"It turns out, they didn't really understand why they were there, although they'd already been vaccinated by that point, having sat through the presentations too scared to ask questions. They started panicking when one of the nurses had asked them about the men they were to be paired with, which in each case was the other's father. This was a complete shock to both of them, as all they'd been told before they arrived, brought by their fathers, was that they were getting a vaccine to protect them without any further information. It turned out that everything had been arranged by their fathers, who had even completed their Oracle questionnaires for them. Now, if someone had bothered to check, they'd have seen that the AI system had flagged both of their profiles as being suspect, but unfortunately no one did."
At this point, Ruairi returned with sandwiches for each of them. "So, their fathers were doing a daughter swap without informing them?" he enquired.
"Yeah, basically," Ciara confirmed. "Totally fucked up, I know."
"The poor girls," Rebecca exclaimed. "To think that their fathers think so little of them that they could trade them like Pokémon cards."
"Anyway," Ciara continued, keen to get everything out. "I asked them about boyfriends. They both had one, although I got that one was more serious than the other. I set Gillian the task of finding out about the boyfriends while we deleted the young women's Oracle profiles and got them to actually complete them for themselves. I sat in with them and answered their questions on the different fetishes to save them the time and embarrassment of looking things up."
Seeing that her friend was struggling a bit, Rebecca moved to give her a hug. Ciara turned to her and patted her hand.
"Well, Gillian had her answers and they weren't all good. The serious boyfriend, if I can call him that, was still alive and we sent one of our security team to fetch him, but the other had recently died. This was slightly less than the devastating news that we thought it would be for the young woman concerned, but she was still very upset."
"Wow!" Rebecca exclaimed.
"By now, all the other women had been dispatched to their respective destinations and it wasn't long before the young man was brought in looking highly confused. When the situation was explained to him, though, he willingly took the Oracle questionnaire. Both young women had settled down by this point and it was obvious that their panic was in response to the situation, not the vaccine and, given the amount of time that had passed since they'd been vaccinated, we could release him and his girlfriend straight away. We asked the other if she wanted to go with them, but she declined. Anyway, a different security team member escorted the couple out through the back door, taking them to his small one-bedroom flat which isn't far from here. We'll need to arrange more partners for him and he'll also need to move soon. But that, as they say, can wait for another day."
Ciara paused to take a bite or three from her sandwich, before continuing her story. "Gillian and another member of the security team really enjoyed going out and arresting the two fathers, who were sat outside in their cars, bringing them back into the gym in handcuffs. The pair of them were swearing and threatening all sorts of things, until Gillian pointed out that everything they said was being recorded by her bodycam.
"Given that one of them was the government health minister who nominally has overall executive responsibility for the current rollout of the vaccine, I had the unenviable task of phoning Helen McEntee, the new Taoiseach, and explaining the situation to her when I was finally put through. I'd already met her, of course, when she came for her own vaccination. Her response was swift. The minister has been stripped of all his responsibilities and they've both had their Oracle profiles frozen and will receive no new partners until the Taoiseach feels that they've learned their lesson. God, you should have seen their faces when they were given that news!"
"Had they other partners planned, then?" Ruairi enquired.
"Yes, a few," Ciara conceded. "We're currently checking them to see if there's any indication of foul play, given that both men are overweight and in their late forties. We've also initiated a deep dive into all the currently planned pairings to ensure no other foul play and will look at those that have already happened as time allows, although there's currently no way to undo what's been done. It's the best that we can do in the circumstances, along with asking each woman to confirm that they're happy with their prospective partner before vaccinating them going forward."
"What about the young woman whose boyfriend had died," Rebecca asked.
Ciara bit her lip, retrieved her phone from her pocket and sent a quick text. No more than five seconds later, there was a knock at the door. Ruairi was on his feet and moving towards the door before registering the coincidence. Opening the door, he saw a young red-headed woman standing there with Gillian standing two metres behind her with her phone still in her hand, the grin on her face evident even behind her facemask.
Ciara, who had moved at the same time as Ruairi, took the clipboard from the young woman, signed the form with the pen attached to it by a length of string and dropped it onto the step after removing the top sheet. She then ushered the young woman through the door, closing it firmly behind her. The last thing that Ruairi saw was Gillian approaching the door to collect the clipboard, giving him a 'thumbs up' with both hands.
"Kee?" Rebecca said in a questioning voice. "Surely it was meant to be just the seven of us. Blake's Seven, like we discussed."
"Circumstances change," Ciara replied. "Ruairi, Becca, this is Chloe Byrne. She was looking through the profiles offered by the system and pointed at you, Ruairi. You were near the top of her selection. I'm not really sure why, but I mentioned to her that I was with you, which seemed to make her mind up for her."
"Welcome, Chloe," Ruairi offered, his eyes running up and down the young woman. He could see that she was shorter than both Ciara and Rebecca at maybe 1.68 metres (5 foot 6 inches) tall with a slim physique and modestly proportioned chest, currently clad in a pair of stretch jeans and a navy blue hoodie for University College, Dublin. Having scanned her body, Ruairi looked at her youthful face to see her looking back at him, her coppery-red hair, which was obviously in need of cutting, just reaching her shoulders while her green eyes showed amusement. Her delicate cupid's bow mouth was drawn into a smirk, clearly showing that she was fully aware that he'd just been checking her out. "Sorry we're in a bit of a state," Ruairi continued, "but we're moving to another house tomorrow."
"Feck," Ciara exclaimed. "I'd forgotten all about that, what with everything else that's been going on this morning." Her phone was again in her hand and she was busily sending messages on the group chat explaining the situation.
"You've not brought a bag with you?" Rebecca enquired as Ciara fended all of the questions coming her way to a background of all three of their phones pinging.
"I didn't know that I needed to," Chloe explained, looking down at her feet. "I'm not going back home yet to collect anything either, so I'll maybe need to borrow things for a few days until something can be arranged."
"I'm sure we can sort you out," Rebecca offered. "If not, you can just wear one of Ruairi's tee shirts," she added with a laugh, causing Chloe to look up and smile at him, this time without any implied criticism.
"Then I'd better go and pack a few more," Ruairi countered, smiling back at Chloe. Changing the subject, he asked "I'm assuming you've not eaten yet. Can I get you a sandwich or something and maybe a coffee?"
"Please, that would be wonderful," Chloe replied, giving Ruairi an even bigger smile that lit up her whole face.
"Why don't you come with me, then, and select your filling," Ruairi suggested, holding out his hand to her, which she readily accepted.
Leading her into the kitchen, Ruairi asked, "Has Ciara explained what has to happen, now that you've been vaccinated?"
Chloe stopped dead in her tracks, causing Ruairi to stop as well. The next thing he knew, she'd wrapped her arms around him and was hugging him tight. "Yeah, you're going to fuck my brains out and put me to sleep until tomorrow."
"No regrets?" he enquired. "I gather your boyfriend has recently died."
"So many have died," she replied, sadness evident in her voice. "Many of my friends have lost a parent, a few have lost both of them. And some have lost younger siblings, too. Conor was my daddy-approved boyfriend. He wasn't bad, but he wasn't a keeper, and we'd hardly communicated since the pandemic started."
"Did your father have to approve all your boyfriends?"
"Basically, not that I've really had many. Being in government, he didn't want any scandal. I'm not sure he'll recover from what he and my godfather tried to pull today, though."
Ruairi mentally filed the information as they separated and then showed her where everything was kept before putting the coffee machine back on.
In the living area, Ciara and Rebecca were again sitting together on the small two-seat sofa, each now sending messages in the group chat.
