"Okay. We can talk," Jason said. "I figured out that earring had a listening device in it and jammed that, too, already."

"With everything you must have on that ship," Kira asked, "why did they send as a gift an earring apparently identical to one I already had?"

"Probably so you wouldn't suspect there was anything different about it," Jason said, "and since they knew you liked one they probably thought you'd be sure to accept another like it." He gave her a rueful look. "This is all a set-up, isn't it?"

"What do you mean?" Kira asked.

"Wanting to talk to me again," Jason said. "You don't really like me that much."

"I…" Kira debated lying, then decided on truth. "No. But I don't not like you."

"You don't know me very well yet," Jason said, smiling slightly. "I'm sure there are a lot of guys you'd rather be with than me right now."

Kira shook her head. "Just, um, friends. I don't get to…see people too often. And I have to be careful with guys. Too many of them have tried to get with me so they can boast about making it with the daughter of the daughter."

"They're stupid if that's the only reason they're doing it."

"What?" Had Jason complimented her?

He got that panicked expression again. "Just remember what I told you. They're out to cheat you."

"Everyone on the ship? Is there anyone else on your ship that we could trust?" Kira asked.

"I don't know," Jason said. "Doc Sino, I guess."

"Dock of Sino?"

"No. Doc is short for doctor."

"Doctor?"

He gave her one of those astounded looks. "You don't have doctors? But who handles stuff when you get sick and need surgery and stuff?"

"Healers," Kira said. "We call those people healers."

"Huh. That makes sense." Jason got excited again. "You do that a lot, don't you? Instead of using some word based on some ancient concept, you just use a word that actually describes what something does. Far-talker. I thought that sounded silly, and then I thought, but that's what it does."

"You call far-talkers rah-di-ohs, right?"

"Radios. Or phones. Though I bet not many people on Earth could explain why they're called that without looking it up." He scowled. "They call you stupid. You're not."

Kira felt a thrill of anger run up her spine. "Who calls me stupid?"

"Not you. I mean, that's what most of the people on the ship call everyone on this planet." Jason waved around. "They sit there and use stuff that somebody else invented and somebody else built and somebody else programmed, and they feel all superior. But we're just jerks who happened to get lucky where and when we were born."

"Do you call us stupid?" Kira asked.

"No. I've been called stupid enough to know I don't want to call anyone else that."