Gamma rays? High-energy radiation? Did she just hear that right? Not that a space alien like Lan had any obligation to care about life on this planet. Still …

“Lan, why move your family into certain death?”

“No, no! You see, at the time, this planet will be shielded, directly behind your sun. Due to a remarkable alignment, your planet will be the perfect location to watch the spectacle. That is why I suggested to the bank that building a stargate would be great for sightseers and travelers.”

“And you could serve them donuts.”

“Yes!” Lan said excitedly. “That’s how I was able to get a travel permit. I made it look like an excellent business opportunity.”

“And that explains why your accent keeps coming and going.”

Lan frowned. She had let her donut accent slip—not good! This was still a customer.

“Oh! I can change now if you like—”

Shizuka put her hand up and shook her head. “No. Please. Don’t.”

Shizuka listened to the jingle of a passing ice cream truck. It was not every day that Shizuka felt fortunate to have been damned by Hell. But it did keep her from getting too shocked by life’s surprises. Space aliens at a donut shop? Why not? In fact, it was refreshing to meet someone else with secrets for a change.

“So, what do you look like, really?” Shizuka asked.

Lan looked away. When making first contact, it always came to this, didn’t it?

“Scary,” she finally said.

“Really?”

“Yes. Really scary.” Lan turned her gaze back to Shizuka. “Does it matter?”

Shizuka shrugged. “To be honest, I suppose by now I’d be pretty scary, too.”

“What do you mean?”

The sun was just beginning to drop in the sky, and the golden glow made Shizuka recall Technicolor, The Brady Bunch, and ABC After School Specials.

“I used to be a musician.”

Lan listened as Shizuka talked about a deal with a demon and a soul in exchange for souls. She listened as Shizuka spoke about a music she could barely articulate, a music that had eluded her for years.

Shizuka talked about how she had finally found it, that afternoon on this very bench, in a girl with a cheap violin, a tuning fork, a battered copy of Schradieck, and a huge bruise on her face.

And how she had been coming here as often as she could, feeding the ducks, hoping for that girl to return.

Lan tried to understand what Shizuka said. Some civilizations still might symbolically pledge to a family, a government, even an idea. The entire Tarn Republic declared itself a servant of peace in one of its final communications.

But Lan’s civilization had long evolved beyond believing in supernatural beings and souls and music. And, in her reality, no one would think to attach such importance, such meaning, to music.