“Hey there,” Hailey called out over the music, rousing Eva from her thoughts. A tanned teenage face peered down from an access hatch in the ceiling of the cargo hold at the bow of the airship. Even upside down the pilot’s shaggy brown and blue-dyed hair was stuck to his face by a thin layer of perspiration. “Hi.” He waved. “Hold on a sec. Music volume: minimum,” he said. The ship responded.

Eva made her way past the disorganized stacks of crates in the hold and stood at the bottom of the access ladder. “Good morning.” She pulled out one of her prized voxfruit. “I’ve brought you breakfast,” she said, pleased with herself.

Hailey grabbed the side rails of the ladder and slid down to the floor. He took the fruit from Eva with black greasy hands. “Thanks,” he said, turning it over and examining it. “What is it?”

“It’s voxfruit.” Eva took the fruit and ripped the translucent rind open. “You eat the berries inside.” She handed the peeled voxfruit back to Hailey. He wiped his dirty hands on his stained flight suit and then gingerly grabbed a handful of the green berries from within.

“Hmm. Oh, yeah,” he said through a mouth full of food. “These aren’t bad.”

“I also brought you this.” Eva produced the vocal transcoder. “Or do you have one of these already?”

“That depends,” said Hailey, eyeing the device. “What is it?”

“Well, I wasn’t sure how many languages you know, but I could tell last night that you couldn’t understand Cærulean. . . . You know, Rovee’s language.” Eva put the transcoder near her mouth. “So this little thingy will allow you to understand all the different languages of the aliens. You just press this button, speak into it, and inhale the micro transmitters that it releases. It will do the rest.” She dropped the device into his palm.

Hailey examined the transcoder, a look of awe on his smudged face. He caught Eva’s eye and straightened up. “Well, thanks. Thanks a lot, Ella.”

“Eva,” she corrected him, and brushed her bangs out of her eyes. “Eva Nine.”