I was trying hard not to let my doubt drown Yusuf’s excitement at playing tour guide for me. Trying to stay where my feet were and returning his giddy smiles in the bathroom mirror, looking for some of that sugar-rush from yesterday. Blunt questions rattled around my head. How long would Hassan let us mooch? How could we find our own place to live if we couldn’t prove we were from this country, never mind this world? I’d never been one to think things through, and I couldn’t put this all on Yusuf. Especially now, with him whistling in the shower, still riding the upswing of a high. I got it. He was one of the first humans to ever step foot in an alternate universe. He found himself in a world with centuries of progress ahead of his own, with whole new fields of science based off the Farsight to explore.

While Yusuf showered, I headed into the kitchen, where Hassan was pouring coffee into a travel mug. He waggled the pot at me and, when I nodded, he poured me a mug.

“I hope I wasn’t too unwelcoming last night.” He frowned, looking down at his coffee, mirroring what I’d seen Yusuf do a million times. “Rui was always the one with the soft skills, not me.”

“It’s alright.” I sipped the coffee to stall. “We sprang this on you. You’re being way more patient than I’d probably be.”

“You can stay as long as you need. I’ll keep your secret safe.” He looked up, one corner of his mouth wavering into something like a smile. “It’s what Rui would do.”

“I appreciate that.” An awkward breath flowed between us. “And Rui—he sounds great.”

Hassan nodded and brushed past me. He’d love to stay and show us around, he called from his bedroom, but work wouldn’t wait. We’d have everything we’d need right at our fingertips anyway. He’d left us his citizen card on the counter, which we could scan in town because everything—food, transportation, entertainment—was free for Commonwealth citizens. And we could research whatever else we needed on his Portacle. He popped back out and handed me a tiny, voice-activated, palm-sized tablet, practically glowing. Everyone on the planet carried a Portacle, which was connected to a treasure trove of information pulled from the Envisioner, plus real-time satellite data and the global communications network. It even came with personal assistant AI. You see, he said urgently, in this world all the information ever discovered by humanity was free for everyone.

“It’s like a portable oracle,” he said.

“Yeah, I got that. So, it’s a cellphone.”

Hassan pressed his lips together. “It’s more than that. It’s—it’s… I knew I should’ve spoken to Yusuf about this and not you.”