She savored the stark ivory slopes of craters in the distance as she walked in the springy gait of one still adjusting to the gravity.

Sagittarius, here I come.

4.

Rachel found she wanted to talk. Catkejen was the obvious victim.

So she went back to the apartment. Her mind was jumpy with delight and ambition, despite the blasé Chief Clerk and the bored Purser. So she sat down and fetched forth from her luggage her 3-D chess kit. It popped up, a simple one with no attention light prompts and no tech for making remote moves. The transparent trays and pieces were simple, too, no ornamentation.

She put on music that helped her focus, set up the game, and started on a solo platform, when—in came Catkejen. “Finished early. Had a system datajam, the AIs have to untangle it first, so here I am. What’s that music?”

Rachel said, “ ‘Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan.’ Which means ‘What God does is well done.’ ”

“New to me. What period?”

“Baroque, Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed this church cantata in 1724.”

Catkejen listened for a long moment to the Bachian sibilant strum cascading through the room, shook her head as if to clear it, and said, “Hey, is that three-D chess?”

“Uh, sure. I use it to keep sharp. A trick I learned in preTrainee school.”

“When I was growing up, I thought chess was the biggest waste of smarts outside Earthside governments.”

“We’re not Earthside, so…”

A shrug, raised eyebrow. “I never learned three-D. Show me.”

Catkejen sat decisively across from Rachel, so she decided to be diplomatic and not go too fast. “We call it solid chess. You’ve played flat chess?” That would help a lot.

“Some. This has more pieces and another dimension to move in, right?”

“More than that. The idea is, the extra dimension is outer space. Earth plays out with knights and queens and all, like ancient times, but the deeper moves are up, into space.”

Catkejen frowned, fingering some of the nonclassic pieces. “So these ships fly to planets?”

“These small ones are robo-freighters, move one space at a time, like pawns. Sailships driven by beams are like bishops, moving laterally, too. Big passenger ships move in lateral jumps, like knights.”

Catkejen twisted a lip, pondering. “The theme here is…?”

“Earth versus the solar system. War in the heavens.”

They started a game and it went steadily, though Catkejen took her time, until finally she said, “Why seek out such complexity? Flat chess is hard enough.”

“Trainee school encourages this. It helps you think of patterns in multiple ways.”

“Like reading the Messages?”

“I hope playing this for over a decade helps me when I start.”

Catkejen swept the boards with both hands, saying brightly, “Hey, right! So much for your prep! You’re in. Let’s go out, celebrate!”

“I start tomorrow. I think I should meditate a bit, get rested—”

Catkejen stood, so energetic she rose to the ceiling and bounced off the cushions there. “I have some guys ’n’ gals you’ll want to meet. C’mon!”