“Let me see if I have parsed this. My existence may be imperiled if they discover you downgraded me into a meat bundle. Therefore, I must cooperate, purporting to be your love interest, to deflect suspicion from your clan and the science coalition.”

Her head tendrils fluttered in reaction. Helix sifted through his recollections and drew out the awareness that this meant relief. The Tiralan had a complex and subtle system of body language, including limbs and tendrils, and if one wasn’t well-versed, one could easily misinterpret verbal responses by overlooking the nuances of gesture.

“That’s correct.”

“I do not believe in any of this. I’m convinced my data-collection systems must be malfunctioning, but I am interested to see where this strange…dream takes us.” The word “dream” was not one he had used in relation to himself before, but it was the only one that applied to the situation.

Qalu stilled. “You posit that I am a figment of your imagination? Why a Tiralan? We are not gregarious, nor do we travel off-world often. My foremother is correct about that.”

He’d known that. It was why Zylar had thought his fictitious Tiralan match was a misfit, a rare soul willing to leave her clan. “You mentioned a diaspora.”

“You’re not familiar with our history? The tale spans volumes, but I suspect you’d lose patience with an unabridged rendition.”

“I do prefer efficiency, yes.”

“Then the crux of it is this—we were brought from our ancient homeworld long ago by an advanced race. Their names are lost to time, but they traveled in vast pyramid ships and we considered them to be gods. They took a number of us and seeded our line throughout the universe. We thrived on Tiralan, and there is one small outpost elsewhere, Titan V. There may be other lost colonies. According to the old writings, it’s possible we may yet encounter our brethren among the stars, though it’s likely they would not look precisely as we do.”

“Due to deviation along evolution paths,” Helix said.

“Precisely.”

“You did an excellent job in summing up the issue. Then I collect that you’ve intimated I come from Titan V. Would I not find it difficult to adapt to life on Tiralan after being reared on a space station? I expect there might be physiological issues.”

“It is…a challenge,” she admitted slowly. “But I’ll come up with a plausible solution. Perhaps Titan V offers therapy and nutritional supplements to ensure there’s no loss of bone density or muscle mass.”