Kitty and Marie had been on the Spartan 5 for almost a week now. Over that time, Kitty and Marie had their physicals, were printed so that they could use certain aspects of the ship, they were given their own rooms, access to a lavatory that they shared, and were allowed into the recreation room.

'Petey', whose real name was Piotr but everyone called him Peter, had his translator fixed early this morning and he was about to explain why Marie and Kitty had been kidnapped. The two girls were sitting in the rec-room, Logan standing against the wall while Piotr sat in the chair across from the girls and looking very uncomfortable.

"Well! Don't just sit there…" Marie's impatience was showing after a minute of Piotr trying to figure out how to explain.

Clearing his throat after a look at Marie, he started to try to explain. "Our people are dying out. Female children are rare, no one knows why and no one has found a cure. 80 of the children born on our planet are male. To say that the competition for women is intense would be putting it mildly."

Piotr and Logan traded looks and the girls noticed that Logan was fingering some scars on his knuckles. "Most of the fighting happens when males are between 20 and 25, but the worst of it happens at older ages. Men are more likely to die from fights later in life. Even then the men out number the women by about 15... many of the males die without mates."

"We have a crisis on our hands, girls." Logan shrugged. "We need women. You two are precious commodities, and we know someplace where demand exceeds supply. Don't think that we are getting paid for this though. We don't make any profits; the PG, the Planet Government, pays us expenses and that's it. It is our civil duty to bring back any women we find. I know it's tough to hear, but you don't have to worry about being abused. If anything, you two will be treated better than you would be wherever you came from."

Piotr shook his head as if he didn't think Logan said it very well. "Logan is right, even if he isn't very subtle. The majority of the women brought in are very happy. I don't believe there is a culture that values women more than ours."

"So… what, are we sold to the highest bidder?" Kitty asked that quietly. This place they were talking about didn't sound very good… Fighting, kidnapping, supply and demand?

"No, no, nothing like that. You aren't slaves. Women can either choose their own mate, or they can be matched by a computer based on habits and personality traits."

Marie was quiet through most of the discussion but now she spoke up. "What happens if a woman picks a man who doesn't want her?"

Piotr blinked at her oddly. "I've never heard of a man refusing a woman. Any man would be grateful to be chosen… I assume that the woman would then be matched using a computer."

Now Piotr looked back and forth between the two girls, and he looked at them closely. "So where are you two girls from?"

"Earth."

His eyes widened and he looked over at Logan who looked oddly pleased. "Which Earth?"

Marie sighed and rolled her eyes. "Original Earth obviously… Earth 1 is too far from here for us to be on a training mission, and New Earth gets too much radiation for us to be so pale…"

"Maybe we should keep them for ourselves, Petey…" Logan grinned at Marie who promptly turned her nose up at him.

Piotr looked at the two girls for a moment, and Kitty could almost feel his eyes traveling over her. The pause was long enough to make her uncomfortable and she shifted in her chair. Her movement seemed to wake Piotr from whatever thoughts he had been having, and he nodded. "Maybe you are right… maybe."

Kitty shivered and his attention was drawn back to her. A high blush came to her face when Piotr's eyes went to her breasts and the easily visible puckered nipples. His eyelids drooped lower and he blinked slowly before nodding again.

"Logan I think you are right… We should keep these two for our selves…" Piotr stood and moved behind Kitty's chair.

Kitty almost shot out of her seat when his hands settled on her shoulders. Her heart was going a mile a minute and she could feel her blood rushing in her head. She wanted to run away or turn around and start hitting this man, but she couldn't.

"I choose this little one…" Piotr's fingers were gently pressing and moving in small motions on her shoulders. Kitty could tell that he could feel how tense she was, and was trying to soothe her. But she didn't want to be soothed.

"Wait! I thought we got to choose, or a computer picked…." Kitty's voice was high in panic and she tried to pull away from his hands.

"Shhh, shh, be calm Sweetling. If you want a computer then I will give you a computer." Piotr's manner towards her hadn't been particularly harsh before, but it had changed in the space of a few seconds. Apparently claiming her made him treat her differently.

