Having issued those orders, Talese Groveen stomped back to the ship and disappeared inside.

"Sure," the woman called to Talese Groveen's back. She walked up to Jason. "Hmmm. That's strange."

"What's strange?" Jason asked. He had been grinning in amazement, but the smile faded as he looked at the doctor.

"Physically you seem to be Jason Groveen, but you don't look like him. Are you really Jason?" Doctor Sino said, standing before him and looking at the space just in front of her face.

"You know I am, Doctor," he replied, sounding nervous.

"You can't be. The Jason I know never smiles, and I've seen you smile quite a bit recently."

Jason's grin returned. "I've got reasons to smile now."

"Uh-huh." The woman glanced at Kira. "I think I know what one of those reasons is. I'm Doctor Sino," she introduced herself to the others.

"Doctor of Sino?" Mari asked. "That is your home?"

"Uh…no. My name's Peggy Sino. I was born and raised on Horizons One Orbital Habitat, if that's what you're asking."

"Doctor is what people on Earth call healers," Jason explained to Kira's parents. "Doc Sino is, well, the closest thing to a friend I had on the ship. She's cool."

"I'm cool? Thanks. And you're in pretty good shape," Sino commented, her eyes still on that something before her. "Physically, really good. Much better than the last time I saw you. You've been exercising. What's this recent skin trauma?"

"That's probably from when the dragon hit me," Jason said.

"I see. I'll list it as an encounter with local wildlife. You need to eat more vegetables. Make sure you pay attention to that. Otherwise, you're good to go, Jason. Or good to stay, that is. You do want to stay here? That's for the official record."

"Yes, Doctor, I want to stay here."

Sino sighed, looking around. "I can see why. I'll miss you. Good luck."

"Doctor? Before you go, could I ask you a couple of things?" Jason said, nervous again. "Um, since I'm going to be here for I guess the rest of my life, I might, you know, someday want to, sort of, a family—"

"Yes," Sino said, smiling. "Your gene pacs are fully compatible with natural methods of reproduction. Your gene pacs are also still under license, but I seriously doubt that anybody from ULS is going to come here demanding sublicensing fees if you pass on some of those genes to offspring."

"The other thing was…" Jason leaned close and whispered to Sino.

The doctor looked at Mari. "Is it okay if I do a scan? Nothing physically invasive, no permanent record. Just a look."

Mari glanced at Jason. "It's all right this time?"

"From Doc Sino, yes."

"Go ahead," Kira's mother told the doctor.

"Oh." Sino nodded to herself. "I see. Yes, that's correctable. If you know what you're doing, and I'm guessing the surgeons here don't, know since it hasn't been fixed?"