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Chapter 15 - The Match

Daranaean white fur flew. "Crita! Slow down! You are a blur!" M'Belle called to her roommate.

"I, oh, dear! Everything must be perfect!" she stopped for a second, and sniffed the air. "Tag needs to shower! The sheets in Cilla's bunk are dirty! I must tell them!"

"Shh, shh, calm down. Cilla's bunk is on the other side of the ship. Tag, I am certain, needs no advice on basic hygiene after exercising."

Crita flung herself onto her bed and began to cry. "This is no good! They will be so very cross with me! I will not fetch a good price at all!"

"Price?"

Crita looked up, her eyes streaming and red. "Price, yes," she confirmed, more calmly. "Third caste Daranaean women like me are sold to our husbands, as are the second caste women."

"Sold?" M'Belle was still not getting it.

"Yes," Crita admitted. "A third caste female such as I am, we are purchased by our husbands. But it is at least a bit more modern now."

"Oh? How so?"

"I am being given a choice of three. I can only pray that one of them is kind. Oh!" She became animated again, looking around their bunk, "they will be cross with me if they find my living quarters in such disarray!" She began shoving her possessions either into the closet or the recycling chute.

"Here, let me help you," M'Belle volunteered. Together, they folded up the pad that Crita slept on and tucked away M'Belle's hammock so that it would not be in the way.

They were in the middle of tossing dirty laundry down the chute when there was a communications chime. "Oh!" Crita dropped what she was holding – a pair of M'Belle's undergarments – and froze for a moment. "Whatever shall I do?"

"Go greet them. I've got this. Don't worry." She took back her undergarments.

Crita's voice was trembling as she answered the communications chime. "Y-yes?"

It was Tag. "There are two people here to see you. They say they're your parents."

"I, I will be right there." She smoothed her fur in front of the room's mirror and then realized that the communications link was still open. "Uh, Crita out."

At the Cookie's main hatch, Tag looked at a pair of very furry people who were clearly Daranaeans. "Uh, she's coming."

"Yes," replied Seramus. "Are you the captain of this vessel?"

"Uh, no, sir."

Linatella came over. "Can you get him?"

"Uh, her, ma'am."

"Yes," Linatella waved a little, "her."

Tag hit a communicator wall unit. "Mack? We got company."

"Yes?"

"It's Crita's folks."

"Did you tell her they're there?" Mack asked.

"Yes, but they wanna talk to you, too."

"I'll be right there; MacKenzie out."

Mack and Crita walked quickly toward the main hatch together. "Oh, Dana!" Crita moaned. "I am so very frightened."

"What's the matter?" Dana stopped immediately and faced the fluffy woman. "Are you afraid of your own parents?"

"No, no, it is not that at all. It is that I am afraid of the, the candidates. I fear they will all be awful. I know that my parents would never try to hurt me, or to situate me poorly. But I also know that they are most anxious for me to wed."