Darb shoved with his head, sending Coal sprawling, fell on him and licked.
I turned to the door where Jai stood. “The door was open.”
“It’s keyed to your biometrics,” Jai said. He shut the door and moved past us. “You’re always welcome here. Come in.” He moved over to the dining table and turned to face us. “You sounded grave. What happened out there?”
“First, I have a question for you.” I moved over to the table, too. I didn’t want to hover by the door as if I doubted my welcome.
Dalton made himself even more at home. He walked straight over to the front windows and stood looking down at the valley and the water.
I waved toward Fiori. “Fiori Bannister…Jai Van Veen.”
“Mace’s mother,” Jai said, with a tilt of his head. “At last, we meet. I’m sorry it isn’t under more pleasant circumstances.”
“Thank you,” Fiori replied. She had lingered by the door, and I guess for the same reason.
“There was a Shield medic called Bannister on New Phoenicia, perhaps forty years ago,” Jai said. “Working on humanlike polymers.”
“That was me,” Fiori replied, her expression both surprised and pleased. “I know you were Shield, too. Where were you posted?”
“Oh, everywhere,” Jai murmured. He was being discreet. Despite there no longer being an Empire or an Emperor to run it, he still maintained the habit of keeping his mouth shut unless necessary. “Come in, please.”
Fiori smiled at him and moved over to the first big, long tub of plants and breathed in their scent.
Jai considered me. “Ask your question.”
“You know everyone worth knowing,” I told him. “You hear everything, eventually.”
Jai didn’t bother dissembling. “Sooner or later, yes.”
“How long have you known about the aliens, then?” I watched his face very carefully.
His expression moved through a range of emotions. The first one was surprised amusement. Then puzzlement. Then concern.
I relaxed. He didn’t know a damn thing. “I need to hook Lyssa into the house. Then, Van Veen, you should probably sit down for this.”
“Not until I have a drink,” he replied and went to get one.
—14—
We all got drinks and finger food, in the end, for Anderson Marlow arrived while Van Veen was setting up the first round of drinks—no printer anywhere in sight—and declared he was hungry.
Marlow was a big man and filled any room he entered, but even he wasn’t large enough to overpower this one. He moved over to where Dalton was working on the desk, setting up a direct feed for Lyssa, and shook his hand. He introduced himself to Fiori, then came back to me and with a grin, hugged me hard enough to lift my feet off the ground.
Then he put me back on my feet and patted my cheek. “You’re cute when you blush.”
I growled at him, which just made him laugh louder.
Jai pushed a glass of something into Marlow’s hand. “They met aliens,” he said flatly.
Marlow’s smile was slow to fade. “Really?” He drank.
“Really,” I said flatly. “We’re about to show you.” I pointed toward the desk where Dalton was working.
“You don’t have a pad you can use?” Marlow asked, sounding merely curious.
“I have to get a new one,” I said.
“Another one?” Jai shook his head.
“Jai said you can emit a room-sized 3D tank in here,” I said to Marlow.
“We can. Is that what Dalton’s trying to do?” He put his drink on the table and went over to the desk. “I can help.”
The two of them sorted out the connection, with Lyssa weighing in from the other end. When the screen formed in the middle of the room, we gathered around it, while Lyssa appeared in the middle, at near life-size.
She waved enthusiastically at Marlow and Jai.
“You look lovelier than you ever have,” Jai told her.
“Why orange?” Marlow asked her, his tone serious. He leaned closer, examining her. “But I’m glad you kept the freckles,” he added.
Lyssa put her hands together and I thought she might scuff the ground with one toe, but she didn’t. “I have something to show you,” she said, her expression growing grave.
“So Danny said,” Jai replied. “Please go ahead.”
Lyssa nodded and disappeared. In her place, the rocky planet we’d left behind formed as a small ball in the middle of the tank.
“Where is this?” Jai asked.
“Unnamed planet on the very edge of the Carina arm,” I replied. “We’ll give you all the details later. Just watch for now.”
I had rewatched the footage more than a dozen times already and was more interested in seeing Jai’s and Marlow’s reactions. Dalton watched them, too.
Fiori kept her back to the tank and talked softly to Darb, while Coal and Vara sat next to their brother. Coal watched Fiori with his head tilted, the white eyes steady upon her face.
Lyssa had put together a full montage of our interactions with the aliens, including footage from the shuttle’s external cameras, which gave Jai and Marlow a full view of the creature inside the one man fighter.
“Hello…!” Marlow exclaimed softly when the fighter appeared. Then neither man spoke until the feed ended.
Jai rubbed his jaw. “Again, please.”
Lyssa ran the footage again.
Marlow moved over to the kitchen wall and prepared food, pulling containers out of cupboards and placing loaded plates in the center of the table.
Van Veen watched the footage four times in total. Then he glanced at us. “Come and eat.”
Fiori looked surprised, then concerned, but I knew how Van Veen liked to work. I shook my head and saw her tiny shrug in response. She came over to the table and settled on a chair beside Dalton.
Marlow placed a screen emitter on the table. “For the most important person in the room.” He switched it on.
Lyssa appeared on the flat screen and smiled sunnily. “You are very sweet, Anderson.”
He winked at her. “Don’t tell anyone else.”
The food was simple, but fresh, plentiful and good. I ate more than I thought I could, and in between mouthfuls, I glanced at Van Veen. I could see he
