"My mother and my father," Kira said, getting a little annoyed at the tone of the last question. "Sometimes they don't understand things, but they do know stuff. And you are a guest of our world, so I am trying my best to be polite and welcoming even though I'm really having a hard time figuring you out."

"Huh. Um…your name's Kara?"

"Kira," she replied. Did he have to emphasize her irrelevance by not even getting her name right?

"Okay. How old are you?"

"Sixteen."

"Sixteen? Your years must be close to Earth Standard. What do you guys do for fun here?"

She gave him a skeptical look, trying to judge whether the question was sincere. "Read, ride, walk, talk, sail, work on hobbies, fight wars, blow up things, and slay dragons."

"Yeah, games are fun, right?" he replied.

"Games?"

"Yeah. Virtual games." Jason laughed. "You can't blow up stuff for real!"

"I do," Kira said. "Aunt Alli taught me how. What's a virtual game?"

He stared at her. "You don't— You've never— How do you—"

"I'm doing my best to keep this conversation going," Kira said, getting irritated. "But you're not helping."

"Is everybody here like you?" Jason blurted out.

"No. Everybody is different."

"But you're here." Jason seemed to come to some decision, his fingers dancing on the air before him. "That's enough. Okay. They can't hear us."

Kira frowned at him. "What are you talking about?"

He jerked a thumb back to indicate behind them. "Keep looking forward. Don't let your face be visible to the ship when you talk to me. If they can see your lips move, they can analyze the video to tell what you're saying." He indicated his belt buckle and the insignia on his chest. "These things have monitors in them."

"Monitors?" Kira asked, keeping her head pointed away from the ship.

"They're supposed to be primarily for monitoring our health status, but they can provide audio feeds to the ship's central data core, as well as visual of whatever they face."

"Audio feeds?" She had seen those terms. In the once-banned tech manuals. "That's like a far-talker, right? You mean they can listen to anything you say wherever you are?"

"Yeah. But I have an app that can fool the feeds. It blocks them from actually hearing us and substitutes a few words of conversation every now and then. That's why I had to get you to talk a little bit." He grinned triumphantly. "I'm not supposed to have the app. But it comes in handy."

Kira gave the boy a measuring look out of the corners of her eyes, wondering if she should reappraise her first assessment of Jason. "Why?"

He looked ahead for a moment as if steeling himself. "My name's Jason."

"I know. We were introduced. I'm Kira, just in case you still don't remember that."