Page 15

Chapter 15

Yorix

M y Lynn was overjoyed that her friend had not only forgiven her, but still wished to share a wedding ceremony with us and asked her to take a cookery class with him.

“Because I know how to use a stove, a human one, even if the one we've got has a bit of a learning curve because of all the extra features it’s got compared to a normal one, but someday, I might have to use a Mylos one, right? I mean the Bride who designed our current kitchen had to leave this behind, after all, when her hubby got reassigned.”

I nodded sagely. “That is somewhat true,” I replied. “We are allowed a certain amount of personal goods when we transfer out. It is most likely that the cooking apparatus and chiller unit”

“And the dishwasher,” my mate added.

“And the dishwasher,” I continued, “would have caused them to exceed the allotted capacity. When the quartermaster showed me the pictures of this place, it was devoid of all other furnishings.”

“Oh! I bet you’re right. If they had kids, they’d have all their toys and stuff to take as well as clothes and furniture, and whatever.”

My kunnarskyn and her tablet pinged, alerting us to a message. She hurried over to pick it up, a look of pure excitement on her face.

“Is yours from Xero? About the wedding?” she asked.

“It is,” I replied, still reading. It was good news indeed, though the timeline was perilously close.

“Xero!”

“Hello, Lynn! Is the proposed booking to your liking?”

“Yes!” she shouted, bouncing up and down on her toes. “Please tell me it’s not just proposed, that you’ve actually booked all of it.”

“Confirming booking now.”

“Did you message Chris and the guys?”

“Since you appeared to be in charge of making decisions, I was waiting for your feedback.”

“Okay, um, I think this would be best as a phone call.” She looked over at me, wishing for my assistance as she’d still not gotten her integrated cell phone and had never used our interfleet comms to initiate a call, only receive them.

“Xeranos, please vid call Chris,” I asked.

“Requesting vid call.”

I pointed behind her as the wall closest to her was already resolving into an image of Chris.

She spun around immediately, waving excitedly at her bestie.

“Did you see?” she squealed loudly. “Oh Em Gee! We’ve got to figure out a way to get our clothes tomorrow and send out our invites and arrange the flights for the day after that!”

A look of profound surprise crossed his face. He sat down, his expression one of a male trying to process what was happening to him unexpectedly.

Xeranos decided to enter the conversation then.

“Might I suggest the pair of you meet for lunch and go visit Bride Right over on The Star Blade ? Lucille there has patterns for all the top designers and can scan your measurements and have everything replicated for you to pick up tomorrow.”

“Oh! That sounds like a fab idea! What do you think, Chris?”

Chris looked relieved that someone had answers to the dilemma of appropriate clothing, at least. Still, he asked, “Um, yeah, but what about the guys? Our grooms will need tuxes too.”

Fortunately, Xeranos had an answer to that as well, and within moments, Lynn and Chris were deciding what to eat and where. Then they ended the comm, and Lynn went rushing out the door, only to turn right back around.

“Aren’t you coming?”

I laughed. “I was wondering if I was included. You took off so fast, I hadn’t had time to pull on my boots!” I pointed down at my bare feet, and her cheeks reddened.

“Oops! But you need to hurry. We don’t have long before the next shuttle leaves.”

I chuckled again, going to the alcove next to the door where we’d placed a small cubby for our footwear, not wishing to mark up our floors unnecessarily. I plucked my boots from it and quickly slid my feet inside. I took a step forward, and the boots adjusted to fit me snugly enough that they would not allow my foot to slide about.

“All done, see?”

She laughed.

“Sorry, I know I’m being a bit ridiculous, but it’s the dress! Every girl dreams about what she will wear to her wedding, you know? And now it’s my turn to actually go choose for real!”

I slid her smaller hand in mine, lifting it to my lips for a kiss. “Then let us go forth, milady,” I said in the manner that we’d seen on the medieval fantasy vid she’d chosen for us to watch yesterday.

Her cheeks pinkened again to my pleasure, and she giggled. “Oh, you,” she said, but she didn’t pull her hand away from mine, and hand in hand, we went through the door.

