Page 3 of Alexis

“One more time,” she called out. “From the turns.”

“Are you certain?” The voice was so perfectly modulated it almost sounded real.

The more time Alexis spent with Oberon, the AI who had designed the Midsummer Fertility Center and who ran its immense programming, the more she had begun to consider him almost a friend.

It wasn’t like she had anyone else here. And he certainly understood better than anyone else could what she was going through.

She had signed an NDA when agreeing to come. And her friends who were already in the program were seldom able to send a comm.

“My ankle doesn’t really hurt,” she told him. “It was just a twinge. Like a ghost of a pain.”

“I understand the concept of pain,” Oberon said. “But I have never experienced it. What you are describing sounds like an echo in programming, when data is stored in its original form in one place and a copy resides elsewhere as a back-up, unused.”

“So, I felt areferenceto my actual pain, but not the pain itself,” Alexis said thoughtfully. “Yeah, that’s actually pretty close.”

“But if you felt no pain, then why did you adjust the angle of your left hip by two degrees?” Oberon asked.

“Gods, you’d make an amazing choreographer,” she said, shaking her head.

“I would not,” Oberon said without sadness. “I understand the limitations of the human form, but not what is pleasing to watch.”

“Watch enough ballets and that part is easy,” she said.

“I have just watchedAfternoon of a Faun, AgonandAlice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” Oberon said. “I do not understand further than before, but I will continue and report back to you when I have completed throughZoraiya, if you wish.”

“Youwatchedthose ballets just now?” Alexis asked, incredulous.

“I downloaded streamed video of their recordings to my heart drive,” Oberon said. “But the critical literature I have scanned gives me to understand that nothing matches the breathless uncertainty of a live performance.”

“You can say that again,” Alexis said ruefully. “That’s how I hurt my ankle in the first place.”

“I have just received word that your match’s craft has landed,” Oberon said.

“Now?” Alexis asked.

Her heart began to pound. She was wearing her workout clothing and covered in a sheen of sweat. She wasn’t ready to make a good impression.

“You have approximately seventeen minutes until he is off-board and ready to meet you,” Oberon said.

“I’ll shower and change,” she told him, hoping she actually had time.

It was better that her match thought she was a little late than thinking she was smelly or careless about her appearance.

Though he would be from another planet - so she had no idea what he would consider to be beauty or ugliness. Maybe a sweaty woman in a cling suit was top-shelf where he was from.

But she would feel better if she thought she was more presentable.

Best thing I can do is build up my confidence,she told herself, heading for her suite.It’s all I’ve got.

2

TIAGO

Tiago Torrn adjusted his tie again as he walked barefoot down the beach toward what he hoped was his destiny.

Though Tiago had plenty of credits to spend, he had never taken a beach vacation before. And he had seldom worn a tie.

The blasted thing seemed to be trying to choke him out. He wasn’t entirely sure that a man with a neck as wide as his was even meant to wear a tie. It came up short on his button-down shirt when he compared it to how his manager’s ties always looked.

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