She turned on her console to find a message waiting for her:

Come see me once you’re up. – Sparrow

Kira made a face. She wasn’t looking forward to whatever Sparrow had planned for her. If it could help with the Soft Blade, then great, but Kira wasn’t convinced. Still, if she wanted to avoid antagonizing Falconi, then she had to play along, and she did need to figure out a better way to control the xeno.…

She closed Sparrow’s text and wrote to Gregorovich instead:

My bed and blankets need to be replaced. The suit ate through them last night. If it’s not too much trouble for a ship mind such as yourself, of course. – Kira

His reply was nearly instantaneous. Sometimes she envied the speed with which ship minds could think, but then she remembered how much she liked having a body.

Perhaps you should try feeding your ravenous leech something better than a smorgasbord of polycarbonates. It simply CAN’T be good for a growing parasite. – Gregorovich

Have any suggestions? – Kira

Why yes, yes I do. If your charming little symbiont insists upon chewing on my bones, I’d rather it be somewhere away from needed systems like oh, say, life support. In the machine room, we have raw stock for printing and repairs. Something in there should appeal to the palate of your alien overlord. Check with Hwa-jung; she can show you where it is. – Gregorovich

Kira raised her eyebrows. He was actually trying to be helpful, even if he couldn’t stop insulting her.

Why thank you. I’ll be sure to save you from immediate disintegration when my alien overlords take over the system. – Kira

Ahahaha. Truly, that’s the funniest thing I’ve heard this century. You’re killing me here.… Why don’t you go cause some trouble, like a good monkey? That seems to be what you’re best at. – Gregorovich

She rolled her eyes and closed the window. Then—after dressing in her old jumpsuit and taking a moment to gather her thoughts—she activated the display camera and recorded a message for her family, much as she had on the Valkyrie. Only this time, Kira made no attempt to hide the truth. “We found an alien artifact on Adrasteia,” she said. “I found it, actually.” She told them everything that had happened from then on, including the attack on the Extenuating Circumstances. Now that the existence of the Soft Blade was public knowledge, Kira saw no point in keeping the details from her family, no matter how the UMC or the League might have classified the information.

Following that, she recorded a similar message for Alan’s brother.

Her eyes were full of tears by the time she finished. She allowed them to flow freely, and then wiped her cheeks dry with the heels of her hands.

Accessing the Wallfish’s transmitter, she queued the two messages for delivery to 61 Cygni’s nearest FTL relay.

There was a good chance the League would intercept any signals from the Wallfish. There was an equally good chance that the Jellies were jamming her home system (as they had 61 Cygni) and that the message for her family wouldn’t get through. But she had to try. And Kira took some comfort in knowing that a record of her words existed. As long as they remained preserved somewhere in the circuits and memory banks of the League’s computers, they might eventually reach their intended recipients.