Page 20 of Unfinished

Sienna looked away from her sprawled out suitcases and up at the man who’d spoken to her. “Gate 42. I almost made it, too,” she said with a rueful grin.

“Need a hand?” He smiled and leaned forward to grab the closest bag.

“Sure,” she replied.

Maybe it wasn’t wise to let a stranger handle her luggage, but at this point, she couldn’t afford to be overly cautious. A quick glance at her wrist comm told her that she was running out of time. The walk towards her gate had been slower than she’d expected. Sienna sure hoped the glass ornaments she’d packed had survived the hover-pallet’s failure. She was hoping to decorate something for Christmas, even if it might not look anything like a traditional Christmas tree. She’d wanted to share a little of her own culture over the holidays, even if R’kash and Veesha might not fully understand why or what it meant.

“Where are you headed?” Sienna asked as she activated the individual hover-tethers for her larger bags. By the time she was done, they’d probably be tangled around her fingers like the strings from a cluster of errant balloons in an old children’s story.

The man grinned wide, showing off a bright white smile. “Same as you—gate 42.”

“Oh.” Sienna almost dropped the hover-tethers. “Really, that’s…great. So you’re going to meet your person, too?”

He laughed. “My person? Well, I guess you could say it like that. I like to think of it the way the Xithilene do, though. Reeva’s going to be my mate, my forever.”

Sienna smiled back, but it was a little harder to make it look real that time. This man made it all sound so romantic. It wasn’t that Sienna had reservations about R’kash, but it’d come to her as she’d attempted to sleep the night before—for all of their messaging and discussions and the images they’d shared of their favorite places, they hadn’t really talked about what happened next. Was he all set up for forever, starting the moment her foot touched Xithilene ground? The thought was a bit terrifying.

“Why do you have so much luggage? The Mate Portal provided my ticket to get here, and I was able to check my baggage at the beginning of my trip.”

Sienna looked up. “I went a little overboard with my Christmas shopping. Believe me, I know it’s silly since they don’t even celebrate it, but my…my mate, he has a daughter, and her birthday is in about a week. I wanted to bring her some special gifts.”

“Oh, that’s nice, but I meant, where are you coming from? Did you have to take a transport all the way here? Are you from the outlands?”

They passed gate forty-one. Sienna turned back to make sure her bags made it safely around the sharp corner ahead without getting tangled.

“The outlands?” she asked, only half interested in the small talk she was sharing with her fellow Mate Portal participant. “No. I’m from the Michigan City side of the Chicago Metro-State. How about you?”

The man didn’t speak, and she realized she didn’t hear any sounds from him at all, not even his footsteps. Sienna turned away from her luggage to look for him and found him staring at her open-mouthed.

“Then why are you leaving?” he finally asked, giving her a once-over that made her think he was scanning her person searching for either weapons or deformities, or maybe both. Gone was the friendly expression and “aw-shucks” chatter. “People don’t just leave from there. There’s a reason you all have walls around your city,” he added bitterly.

“Because R’kash, I—” She shook her head and frowned, tongue-tied and irritated. “The same as you. I’m going to be with my mate,” she ended up telling him. Maybe she should try to get her other suitcase back from the man. He was still giving her the stink eye.

“Don’t get me wrong. I’m head over heels for Reeva, but I signed up for the Mate Portal to get the hell off of Earth. When was the last time you went hungry, or your power grid failed again and another round of your friends and family died in a heat wave? I guess it’s too late now, but it seems pretty stupid to risk everything when you have so much to lose. If this doesn’t work out for me, at least I’ll be in a better situation. You, well…” He shrugged his shoulders.

“Thanks,” said Sienna as she grabbed the tether attached to the bag the man had taken. “I think I’ve got this on my own.”

Her companion raised an eyebrow and shook his head before he strode off towards the last gate. Sienna took a moment to situate the additional hover-tether in her grip before she followed. She saw the big, bright Xs on the floor ahead marking a secondary security barrier that blocked access to gate 42. The man was standing over one, waiting for the scan to complete. He gave her one last suspicious look before he crossed over to the narrow entrance leading to the gate.

She hoped the Xithilene ship would be as big as the ones she’d seen in news-vids. She didn’t want to run into that man again. Poor Reeva probably didn’t know that “head over heels” meant “grateful for my meal ticket.” Sienna shook her head, tightened her grip on her baggage, and walked over to the nearest X on the floor like she was marching into battle. She’d made her choice, even if it hadn’t been an easy one. It would be different for her and R’kash.

A light above the door to the gate blinked green once the scan was complete and slid to the side. She hurried to get herself through before it closed again. She glanced at the gray walls of the narrow hallway, and the floor squeaked beneath the carpet as she made her way down the sloping ramp. She could just see the man who’d spoken with her earlier reaching the end of the walkway. She heard the low hum of voices, but they were too far away for her to distinguish words, and the man disappeared into what she assumed must be the alien ship.

Sienna didn’t intend to walk slower, but by the time she reached the last fifteen feet, her feet were barely moving forward.

The door at the end of the gate suddenly swung open.

“Name?”

Sienna stopped moving all together at the sound of the man’s voice. It took her a moment to gather her wits and formulate a response. She felt as if only half her faculties were online, all her bandwidth consumed by cataloging the features of the alien man in front of her. His black-green scales gleamed where the bright lights from the gate walkway hit him, and the feathers that covered his head and whose tips brushed his shoulders were the same shade.

“I’m Sienna Prescott. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she said, casting her eyes down towards one of his large, scaled hands. Almost every finger had a ring, and probably five or six thin chains snaked their tangled way around his thick wrist. He had five fingers, just like a human. His black nails though—they made her think of crows and claws, of sleek animal grace. No one would mistake that threatening hue for simple polish.

“I’m K’avith, Chief Xithilene Liaison for the Mate Portal Project.” He waited until she lifted her eyes back to his face before the slightest grim smile played across his lips. “Come. Leave those items where they are. A crew member will fetch them for you and they’ll be taken to your quarters aboard the ship. One of our human processing officers is waiting for you in the dining hall.”

“Human processing officer?” she repeated as her grip slackened and the tether-leashes slid from her sweaty hand.

“Yes. We have several humans working closely with us to ensure every mate who comes to Xithilene can feel comfortable and more readily adapt to their new home.” The big man made a noise similar to a grunt and the dark feathers on his head shifted, ruffling up a little like a parakeet’s. “Lady Kayla has been a…she’s been of assistance. Most humans like her,” he finished, nodding his head a bit like he’d just settled something.

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