Page 8 of Joven's Bride
Does she know that you may have to be away for many rotations at times?”
“I explained it to her, but I’ve got a good team. They will not need me to treat them like newbies. Most of them have served as long as I have,” Joven said. “I have all the surveillance equipment I need at my home. Most of the time, I will monitor from there, and coordinate with you if we have any breaches into Glasica space.”
“I don’t blame you,” said Rader. “We have both waited a long time to find our mates. This is our time to enjoy the pleasures of having a mate and making a family with her. We earned that right.”
“A hundred rotations are going to seem like a hundred solar orbits.” Joven shook his head.
Rader nodded. “It did while I was waiting for Skye to arrive. But the vid-chats helped ease the waiting because we talked in real time every day.
Carly found the Interstellar Matchmaking Office on a rural country road in the hills of West Virginia. It was an ordinary storefront building not much bigger than a specialty shop in a strip mall. The building with its parking lot was surrounded by woods on three sides.
A large multi-car carrier truck, parked on the left side of the office, was loaded with cars. A second, empty trailer unattached was parked far enough back to allow loading of the first. They were collecting the vehicles from the people leaving them behind. There was no room on the starship to carry them, and their fuel systems were obsolete on most Alliance worlds.
Carly was leaving her four-year-old compact car. It would be sold at auction and the money donated to a memorial scholarship fund in her friend Sara’s name. There were several choices for those leaving their vehicles to be sold. Money could be transferred to Alliance credits, sent to family members, or donated to charity.
Some of the people were just dropped off because they gave their vehicles to someone else. Carly had already removed anything personal from her car. All 50 kilos of what was going with her were in three matching footlockers that stacked on her wheeled luggage carrier.
She’d spent the last few weeks getting rid of everything else she owned. Her savings had all been converted to Alliance credits. It was nearly enough to pay her own way if she ever wanted to come back to Earth.
With everything she had learned about felines, and about Joven, she doubted she ever would. Carly felt pretty sure she had found the love of her life.
