“Yeah, I’m not a fan of nuclear holocaust, so I wanted to change ‘Enola.’ So I renamed him Nikola, after Nikola Tesla, and he said that was fine, although I’m pretty sure that’s because he doesn’t care what we call him.”

“Umm . . .”

“So why’s he call it ‘dynamic fusion bonding’?”

Cora took a seat next to him, trying not to stare nervously at the newly rechristened “Nikola.” “It’s a term Ampersand ‘appropriated,’ in his words, but one of the many he finds ‘frustrating’ because it’s not an ‘accurate’ translation. But as I understand it, ‘dynamic’ because it’s not monogamous, and ‘fusion’ I think he got from fission-fusion social groups, like chimpanzees. Phyles have fusion, but no fission. They don’t drift in and out of phyles like chimpanzees do; they bond for life. I guess maybe the closest point of comparison would be a troop of gorillas.”

“Oh, cool. Who’s the silverback?”

“Well, they’re in the top caste, so they’re not allowed to form phyles, but if they could . . . Ampersand would be the silverback.” This she muttered, glad that Kaveh didn’t know how she fit into this weird alien web.

“So Oligarchs can form dynamic fusion bonds, but they can’t form phyles.”

“No, they are physically able to form phyles, they’re just not allowed. From what I’ve gathered, some generations ago, there was some problems with too much power being concentrated in certain phyles, so now the price you pay for being in the top caste is you can’t form phyles like the lower castes get to.”

“Interesting. So it’s like how historically, the Japanese imperial family wasn’t allowed to raise their own children. That’s the price you pay for being God on earth— you don’t get to play with your kids.”

“Something like that.”

“So how does that apply to this little fam?”

“So if Nikola is bound to Ampersand, and Ampersand is bound to Obelus,” she said, tracing a triangle on the floor, “then Nikola isn’t allowed to bond with Obelus.”

“NOT THAT HE WOULD HAVE. OBELUS HAS ALWAYS DESPISED ME.”

“I keep hearing about ‘noble Obelus,’” said Kaveh, still eyeing her suspiciously. “Nik seems to, well, really fucking hate him.”

“Another of the extended family. And yeah, Obelus makes En— Nikola look like a teddy bear by comparison.” She could only hope Enola didn’t know how much havoc Obelus had wreaked on Earth, how many people he’d killed, because he seemed to have absolutely no compunction about spilling whatever beans he had to spill. If he was Ampersand’s opposite in many ways, it seemed in this way most of all.

“Ampersand came here because of one of his symphyles at ROSA named Čefo. You probably remember that name from the Fremda Memo.”