The wall vox switched on. ‘You have an incoming call from the ground host,’ Friend said.
‘Thank you, Friend,’ Roveg said. ‘Please put it through in here.’
There was a pause as the connection was made. ‘Hi Roveg,’ said a raspy voice. ‘It’s me, Tupo.’
‘Tupo, my friend!’ Roveg said. ‘Very good to hear you up and about. How are you feeling?’
‘Fine,’ Tupo mumbled, sounding as though xe was embarrassed about the question and wanted to move past it as quickly as possible. ‘Hey, um, what time are you leaving?’
‘I’m scheduled for a late night hop, so I’ll be launching in about three hours.’
‘Okay, um, just so you know, you’re invited to a goodbye party. My mom’s not doing it. I mean, she’s helping, but it’s my party. It’s so I can say thank you for, um, helping me.’
Roveg could practically hear the little Laru’s paws shuffling. ‘Tupo, I would be delighted,’ he said. ‘When should I be there?’
‘Oh, just, um, whenever you want. I guess not yet, because it’s not ready.’
Ouloo’s voice appeared in the background, calling from somewhere in the house. ‘Stars, Tupo. Tell him 16:00.’
‘It’s at 16:00,’ Tupo said.
‘In the garden,’ Ouloo called.
‘In the garden,’ Tupo said.
‘Splendid,’ Roveg said. ‘I’ll see you then.’
The child had stopped talking, but xe hadn’t ended the call. Roveg could hear Tupo still breathing through the vox. ‘Can I ask you a question?’ Tupo asked in a hush.
‘Of course,’ Roveg said.
Another pause. ‘How did you bring breakfast to Speaker? Because I know you did, and I want her to have party food, but, um … obviously I kind of don’t want to do that again.’
Roveg replied with gentle patience. ‘I used a drone, Tupo. I didn’t go inside her ship.’
‘Oh,’ Tupo said. Xe was quiet a moment more. ‘That makes way more sense.’
Pei wasn’t going to miss the garden, exactly. She was glad to know that she’d be in the air in a little over an hour, leaving Gora far behind. But with a tenday and a half of transit in front of her, one last touch of grass before she left was welcome.
Everybody else was already on the lawn, seated in a circle. The same decorations as the previous gatherings flocked the bushes, but they were more haphazard than before, and didn’t reach as high up. A similar state of almost-but-not-quite applied to the tray of mellow-mallow puddings that lay on the grass in between everyone. The fluff on the top was shaped inexpertly, and the colourful sugary swirls that dusted them were heaped in some spots and nonexistent in others. There could be no mistake whose party this was.
The evening’s host sat on xyr back haunches, leaned up against xyr mother, who was seated in the same manner. Ouloo cuddled Tupo close, and Tupo rested against her heavily. Whether xe was doing so out of physical weariness or emotional fragility was immaterial. The kid needed xyr mom. That much was obvious.
‘Hi, Captain Tem,’ Tupo said with a smile. The patchy fur around xyr nose somehow looked even worse than it had when the glue had first been cut, but that was neither here nor there.
‘Hey, Tupo,’ she said. ‘You know, you can call me Pei, if you want. I’d say we’re buds now, right?’
‘Oh,’ Tupo said. Xyr smile widened. ‘Okay.’ Xe reached forward, picked up a pudding bowl, and offered it to her. ‘They’re not as good as my mom’s, but …’
‘I think they’re very good,’ Roveg said, balancing a bowl between two legs and wielding a spoon with a third. ‘You certainly didn’t skimp on the sugar.’
‘Wouldn’t be dessert without sugar, would it?’ Speaker said. She was eating a helping of the fluffy stuff within her cockpit, using her beak and nothing but. Her pudding, however, wasn’t the same as the others. Rather than a plex bowl, Speaker’s portion had been served in a measuring cup. The most Akarak-sized receptacle Tupo could find in xyr mother’s kitchen, presumably.
Pei kicked off her boots, hugged the grass with her toes for a second, then sat down cross-legged and accepted the pudding.
‘Whoa,’ Tupo said, slinking xyr neck down toward Pei’s feet. ‘That’s so cool.’
‘Don’t stare,’ Ouloo scolded.
‘It’s okay,’ Pei said. She knew what the kid was looking at. Her shimmer was unmissable, and the golden light of an ending day brought the swimming flecks of blue, pink, and green out brightly. She thought it looked kind of cool, too.
‘Can I touch it?’ Tupo asked.
‘Tupo,’ Ouloo said.
‘I’d rather you didn’t,’ Pei said. ‘I’m pretty ticklish.’
Roveg lowered his spoon. ‘Can you explain being ticklish to me?’ he asked. ‘I have never understood the concept.’
‘Yeah, it’s—’ Pei started to answer authoritatively, but got no further than that. How did you explain being ticklish?
Speaker stared at the top of her cockpit, eyes narrow with thought. ‘I … have no idea how to describe what it feels like.’
‘It’s like …’ Ouloo frowned. ‘Hmm.’
‘Is it painful?’ Roveg asked.
‘No,’ Speaker said slowly. ‘It’s not.’
‘But you don’t like it?’ Roveg said.
‘I don’t like it,’ Pei said.
‘I mean,’ Ouloo said, ‘I don’t mind it.’
‘It’s not my favourite, but it’s not the worst,’ Speaker said.
Roveg looked around the group with his hard-shelled face. ‘Thank you, this has been incredibly illuminating,’ he said.
The sun dipped lower, and the globulbs in the garden brightened in response. ‘It’s kind of nice,’ Ouloo said, ‘seeing the sky without any ships.’
‘They’ll be back before you know it,’ Roveg said.
‘I know,’ Ouloo said. ‘And I’ll be glad to see them, but … it is nice.’
Pei tipped her head back and gazed upward. The wreckage drones had cleaned up their patch of sky, and the view above the Five-Hop was now free of debris. There was no junk, no traffic, no blinking satellites. Nothing but the transparent seams of the dome and what little air lay above. She tried to remember the last time she’d seen a sky that way, and came back empty.
Roveg set his bowl back
