I finish the last data orb—a mineral sample from Hillian Ridge, a region in the southern mountain ranges—just in time for lunch. Captain Blitner deactivates the machine and the room fades into semidarkness. We meet Glacia, Michael, and Ellin in the plaza and eat lunch at the underground deli Captain Blitner told me about. He is shier around them because he only met them once, at dinner the other night, but Ellin manages to get him talking. I’ve heard these stories before, stories about his favorite planets. Belvun is at the top of his list, and Daliona is a close second. He tells us all about the Dalish birds. Tropical, he calls them. There are colorful birds with large beaks, and small birds with fuzzy heads. He says that some birds will even land on your shoulder and chirp in your ear, begging for berries and nuts. Then there are lizards and salamanders and giant crustaceans that live at the bottom of coral reefs.

“Visit Selayche Island, if you can, and spend a night or two in the renowned Pelago Hotel. Get a suite on the bottom level. You won’t be disappointed.” Captain Blitner perks up the more excited he gets, his saggy eyes now flitting between the four of us. “And Thorpe Island is home to the Dalish Embassy, the City of the Rainbow River. At night, it’s a spectacle beyond all compare.”

Michael and Ellin leave to meet Victoria and fly to Fleerard Forest, so Glacia and I walk Captain Blitner to his hotel. We hardly speak the entire way. To occupy herself in the silence, Glacia takes to examining every building we pass. This is her first time in the Embassy’s southern sector, and it’s much different than other sectors. Potted vines with white flowers hang from high window sills and lampposts and overhead walkways. Even Captain Blitner’s hotel is decorated: vines and flowers that twist up the main steps, water squirts between pillars, and spotted gray boulders adorn the front patio.

“Thank you,” Captain Blitner tells us inside the main lobby. “It’s a long walk to make alone.”

“I can meet you here in the mornings before breakfast if it’d be easier,” I offer. “I don’t mind.”

The corners of Captain Blitner’s mouth sag when he smiles. “If it isn’t too much of a bother, I would appreciate that.”

I hold the door open for him and he limps across the lobby to the elevators, tubes that hang off the side of the wall and rise hundreds of feet to the top.