Kitty relaxed slightly, and looked over at Marie who was in a glaring contest with Logan. No help from that area, so Kitty was on her own.

"Come with me, little one." Piotr slid one hand down her arm and took her fingers in his, as gentle any couple Kitty had seen holding hands. Kitty stood and Piotr led her to the rec-room and another chair. Sitting her down, he patted her thigh lightly and turned to a computer panel. After tapping a few keys and navigating through an odd looking program that Kitty had never seen before, a drawer slid open next to her.

Piotr picked up the odd contraption inside the drawer and showed it to her. "Katya, I am going to put this on your head so that the computer can analyze you. It won't hurt, so don't worry." He leaned forward and Kitty felt the little electrodes as they attached to her scalp. On the screen a diagram of her head had little red dots on it, and as each electrode connected itself the dots turned green. Meanwhile, Piotr had pulled out a small visor and was placing it over her eyes. Then he sat down next to her in another chair and tapped at the keys again.

"Are you ready?"

"For what?"

"My apologies Sweet, I forgot that you haven't done this before." Piotr chuckled and laid his hand on her knee. Kitty could feel it but since it seemed like he was only trying to comfort her she didn't try to push him away. "The computer is going to feed information into the visor. It could be pictures, puzzles, or questions, and the sensors on your head will pick up your response, so don't worry about saying anything out loud."

"There will also be a small period of time where the computer will put you through a kind of virtual reality. You will come out of it just fine, and then we can run your results through the computer, okay..?"

Piotr looked at her and for a moment he felt guilty for tricking her, but as he looked at her he knew that he wouldn't let her go without a fight. It was a fatal instinct in his people; once a male claimed a woman as his, she was ingrained in his mind as his mate. He had instinctively claimed Kitty and to Piotr she would always be his. He would fight to the death to protect her and keep her, he would do anything in his power to make her happy, and he would never intentionally hurt her. But Piotr had to have her. There was a driving need inside him that wanted her as his own.

So when Kitty nodded her agreement, Piotr tapped the key that started the program. He watched as her facial expressions changed and moved, until finally, her body went limp. Now that she was in the program that put her to sleep so that it could run her through a series of scenarios, she couldn't feel anything.

His hand settled on her knee again and he crouched next to her chair, bending his head to place his nose against her neck. Breathing deeply, he slid his hand up her thigh slowly, treasuring the feel of her as he slid his palm back down her inner thigh. He was impatient, something out of character for him, and he knew why. Even though he consciously understood what was going on, he couldn't stop himself from starting the bonding process.

Already her scent was deep inside his brain, and anything that smelled even remotely like her would bring forth an urge to find her and be with her. Piotr could feel the softness of her skin against his lips as he nuzzled his nose under her ear, the silkiness of her hair as it brushed against his face. He had to stop himself from opening his mouth to taste her, swallowing painfully as he fought down the urge, wanting to save that pleasure for another time. Piotr knew from hearing about others that if he rushed this he would fall into a heavily relaxed state, almost comatose or drugged.

Hearing a small beep come from the computer, Piotr was able to pull himself back and into his chair, with a calm look on his face before Kitty came out of the false sleep.

Tapping at the computer when it indicated that it was done processing Kitty, he spoke softly to her, warning her that he was taking the gear off of her head. After putting everything back in it's hidden drawer, he labeled Kitty's profile and ran it through the program. With a few subtle movements he was able to rig the program to make him the recommended mate for Kitty, all while she was watching.

The computer screen signaled that it had the results… A few false people were on the list, one was above Piotr, all with unattractive photos or quirks. Piotr sat back and waited while Kitty went through the profiles. When she was finished he questioned her.

"Who do you choose?"

Kitty was a bit suspicious when she glanced over at him, but she sighed in resignation. "I… I guess you." Kitty looked around the empty rec-room uncomfortably. "So now what?"

Piotr glanced behind him, looking at the projection clock. It was close to what they called night, there was no true day or night in space so they had to judge by time. "Are you hungry?" Then he grinned.