Ha crossed the cracked tiles of the hotel terrace, eating her egg. She could see the Team Lead: a tall, slender figure standing on the beach, facing away from her. Whatever was inhabiting the swimming pool shifted and plopped into the water as Ha passed.

The sea was calm. Its surface undulated, reflecting the pearl-gray and lemon haze of early light—like a curtain agitated by a breeze.

As Ha approached, the Team Lead turned.

And Ha stopped, almost tripping in the sand, practically dropping the paper bag she was carrying. The Team Lead’s long hands held several shells of varying sizes. The Lead waited while Ha tried to compose herself.

Ha had watched an interview on a hotel room ceiling. One of those science-popularizing talking heads who did everything from kids’ shows to documentaries, talking to this person … no … this being. Talking to Evrim.

The Team Lead that was standing before her was Evrim. Someone she had never expected, in her life, to encounter. You watched them on a bathroom mirror screen, on a ceiling, or the smeared window of a metro train. You watched people on-screen, beings that were shaped like people and spoke like people, but who lived elsewhere. They belonged to a floating world you would never enter. A world where things happened. A place unlike the mundane world you watched from. And you never thought you would meet them. Could meet them. But here Evrim was.

Evrim extended a hand.

“I am so pleased to meet you. I have been anticipating your arrival.”

Ha shook the hand weakly.

“You can grip my hand more firmly,” Evrim said. “Its development cost over two hundred and fifty million dollars. Much of the technology used in its construction is military, for prosthetic limbs. I don’t think it will break.” Evrim smiled at Ha. Ha felt herself searching for something in the eyes, something in the way Evrim stood. A difference. But she could not see it right away. The hand was cool—dawn-by-the-seaside cool—but with a warmth behind it, perfectly analogous to the internal warmth of a human hand. There were grains of sand on the fingers and palm, from the shells Evrim had been collecting. Ha realized she had been holding on to the hand for too long and released it.

“Ha.”

“Yes. Dr. Ha Nguyen. I welcome you. And I see you know who I am.”