Future Fiction

Chance (SciFriday Challenge 28)

-------Garin-------

After a short period of silence, the communication feed crackled back to life.

"So, there's no way around it then," her voice sounded through the implant in my ear.

"Afraid not," I sighed. "My lawyer said that even though it was a glitch in their database, due to some weird law we have to respect the terms, or we will be in violation of the contract."

I could hear her huff out of frustration over the com. "I didn't even bother to read all of the terms."

"Neither did I," I responded. "But my lawyer did give me a bit of good news. Here, let me message you the time and location for our date."

"Meeting," she corrected.

"Right, right." I quickly held up my com device and began punching in the coordinates.

"Seriously?" she chuckled.

"Yep!" I beamed. "We're gonna get out of this disaster unscathed."

-------Kiv'vas-------

What would the Elders think?

The thought kept flashing across my mind. After our homeworld was destroyed, they, along with many others had blamed the humans for it. Now, because of a stupid glitch in a dating site, I had to spend the night with one. At least part of one anyway. I didn't really have a problem with their kind, and I didn't hold them responsible for what happened. But that didn't mean that I wanted to be seen hanging out with one either.

I gazed up at the sky as I stealthily approached the meeting place. The twin moons illuminated the streets a little more than I had hoped. It was so bright out that I could almost make out my shadow against the stoney road. A frigid wind suddenly swept through the air, hitting me in the face and chilling my bones. In response I slightly opened up a wing, using it as a makeshift shield.

Gods I hope no one I know sees me on the human side of town.

As I neared the location, I could make out the silhouette of a human standing by himself. Quietly, I made my approach, but he didn't seem to acknowledge me. He just stood there with his arms folded and a hood pulled tightly over his face. It was pretty apparent that he was upset.

-------Garin-------

Jeez it's cold out here! I didn't know it was going to be so windy!

I stood there shivering and waiting on the empty sidewalk. The moons overhead did almost nothing to brighten the pitch black streets.

"Hello?" came a quiet voice from seemingly nowhere.

Maybe it was because I was already shivering, but I nearly jumped into the air from fright. In a moment, however, I recognized the voice from our earlier conversations.

"Oh!" I whispered, heart racing. "It's you! I didn't see you coming."

An odd expression appeared on her dark colored face as she peeked from above her wing. "How? It's really bright out here tonight."

I thought for a moment, then shook my head "My eyes aren't quite as large as yours are I guess," I said, pointing at myself with my numb fingertip. She continued to keep her face partially hidden by her wing. I couldn't blame her for not wanting to be seen with a human. Not with the tensions between our species so high.

"Oh," she replied. "And you're sure this is going to satisfy the user agreement we signed?"

-------Kiv'vas-------