“Is anyone bored?” Ilika asked when his entire crew had settled at the large table on the upper deck of the Manessa Kwi.
Sata, still in a blue and green skin-tight dance suit that made her look like a nimble-footed avian, and feel completely naked, grinned and shook her head.
“You were impressive last evening,” Ilika said with admiration, “and I saw some green birds watching and learning from your movements.”
Sata shrugged and ducked in a very bird-like manner, then blushed as only a monkey mammal can.
Kibi looked at her knowledge pad and sighed. “I learn to trim the station tree later today, while dangling from the ceiling on a rope!”
“That was hard for me,” Ilika admitted. “Makes orbit excursions seem easy.”
Boro pulled a small ball from his pocket and tossed it up a few times.
“From the fish and salad place in Orange Hall, third balcony, to the ship, without dropping it or running into anything!”
Ilika smiled. “Someday, you’ll get to do it with raw . . . oh, never mind.”
Boro’s eyes grew large.
Rini turned his knowledge pad for Ilika to see — a diagram showed the layers of a red giant star, Nebador type two, stage three.
Ilika smiled. “I’m glad you’re making good use of Mati’s recovery time.”
“I’ve been looking up at the stars all my life,” the freckled lad said with a
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smile. “Now I get to really know them.”
“I’m learning about stars too, whether I like it or not,” Mati announced with a mixture of humor and irritation. Then she glanced at Rini, and the irritation melted. “It’s okay, I just wish my muscles would heal faster.
K’stimla says I can go to one-half gravity tomorrow, if she likes what she sees at my exam this afternoon.”
Ilika smiled at his pilot.
“I have a question,” Sata suddenly said with a wrinkled brow.
Ilika looked at her.
“There are so many things going on — dance lessons, getting to know the station, helping out, visiting Mati, mission bracelets chiming — sometimes I don’t know what I’m supposed to do first!”
Boro cleared his throat. “I think I can help.”
The captain looked at his engineer with a knowing smile.
“Emergencies come first,” Boro declared from recent experience, “and if it’s personal, where you’re the one who has to do something, then that’s the most important kind of all . . .”
Mati and Rini took the long way back to the medical center. At four different knowledge processors, they looked at the possible low-gravity pathways, then took turns picking the most interesting route.
The last path they chose, promising to return them to the main hall and the medical center, passed a small theater-like area where a number of creatures sat or perched while peering into a large window.
Rini was curious, so he stepped to the nearest knowledge processor and asked for a brief explanation. The one-way window looked into a large cavern-like room that simulated the home planet of a unique species of sapient reptiles. The planet was no longer livable, and the three hundred reptiles within were the only remaining members of their kind. Efforts were underway to find them a new home, but a suitable planet had not yet been found.
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While Rini read, Mati stood at the back of the theater and gazed into the rocky desert environment visible through the one-way window. The reptiles wore no clothes, but jewelry shimmered on their necks, arms, and tails. They spoke to each other in deep-throated rumbles and hisses, often shared affection, and sometimes got into fights. Mati’s heart went out to them, and she craved to somehow help them.
Rini stood at her side until her legs began to tremble with exhaustion. He held her hand tightly as they made their way back to the medical center along the low-gravity pathway.
The small, fuzzy blue glow that had been following them went a different way.
“I can tell by your blood chemistry that you really pushed yourself today, Mati,” K’stimla said during the exam.
“Yeah, we went exploring, but I stayed on the orange path. Rini almost had to carry me the last hundred meters, but I made it!”
K’stimla’s mandibles twitched. “If you tear something, we’ll have to start all over.”
Mati turned white. “I’m sorry.”
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“I’ll let you go to one-half gravity tomorrow, but I want you to rest tonight, get lots of sleep, and take shorter walks tomorrow. No more than a hundred meters, then rest and eat something.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll make sure,” Rini promised from a chair nearby.
Mati flashed him a momentary frown, then smiled.
Deep Learning Notes
If you were in the Nebador Services, based at Satamia Star Station, what would you want to do with your free time?
How did Boro suddenly know so much about setting priorities during emergencies?
What experience has Mati had that made her “heart go out to” the homeless desert reptiles?
Why would Mati flash Rini a momentary frown after he promised to make sure she took shorter walks in the future?
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