“Stop that bot,” Heather yelled at Loka.

He heard the terror in her voice and didn’t hesitate as he speared the bot punching in the numbers with his horn and tossed it to the ground. He jumped on it, while keeping hold of Heather. The bot crunched under his feet.

“Hold still.” He placed Heather on the ground before spearing the next bot on his horn. He flipped it off and slammed it into the wall, spearing through its middle with his horn and grinding it into the wall. It crumpled into a metallic pile of parts on the ground.

He growled, an unusual spur of rage filtering through him. There were still bots attached to Heather’s wrists. They had drawn blood.

Loka grabbed hold of one and attempted to pry it off.

A sob fell from Heather’s lips. “You’re going to rip off my hand.”

He gritted his teeth as he manipulated the bot whilst trying not to hurt Heather. It was strong and would not relent its hold. Loka saw blood seep through Heather’s clothing. He was making things worse.

“Hold still. Do not move a muscle.”

Heather gaped at Loka. “What are you going to do?”

“Use my horn to lever this bot off your flesh. Lay down and place your arm on the ground.”

Heather dropped to the floor and lay flat, her breath panting out of her as her wide eyes focused on Loka.

He gave her a brief smile. “Everything will be okay.” He edged the tip of his horn underneath the limb of the first bot. He strained his neck backwards, digging his heels into the floor.

With a ping, the bot flew off. Before he had a chance to grab it, it scuttled away on its remaining limbs.

“Thanks,” Heather gasped.

“Now this one. Place your arm out flat as before.” Loka knelt over Heather, noticing how her chest rose rapidly in her panic. He placed a hand over her heart. It was racing. “You are safe. No harm will come to you.”

Her gaze locked with his, and her breathing slowed. “I know.”

Loka’s horn edged under the final bot. He flicked it away and jumped on it before it had a chance to escape.

When he turned, Heather was sitting up, inspecting her bloody wrists and ankles. He hurried back to her. Without thinking, he scooped her into his arms.

Heather yelped. “What are you doing?”

“Taking you somewhere safe.” He hurried along the corridor, clutching her against his chest.

After a second, he felt her relax against him. “I can walk. They didn’t break anything.”

“It’s quicker this way. And you’re in shock. I don’t want you passing out and injuring yourself.” Besides, it gave him the perfect excuse to hold Heather close. She was warmer than he’d imagined. Soft and sweet smelling, like the smell of the candy aisle in the station’s store.

“What’s wrong with the lights?” Heather whispered. “And where is everybody?”

“I am uncertain. I was in the cafeteria when the lights went out.”

“It’s not just my quarters having a problem?”

“You also lost power?”

“The lights went down, and the comm system failed. I was trying to reach engineering when the bots came in and started acting weird.”

“I experienced the same. There must be a system error.”

“My bot also malfunctioned.”

“You own one of the things that attacked you?”

“He’s different to them. Well, the station’s bots don’t usually attack people. Ernie is my friend.”

“He did not protect you when the others attacked?”

“Ernie was rebooting. I found a weird piece of code in our database algorithms. I asked Ernie to check it. He sort of imploded and shut down. I hope he’s okay. I should have brought him with me.”

“Most peculiar.” Loka turned the corner and stopped by his quarters. He ran a hand over the access panel. He had to do it several times before the door opened.

Once inside, it was almost pitch black. He knew his way around the room, so he strode to the couch and placed Heather on it. “Stay there. I have something to treat your injuries.”

“I’m not moving,” Heather whispered. “This is your place?”

“It is.” Loka returned from the bathroom, where he kept a medical kit. He flipped it open and tipped the contents on the table by the couch.

“Do you have a tablet?” Heather asked. “I used mine to help me see when the lights went out.”

“Good thinking.” He felt around under the table until he found his own tablet and lit the screen. He grabbed antiseptic cream and nano-med patches before turning the light to focus on Heather. Her face looked eerily pale in the glow of the screen, and her eyes were wide, indicating her caution.

“You are safe here.” He patted her knee, suddenly awkward that they were alone together. On his home planet, it was rare for an unmated male and female to be alone together. Loka still found it strange that, on other planets, unmated males and females mingled easily. It was a skill he had yet to acquire.

“Thanks for saving me. One more button on that airlock and I’d have been sucked into space.”

“That was what they had planned for you?” Loka placed Heather’s feet on his knees and pulled up the legs of her jumpsuit. There were several shallow cuts ringing her skin where the metal limbs of the bots had injured her.

“I think so. They came into my room, dragged me to the airlock, and were about to send me shooting out.” Heather shivered and rubbed her arms.

“Why are they behaving like this?” Loka inspected the cuts before wiping them with an antiseptic cloth.

Heather hissed. “I’ve no idea. Maybe they have a system glitch too. If something is messing with the lights and comm system, it could be glitching the bots. They all run through the same central system.”

Loka nodded as he unwrapped a nano-med patch.

Heather pushed his hand away. “I don’t need the patches. The cuts aren’t deep.”

“You should still use them. You don’t want an infection.”

“The bots are usually clean.”

