Page 35 of Mated on Live

Yesterday, she had made alien tea – literally, that’s all she did. Didn't even speak, just had some alien music over her actions. The short video had garnered so many hits, it was ludicrous.

Clapping, excited, she went back to what she had been fighting with this morning. Trying to get a phone call to connect back to Earth.

It was possible for her to call her family. She couldn’t do a video call. Her live stream when she met Serval had been an exception, not the rule. A lot of power and recourses had been diverted for that. But she had been promised that voice calls would still be possible.

But the instructions for how to do so definitely left something to be desired. Whoever had written these clearly had no consideration for weak mortals of a lower intelligence than themselves. She had needed to take a break wrestling with it and cheer herself up with her metrics and ad revenue. Her next paycheck was going to be so nice. And, like information and phone calls, her money would be transferable into credz – that was part of the treaty.

Right now, however, she was more interested in getting this dang phone call to work. Sophie closed out of her video metrics and found she had a new email. Jeanie had messaged, asking if she and Serval could do a photo shoot for True Match. They wanted pics of them together being cute and couple-y for their ad campaigns.

Sophie responded saying they were on it – that was the deal, after all – before closing out of that as well and getting back to her original mission.

It still took another hour before she finally heard the telltale, familiar sound of an Earth phone ringing echoing back to her through the line. Even then, she still found herself holding her breath until she heard the most beautiful sound in the world-

“Hola?”

“Mami!”

Her mother let out a wordless cry of excitement as Sophie felt tears forming. Then, laughter bubbled up as her mother launched into rapid fire Spanish, her words tripping over themselves as she tried to both yell for Sophie’s father to come to the phone, ask Sophie how she was doing, and telling the family to keep it down.

It was so good to hear from them again. She wished it could be a video call, but this was more than fine regardless. Her father joined the call and Sophie began fielding questions from both of them – an impressive feat, as they were talking over each other in their excitement.

She just smiled, loving hearing their voices. She told them about her new life, what was going on with her, and she asked for details on the family. Now that she had figured out, finally, how to make this call, she could promise that the next one wouldn’t take so long apart. There was just so much to catch up on, from both sides.

“Sophie,” Serval’s voice called over the intercom, interrupting her conversation. “Can you come to the bridge?”

“Yeah!” She yelled back. “Be there in a second! Mami! Un momento. M-Mami! Escuchar!”

Serval didn't respond, but she knew he heard her as she tried to get her mother to stop talking. She hurried to her feet as she rushed from the room, eager to introduce him to her family.

That was another new thing.

Her alien mate was triggered, so he was hers now. Well and truly. But part of her still wasn’t sure what that meant. They were still, essentially, strangers.

At the same time, she had never felt so instantly attracted to someone before. Even if no one had told her that they were mates, she would have known they had a connection. And she definitely would have pursued it.

Did she start acting like they were married right away? Did she try to keep it casual, even though it was anything but? What was the expected move?

She only took a wrong turn once, but she was able to backtrack and get to the bridge without any further problems. This ship really was huge. Which made her wonder how common things like this were in the universe. With all the planets of the Coalition connected like they were, there had to be some method of travel between them.

So, was this starship just like a fancy car? Or was it more like a private jet? Only the super rich could afford their own?

And if it was the latter, just how successful was Serval?

She made a note to ask Serval as she stepped onto the bridge. He was standing at the control panel, doing something, but she barely even noticed.

“Serval! Say hi to my family!” She declared, rushing towards him before speaking to her mom, in slow, careful English. “Mami, this is my boyfriend, Serval. Serval, this is my mami y papi, Carmen and Rafeal. Say hi. Speak slow, though, they’re still working on their English.”

Serval looked surprised, but he gathered himself quickly before speaking towards her combot. “Hello, Carmen and Rafeal. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Oh! Ay. Hola, Serval,” her mom started. Sophie could practically see her fanning herself with one hand, grasping her heart with the other. “Mucho gusto. Good to meet you. Heard so much of you!”

“Mucho gusto means nice to meet you,” Sophie whispered as her father chimed in, basically parroting his wife.

It was a fun conversation. Sophie pulled triple duty as the daughter calling home after too long, the daughter bringing home her boyfriend for the first time, and as a translator. Serval had the benefit of having English imprinted in his head, so he didn’t have any issue speaking to them, but her parents didn’t speak much English – it just wasn’t necessary where they lived. They also had very thick accents, so the English they did speak with harder for Serval to understand.

But all told, it was a nice talk. Her parents were sweet and open and loving. They asked about his job and his family. They told stories from their family. Her mom insisted she cook for him if they ever managed to visit Earth – that was a big ‘if’ considering the ban on bringing anything advanced or unknown back to her home planet.

But Serval was patient and considerate and treated her parents with respect. Which was all she could really ask for and she found herself hugging him gratefully when they finally finished up the phone call – promising to call them back often and send pictures all the time.

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