Page 9 of Mated on Live

As he was contemplating his options, a new comm request beeped through. He grabbed onto the opportunity gratefully.

“I’m getting another comm. I’ll message you back with my decision.”

Nox made a dull sound of disbelief, but Serval ignored him as he switched to the other comm – a video call this time. The furry, muzzled face of a male kreecharma filled his screen. His comm signature indicated that his name was Vigo, though Serval had never met him before. He was pretty sure he hadn’t anyway, though it wasn’t impossible. He’d met and interviewed a lot of people in his time.

“Serval speaking, how can I help you?” He answered calmly, desperately hoping that this male was a contact of his that he didn’t recognize, come to save him with an actually good story.

“Hello, Serval. My name is Vigo. I’m the owner of a company called True Match.”

“Never heard of it.”

“I’m not surprised. We haven’t had a location open on the allowee homeworld yet. That’s not important though. I’m comming you now about a scan you did for a colleague of mine. About two and a half Standard years ago.”

Serval frowned, thinking back. A scan from three years ago? Being on battlefields and in dangerous situations meant that Serval went through mediscans a lot. To isolate just one time from so long ago…

“It would have been an experimental scan. And it would have been very uncomfortable.”

“Oh, that one,” Serval sat up, grimacing at the memory. “I was doing a story on some male’s lab. He was working on a sort of cure or treatment for something or other. That was the last time Nox sent me on a fluff piece, actually, now that I think about it.”

“What?”

“Never mind. I remember. What about it?”

“The scan was performed to obtain multiple subjects for my research.”

“Yeah, he told me it was for someone else. Paid me for it too.” Serval sat back in his chair, crossing his arms. “It was about subspace waves or something, right?”

“Yes. I developed a program that is capable of matching people to their mates based upon deep, subspace scans, never needing them to meet at all.”

Serval’s brows and curiosity raised. “Really? That would be incredible if it worked.”

“It does work. We have multiple successful locations on my home planet, as well as a few others. We have currently matched hundreds of mates successfully, with more coming. And you, I’m pleased to say, are one of them.”

Serval’s brow furrowed this time. “I’m what? Matched? You… You found my mate?”

Vigo dropped his head, a gesture he didn’t recognize. “Your mate was scanned just a few marks ago. Normally, I wouldn’t comm personally to tell people that a match has been made, but yours is very special, and we wanted to take advantage of this opportunity.”

“I thought you said your business wasn’t operating on my homeworld yet.”

“It’s not. Your mate is human.”

The floor dropped out from under Serval, and he felt like he had just crashed into freezing water. A mate? A human mate?

Humans were practically mythical creatures. They were a nearly advanced race of aliens that were currently a protectorate of the Coalition. They were the most sexual, fertile, and prolific race that had ever existed. They were so fertile, they were capable of crossbreeding with other races. Serval had followed the stories of the research into their race, stunned when he realized just how incredible their species was and what their ability could mean in the greater universe.

He had, unfortunately, not been able to make a story on them. The list of people allowed to even know where the human homeworld was located was a short one. And while he was sure he could find it if he really wanted to, he didn’t want the legal trouble that would follow if he did.

But if he was mated to a human…

“What does that mean though?” He frowned at Vigo. “If her people aren’t allowed off Earth, and I am not willing to live on a primitive planet, how can we be mated?”

“Humans are allowed off Earth if they are mated, with the understanding that they likely will not be allowed to return to keep Earth from obtaining any advanced technology. True Match has been given special permission to transport humans off Earth and to their mates – for a fee, of course. We aren’t a charity. But we are willing to wave the fee to bring your mate to you if you are willing to allow us to use your mating as advertising for our company. We don’t have an interspecies pairing yet, and we’d like to use you two.”

Serval smirked, seeing right through that excuse. “And I suppose the fact that I’m already famous had nothing to do with it?”

“Actually, it’s her fame we wanted, but yours is certainly a welcome surprise. She’s well known on Earth, and she is willing to go to space since she can still submit videos to her home subnet. We won’t ask much of you. We want to record your first meeting, and we’d like to have you perform a few photo shoots and ad reels for us on occasion. You will, of course, be paid well for this, we don’t expect it for free.”

Serval said nothing. Thinking quickly about the offer.

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