“I expect they don’t usually attempt to drag people to air locks and shove them into space. You don’t know where they’ve been or how clean they are.”

“Point taken.” Heather’s eyes widened. “You don’t think they’ve been doing this with other people? Taking them to airlocks and throwing them out?”

“The station alarms would have sounded if an airlock had been breached.”

“You’re right. It makes no sense for them to act so strangely. We should let engineering know. All cybernetic life forms should be checked, just in case they also go all Terminator on us.”

“Terminator?” Loka carefully smoothed the patches onto her soft skin before rolling down the leg of her jumpsuit.

“Yes. You know, ‘I’ll be back.’ Skynet. John Conner. Judgment Day.”

Loka tilted his head. “Who is John Conner?”

“Really? You’ve never seen the movies. We are going to have to have a movie marathon. Best franchise ever. Well, maybe not if you’re into Star Wars. Or are you more a Star Trek fan? I like both. Maybe Star Trek has the edge. It’s a bit truer to life.”

Loka rubbed a horn. “I know nothing about any of this. I know about your movies. I would be interested in watching one with you.”

Heather grinned. “It’s a date.”

Loka nodded. He wasn’t sure what he’d just agreed to. “Now, for your arms.” He grimaced as he saw deeper cuts on her wrists. His fingers went to a silver bracelet on Heather’s left wrist. “You collect trinkets?”

She raised her hand and jangled the charm bracelet. “Sort of. I got this from my mom when I was eighteen. Every year, she used to buy me a new charm. I have seven.”

“What are they?”

“Animals. Look, this is an elephant. This is a cat. I have a penguin as well.”

Loka examined the tiny silver creatures. “I am not familiar with these beasts. They are specific to Earth?”

“That’s right. There aren’t any elephants or penguins left anymore.”

“And cats?”

“Oh, there are millions of cats. Everybody loves cats.”

“To eat?”

“No! They’re pets, like Ernie.”

“They’re also cybernetic?”

“No. They’re domestic animals. You don’t have pets on your planet?”

“We have gomlets. They are small, round, and furry.”

“They sound cute.”

“Their fur is nutritious.”

Heather’s jaw dropped. “What?”

“You ball up their fur and suck it. It’s full of proteins and keratin. They are good to take on long journeys as both company and nourishment.”

“We have a different definition of pets, I think. I don’t ever want to eat a cat’s fur.”

“You might be surprised. Have you tried it?”

“No. I don’t think I ever will.” Heather inspected the wrist Loka had cleaned. “Thanks. That already feels better.”

“You put up a fight by the look of your injuries.”

“There was no way I was going to be shoved into space by those little suckers. Space travel is still new to me. Space travel without a space suit or ship would have been a first and, well, a last.”

Loka nodded, his stomach tensing at the thought of Heather being taken by space. It was a cruel way to die, but she would not have suffered long. “You have been on many space travels?”

“My flight from Earth to the space station was my first.”

“They picked a novice space adventurer to come here?” He didn’t hide his surprise.

“I wasn’t even a novice. I was a virgin.” Heather smiled. “I’m just great at matching people. I was known as the Queen of Weddings on Earth. I have this ability to see two people together and know they’re perfect for each other.”

“You are an empath?”

“Nope. I have years of people watching skills. I knew they’d come in handy one day. I never expected them to land me on a space station with a host of weird and wonderful aliens.”

Loka pulled back and studied her. “You received training for life in space before coming here?”

“I knew how to match make. I’ve been doing it on Earth for years. As for shooting into space, not so much. We had a one-month induction program. We were given the go-ahead to launch My Single Alien earlier than expected and didn’t have much time to learn to spacewalk. Diadora needed us up here and operational as quickly as possible.”

“That was a risk, you coming here. What if you didn’t like space?”

Heather shrugged. “Trust me; anything is better than Earth.”

Loka nodded as he finished attending to her wrists. Earth was on its knees. He’d seen old photographs of the planet. Once a beautiful, vibrant blue globe, it now hung in space like a dying blob of toxic sludge.

Heather rotated her wrists. “You must have medical training.”

“The basics.” Loka knelt in front of Heather, noticing her color was restored and feeling the knot of concern in his stomach recede. “Do you feel able to investigate our current situation?”

“Absolutely. We need to know what’s going on. There could be a crisis in engineering. I couldn’t get hold of anyone from there. It won’t be the first time they’ve blown things up. The first few months we were here, there was an explosion once a week. Some people even ran a book on how big the next explosion would be and if there would be any casualties.”

“People bet on the safety of the station?” Loka shook his head. Humans could be so odd. He stood and returned the medical supplies to the bathroom. When he returned, Heather was by the comm panel on his wall, pressing buttons.

“Nothing is working. Nobody is around.”

“They’ll be around. Aliens don’t simply vanish. We just need to find them.”

“Some good old-fashioned detective work.” Heather smiled at him. “I can handle that. I enjoy a good mystery.”

“I enjoy solving puzzles, myself.” He returned her smile. “It could be a virus infecting the comm system.”

