If the stories were true, it must have ruined Inga’s mood. Word was she hated mopping up other people’s coagulated blood. Nor would the notion of cleaning up her own mess have ever crossed Falise’s mind. Child of privilege that she was, the woman just didn’t think in those terms.

Rough place, this Port Authority, but Kylee had to admit, the town was kind of growing on her. The Rocket part of her even felt good about it. Not that she wanted to make a habit of it, but there were certain benefits. Like not having to make one’s own clothes. Being able to buy a meal someone else cooked. Things to see and do.

She shifted her slung rifle where it began to rub on one of the mobber cuts on her back.

“What do you think, Flute?” she asked. “We could hitch a ride back to Mundo. Have to deal with some of the local lineage down there. The farm’s a mess. Lot of work to put the place back in order. Dome’s a write-off. But it’s ours. Well, mine and the family’s. We’d never need for anything, and we get paid every time a shuttle drops in for a load of produce. Not to mention, I know where Rondo found that deposit up on the mountain. Rubies, Flute. Big red ones where the crust got thrust up by that asteroid that made this place.”

She resettled herself in order to keep her leg from rubbing against one of Flute’s bandages.

Patterns running down his hide asked her, Can we go back to see lineage in Sky Fly?

“Sure.” She chewed her lip, thinking it through. “Have to get our own airtruck. No telling what kind of plunder that would take. And then there’s maintenance. Keeping the powerpack charged. Might be easier to broker a deal with Kalico. Hire one until we get settled.”

Tip come?

“I can ask him, I guess.” She resettled on Flute’s back, catching the faintest of odors on the breeze blowing in from the Gulf. Just on account of, she unhitched her rifle, swung it around.

Then she added, “Don’t know what it means between Tip and me. Last I saw, after we got your hide stitched up, he and that Hmong girl went off to the cafeteria. I thought there was way too much laughing. Really pissed me off, and I was going to do something about it. And damn. There’s Talina, in my head, being jealous about Bucky Berkholtz. And I know from her memory to think about it. And I realize, I’m jealous.”

Don’t know that.