Chapter 6

6

“ W ow, that was weird,” Brooklyn said to Jenny, once they got settled in their apartments on the station.

“What?” Jenny asked, her mind still not fully settled into the fact that she was actually in space, in orbit, around her planet. She reached over and pinched her arm.

“Did you just pinch yourself?”

“Well, yeah. Doesn’t it feel like some kind of dream?” Jenny asked.

Brooklyn grinned. “Something, for sure.”

Mister Fluffikins meowed as he pranced throughout the space apartment, sniffing and rubbing on everything, determined to make this place home.

“Space apartment,” Jenny said, looking around. “It seems rather dorm-like, doesn’t it?”

“I don’t know what kind of dorm you had, but I sure didn’t have a couch and kitchen in my dorm. The only thing dorm-like in here is the fact that we share the bathroom.”

“True,” Jenny said. “I didn’t actually live in a dorm. I lived at home while I went to school.”

“Cheaper that way. I had the dorm experience. Two out of ten, would not recommend.” Brooklyn said, her gaze darting to Mr. F as he roamed around. “He seems happy.”

“Think he’s just happy to be out of the carrier.” Jenny watched her new friend. “Why didn’t you like the dorms?”

“Mean girls, mostly.”

Jenny nodded, understanding fully. “They’re at every school, aren’t they?”

“Yep.” She glanced out the windows. “If they could see us now, right?”

“Exactly!” Jenny grinned. “Who’s a nerd now?”

“Selfie!” Brooklyn said, and pulled out her own phone, and they posed for several shots.

“Too bad we can’t post them,” Brooklyn said. “There’s a few people I’d love to see their faces.”

Jenny smiled just as Mister Fluffikins leaped onto the back of the couch, and walked up and down it, pausing only to rub his face on one spot or another. Marking his scent on the furniture.

“Oh, did we forget you?” Jenny said, petting his head.

He spun around and started rubbing his face on the couch.

“How could we,” Brooklyn said with a far-away look in her eyes.

“Yeah, Mr. F is pretty special.” She petted him again, and he arched his back into the stroke before strutting away.

Brooklyn waved her hand. “Not that. I mean that alien from before! He came right over to you!”

“Okay, so that was a little, uh, odd,” Jenny said, recalling the alien, well over six feet, his white hair with glints of gold and silver, and pale skin.

“A little?”

“A lot, okay.”

“He was like glittery. Kind of, like he had gold all over him. And pale skin.”

“I remember. It was like he fell into a tub of glitter.”

“But in a good way,” Brooklyn said. “Not a gross way.”

“Did you see his ears? The points? Like he was some kind of elf?” Jenny asked. “And that white hair?”

“Elf, like a Christmas elf?” Brooklyn laughed.

Jenny grinned. “If he’s what Santa’s elves look like, well, I don’t blame the big man for spending all that time at the North Pole.”

Brooklyn tossed her hair. “Let me make you a toy, baby,” she said, in a fake deep voice, and fluffed her hair.

“Oh god!” Jenny laughed. “Put him in a Santa hat, and I’ll bet he’d melt all the girls’ hearts!”

“No kidding. And that hair! It was, well, it was beautiful. How do men get hair that has that kind of body? Seriously?”

“Right?” Jenny said. They both laughed, because, really, why do boys have all the hair luck?

“I’d sneak into his bathroom to steal his shampoo, for sure!” Brooklyn said.

Jenny grinned. “Is that all you’d steal from his apartment?”

Brooklyn held up her hands. “Did you see the size of his hands?”

Jenny nodded. “I did.”

“You know what they say about a man’s hands.”

“What?”

“That it relates to the size of other parts of him.”

Jenny grinned. “You have a naughty mind.”

“You thought it too,” Brooklyn said, stretching out on the couch. “The whole idea of this dating aliens thing had me intrigued at first. And if he’s what they offer, well, let’s be real, he was beautiful.”

“In an artsy way,” Jenny said. Because he was. Like he was so pretty. He had the cheekbones and the jaw, and the eyes and the hair. It was a total package.

“Come on, I saw the way you were staring at him.”

Jenny shrugged. “He’s an alien. I can’t say that’s a bad thing, but let’s be real. There’s one test case, and who knows how many alien breeds. We saw how many different types as we were getting our tour? I mean, there was Polly’s husband, Erzo, with the tail. There was the one with the pig-nose.”

“Like a smart Gamorrean Guard, from Star Wars.”

“Exactly. And there were the ones with horns or antenna, and who knows what else. I think I saw a few that resembled sasquatch down where we landed. I mean, it’s so weird. It’s like a movie set, but not. I keep expecting someone to pop up and say ‘Cut!’”

“This from the girl who brought her cat to the space station.”

Jenny shrugged. “I wasn’t leaving Mr. F behind. Something could have happened to him.”

Brooklyn raised her eyebrow. “Like what?”

Jenny waved her hand. “Nothing important. Just that I didn’t want anything to happen to him.”

Mister Fluffikins came over, stopped, stared at her, and patted her leg.

