Vlad chuckled. “Fortunately, our human female employees haven’t reported for work yet. At least, I haven’t seen any of them in the bookstore.” A pause. “Do you want Simon to call you back, or should I relay the message about the bison being killed?”

“A hundred bison is a lot of meat,” Joe replied. “I wondered if Simon and Henry would like some. It is not a meat you have in the Lakeside Courtyard.”

“I think they’d be pleased to have some. Do you have a way to ship it?”

“We can package up the meat and get it on the evening train,” Jesse said, inserting herself into the conversation. “Or on the first train tomorrow. There’s always one refrigerator car to transport foods that need to be kept cool.”

“No food coming to the terra indigene travels without an escort,” Vlad said.

“Someone will have to go to Lakeside?” Tobias sounded interested.

“You would need fur to travel in a cold car,” Joe said. “A Wolf, Bear, or Panther would need to travel with the meat.”

“The escort doesn’t have to travel the whole way with the packages,” Vlad said. “The terra indigene have set up a relay of guards from our various settlements so that no one has to travel that far from home right now, but the provisions are still guarded.”

Joe nodded. “We can make small packages of meat for the escorts, as thanks.”

“They would be happy with that. So what would you like in exchange for the meat you’re sending to Lakeside?”

“We don’t need...”

Jesse raised a hand. Joe frowned at her, making her feel as if she had misbehaved. But they couldn’t pass up this opportunity.

“You want something in exchange?” Joe asked her.

Jesse glanced at Shelley, who handed her the list. “Mostly, we would like connection, communication.”

“I don’t understand,” Vlad said after a moment.