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the ship sped toward it, the engines surged, rumbling in my gut like the voice of inevitability. The glimmering speck was no star. I stood up out of my seat. My eyes opened so wide they dried out and tears stung.
    Commander Barliss hailed Paradise 21.
     

 
    Chapter Four
    Assignments
     
    The food congealizer buzzed and gurgled as I dropped crushed tomatoes into the blades.
    “I’ll need that paste soon.” Mom stirred a pot of boiling water, brewing up one of her great stew concoctions.
    “It’s almost ready.” I pushed the button and watched the chunks turn to mush.
    “It’s too bad we lost the last crop of green beans.” She threw in a dash of salt. “They would have added a nice touch.”
    “It’s not your fault, Mom.” Mold had infested the seeds, contaminating the entire container. As the chief microbiologist, any mistake like that weighed heavily on her shoulders.
    She sighed, slumping forward. “Our stocks are low, and a lot of the seedlings aren’t growing to full capacity.”
    I poked the tomatoes on the countertop with a fork. They were smaller than my palm, with shriveled skin. Not too appetizing. Then again, I’d only seen healthy tomatoes in pictures from my history books of Old Earth.
    “These look fine, Mom.”
    “We’ll have much more to work with when we get to Paradise 21: new soil, new species.” Her face brightened while I frowned, turning back to the accumulating tomato paste. Was I the only one that didn’t want to land?
    The wallscreen beeped behind us and flashed the words Incoming Message . Mom took up my job at the food congealizer. “Go see what it is, honey.”
    I jogged into the family room and clicked on the main screen. As I read the words, I froze. Life Assignments for Class Omega .
    Oh, no. When my grandpapa had announced they’d be speeding everything up at the meeting last night, I didn’t think it’d be the next day. My insides tightened and I felt sick and goose-bumpy all at once. Half of me wanted to run into my room and hide, and the other half yearned to get it over with and press the damn button.
    The food congealizer paused. “What’s taking so long, Andromeda?”
    “Nothing, Mom. I’ll be right back.”
    I didn’t want to share this moment with anyone. I couldn’t handle the shame and humiliation of being assigned a less-than-adequate job and an ill-matched lifemate. I hoped I did better than I assumed on the tests, but I lived in denial of a lot of things.
    They used to hand out the assignments on beautiful thick white paper, but that ran out two generations ago. Now all we had was a public screen available for everyone to see. I guess they figured we’d all know in a matter of days anyway. My mom wouldn’t stay in the kitchen forever, so I gathered up my last smidgen of courage and pressed the button.
    A long list of names flashed up. After a moment of panic, I realized it was in alphabetical order and scrolled down to the Bs. Next to my name it read Agriculture, Section 34a: New Species Integration. Relief flooded over me like a cool shower. Having a job with mom wasn’t so bad. All those nights I’d listened to her complain about soil nutrients and growth cycles must have paid off. I was a much lower rank than she was, but I could always work my way up the system.
    I scrolled down to see that Nova did indeed receive Expedition Team Leader , a highly coveted title, and Sirius earned Navigator, First Officer . My heart swelled. He did it. He’d manipulated the tests to be an aviator. I was so happy for him that for a moment I forgot all about the other part of our assignments: our lifemates.
    I summoned the courage to scroll down. So far, I was content. If the job turned out okay, maybe the assignment would make me happy too. But only one name would make me truly happy. I held down the button until I reached the Lifemates section and found my name.
    Andromeda Barliss matched to Corvus Holmes.
    I stared at the backlit type, disbelieving. Had I