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Hsissh blinked his eyes. Tim was Noa’s husband. His appearance was as striking as Noa’s. Instead of tan skin, his was as pale as a shaved werfle. His eyes were an eerie sky blue, and his hair was the color of dead grass.
    Hsissh raised his head. “Oh, don’t get up on my account,” Tim said, scratching Hsissh gingerly behind the ears.
    Not that Hsissh would dream of it, even though he liked Tim, despite his disturbing appearance. Tim was an engineer in the Fleet and served on the same “space ship” that Noa did. They were stationed light years from Luddeccea. Noa would be safe when the plague came; just as important …
    Noa’s voice echoed from the kitchen. “You’re moving back to Earth?”
    Dad answered, “Luddeccea is becoming too fundamentalist.”
    The turn in conversation drew Tim to the kitchen. Hsissh watched him go. As far as he understood these things, Tim was a fine specimen of the masculine gender of Noa’s species. Broad-shouldered and tall. But more important, Noa and Tim were happy when they were together—the waves buzzed with their feelings. Hsissh was pleased. Humans, from the werfles’ observation, were mostly polygamous in their youth, but then settled into monogamous relationships as they aged. It seemed to correspond with stability and happiness.
    “We just don’t feel comfortable staying here,” Mom said.
    Hsissh felt a warm glow in the pit of his stomach and put a proud paw through his whiskers. He couldn’t speak into Mom’s and Dad’s minds, but he’d discovered he could tug at the waves in a way that sparked emotional reactions. Whenever a news report came on the hologlobe about The Three Book’s growing influence in civic affairs, or a riot against new settlers occurred in the city of Prime, he’d pulled hard on the waves and made their natural unease greater. When Dad had gotten a job offer on Earth, Hsissh had augmented his elation. When Mom contemplated moving her own consulting business, Hsissh had increased her optimism.
    “We’ll all be off world …” said Noa.
    Hsissh kneaded his claws. He’d nudged Masako to go there to further her studies—and she’d stayed! John had always wanted to leave; his parents had died in the Third Plague before Mom and Dad had immigrated to the planet. John himself had augmented kidneys because the Third Plague had destroyed his; Dad had taken him to Earth for several operations as he aged so that his “plastic kidney beans” could be replaced with larger ones for his growing body. John blamed the “Luddeccean crazy-late acceptance of nano cures” for his parents’ deaths and the augments that had cost him painful operations. Hsissh had only needed to strengthen John’s resolve to leave the planet.
    Mom sighed. “Kenji is very upset about us selling the house.”
    Hsissh’s ears twitched. Kenji had been the only member of the family he hadn’t been able to influence. Whenever Hsissh pulled on the waves coursing through his mind, Kenji had heard voices … much as the humans The One had tried to inhabit had. Perhaps it was because Kenji’s mind had special nano augments to make up for a congenital syndrome he had? Hsissh wasn’t sure, but the “voices” had worried Mom and Dad tremendously. Hsissh had to give up his attempts to guide Kenji, but in the end, the boy had left on his own, drawn by the promise of a better education on Earth.
    “What will happen to Fluffy?” Noa said, and Hsissh’s body grew rigid.
    “Sarah Benjamin has offered to take him in,” said Mom.
    “She and Sergei know having an old werfle sleeping in the house is better than no werfle,” Dad said. “Rats hate them.”
    “I wish we could take him aboard the fighter carrier,” Tim said. “We have a rat problem.”
    Noa said what Hsissh was thinking. “He’d never survive the Fleet quarantine, even if he were younger.”
    Mom sighed. “Sergei and Sarah, they’re kind people … they’ll treat the old man right.”
    Hsissh’s whiskers