“Please. I’ve got a lot of noise in my head. Talking to you quiets that down a little.”

Elena put one hand against the glass – which wasn’t glass at all, but a Liar material that was light as aluminum, strong as diamond, and nearly as transparent as vacuum. “All those people died on Meditreme Station, so I shouldn’t be thinking things like this, but it’s just… That’s a new planet. One no human has ever seen. Orbiting a star that may not even have a name – not even one of those impossible-to-recall alphanumeric designations. I just… I can’t get over the wonder. I never could. That’s why I volunteered for the goldilocks mission in the first place.”

Callie’s hand brushed against Elena’s, and the doctor grabbed on, gave her a hard squeeze, and then loosened, but didn’t let go, letting their fingers intertwine. She just wants comfort, Callie thought, and decided that was something she could give. She squeezed back. “It’s really not your fault, what happened back there. You stumbled onto something the Liars want to keep secret. If it hadn’t been you, it would have been someone else. They managed to play us for fools for centuries, but no scam works forever. It’s a horrible shame we ended up in the middle of unraveling a conspiracy, but we can do some good. Reveal the Liars for what they really are, and get justice for Meditreme. Those deaths won’t be in vain.”

Elena nodded. “I was in my quarters, crying, before I came to see you. I couldn’t stop thinking about this one person I met on the station, a bartender who mixed me–”

“A ziggurat. I saw, your lips were red. Was it Jana?”

Elena nodded.

“She’s a sweetheart. When I got divorced and fled to the edges of everything and ended up on Meditreme, she was always a sympathetic ear, and a total flirt, which was good for my self-esteem.”

“Were the two of you…”

Callie shook her head. “I decided I was done with all that, after Michael left me. Like an old-timey sea captain, married to the sea. Married to the stars.”

Elena went hmm. “I understood this century was fairly liberal. Do you have some religious affiliation that requires marriage in order to enjoy physical intimacy?”

“Ha, not so much, no. But I’ve always been terrible at casual sex, and Jana is – was – well. Casual was her thing. She enjoyed sensations, and sharing new things with people she liked. I don’t think she’d be happy with how she died, but she always seemed happy with how she lived, and that’s something. I’m glad you got to meet her. Of all the random encounters you could have had on Meditreme, she was a good one to have.”

“Did you lose many friends?”