Wonda Whipple checked her Popski again just to be sure, "My Popski dropped when I linked to him? Why? He's a 4.5 and I'm a 4. My score should go up."

Her circle of girlfriends sat around the table and pointed to one of the metric boards. Her oldest friend spoke, "Wonda, look at the data, the reason you didn't gain any score is that people see you as the other woman. You shouldn't have gone after that guy, he was in a committed relationship."

Wonda frowned, "The only reason I even started trading messages with him is that he had the right Popski, it's not like I really wanted him."

"Oh my goodness look at his score!" Another one of the girls at the table tapped on a window and made it the focus of their group. In that window, Benten Googlememe's name and scores were shown and they watched in real-time as his score dropped from 4.5 to 3.99996.

Wonda's eyes went wide open she yelled out as she stood up, "What's happened, why is his Popski so low!?"

Another one of the girls opened the local news feed and a newscaster was speaking, "...Twenty-year-old college student Treecy de Santos was last seen leaving ULVA in her pink 5049 Gessler Motors space coupe. We tried to reach her boyfriend Beten Googlememe for comment but discovered that he had broken up with miss de Santos minutes before she fled from her classroom. Police officials are not calling Mr. Googlememe a suspect at this time, but they are enquiring about his whereabouts at the time.

Wonda scowled and immediately unlinked her account from Benten's and sent him a message, "Ben, Wonda. Sorry, it's not really working out. You're a nice guy but it's just me, not you. I am not ready for this kind of... Scrutiny over a fling, you understand I hope."

Wonda's circle all clapped and gave her hugs, "It's for the best Wonda, that guy wasn't right for you anyway. You should be dating a 5 at least."

Benten Googlememe was in his Introduction to ancient history class when he got Wonda's message. He was already regretting his relationship with Wonda even before he received the message. Treecy had been a very attentive and affectionate girlfriend. Wonda was just much too standoffish for his taste. He thought back to Treecy and decided that even if she was too low of a Popski, he liked her affectionate attention much better than the supposedly better girl, Wonda.

During the six years he had been with Treecy, she always made him feel much more proud of his standing than it was worth. He might be a 4, but Treecy always treated him like he was a 7 or an 8. He frowned hard and then slammed his fist down on the desk in front of him before standing up. He walked out to his van and got in. He still had the packet sitting in the corner of his vision. The packet was sent just before Treecy went through the ULVA gate. He hadn't opened it or deleted it for some reason. He was afraid it was a suicide note.

He took a deep breath and opened it up at last. There was the girl he had spent the last six years with crying and hurt in a way he had never seen. She flew to the gate and typed the coordinates for her homeworld but then Ben saw it. The extra zero at the end of the string. He sighed and then slammed his fist into the controls of his van. "Shit, she didn't even know, no wonder she never came back."

Ben flew over to his apartment and grabbed a few sets of clothes and then went to his kitchen and grabbed as much food as he could find. He quickly grabbed a deep-space survival guide, and a medkit and then uploaded a bunch of survival howtos into a portable drive which he plugged into his van in case they had no network connection. He called up his best friend and sent a message, "J, b10, going to get TCS back."

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Ben then throttled up his van and headed straight for the gate. Just before he reached the gate he sent his own packet to Jay and then tapped in the coordinates used by Treecy. He took a deep breath and then moved into position behind the gate and hit enter.

* * * *

Treecy de Santos was standing on the warm sand of the beach surrounded by shirtless men in shorts wearing sunglasses. She held the white volleyball in her hand and called out, "Score is 12 - 0, serving!"

She jumped up and smacked the ball hard, causing it to fly at the net. Just as it reached the top of the net, it scraped the net and rolled off going much slower. One of the shirtless men tried to react but was just a hand's distance from reaching it causing one of the men on Treecy's side to call out, "Point! That's game!"

The men on Treecy's team all ran up and hugged her as they slapped congratulatory high-fives between each other. Treecy was beaming with a huge smile, she laughed and walked over to shake hands with the other side causing the other team's leader to call out, "Damn it, we get Treecy next time, that was bullshit!"

Mo was sitting on a blanket in the sand watching Treecy as Kumiko sat beside her, "Do you have a crush on her now, too?"

"Shut up, bitch. I'd be the only person in the squadron that didn't if I said no." Mo looked at Kumiko sitting at her side, "I saw you licking your lips when she adjusted her bottoms after that serve, you know."

Kumiko laughed, "She's like a living doll or something. Like a manipulated hologram that has had all imperfections removed only she's living and breathing. Walking around all sexy without even knowing how she affects everyone around her."

Mo nodded, "Working with her in my small office is the worst. Because she always smells nice too. You know, I've never heard her pass gas or burp."

Kumiko took a drink from the beer in her hand and let a belch rip, "Seriously?"

Mo nodded, "Seriously, and I'm talking a full eight-hour shift."

"That's just not natural. Hey, do you think she's maybe a robot or something?" Kumiko asked and then pointed, "Look at that, Colonel John just struck out with her again." She laughed hard.

Mo laughed and then said, "Yeah, he has no chance with her. That girl only cares about one man and he's the one who dumped her for someone else."

Kumiko nodded and then asked, "She still talks about him a lot, huh?"

Mo nodded, "She's incredibly loyal, even to such a shitty guy."

Kumiko looked at the smiling energetic Treecy bouncing around laughing and having a great time with the guys playing beach volleyball. She asked, "Mo, you know it's not good for you to keep getting hung up on women you have no chance with."

"It's not like that, Kumiko. It's... Well, I don't know how to say it. It's like I keep falling in love with my friends." She stretched out and touched her toes, "Maybe I should just go out with one of the guys that keep staring at my ass like they want my pants to fall off as I walk by."

Kumiko laughed, "Naw, those guys are trash. You deserve someone better." She looked over and saw her friend watching Treecy closely again. "So, what changed between you two?"

"We talked and I learned that even the most perfect woman I have ever met isn't treated like the absolute treasure she is..." Mo's head dropped down as she rested her forehead on her arms which were sitting on her bent knees. "If that girl can't find happiness, what chance does a Tomboy bully like me have?" She chuckled alone for a moment and then got quiet, "Kumiko, how's your thing with the gunner going?"

She laughed, "Great, thankfully we have the updated entertainment grid now, it was getting hard to find places outside of the AI's cameras to fuck."

Mo snorted and then shook her head, "You dipshit, there isn't a place like that. I watched all of your encounters. I just didn't narc the two of you out."

Kumiko licked her lips and asked, "Does Treecy watch that stuff too?"

Mo nodded and then while keeping eye contact with her said, "Sometimes we touch each other as we watch them together."

Kumiko looked at her friend, and then after a minute or two of staring said, "Fuck you! You almost had me for a minute there. Fuck. I admit though I wanted to believe." She laughed causing Mo to laugh as well.

"Is it true that her ex came through the gate and is in the system now?" Kumiko asked.

"Wow, who told you that?" Mo looked genuinely surprised.

"Van Halen, he was talking about how they finally got rid of that prick Chet." Kumiko then looked and pointed in another direction, "See that guy there? That's Captain Jack. He's the new A shift commander for the Van Halen. They sent Chet back to the kitchens finally.

"Wow, the Van Halen guys must feel like they finally got the transfers they were always whining about." Mo looked at Captain Jack.

"Seriously." Kumiko took another sip from her beer.