Kalico nodded. “Good word. Tal’s a test case, a battleground for competing lineages of quetzal TriNA. Fortunately, she’s a tough lady. Was able to come to terms with her unique circumstance. When we get to Kylee, the little girl? Well, she’s not so little now, and her history is tragic. Her quetzal, Rocket, was murdered, which turns out to have been a crippling blow in more ways than one. As a result, Kylee is wild, doesn’t trust humans. She’s bonded with another quetzal, named Flute. But she’ll never be a ‘normal’ human being.”

“So,” Shinwua asked, “What do the quetzals want?”

“We don’t know. And, to be frank, I’m not sure they do either. It’s like we’re all feeling our way forward in this.”

“And what lessons do we take away from this?” Yoshimura asked.

Kalico could see the white breakers ahead, and even as she watched, a thin strip of cream-colored sand could be made out against the horizon.

“Here’s your takeaway, Dr. Yoshimura: Whatever you find in the ocean, don’t think—even for an instant—that it’s simple. What we know about intelligence on Donovan is little more than a feeble candle flame in a universe of blackness. But it’s enough to scare the clap-trapping bejeezus out me.”

“The what?” Shinwua asked.

“Sorry. Old term.” But still just as true.

16

“How do you get this stuff off?” Sheena asked.

Felix looked up from the pad where he’d been reading. According to the cafeteria clock, the time was 11:05. He, Breez, Felicity, Tomaya, and Sheena were in what the adults called “school.” Or sometimes, just “class.” This had started for him and the two girls back on Ashanti.

There it had been in one of the dormitory rooms where the three of them had been made to sit at the low central table and study on their pads with half the adults crowded around. Given that there was nothing else to do, it had been a community process, to which Tomaya and then Breez had been added when each turned four. Along with the adults, Felix, Felicity, and Sheena had been expected to help Tomaya and Breez learn letters, numbers, adding and subtracting, and then reading. Seemed like Breez had taken to it a lot faster at her age than either Felix, Felicity, Sheena, or Tomaya had.

During the transition down from Ashanti, “school” had been a constant. What was different on the Pod was that no adults were lounging around adding bits of wisdom to the lesson. Sometimes, in the past, he and the girls had learned more from the conversations the adults got into about history and science and stories then they did from the pads.