Page 2 of Atlas: Colony: Nyx #5(Intergalactic Dating Agency)

TWO

On a planet far from home, Peri thought she'd see more stars. Not the same stars as those visible from Earth, of course, or at least not in the same patterns she'd grown up with, but with a name like Star Farm, there should have been some stars. She hadn't even seen Altan, the star their planet orbited. This wasn't what she'd signed up for at all.

"Do you need help with that?" Flora asked.

Peri jumped. Last time she'd looked, Flora was seeding the other side of the field, but now she stood less than three metres away, her hands on her hips.

"No, it's working fine. I just...this isn't what I signed up for," Peri admitted.

Flora laughed. "Well, technically, none of us did. Donna contracted us to be broodmares for the rich arseholes who funded the Genesis . I, for one, am glad not to be some old guy's bed slave."

"Yeah, well, you got that hot dude with the horns, didn't you?" Peri said, forcing down a wave of jealousy. Of course, that only made her tide of frustration rise higher. She didn't begrudge any of the other girls their happiness with the aliens they'd shacked up with, but she hadn't had anything hot and hard between her legs since that last Intergalactic Dating Agency speed dating event. "I wish I'd found someone half as hot before the pub blew up. Your hot alien doesn't have any friends looking to hook up, does he?"

Flora rolled her eyes. "You should get out more. I heard they're starting speed dating up again, in the newly reopened Second Chance Saloon. They rebuilt it, you know."

"Wasn't it called something else before?" It had been a Star Wars reference, Peri was sure of it. Which was kind of weird, given the pub had been owned by an alien. How did aliens know about Star Wars ?

"Yeah, it was the First Shot Cantina, but seeing as it's the second bar on the site, someone decided to change the name, and make the place a little less dodgy. The new owner's trying to attract a broader clientele with the Intergalactic Dating Agency this time around. More guys looking for love, instead of just a hookup, and more women from the rest of the Colony, instead of Donna pimping us out to the desperate and dateless." Flora scrunched her face up, as she stared off into the distance.

All the Star Farm girls were angry at Donna for her betrayal, but Peri wasn't as mad as most. Maybe because she'd actually enjoyed the random hookups that allowed her to get in an orgasm or two, before heading back to the farm. If only there were stars...or a sky she could see.

"There's plenty of dick in the universe. What I want to see are stars. There are plenty of those, too, but I haven't seen a single one while we've been stuck in here. I signed up to farm on a planet. So far, I haven't even seen this system's star."

Flora sighed. "Well, that's partially because we've failed to make this farm productive. If we could get a decent harvest, we might have been allowed to set up an experimental farm on the surface of one of the planets with atmosphere. So far, the only one with any agriculture is Delta, the Titan planet with aquaponics in their city canal system."

"How do I apply for a job there?" Aquaponics sounded like something to do with fish, or at least water.

Flora coughed. "You don't. Hera's in charge of Delta, for the most part, and working for an organised crime boss isn't so much a job as...well, an indenture. Tumnus told me what it was like, until he'd worked off his contract. Slave labour for life. Like the contracts we had with Donna, only Hera's are enforceable."

Peri shrugged. She'd read enough of her father's science fiction stories to know what kind of drudgery terraforming a planet was like. She'd signed up for FarmStars without any stars in her eyes about that. Farm labourer by day so she could observe the stars at night. That's what Dad had done, to get his job at the observatory back on Earth. She'd just be following in her father's footsteps. The work couldn't be any harder than it was here. "It's not like I have any special skills a mafia boss could use for nefarious purposes. I'm a farm labourer. I'll be doing farm work wherever I go, but I'll sign my life away if it means I can see the stars. So, how do I contact her? I don't suppose they list Titan crime bosses' contact details on the public database. Can your hot alien hook me up?"

Flora shook her head. "Oh, no, Tumnus doesn't work for her any more, and even if he did, she wouldn't do him any favours. If you really do want to speak to Hera – and I don't recommend that you do – you should probably go through Hercules. He owns the Second Chance Saloon, and he's her stepson. But I don't think..."

"When did you say the next Intergalactic Dating Agency speed dating event at that pub was?" Peri interrupted. Because if she went to that, she could kill two birds with one stone – get laid, and get a ticket to see the stars. Because a life without ever seeing the sky again was no life at all.