It was hard asking to mate with someone you'd never seen before. And that was part of the reason Nezka never put in a request, even though a lot of her friends had. Jan, one of her older friends, had even made two requests already. Shaking her head, Nezka cursed her lack of confidence. It would be a lot easier if she actually knew what they looked like, if they weren't just a list of names. But, she understood why the females must be isolated. Infighting would be too much of an issue.
Sometimes one male would visit, but they were so intimidating. They were either centuries older, or too aggressive for her to be comfortable around them and she missed her chance then too. There was one in camp now, but he was raving about experiments and Weyrloc clan. She didn't want her first time to be with a madman.
"Nezka! Did you hear what's happened in Urdnot?" It was Jan, probably to brag about a third request.
"No," she said. "What happened?"
Jan smirked, probably at her ignorance of current events. "There's a new male in Urdnot. And he killed a thresher maw."
A thresher maw? Nezka tried to remember the last time someone killed one of them and couldn't.
"I'm going to put in a request for him," Jan continued. "Care to join me?"
"Okay," Nezka said, trying to put aside her shyness. "Fine."
---
Nezka waited while Jan clicked away at the terminal. She didn't quite remember how to put in a request, but she watched what little of the terminal screen she could see from behind Jan and thought she could manage.
Once Jan was finished, a voice said, "Thank you, your request has been sent to Urdnot clan for Urdnot Grunt." Jan turned to her, snickered, and left. Nezka stepped up to the terminal and tried to navigate it. It was harder than it looked. The terminals had been ordered from a human company, since it was cheaper and willing to ship to Tuchanka, and they were designed for five-fingered use. But, Nezka was determined to prove herself against Jan, and she eventually brought up the screen that showed Urdnot Grunt's name and the name of his krantt. After a few clicks, she had the name selected and pressed enter.
"Thank you, your request has been sent to Urdnot clan for John Shepard."
Oops.