Sardius was alone in the interview room as bright lights shone in his eyes and voices rang out from behind the blinding rays. No one was there. The voices from the panel of interviewers rang through a speaker system. He couldn’t see them, but there were cameras pointed at him like guns.
If he thought they really were guns, he’d perform much better. He always did better when he thought it was a live-or-die situation.
The reality of the speaker and camera placement meant that the interviewers could see him while he couldn’t see them. That made him uneasy. He didn’t look good, but he had to believe that none of the other candidates looked much better than he did. Besides, the job did not require him to be at his best visually.
The first grating automated voice began. “Sardius, have you been informed of the committee’s decision regarding the deceased diplomat, Arvantis?”
Sardius made his face impassive, even with the lights shining in his eyes. “I haven’t heard.”
“You were cleared of all suspicion,” the voice informed him.
Sardius tried to make his exhale shallow so that he didn’t look too relieved. If he had been blamed for what happened to Arvantis, he would have broken every camera and light in the room. It wouldn’t have been out of rage exactly, but more like popping balloons early at a birthday party that isn’t for you… on your birthday. He had such high hopes for the program and being blamed, even partially, for Arvantis’ death was the last thing he needed. If he got kicked out… he hated to think of it.
He paused before meekly asking, “If this meeting isn’t about Arvantis, does that mean Jenna Fairchild has been brought in?”
“Not exactly,” another voice piped up.
Sardius recognized that voice as belonging to the chair of the Octavian Council. His name was Favel and his voice wasn’t automated like the others were.
“I was just thinking,” Favel said, even though he gave no face for Sardius to see. “That you have studied Jenna more than anyone else on our side. You requested to be her personal assistant before you were assigned to Arvantis. The AAMC is still having a horrific time bringing her in and I was wondering if their tactics are off. Do you have any insights on her recruitment? After all, you were famous for convincing half a solar system to change allegiances.”
Sardius beamed. He shouldn’t have. He didn’t mean to, but he did have his private ambitions and Favel was leading him toward his favorite one. “Well,” Sardius began, attempting to sound casual, even if it was a little late. “She’d probably be more willing to go to outer space if there was someone special to escort her.”
“Of course!” Favel exclaimed in his odd parrot-like voice.
Sardius was pleased with himself and Favel’s reaction had been just what he hoped.
Favel went on. “Of course, she’s reluctant to come into outer space! She doesn’t know anyone here. Should we send a welcoming committee or a clutch of…”
“Slow down,” Sardius interrupted. “Don’t send a clutch of anything. She doesn’t need a welcoming committee. She needs one person who she trusts, admires, and loves. In short, she needs a–”
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“Mate!” Favel shouted, interrupting Sardius.
“Jenna doesn’t have a mate?” an automated voice cracked.
“Isn’t she an adult? I thought she was an adult?” another voice asked.
“She is an adult,” Favel said with as much authority as his nasal voice would allow.
“Why doesn’t she have a mate?”
“I have a mate.”
“You have six mates.”
“I’ve had twelve.”
Sardius refrained from laughing at the committee members’ outbursts. His suggestion was being accepted. He just needed to carry it through to the end. All he wanted was to be taken to Earth to escort Jenna to Octavia Prime. He’d go all the way to Earth for her. Sure, he’d have to make a few adjustments if he was going to go to a place like Earth. He currently looked like a soot stain, but for Jenna Fairchild… he was willing to do just about anything.
Besides, romancing Jenna would be a breeze. Those idiots the AAMC had been sending to pick her up were too stupid to be understood. That was why they couldn’t get her aboard a pod.
Now, if Sardius was the one to go get her… he knew exactly what to say to her that would make her fall in love with a perfect stranger and also make her willing to join him in outer space.
“We should run her information through the universal matching algorithm,” Favel said.
Wait! No! If she was run through that system, Sardius had no chance of being chosen as the perfect man for her.
The other committee members were voicing their agreement.
Sardius had to stop their scheming immediately. “Wait. Boys, aren’t you jumping the gun? If you think about it, getting a candidate from the universal matching pool is hardly an intelligent way to go about this.”
“Hardly intelligent? They use 850,000 different character markers to test compatibility,” a faceless committee member pointed out.
Sardius paused in his tracks, momentarily quieted by such sound reasoning. However, he was nothing if not full of crap. “Yeah, I realize that sounds good, but I think you already have a perfect candidate for the job.”
“Who?”
“Look, Sardius,” Favel interjected. “If we had a decent man among our ranks to send on this side of the universe, I think the AAMC already would have sent him. They’ve already sent over two hundred candidates to try to recruit her. They must not have seen that pursuing this from a romantic angle, though underhanded, may be the only way to secure her cooperation.”
Sardius tried to speak up, but Favel talked over him.
His parrot voice pounded into Sardius’ ears like a bird squawking at twice the regular volume. “The universal matching algorithm will provide us with hundreds of thousands of candidates. Maybe millions. There’s no need for us to take a chance on something that might work when we only need to get her up in the air. Thank you for your cooperation and your suggestion. The equipment you had when you worked for Arvantis will work just fine for Jenna.”
All the time Favel had been speaking, Sardius had been saying the same thing over and over though the committee chair wasn’t listening and Sardius wasn’t even sure if he had his volume on. Favel might not have heard a word Sardius said.
If Favel had been listening, he would have heard Sardius say over and over, “No! Don’t send someone else. Send me! Send me! Send me!”
The automated voices cut along with Favel’s birdlike voice. It was quiet in the room, except for Sardius’ howls.
“Send me,” he said one last time.
No one answered. The communication lines had been cut.
Sardius exhaled heavily before he knocked over his chair. “Gah!”