“I’m sorry, Park,” he said again, heavily. “If I could talk to you, I would.”

She wasn’t sure what to say. “I’m always available for counseling,” she told him. “To whatever extent you’re comfortable with.”

Fulbreech laughed a little and shook his head. “That’s just the thing,” he said. “I’m not sure there is such a thing as comfortable. Not out here.”

Yes, something must have happened, Park thought again. Something had happened out on Eos’s lethal tundra that morning. Something had changed between the escape pod and now. Her voice almost hushed with stifled alarm, she said, “Fulbreech . . . what’s happened? What’s going on?”

His smile had vanished, like a light winking out. “I guess I can’t describe it, Park,” Fulbreech said, resigned. His eyes trailed away from hers. “I don’t know what to tell you. It’s just something I can’t explain.”

—

“Perhaps he is feeling sick,” Jimex said after lunch. “I could ask Ellenex.”

“Please don’t,” Park said. After her talk with Sagara, she was training the android on keeping his mouth shut and exercising good sense; she could not say they were making much progress. “I’m telling you this in confidence, Jimex. That means I’m trusting you to keep it a secret from everyone else but us. As in you and me. Also, someone else overheard you asking Ellenex for medicine. If anyone else found out about that, it would be . . . upsetting. For them. So please try to be more mindful in the future.”

“Why?”

“Because—they trust—no, they think you’re incapable of doing things like that. Doing things in secret, doing things of your own prerogative. It’s dangerous to reveal your abilities too much. Do you understand what I mean?”

His head whirred noisily. “Perhaps Dr. Fulbreech is tired,” Jimex said, as if she hadn’t spoken at all. “Daylight goes very quickly on Eos. Dr. Keller says this has an adverse effect on humans. It makes them ‘out-of-sorts’ and ‘grumpy.’”

But is Fulbreech ever grumpy? Park wondered. Silly question; he was prone to all the flaws and foibles that any other human was. She couldn’t forget that—couldn’t put him on any kind of pedestal. But in ten months on the ship, she had never caught him in a bad mood. Or found him so unwilling to talk to her.

“Could something have happened?” she wondered out loud. “Could one of the crewmembers have been—injured? Why was Boone talking about a body?”

“I am not certain,” Jimex said placidly. Then he said: “Perhaps Dr. Fulbreech is homesick. Dr. Keller said that could happen, but that the symptoms are not always obvious.” He looked at Park. “Are you homesick?”

“No,” Park said. Then she stood up and began to prepare the office for her next appointment.