Juna glanced around the room, looking for the small, long-limbed Tendu. They had slipped away again. Ukato-nen had probably gone off somewhere to brood, and Moki, concerned about the enkar, had followed him.

“I’m afraid that they’ve slipped out of the room, Commander. They’re not used to shipboard life just yet, and I think the reception was a little overwhelming.” Her lips tightened in momentary exasperation. It was considered very poor form to snub the captain of the ship, especially at a formal reception like this.

Guilt replaced her irritation. Ukatonen was here because of her. If she had not adopted Moki, Ukatonen would not be here. But then, neither would Moki, and she couldn’t imagine life without her irrepressible bami.

She shook her head. She could not change the past. The present was all that mattered now. She apologized to the commander, and went to find her two wayward aliens.

Moki found the enkar in the garden. He held his arms out, spurs upward, asking to link with Ukatonen. Here on this sterile, barren ship, their world dwindling behind them, Moki needed the comfort of allu-a as much as the enkar did, and it would not violate his dignity to admit it.

“Let’s go to our cabin,” Ukatonen said. “It’s too open out here. The humans will see us.”

Moki nodded. Allu-a made the humans uneasy, so they had to link in private. A yellow flicker of irritation forked down Moki’s back. Everything about them seemed to make the humans uneasy. He hated the restrictions their discomfort burdened him with.

They left the garden and threaded the long, bright maze of passageways with their brilliant white walls and sharp corners, their feet silent on the soft beige carpet. The empty hallways made Moki nervous. He kept expecting something to jump out at him from behind one of the myriad identical doors that lined the hallways. His nervousness was the result of long years as a tinka with no sitik to protect him from predators. The reflexes of that vulnerable time came back to him here in the bare corridors of the humans’ sky raft.