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Even Veyr, who did not yet own a human, seemed to understand. "The beige one?"

"Yes."

"I tried it once." The entire table turned toward them. Veyr's expression remained perfectly serious. "I wanted to know what it tasted like."

"And?" Pluralis asked.

"Regret."

I laughed. But Lucca's heartbeat remained elevated. I imagined him at the daycare, unhappy and probably offended by the nutritional paste as if it had been created specifically to insult him. The desire to go get him arrived so hard that I had already begun calculating how quickly I could finish the remaining work.

I stopped myself. No. He was safe. He had eaten. He had not required correction. The caretakers knew his needs. And Lucca needed to learn that discomfort did not mean abandonment. I closed the status message.

"You're leaving, aren't you?" Terosm asked.

"No."

Their brow ridge lifted. "No?" "He needs to finish the day."

Pluralis studied me for a moment.

"He'll be fine," Terosm said.

"I know."

"And you?" Pluralis asked. I looked at them.

"What about me?"

They all made the Aconchian equivalent of a laugh. They knew I wouldn’t last. I knew it too.

The afternoon simulation performed better than predicted. Once the temperature transition was shifted, crystal formation in the vulnerable tissue dropped dramatically. I repeated the cycle twice to confirm the result, then sent the revised parameters to the weather team for limited field implementation. Under normal circumstances, I might have remained another several hours.

I began shutting down my station. Terosm noticed immediately.

"You finished early," he said, in a mocking tone.

I ignored them. My wrist pulsed again. Fast. Too fast. Not dangerous. But distressed. I pictured Lucca in the rest area, surrounded by unfamiliar smells and other humans, unable to read their clocks, probably convincing himself that the second sun would never set. I packed my instruments more quickly. Terosm watched me from their workstation.

"Tell Lucca Eli says hello. Remember how they've met once? Eli considers that sufficient for friendship."

"Lucca probably does too." That pleased Terosm. I secured the final specimen chamber and transferred my notes to the facility archive. The work was complete.

I left the laboratory and stepped into the decontamination corridor, enduring the necessary scan and atmospheric adjustment with considerably less patience than usual. Lucca's heart still beat against my wrist. I touched two fingers to the spot, an instinctive gesture he could not possibly feel through the link.

"I'm coming, little star," I murmured anyway. Then I went to get my puppy.

Chapter 12. Lucca

They collected my empty bowl. "Naptime now. Everyone to the rest area."

Naptime. Like we were toddlers who needed scheduled rest. But as I stood, I realized I was exhausted. Stupid Aconche weather and environment. The whole atmosphere pressed down on me like a heavy blanket.

Max fell into step beside me as we moved toward the sleeping area. "You okay?" he asked quietly.

"Tired," I admitted. I was tired of it all. He nodded with a little smirk, like he understood, and I felt like we'd become friends.

The nap room felt like being inside a deep blue egg, curved walls painted in shades that shifted from navy to slate depending on where the hidden lights touched them. The humming from the speakers was supposedly calibrated to human sleep rhythms, a low throb that reminded me of a heartbeat. My assigned mat was in the third row, far enough from the door that I couldn't hear the main room clearly, but close enough that every footstep in the hallway made me hope.