It was funny to watch big Roic sitting cross-legged on the floor, being instructed on how to use chopsticks by Mina.  Miles-san handled his pretty well, for a galactic; he claimed he'd practiced on the ship coming here, and at other times in the past.  When he let slip he'd been to Old Earth itself, twice, Mina made him tell stories of his visits, though he mainly told her about his second trip, his wife, and gardens, lots of different gardens.  All he said of his first trip was that it was purely business, he'd never got out of one city, and that it was the first time he'd met his brother, which last remark seemed very weird to Jin's ear.  Consul Vorlynkin pulled his lip and looked thoughtful at this, but he didn't ask any helpful questions, and Miles-san didn't expand.

With frequent references to the instruction file, Jin fed tidbits to Nefertiti, who apparently could eat some kinds of people food but not others, at least not without messy digestive consequences.  Unfortunately, Ako came in just as the sphinx was having an accident in the darkest corner, which was Jin's fault really because he hadn't paid enough attention to her little mutters of Poo!  Pee! during her restless explorations of the recovery room.  Ako was very upset, and made Jin clean it up, which was fair, but then insisted the creature couldn't spend the night in here.  Raven-sensei, at least, seemed undisturbed by biological messes, and stayed out of the debate.  Jin finally promised to take Nefertiti back to his rooftop hideout for overnight, which satisfied Ako, but then Mina wanted to tag along and see the place.

Miles-san and Roic had gone off by then to meet with Lord Mark and Suze-san, so Consul Vorlynkin, after a glance through the glass at Jin's worried-looking mother, volunteered to go along and help lug the sphinx carrier, and make sure that all was well.  Jin's mother smiled gratefully at him, so Jin supposed that was all right, too.

They were filing down the end stairs when they met Bhavya, one of Ako's friends, panting up.

"Jin!  Have you seen Ako?  Tanaka-san wants her on the second floor—an emergency cryoprep.  Some poor old lady collapsed in the cafeteria, all in a heap, they say."

"She's up in the recovery room with my mom."  Jin pointed back up the stairs.  "Raven-sensei's there, too."

Bhavya nodded and ran on, waving thanks without looking back.

Vorlynkin wheeled to stare after her.  "Should we go try to help?"

Jin shook his head.  "Naw, this happens all the time.  Well, not all the time, but every week or so.  Tanaka-san knows what to do."

Vorlynkin looked doubtful, but followed Jin down to the tunnels.

"The layout down here is very confusing," he remarked.