Adel frowned. “You mean Robman?”
“And Spaceman.” Meri had a third eye tattooed in the middle of her forehead. At least, Adel hoped it was a tattoo.
—sexy—buzzed minus
plus buzzed—weird—
—weird is sexy—
“Oh, Jonman’s not so bad.” Jarek pulled his spex off.
“If you like snobs.” Meri reminded him a little of Gavrila, except for the extra eye. “And cheats.”
Jarek replaced the spex on the rack and then clapped Adel on the back. “Welcome to the zoo, brother.” He was a head shorter than Adel and had the compact musculature of someone who was born on a high G planet. “So you’re in shape,” he said. “Do you lift?”
“Some. Not much. I’m a swimmer.” Adel had been the Great Randall city champion in the 100 and 200 meter.
“What’s your event?”
“Middle distance freestyle.”
—friend?—
“We have a lap pool in the gym,” said Jarek.
—maybe—minus buzzed
“Saw it.” Adel nodded approvingly. “And you? I can tell you work out.”
“I wrestle,” said Jarek. “Or I did back on Kindred. But I’m a gym rat. I need exercise to clear my mind. So what do you think of old Speedy so far?”
“It’s great.” For the first time since he had stepped onto the scanning stage in Great Randall, the reality of where he was struck him. “I’m really excited to be here.” And as he said it, he realized that it was true.
“That’ll wear off,” said Kamilah. “Now if you two sports are done comparing large muscle groups, can we move along?”
“What’s the rush, Kamilah?” Meri shifted into a corner of the couch. “Planning on keeping this one for yourself?” She patted the seat, indicating that Adel should take Jarek’s place. “Come here, let me get an eye on you.”
Adel glanced at Jarek, who winked.
“Has Kamilah been filling you in on all the gossip?”
Adel crammed himself against the side cushion of the couch opposite Meri. “Not really.”
“That’s because no one tells her the good stuff.”
Kamilah yawned. “Maybe because I’m not interested.”
Adel couldn’t look at Meri’s face for long without staring at her tattoo, but if he looked away from her face then his gaze drifted to her hot spots. Finally he decided to focus on her hands.
“I don’t work out,” said Meri, “in case you’re wondering.”
“Is this the survey that wrapped yesterday?” said Kamilah, turning away from them to look at the planets displayed on the wall. “I heard it was shit.”
Meri had long and slender fingers but her fingernails were bitten ragged, especially the thumbs. Her skin was very pale. He guessed that she must have spent a lot of time indoors, wherever she came from.
“System ONR 147-563.” Jarek joined her, partially blocking Adel’s view of the wall. “Nine point eight nine light-years away and a whole lot of nothing. The star has luminosity almost three times that of Sol. Six planets: four hot airless rocks, a jovian and a subjovian.”
“I’m still wondering about ONR 134-843,” said Kamilah, and the wall filled with a new solar system, most of which Adel couldn’t see. “Those five Martian-type planets.”
“So?” said Meri. “The star was a K1 orange-red dwarf. Which means those Martians are pretty damn cold. The day max is only 17C on the warmest and at night it drops to -210C. And their atmospheres are way too thin, not one over a hundred millibars. That’s practically space.”
“But there are five of them.” Kamilah held up her right hand, fingers splayed. “Count them, five.”
“Five Martians aren’t worth one terrestrial,” said Jarek.
Kamilah grunted. “Have we seen any terrestrials?”
“Space is huge and we’re slow.” Jarek bumped against her like a friendly dog. “Besides, what do you care? One of these days you’ll bust off this rock, get the hero’s parade on Jaxon and spend the rest of your life annoying the other eyejacks and getting your face on the news.”
“Sure.” Kamilah slouched uncomfortably. “One of these days.”
—eyejack?—buzzed minus.
Adel was wondering the same thing. “What’s an eyejack?”
“An eyejack,” said Meri confidentially, “is someone who shocks other people.”
“Shocks for pay,” corrected Kamilah, her back still to them.
“Shock?” Adel frowned. “As in voltage shock or scandalize shock?”
“Well, electricity could be involved.” Kamilah turned from the wall. Her medallion showed a cat sitting in a sunny window. “But mostly what I do,” she continued, “is make people squirm when they get too settled for their own good.”
—trouble—buzzed plus.
—love it—minus buzzed.
“And you do this how?”
“Movement.” She made a flourish with her left hand that started as a slap but ended as a caress that did not quite touch Jarek’s face. Jarek did not flinch. “Imagery. I work in visuals mostly but I sometimes use wordplay. Or sound—laughter, explosions, loud music. Whatever it takes to make you look.”
“And people pay you for this?”
“Some do, some sue.” Kamilah rattled it off like a catchphrase.
“It’s an acquired taste,” Meri said. “I know I’m still working on it.”
“You liked it the time she made Jonman snort juice out of his nose,” said Jarek. “Especially after he predicted she would do it to him.”
The wall behind them turned announcement blue. “We have come within survey range of a new binary system. I’m naming the M5 star ONR 126-850 and the M2 star ONR 154-436.” The screen showed data sheets on the discoveries: Location, Luminosity, Metallicity, Mass, Age, Temperature, Habitable Ecosphere Radius.
“Who cares about red dwarfs?” said Kamilah.
“About sixty percent of the stars in this sector are red dwarfs,” said Meri.
“My point exactly.” Said Kamilah, “You’re not going to find many terrestrials orbiting an M star. We should be looking somewhere else.”
“Why is that?” said Adel.
“M class are small, cool stars,” said Jarek. “In order to get enough insolation to be even remotely habitable, a planet has to be really close to the sun, so close that they get locked into synchronous rotation because of the intense tidal torque. Which means that one side is always dark and the other is always light. The atmosphere would freeze off the dark side.”
“And these stars are known for the frequency and intensity of their flares,” said Meri, “which would pretty much cook any life on a planet that close.”
“Meri and Jarek are our resident science twizes,” said Kamilah. “They can tell you more than you want to know about anything.”
“So do we actually get to help decide where to go next?” said Adel.
“Actually, we don’t.” Jarek shook his head sadly.
“We just argue about it.” Kamilah crossed the library to the bathroom and paused at the doorway. “It passes the time. Don’t get any ideas about the boy, Meri. I’ll be right back.” The door vanished as she stepped through and reformed immediately.
“When I first started thinking seriously about making the pilgrimage to the Godspeed,” said Jarek, “I had this foolish idea that I might have some influence on the search, maybe even be responsible for a course change. I knew I wouldn’t be aboard long enough to make a planetfall, but I thought maybe I could help. But I’ve studied Speedy’s search plan and it’s perfect, considering that we can’t go any faster than a third of C.”
“Besides, we’re not going anywhere, Jarek and you and me,” said Meri. “Except back to where we came from. By the time Speedy finds the next terrestrial, we could be grandparents.”