“It was nude, I’m sure.” To her satisfaction Fulbreech reddened and coughed.

“It was, in fact,” he said. “It was of this naked woman, sitting in the lotus position. Looking very composed. Striving for inner peace. Total zen, you know. The artist won prizes for it. People said her expression was as mysterious as the Mona Lisa’s.”

“I see.”

“But the most striking thing about it wasn’t exactly her expression. Not to me.” He looked thoughtful. “It was that the woman’s body was full of cracks. Fissured all over. And there was light coming out of the cracks. That was what made it such a masterpiece, everybody said. That the statue was full of things you didn’t expect—empty spaces, voids, chasms. Flaws. Well, that’s what the critics called them, but I used the term ‘mysterious places,’ personally.” He paused. “Things you wanted to look into and explore, only the light was too bright for you to look at, once you came too close.”

He looked at her. Park was aware that something was happening, that there was a current of meaning passing between them that she ought to turn her cheek to. She had a hot, tense feeling in her stomach, as if she were awaiting some reprimand. She said, lamely, “I don’t understand.”

“I didn’t, either,” Fulbreech said. “Not then.” Then he stood up. “Good night, Park.”

She could not help but stare at him. “Good night.”

He made to leave, then paused at the door. “There’s a solar wind that’s about to hit, by the way. A proton storm. I thought you should know; I guess they’re pretty common here. We’ll have to detach from the surface and shield ourselves on the dark side of Eos for the day. Otherwise the radiation will cook us like bacon.”

“Thank you,” Park said as he turned away. It was a white flag, she decided. An olive branch. As a non-expedition member, she wasn’t privy to such information. Things and decisions on the ship just happened, and she was lucky if she got to hear the reasons for it afterward. Fulbreech wanted to give her that much knowledge—make sure she wasn’t too left in the dark. Perhaps to make amends for earlier, sensing her upset. She didn’t know if she felt more grateful to him or annoyed.

He left. Park went to her flashing console and found an error message from the ship’s computer, METIS: it informed her that it had been unable to send her latest message out to ISF Corvus.