“Maybe the station’s systems have been hacked.”

“It could be that.” Loka opened a comm channel. “Hoan, are you receiving me?”

There was no reply.

“Hoan’s your friend?”

“He is. We’re working on a project together.”

“The mapping project of the Milky Way?”

He turned to her. “You know of that?”

Heather’s cheeks flushed, and she looked away. “It interests me. I don’t pretend to understand it all, but I’d like to learn more.”

“It’s not a secret project. Do you know about the percentage calculations we are anticipating for dark matter in your galaxy?”

“No. Not really.” Heather shrugged. “I’m just a matchmaker who loves space.”

“Which is as important, if not more so. If there were no people to work because no babies had been born, then this is all for nothing. What you do is more significant than my work.”

Heather’s hand brushed his arm, making his skin tingle. “Thanks. That’s nice of you to say so. What I do isn’t so special. You just have to see it a few times, the spark that goes off between people when they meet and like what they see. It’s a science thing, as well. It’s chemical reactions triggering in the body, you know, when you see a nice pair of eyes or long legs, or you see a great set of boobs.” Her gaze went to her chest. “Well, you know what I mean. The sorts of things that attract individuals to each other. Big... big eyes, nice hair. The indicators to show you’re genetically fit.”

Loka resisted the temptation to study Heather’s chest. He already knew how appealing it was. “Matchmaking is more scientific than I realized.”

“I can teach you matchmaking if you teach me dark matter calculations.”

“Well, yes. Why not?” Loka looked around his room. “But first, we need to figure out why these bots have malfunctioned. In fact, we need to figure out why this station is misfiring.”

“It’s also interfering with my work. The algorithms on the matchmaking database are completely out of kilter. The last few days, we’ve had terrible matches I wouldn’t dream of putting together. That’s never happened before. I helped program some of the algorithms. There is definitely a problem with our systems.”

“You can program algorithms?”

“Only when it comes to love.” Heather grinned. “It’s easy when you know how.”

“I would not know how to do that,” Loka said. “You are smart, Heather Roberts.”

“You know my full name.”

He scratched a horn. His hand went to his pocket, where a small lump of coal rested. “Yes. I know your full name. It is a nice name.”

“Thanks. I like it. I only know you as Loka. You don’t have a second name, do you?”

“We don’t. We take our ancestor’s name. We are not a heavily populated planet. There were once more of us, not so much now. The war has taken its toll on our population.”

Heather nodded, her expression serious. “Picars are known as adventurers and scientists. What you do sounds amazing.”

“I’m glad you think so.” Loka wanted to impress this tiny human. The more he got to know about her, the more he liked. She was hard-working, resourceful, and not afraid of a challenge. “Perhaps, one day, we can go on a space adventure together?”

Heather’s eyes widened. “We could?”

Loka took a quick step back. “Of course, that is not appropriate. You barely know me. We don’t know each other. You might get sick on a spaceship. I don’t even know if you’ve been through a wormhole. And, of course, you have your work here. I mean, you can’t abandon this facility or your important work matching aliens and humans.”

The look of surprise on Heather’s face morphed into a smile. “Well, I wouldn’t say it’s completely appropriate, but it’s sweet of you to ask. And you’re right. I don’t know you, but I’d like to get to know you. And yes, the only space flight I went on made me super sick. I couldn’t keep food down for two days after we landed. But that could change with practise. And no, I’ve never been through the Glory Hole.”

“Glory Hole?”

“Oh, yes! You might not know the wormhole by that name. It’s a silly name we call it on the space station. Because, well, you know, aliens come through the hole to find themselves a mate.” Heather blushed. “It’s a bit smutty, now I’m trying to explain it. And, as for my work, no, I’d never abandon it.”

“As I thought. My idea was not considered.” Loka surprised himself by how easily he’d offered a trip through the stars with Heather. He usually preferred to travel alone.

“We are creating outposts for My Single Alien in other galaxies to make it easier for aliens to reach us. I’m interested in running an outpost. It could be exciting. If we did ever want to go on a space adventure together, I can tie in my work with our adventures.”

A warm glow spread from Loka’s stomach. “I would like that.”

“As would I, once we figure out the problems with the station.”

Loka found himself unable to stop staring at Heather. His instincts had been right. Even though he was focused on his work, something had called to him when he met her. He wanted to pursue Heather. He would like her as his mate.

“Loka. Are you okay?” Heather took a step toward him. “You’ve got a weird look in your eyes.”

He shook himself. “I am well.”

“Did you hear what I said?”

“No. I mean, yes. A problem.”

She nodded. “We have a malfunctioning space station to deal with. We need to find out what’s going on and fix it if we can.”

“Of course. We can work together on this. Between us, we will solve this problem.”

Heather grinned. “I hope so. Come on. Let’s get to engineering and see what’s going on.”

Loka grabbed his tablet to give them a source of light and followed Heather out of his quarters.

Despite the problems with the station, happiness bloomed inside him. This was his mate; he was certain of it. All he needed to do was convince her. He hoped he had a big enough supply of coal to do just that.