"Yes, the usual Earth imports, atop its own native ecosystem.  The native animals are mostly small, like bugs, though.  There are larger creatures in the seas."

"Do people fish?"

"Not in the seas.  In stocked lakes, yes.  The Barrayaran plants and animals are mostly toxic to humans."

Jin nodded wisely.  "Around here, the native stuff they first found on the equator was mostly microorganisms.  They figure that's where the oxygen came from, before the last big freeze.  They set up a lot of Earth plants to follow the melting glaciers, north and south.  But not many animals."

"Kibou-daini is a lot like Komarr—that's the second planet of my Empire," Miles said.  "A cold world, being slowly terraformed.  Sergyar—that's the third world—you'd probably like it.  It has a fully-developed native ecosystem, and lots of amazing animals, or so my mother tells me.  It's only been colonized in the last generation, so scientists are still finding out new things about the biota."

Jin looked at Miles more warmly.  It seemed he had just risen in the boy's estimation—were adults who could make sensible conversation rare in Jin's world, perhaps?  For a certain value of sensible equating to zoological, apparently.

"I don't suppose you have any coffee.  Or tea," Miles said, without much hope.

Jin shook his head.  "I have a couple of cola bulbs, though."  He darted back to his shelves to return with a pair of bright plastic drink bulbs.  "Except they're warm."

Miles took one up and squinted at the ingredients label, a vile concoction of cheap sugars and chemicals, and decided he couldn't manage this before breakfast even if one of the chemicals might be caffeine.  So, when did you grow so nice, my lord Auditor?  Or was it grow so old?  The eggs, bread and water would be challenge enough for his queasy stomach.  He shook his head no-thanks and set the bulb down.

The eggs were still simmering.  Miles looked around and said, "Interesting place, this.  Not at all like anything I've been shown on Kibou so far."  Not with the cryocorps stage-managing the tours, certainly.  "How many other people live here?"

Jin shrugged.  "A hundred—two hundred?  I'm not sure.  Suze-san would know."

Miles's eyebrows rose.  "That many!"  They stayed out of sight well.  He supposed a community of illegal squatters would have to be discreet in order to last.  "How did you come here?"

Another shrug.  "I just found it.  Or it found me.  A couple of folks out collecting tripped over me sleeping in a park, and sort of collected me, too."

A tradition, it seemed.  "Do you have other family here?"

"No."

An atypically short response, from the chatty—lonely?—child.  "Family anywhere?"

"My Dad's dead."  A hesitation.  "My Mom's frozen."

A distinction with a difference, on this planet.  "Siblings?"

"I have a little sister.  Somewhere.  With relatives."

That last word had almost been spit out.  Miles controlled his brows, maintaining an empty, inviting silence.