We arrived just in time for final boarding, and so a very short while later, arrived on The Star Blade.

“Hey!” Chris called out to us from where he was waiting nearby. “Are we ready to do this or what?”

“I definitely am! I’ve had a picture in my head since I was like six of what I wanted for a dress, so the first one even close to it is mine!” Lynn told him, and he laughed.

“Why does that not surprise me?” he teased her.

“Food first,” I reminded the pair, and Lynn nodded while Chris looked worried.

“Okay, but I’m not sure if I can eat a whole lot. My anxiety is a bit much at the moment.”

Happily enough, a cup of hot jasmine tea seemed to settle most of his nerves enough to eat, and he put away an impressive amount of food from the buffet. So did my Bride and I, and I made a mental note to make sure we had Chinese at least once a week as she really enjoyed it. It was with full bellies that we walked slowly over to the wedding attire shop.

“Well, with a food baby this size, at last we know my dress won’t be too tight on the day!” Lynn laughed.

“It’s only a couple of days away,” I pointed out.

She patted my arm. “You haven’t seen how much I can pack away when I’m stress eating.”

“Hello!” a petite dark haired female approached us. “I’m Lucille! You must be Lynn, Chris, and Yorix. Xero told me to expect you.”

“Great!” Lynn said.

My kunnarskyn went off, the tone indicating it was urgent. I frowned down at it.

“Excuse me,” I said, stepping off to the side to find I had an urgent voice comm from my lab.”

“Yorix,” I said, answering it.

“Sorry to bother you, but it’s Hormel! They insist as you’re the senior technician on this project, they will only speak with you,” Zebulaw replied, looking harassed. “H says if you don’t come to the product launch discussion, they’ll pull the plug and all our work will have gone to waste.”

“Hormel? But the Spam licensing was before my time and we’ve had that available for over three years now.”

He grimaced. “They own Skippy as well.”

Hazzlehop’s head popped into view. “It’s Mark Judd. He owns a large number of their shares and he wants to discuss the science behind it. Something about commercials playing up the replicator angle down on Earth.”

“Why would they- nevermind, I suppose I’ll have to find out on my own.”

“They're meeting with Commander Gundar and Milarti from Public Relations right now. Sorry, but he asked if I was senior and I stupidly said I was in your absence and that was that,” Zebulaw said with a contrite expression.”

“It is what it is. Hopefully it will not take long. Inform them I will be there shortly. I’ll get a shuttle to take me directly.”

I ended the comm and turned to find my bride and the others looking at me sympathetically.

“I’m sorry, but I have to go.” I raked my hand through my hair. “I promise this will not happen once we are at our wedding and honeymoon trips. I will request the Commander formally assign Zebulaw as head of the Hormel peanut butter project while I am away.

“He's a billionaire media mogul married to a tech giant in her own right. He probably wants to make sure they are depicting the science right and thinks the best way to make sure is to talk to the guy in charge,” Chris said sympathetically.

“It’s okay, honey,” Lynn said, placing her hand on my arm. “It can't be helped this time.”

“If you’ll allow me to quickly scan you for your measurements, it should be fine, if you trust your Bride to choose your suit for you,” Lucille added.

“I do,” I replied, bending down to capture her lips in a chaste kiss.

Lynn pulled back, laughing. “And remember to do it just like that at the wedding,” she quipped, causing the other two humans to laugh along with her.

“This way.” She had me stand in a spot marked with two boot prints. “Xeranos, please scan him for fitting.”

“Scanning. Adjusting for clothing.”

“He’s removing the added bulk from what he’s wearing,” Lucille explained to Lynn and Chris.

“Clever,” Chris answered, looking impressed.

“All done,” Xeranos told me cheerfully.

“Okay, you best get going!” Lynn said.

“See you back home.” I bent down to give her another kiss, not wishing to leave her.

“Go on, git,” she said, a tiny smile on her face as she gently swatted my butt.

I did as she said, resentment growing every step of the way.

“