Page 60 of Right on Time

Nitiel was speechless.

Trixie clapped, startling everyone. “It’s not just good: it’s perfect!” She bounced with excitement on the desk. “For a moment there I got worried we had messed up by tempting fate. You know, like when you lie to your parents you’re sick to avoid going to school, and end up getting sick for real shortly after?” Trixie clapped some more. “Aahhh, I’m so happy! See, boo bear? I told you everything would work out at the end. It’s not a great sci-fi romance if it ends without a HEA.”

Sci-fi romance? Lying to parents? Tempting fate? What the heck was going on?!

A look at Nitiel revealed he was just as perplexed.

“Forgive my niela,” Vrixiel interfered, his expression only slightly less worried than it had been upon their entry in the office. “In her excitement, she forgets you need a proper explanation.”

“I do not forget, boo bear. I simply let my joy loose for a bit, after having kept it bottled down for long, torturous minutes. I think I deserve it, after pulling this off.”

“That is what the champagne is for,” the Commander said. “Not just to drink to these two heroes who saved the station from the Hishchians, but also to celebrate what the three of us pulled off.”

What. The. Hell.

Trixie picked the bottle up. “Are you kidding me? This is kids’ champagne!”

“It’s bubbly and grape-flavored. I know my quality Terran alcohol, Lady Trixie–”

“What the fuck?”

That finally got the Commander’s attention.

Chloe marched on. “Will someone explain what is happening here?”

“Yes. Please,” Nitiel chimed in and retook Chloe’s hand.

The Commander tilted his chin at Nitiel. “First I want to know why you are here, Subcommander. I have a good idea from the way your wing is intimately wrapped around this female, but I wish to hear you say it.”

Chloe felt Nitiel standing taller beside her, then he brought their entwined hands to the center of his chest. “This Terran is mine, Commander. Mine to love with both my hearts. Mine to cherish every single planetary cycle. Mine to call niela until the last molecule of oxygen leaves my lungs. No matter what the ASI says.” He looked at Chloe before adding, “If Lady Loe would have me.”

Chloe found it hard to breathe. His words were like a wedding vow; how could she possibly not melt in a puddle at the sweetness?

“Lady Chloe?” Siriniel prompted. His lips were stretched into a knowing smile.

Chloe turned to Nitiel. “I would have Subcommander Nitiel. Totally. I may have one heart only, but it belongs to him entirely. He belongs to me. No algorithm can change that.”

Nitiel looked ready to kiss her for the possessive statement, but propriety kept him in place.

Chloe didn’t care about propriety. She grabbed him by the uniform and slanted her lips over his.

The champagne bottle popped, cutting that much-needed kiss short. “Cheers to the ASI that brought one more niela to her niel,” the Commander announced while pouring the kids’ drink in the futuristic curly glasses. “May you produce many Gaenthian babies, strong and honorable like their father.”

Just like that, the confusion was back. Why cheer to the ASI?

“Commander?” Nitiel asked hesitantly.

“You heard me, Subcommander. The ASI matched this female to you.”

And Chloe had thought her jaw couldn’t hang any lower.

“But… Commander?” Poor Nitiel was even more shocked than her. “How? The ASI–I’m not on the database–I’m clan-less!”

Siriniel relaxed into his seat and took a delicate sip of the kids’ champagne. “You have your mother’s clan. That is what I entered in the ASI database.”

“But–But that’s illegal!”

Siriniel nodded. “You have not been recognized by your mother’s parents, that is so. But clan-less by our laws or not, you have been matched. The authorities can do nothing now that the ASI has spoken and your bond has been consummated. It has been consummated, correct?”

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