“Good luck,” Miriam said to me. “Are you sure you don’t want me to stick around?”

“No,” I said. I wanted to face my new future alone. I had gotten the latest letter from Aliya yesterday, as we came into the system, and I was still busy trying to process all that she had said. My partner’s family dead, and he was ‘traumatized’, she had said. She had told me everything, everything, about his new life, my new life, how he was coping, what I would have to do to help him, and just to live.

I had been shocked. My training on board ship, and my exposure to the other cultures on board, had taught me much, given me a good idea of the various differences, and prepared me for shocks but…

There was an enormous clang, and the shuttle rocked a bit then, after some more noises and some work by the men at the doorway, the door slid open, quietly. That was the last quiet thing for quite a while, as the room suddenly filled with me and women coming in, greeting, discussing cargo, and overall acting like people who were getting together with old friends after a long break. I stood, quietly, watching, until, about five minutes later, one of the women noticed me. “Oh! You must be Bethany! My name is Laura,” she said, hurrying up and attracting far more attention than I wanted. “We have waited so long for you to arrive!”

“Carl certainly has waited a long time!” One of the younger women said, and everyone giggled. Then I had to survive an inordinate number of huggings and kissings… luckily only from the women and girls, the men mostly just watching with amused fascination.

“Poor, Carl,” the first woman said when, a few minutes later, she managed to pull me off into a corner by myself. I gathered she must have been some kind of leader, or leader’s partnére, because everyone else left us alone, reluctantly. “You heard what happened to his family?”

I nodded, overwhelmed. My heart was still racing from the ‘introductions’. I loved people but, now, with all that I had before me, I felt incredibly shy.

“It will be so good that you are here,” she continued. “You remember the story of Isaac, well, I hope you will be just as helpful to Carl. He really is a very wonderful boy, you know.”

How would I know? Outside of the letters from Alihay, of course. But I nodded my head.

“Your sister is trying so hard with him, she and her husband. And Justina is doing fine… weepy, from time to time, but she’s doing fine.”

“When… when will I get to see him?” I asked, struggling to keep my voice calm.

“Tomorrow!” Laura said. “You’ll sleep with us tonight, it’s almost the end of our sleep shift, and then my husband, the colonel, will take you down tomorrow. It isn’t going to be a very standard partnering,” she said, grinning, “But I am sure Carl won’t mind.”

I certainly hoped he wouldn’t. The rest of the evening passed in a blur. If I hadn’t been prepared, trained and warned by Aliya, I would have found the dorm life hard but, since I knew what was coming, I just threw away my New Texas modesty and ignored… everything I was supposed to ignore. I was very tired, and nervous, but I could hardly sleep. What would tomorrow be like? What would my husband be like? Would he like me, at all?