large home rather than a commercial hotel; I wrote to the question asking me to envision my business and describe it. Like a rooming house with a few guest rooms where people simply visiting for a few days can stay. And a separate part of the house where our bedrooms would be, as well as a playroom for kids, including mine, to be able to use while living or staying there. A large dining room, where everyone gathers to eat at the same time, as I’d be providing meals as part of the room and board. As for how it looks, I think it should reflect the local architecture, but if I got to pick whatever I wanted, a simple white three story house with an attic and a front porch with rocking chairs and tables with game boards where folks could play checkers or chess. Maybe one like that and another table with a similar sort of Dragonii game, so no one feels left out. And a backyard with a clothesline and plenty of room for our dog and my kids to play with friends. And if I get any land with it, space for a garden and small orchard, so I can serve stuff we grow ourselves.

I finally finished and was relieved to discover I wasn’t the last to do so. I was, however, startled to discover that it was after one o’clock. Kharok offered us refills and showed us the way to the restrooms while we waited for the remaining two people to finish. They did so around fifteen minutes later.

“Excellent,” Krychek said. “The datapads are yours to keep, and now if you’ll come up two at a time, we’ll take your DNA swab, and Xeranos will process the results.

I licked my lips nervously. This was it. In just a few minutes, I was going to find out if I was one of the rare people to find they had an alien mate, as well as just where our new colonial home was going to be.

My mouth went dry at the thought, and I was afraid Krychek wouldn’t get enough saliva from inside my cheek, but he somehow managed. I’d been one of the first to go up, so there was a short wait while the two males collected the rest of the samples, sealed and labeled them, and carried them back to the large machine in the rear of the office space.

I sipped nervously as they fed them into a receptacle one at a time, my hands shaking a little. I jumped a little, as did nearly everyone else when a chiming sound sounded.

“Congratulations, Merrilee Simons! You’ve been matched!” came a voice I recognized from popular media as belonging to Xeranos.