The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (Wayfarers #4)(81)

‘Don’t stare,’ Ouloo scolded.

‘It’s okay,’ Pei said. She knew what the kid was looking at. Her shimmer was unmissable, and the golden light of an ending day brought the swimming flecks of blue, pink, and green out brightly. She thought it looked kind of cool, too.

‘Can I touch it?’ Tupo asked.

‘Tupo,’ Ouloo said.

‘I’d rather you didn’t,’ Pei said. ‘I’m pretty ticklish.’

Roveg lowered his spoon. ‘Can you explain being ticklish to me?’ he asked. ‘I have never understood the concept.’

‘Yeah, it’s—’ Pei started to answer authoritatively, but got no further than that. How did you explain being ticklish?

Speaker stared at the top of her cockpit, eyes narrow with thought. ‘I … have no idea how to describe what it feels like.’

‘It’s like …’ Ouloo frowned. ‘Hmm.’

‘Is it painful?’ Roveg asked.

‘No,’ Speaker said slowly. ‘It’s not.’

‘But you don’t like it?’ Roveg said.

‘I don’t like it,’ Pei said.

‘I mean,’ Ouloo said, ‘I don’t mind it.’

‘It’s not my favourite, but it’s not the worst,’ Speaker said.

Roveg looked around the group with his hard-shelled face. ‘Thank you, this has been incredibly illuminating,’ he said.

The sun dipped lower, and the globulbs in the garden brightened in response. ‘It’s kind of nice,’ Ouloo said, ‘seeing the sky without any ships.’

‘They’ll be back before you know it,’ Roveg said.

‘I know,’ Ouloo said. ‘And I’ll be glad to see them, but … it is nice.’

Pei tipped her head back and gazed upward. The wreckage drones had cleaned up their patch of sky, and the view above the Five-Hop was now free of debris. There was no junk, no traffic, no blinking satellites. Nothing but the transparent seams of the dome and what little air lay above. She tried to remember the last time she’d seen a sky that way, and came back empty.

Roveg set his bowl back down on the tray decisively. ‘Right,’ he said. He tucked in his thoracic legs, planted his abdominal legs firmly against the grass, and with one quick heave, flipped himself onto his back. ‘Ahhh. That’s better.’

Tupo burst out laughing.

‘What?’ Roveg said. ‘What’s so funny?’

‘You are,’ Tupo said, giggling heartily. ‘That looked hilarious.’

‘Tupo,’ Ouloo moaned.

‘What’s hilarious?’ Roveg said with good humour, craning his head back toward Tupo as far as his shell would allow. He was well aware that full-bodied dexterity was not his species’ strong suit. ‘Show me what’s so funny.’

‘You were like …’ The little Laru dramatically threw xyrself over, limbs flopping noodle-like into the grass.

‘You’re the one with crazy legs, not me,’ Roveg said. He shifted his eyes toward Ouloo. ‘But not you, of course,’ he added with conciliatory charm.

Ouloo made a teasing face at him. ‘I’m sure,’ she said. She rolled over with far more grace than her offspring, and the two snuggled together into one shaggy pile, facing up toward the sky.

Pei followed suit, breathing deeply as she hit the grass. It was peculiar, Roveg thought, hearing sound come from her mouth rather than the implant in her throat, even if the only thing audible was the sway of air. ‘That’s nice,’ Pei said through her talkbox. The words were layered atop the asynchronous sound of her breathing, making the distinction between organic noise and synthetic speech all the more striking. ‘City fields are nice and all, but they’re not quite this, are they?’

Roveg clicked his mouthparts in agreement. ‘When was the last time you lay down under a real sky?’

The Aeluon let out another heavy breath. ‘Sohep Frie, probably. When I was a girl.’ She rolled her head toward him, her cheeks a delicate blue. ‘A long time.’

‘I’ve an idea,’ he said, ‘but only if it’s not a bother. Ouloo, is it possible to turn off the garden lights?’

‘Oh, that’s no bother at all,’ she said. As though it were the most casual action in the world, she reached into her belly pouch and pulled out her scrib.

Roveg’s frills twitched involuntarily. ‘Do you … keep … belongings in there?’ he asked.

‘Why not?’ she said. ‘It’s been a long time since it was occupied, and I don’t plan on it being so again. Might as well use it for something.’

Roveg decided to not pursue that line of questioning any further. He recalled using her scrib in Pei’s shuttle the day before. He decided to not think further about that, either.

Ouloo made a couple of gestures at the scrib, and all the lights at the Five-Hop dimmed and deactivated. Roveg’s eyes adjusted quickly to the twilight. Stars, but it was lovely out.

Roveg shifted his gaze, and noticed Speaker sitting in her suit, which was likewise in a sitting position. She seemed unsure of what to do. ‘Can you lie down in that thing?’ Roveg asked.

‘I … yes?’ Speaker said. ‘There’s no mechanical reason I couldn’t. I’ve just never done it.’