Was that why they slipped something into my food?

“Have you heard of a rumor,” Park began, “regarding me?” If he had, he likely wouldn’t be sitting here with her, not if he believed it. But she had to know. How far beyond Sagara had this gossip gone?

Fulbreech looked at her curiously. “Which one?” he asked, utterly tactless. For some reason that made her trust him more.

But then Michael Boone came clunking into the dining hall, before she could answer. For an uneasy moment Park wondered if he had heard their little joke about him somehow—if someone had gone to fetch him. But the soldier seemed intent on something else. He looked like an overgrown child stuffed into the body of a linebacker, with his small, box-shaped head and mop of curly red hair: his torso was comically top-heavy, his powerful hands perpetually balled into fists. Park’s feet seemed to automatically plant themselves against the floor whenever she saw him—as if she were bracing herself for an impact. Today he looked particularly agitated, his neck bullish and veined.

“Uh-oh,” Fulbreech said softly, following her line of sight. “Looks like someone’s augments are acting up again.”

Park nodded, but continued to watch Boone. Their military leader made a beeline straight for Natalya, grabbing her slender arm just as she was turning away from Megex. Other crewmembers noticed, too. The conversation in the room died off a little, and Park was able to catch a snippet of Boone and Natalya’s exchange. Boone said, in his oily Martian drawl: “I asked you the location of the body!”

And Natalya answered testily, “Which body, and why do you care?”

Park couldn’t make out the rest of it. She turned back to Fulbreech and said, “Have you found any lakes on Eos?”

The cartographer looked blank as he began to chew through the juice bulb’s edible skin. “Lakes?”

“Boone’s talking about bodies over there.” He had to mean bodies of water they’d found outside, she thought. It would be the kind of thing he’d ask Natalya, the surveyor, about. Could you even call them lakes, off-planet? If you couldn’t determine the exact size of it, you’d call it a body of water, wouldn’t you?

“Is there water on Eos?” she asked then. She was embarrassed by how little she knew of their destination; but then, it was ISF who had directed her away from knowing more, and Fulbreech himself had referred to that fact yesterday. In the escape pod. Don’t think about that now. “I know there’s ice—obviously. But have you found anything the future colony could use?”

Fulbreech suddenly looked guarded. “You know I can’t discuss any of that with you, Park,” he said.

She sat back and felt her face flattening; all feeling of warmth toward him withdrew like a turtle into a shell. “Of course,” Park said, toneless. “My mistake.”