True.
I got to my feet, and thanked everyone for coming, then got down to brass knuckles. “Three days ago, Lyssa was asked to register her parking space and identify herself. There’s too many ships in this system and too many experts. Certainly, I’m not needed. So I’ve decided to head back to Melenia. I’ve got bills to pay and debts to clear.”
No one around the table looked surprised.
Sauli scratched under his chin. “If you don’t mind dropping me off on Darius, Danny, I’ll come with you. I have to make sure they’re still building ships according to the blueprints I left behind. Then I’ll bring the Omia back, so Kristiana can stay on top of things here.”
I glanced at Kristiana. She gave a tiny movement of her shoulders. “We are making history, here,” she said. “Or perhaps we’re merely uncovering history we didn’t know was out here. It’s…interesting.”
I glanced at Jai and Marlow. “I don’t want to kick the two of you out, but…”
Marlow grinned. “We can find a couple of bunks to use until the Omia returns. Sauli has better brandy, anyway.”
Sauli laughed. “He just likes beating me at chess.”
I looked at Lyth.
His smile was warm. “If you don’t mind, Danny, I’d like a lift back to Wynchester. Arnold is a lousy administrator and I’ve never heard him sound so giddy as he has lately, with all the implications behind the neo-humans that he’s been learning.”
“I think we have to stop calling them that,” Jai said.
Everyone looked at him.
Jai lifted his chin, to indicate the view beyond the dome, and the thick river of stars running across the sky. “These people are only new to us. We know very little about them, so far, except that we think they come from the other arm, but I think it’s safe to assume that their culture and their worlds are just as old as ours, so calling them new people is incorrect.”
“Have a better name for them, professor?” Dalton asked, his tone dry. He’d spent a lot of time in Jai’s company lately, and Jai was very good at pontificating when he had everyone’s attention. The problem was, most of what he said was profoundly interesting, so it was hard to just switch off and not listen to him when he was in full flow. Only, Dalton preferred action and doing things to thinking about things and discussions, so I could understand the dry tone.
“That arm is the Orion arm,” Jai said. He looked around the table.
Yoan stared at the tabletop. “Orion…ics?”
Everyone winced.
“Orionids?” Juliyana said. Calpurnia, who sat beside her, had said very little all night, even though she had responded to my invitation with pleased surprise.
Everyone groaned at Juliyana’s suggestion, too.
“What about just calling them Orions, for now?” I suggested.
“It will do for now,” Jai replied.
“And to get back to the point,” Lyth said with a patient tone, “I think we’ve learned all we can from the mothership. We’ve scraped it down to the molecular level for anything interesting and we’ve got rooms full of data to analyze. I want to return to the Institute and go on from there. So yes, thank you, Danny, I will go back with you.”
I couldn’t help but move my gaze to Juliyana, and realized that everyone else had looked at her, too, except for Calpurnia, who looked down at the contents of whatever it was she was drinking.
Juliyana flushed a deep red. She cleared her throat. “I’m heading back home, too,” she said. “The Penthos is already there, so Cal can take her out when we get back.”
Calpurnia raised her chin and looked at Juliyana, her mouth open. “Me?”
Juliyana nodded.
Lyth, I noticed, was now staring at the tabletop, his face held in a rigid neutral expression. He was too nice a man to look pleased where Calpurnia might see it. And yeah, I was happy for him, so I fought to not look too pleased, too.
Calpurnia drank the rest of her glass, a smile in place.
Sauli tapped Yoan’s shoulder. “Going or staying?”
Yoan looked surprised. He glanced at me.
“You’re welcome to stay aboard, if you’d like, Yoan.”
He ran his hand through his hair—a ghostly replica of the way Sauli did when he felt awkward. “Can I think about it?”
“Of course. You have ten hours.”
“Oh.” He grimaced. “Okay. I’ll have to talk it out with some people.”
I turned to look at the last person at the table to state their immediate future intentions. Dalton looked relaxed and comfortable. I suspected the news that, after a few major organ replacements, Mace was out of danger and recovering swiftly had a lot to do with that. His gaze met mine. “I’ve got a job to do here,” he said softly. His gaze shifted to Jai and Marlow and back to me. “I thought it was make-work, until I started doing it. But these two need a nanny like no two generals I’ve ever met. So….” He didn’t finish it. He didn’t have to. And his gaze would not let mine go.
So I was back to waiting again.
—38—
Yoan tapped on my door not long after I returned to my room.
I let him in and pointed to the chair that everyone used. “You can sit there.” I eyed him. “Or not.” He looked too nervous to sit. “What did your parents say?”
“You knew I was going to talk to them?”
“Is there someone else you might have discussed it with?”
He grimaced. “That’s part of the problem. I grew up with them. I work with them. It’s a pretty small world.”
“Until the last few days.”
“Yeah.” He grinned.
“You’re staying on,” I concluded.
Yoan rubbed at the back of his neck. That was pure Sauli, too. “Thing is, I grew up hearing about you and this ship and everyone who used to crew on
