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up, glad for the moment that Ducky has taken to the role of Male Protector. “Either you find something for this poor kid to eat pronto, or I’m gonna shove one of these thermal suits right up your—”
    “Hey.”
    The voice stops Ducky in his tracks. Me too. I look up, and sure enough, there’s Cole, flanked by two Almiri guards, wearing the same gray thermal jumpsuit we’ve all been outfitted with. He looks none the worse for wear, except he’s sporting cuffs. I guess the Almiri didn’t figure Dad and Ducky and I posed the same sort of threat to escape as one of their own commandos.
    “Cole!” I squeal. Yes, actually squeal , like a little girl. And I don’t even feel one titch embarrassed about it either. I rush to him, shouldering the guards aside, and hit him hard with one massive I-was-so-worried-you-were-dead lip-lock. “You’re okay,” I breathe.
    He smiles, his face so close that his breath makes my skin tingle. “Better now,” he replies.
    I tilt Olivia so that she’s facing him. She’s still screaming and kicking, but she’s never seemed so beautiful. “Meet Olivia,” I tell him.
    He bends down ever so slightly. “Hello there, Olivia,” he greets her.
    She is mesmerized by the sound of Cole’s voice. Like, absolutely mesmerized. She goes stone silent, eyes wide, and stares at him.
    “Remind me to keep you around,” I tell Cole—right before Olivia lets out a tiny baby fart and begins wailing again.
    Well, it was nice while it lasted.
    Cole turns to Ducky beside me. “Hey, Duck Man.” He offers him a clumsy high-ten, but Ducky only stares at him. I can’t tell if he’s being rude or annoyed or just motion-sick again—his face has moved from pea soup to limeade—and I guess Cole can’t figure it out either, because he steps toward my father instead, not two meters away. As he approaches, Cole extends his hand. Well, actually, both hands, because of the cuffs and all.
    “Mr. Nara, I’m Cole, we met at the hospital,” Cole says. I roll my eyes, but Dad has the good grace to just smile knowingly and take his hand in a good, sturdy “dad shake.”
    “Yes, son, the birth of one’s first alien grandchild is a memory that lasts,” Dad says. Cole laughs nervously.
    “So your friends are kind of douchetards,” Ducky pipes up finally, nudging his head toward our Almiri guards.
    Cole sneaks a look at Alan, who doesn’t appear all that amused. Or annoyed. He simply seems to not want to be anywhere near us. “Yeah,” Cole agrees. “They get that a lot.”
    Cole turns back to me then, but he doesn’t say anything, he just kind of blushes and looks at the floor. I guess he’s a little ashamed that he’s gotten us all into this mess, I mean, having the Almiri keep tabs on me after we got back from the Echidna and tracking the end of my pregnancy. But he thought he wasprotecting me, and I can’t really fault the dumb ox for that.
    “Elvie . . . ,” he says, trailing off. I take a step forward and dip down slightly so that I can look him in the eye.
    “It’s okay, Cole,” I say. “It’s not your fault. I’m just glad you’re all right. That we’re all together.”
    “I can see your nipple,” he replies.
    •  •  •
    A space elevator, for the record, is just like a regular elevator, except that—similar to those of the Willy Wonka variety—this one’s not stuck inside a building. According to Dad, our resident expert on such matters, the elevator component moves down on a long loop of reinforced cable, harnessing the Earth’s own gravitational pull to generate the power it needs to lift us back up, up, up into space to a satellite station, which will then navigate the orbit around the planet down to Antarctica, where we will take the elevator back down and transfer to the high-speed mag rail on the other end.
    Out the window to our right swoops the elevator car, speeding along like, well, a speeding train. We all watch, silent (except for the occasional wail