“She was in the package,” Niko told Gio and Milly. “Sent from the Paxian court. Best not to speak of her origins. It’ll just embarrass her.”

Gio studied Atlanta with frank curiosity.

“Didn’t know it was a person in there, huh?” he signed to Niko.

“Well,” she said, hesitating. “We realized there was someone in there, just not who.”

“But things started exploding before you could begin decanting them,” he supplied.

“Yes,” Niko said. “That was it.”

His look showed that he knew very well there was more to the story than was being said, but he left it at that. Atlanta looked at him in turn. The uplifted animal races, the ones that had been brought from Old Earth, were not well known in the Paxian Empire, which frowned on too much gene meddling. She had seen his like in zoos, but without the bulging brow or other modifications made to his physiognomy in order to help him better survive in the universe. She thought it was probably best not to mention zoos, or anything like that. Most chimps chose sign language rather than cope with actual speech, and she knew enough basic sign to understand most of what he said.

Before she could think further on it, Skidoo arrived in a slither of tentacles and clung to a chair, reaching to perch herself atop it and examine Atlanta with vast turquoise eyes. “This is being a passenger we are not being aware of?” she asked.

“Turns out we had her in our luggage all along,” Gio signed with an expressively sardonic pursing of his lips.

“How is this being?” Skidoo said with interest.

“She was in that package that arrived just before everything started happening,” Milly said helpfully.

Skidoo said, “Of course this is being what is happening.” She saluted Niko and then surveyed Atlanta with even more interest. “Your name is being?”

Atlanta, a bit dazed from the amount of scrutiny to which she had been subjected ever since awakening, said, in a tone that could have been read as uncertainty, “Atlanta?”