The Soulmate Curse

PINE (for healing) - Part 3

"You look beautiful," Zhen said, smiling.

Finn looked down at the navy blue flared mini skirt and simple, fitting white shirt that made up her outfit. She'd finish it with a white pair of old school sneakers and navy-blue purse. She'd chosen to go with a low-key prosthetic that looked exactly like her leg, also designed and printed by Zhen, her tattoo reproduced perfectly. Zhen had on a pair of blue skinny jeans, a light blue shirt and a dark blue blazer that exactly matched her belt, also with white sneakers to finish the look.

"I didn't know you were also wearing blue," said Finn, quickly adding, "I'll go change."

"Don't you dare!" said Zhen, walking over and taking her hand. "We're already late and you look amazing. Besides, either no one will care, or they'll just think we're doing a stepsister matching thing. No doubt Akemi and Sorcha will be matching their outfits."

"No one will think that. We're not ten," said Finn, whining just a little. "We absolutely look like a couple."

"Finn," Zhen said with a fake, serious look on her face. "You go back into that room and I'm leaving without you."

Finn went back into her room and changed into a pink floral sundress mini and a red sweater folded halfway up her forearms. She kept the white sneakers but changed her makeup a little. She walked to the living room abut twenty minutes later to find Zhen playing on her wrist wrap.

"You didn't leave," said Finn.

"You're the worst," Zhen said with a smile and a shake of her head. She got up from the sofa, snapped the foldable screen onto her wrist and pointed to a box on the kitchen counter. "Don't forget the gift."

The human reporters had left them alone, but there was a small flock of paparazzi and reporter drones waiting outside the apartment building to follow them. Finn ignored them. Their involvement with whatever was happening with MechSoft was still speculation and she hoped it would stay that way. One good thing that had come from all of this, apart from the fall of an unscrupulous corporate giant, was that MechSoft had dropped their charges against Zhen. They didn't want to admit or even hint at the fact that they'd been taken down by two teens. This descent had quickly become a major happening. Even bigger than the fall of the corporate giant Monsanto a few decades earlier.

"Was it this bad with the engine?" said Zhen, looking up at the hovering news drones.

"Worse," said Finn. "Especially when corporations started bidding for the asteroid mine's resources."

"Then Mechsoft won."

"Yeah. It went quiet after that. Darren helped. A lot." said Finn. Not wanting to dwell on Darren and the memories that mentioning him dredged up, she changed the subject. "You got a new job."

"The Amputee Astronauts Company caught wind of the prostheses I made you," Zhen explained. "And they know about my extensive experience at GSI as an active astronaut. They hired me to design modular amputee prostheses and ship parts for space travel."

"That's an incredible opportunity."

"It's better than being out of work, but I'm still not ever going to be allowed to another space mission," said Zhen. "What about you? I heard about the Gemini Ventures account. I'm sorry."

"They loved our presentation, even if it was Jani who presented it," said Finn. "But they hate my recently acquired infamy."

"They don't know you," Zhen replied. "They don't know you'll get stuck on getting them back for as long as it takes."

Finn laughed. Zhen was right. She'd already started planning on winning them over. They were going to play a large part in the creation of her company, an entity that would help other corporations consider using more open source resources or even becoming open source themselves. Her career progression was the one thing she had that gave her hope and a purpose right now. There was no way she was losing that too if she could help it.