Jenny looked at him. “Right, you must be starved.”

She hopped up to get him some food to eat. She’d packed dry food for him, though it wasn’t his favorite. But he’ll live. They were on a space station, after all. Things needed to be as simple as possible while she was here.

“How long do you think we’ll be here?” Jenny asked.

Brooklyn shrugged and glanced out the window. “I don’t remember anyone saying how long it would be. Do you have plans?”

She shrugged. “Not exactly. I just didn’t know if we’ll be here through Christmas.”

“Would you complain if we were?”

“Not at all,” Jenny said. “We’re in space. In orbit of our planet! How many people get to say they have done that, anywhere on the world? A handful, maybe. No, I’m not worried about missing Christmas.”

“Well, if we are, we’ll find some way to make a Christmas tree.”

Jenny grinned. “That would be fun.”

She put the food down and approached the window with Brooklyn.

They stood there, staring out at it.

She could watch the Earth turn through it, and it gave everything a surreal feeling.

She was in space.

SPACE!

It absolutely was crazy bizarre.

And they were going to help aliens meet Earth girls.

Talk about taking it to another level.

“Welcome, everyone, grab some breakfast. We have savory and sweet items, and fruit for everyone,” Polly said, gesturing to the spread on the table. The conference room they were hustled into this morning was small, but at least the breakfast spread was good.

Jenny filled her plate with some fruit and toast for her meal for the day.

Brooklyn joined her with her own array of breakfast food and a cup of coffee.

Jenny watched the others get their food, and everyone took a seat, low conversation murmuring.

“Now they tell us what we’re really doing here,” Brooklyn said.

Jenny glanced at her before cutting up her cantaloupe. “What do you mean? What are you thinking about?”

“It’s been on my mind all night,” Brooklyn said, her voice low. “I mean, logic it out. There’s like six of us, right? We’re here to test and make sure the systems work with our people’s DNA?” She gestured to Polly. “I don’t think it’s going to be a problem.”

“What if she’s just an anomaly? That’s why we’re here.”

“As test subjects?” Jenny asked.

Brooklyn nodded. “It makes little sense otherwise.”

Jenny thought about what her friend said. Her logic was sound. “So why us? Why not?—”

“Why not a bigger populace?” Polly asked, glancing at Jenny.

“You have the hearing of a bloodhound,” Brooklyn said.

Polly shrugged. “I get the questions, because I would have asked the same thing. Why would we bring you all here? Simple really.”

“Testing,” Re-lee said as she came in, her delicate antenna on her head bouncing slightly as she came in. “We are investing a lot in this base. If it doesn’t work, we need to adjust our plans.” She glanced at Polly, and they both shared a smile.

“However, we’re pretty sure it’ll work,” Polly added. “I’m not the first Earth girl to get brought into the Intergalactic Dating Agency’s program.”

“You weren’t given a choice, you were just taken,” Mitchell said, his chin raised in a defiant glare.

“I was,” Polly said. “From a certain point of view. However, I was also given free will, and a chance to go home after everything was settled.”

“Why didn’t you?” Brooklyn asked.

She smiled. “I fell in love with that big green guy. I didn’t want to leave him. I also didn’t want my family thinking I was a lost cold case for the rest of their lives either. So a process was started.”

She waved her hand in the air.

“And here we are,” Re-lee finished.

“Here we are, indeed,” Mitchell said.

“So explain the process,” Jenny said. “How will this work, in a perfect scenario? So we know what we’re exactly needed for.”

“Our clients are looking for a mate. Our system goes through the data we take in from the clients, and look for other clients who are a match, following physical, mental, and physiological needs.”

“What about children?”

“That is also considered in our matching. Whether there are pre-existing children, or the client is looking to have offspring, or if not, it’s all cataloged in the system,” Re-lee said. “We truly try to calculate for every variable.”

“Which is why you’re here,” Polly said. “There are Earth variables that are new to add into the system, and make sure that all participants are vaccinated for.”

“Like what?” Brooklyn asked.

Polly glanced at Re-lee.

Re-lee gave her an imperceptible nod.

“We are still determining what all we can vaccinate for, but so far, we know diabetes is one.”

Jenny gasped. “A vaccine for diabetes. All of them?” The idea overwhelmed her. She’d known enough people with it, how they struggled with their sugar balances all their lives, and knowing that a shot could fix them.

The millions of people that would save every year.

The thought was staggering.

“You can cure diabetes?”

The room erupted in words from all the others. They were just as shocked as she was.

“What else can your medicines do?” Mitchell said, though he sounded more upset than anything.

“That’s why we’re starting with small test groups first,” Polly said. “To make sure that we do this right, and carefully monitor. I mean, let’s be real. Who in here would just take a vaccine cocktail from an alien, without knowing what they were getting or why?”

Jenny raised her hand. “I would.”

“Really?” Mitchell said. “You wouldn’t even know what they’re giving you.”

“We’re all going to die anyway. I’d rather die helping others, than being afraid.”

There were much worse things to be afraid of than some medicine.