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Okil asked. He had been expecting to see Tikki and found it hard to hide his disappointment; it showed across his hands that were flashing orange like a beacon in the dim light of the corridor. Reja saw them too when he lifted his hand to knock.
    “What are you doing here, Okil?” she asked, concerned. “Tikki told me she wasn’t going with you to Karal.”
    He looked at her while he knocked and called out. “Tikki, are you in there, open up.” No answer, so he said to Reja, “Just because she won’t come with me, doesn’t mean I stop caring for her.”
    “She told you about Charlie?” Reja asked, her voice concerned.
    “The boy? Yes. She told me he was the son of a close friend.” He knocked again, and then took a small device out of his pocket. “You did not see this.”
    “What are you doing?”
    Okil held it against the door and pressed a button. With a satisfying click, the lock opened and he turned the handle, opening the door. He put his hand under Reja’s arm and pulled her in. They stood side by side, staring at the apartment.
    “Oh my goodness!” Reja exclaimed. “What happened?”
    To anyone else the apartment probably looked tidy, but for Reja and Okil, who knew how everything was usually placed, it was just wrong. The furniture had been moved around the floor. A small plastic plant Tikki loved was on the windowsill instead of the coffee table. And when Reja looked in the bedroom, all of Tikki’s things were neatly set out, in the wrong place.
    “Someone has been through here,” Reja said quietly, eyeing Okil suspiciously.
    “This has nothing to do with me,” he said quickly. “Reja, you have to believe me. I would never hurt her.”
    “What about the rest of your species? This is the first time a Karalian and a human who had already formed a relationship were going to win the lottery. Are you sure your people are alright with that?”
    “Yes. As I said, this is nothing to do with me.”
    “Then who?” she asked, and then her face lit up as she remembered something.
    “What? Reja, if there is anything that might help, you have to tell me.”
    “Charlie. There was something on the Stream about a man drowning in the canal and Charlie knew him. Tikki said Charlie called him Funny Daddy or something.”
    Okil frowned. “So?”
    “So? Use your alien mumbo-jumbo to see if there is a link.”
    “I’ll contact Darl,” Okil checked his communicator, which also told him the Earth time; his friend would still be at the cruiser. “Reja, see if you can work out if there is anything missing.”
    “OK.” She went through Tikki’s stuff, something Okil would have found awkward; he would hate Tikki to come back and think he had been snooping on her.
    Meanwhile he contacted Darl on his communicator. “Darl, can you look up a StreamStory on the computer?”
    “And how exactly do I do that?” the doctor asked.
    “Input the parameters into the database?”
    “And how exactly do I do that?” Darl asked again.
    “Really? You can find the most compatible DNA subjects from billions of people but you can’t do a simple search?” Okil asked, frustrated at not knowing what had happened to Tikki.
    “I’ll figure it out,” Darl said, and then Okil heard a noise coming through the communicator. “There’s someone here.”
    “Darl? Be careful. Take one of the stuns. Use it if you have to.”
    “What’s going on, Okil?” the doctor asked, and Okil heard him open the door to the weapons box and then shut it, and the lock spinning. “Lock down main system.”
    “Lock down,” the ship answered.
    “Only open for Okil 2955.”
    “Darl, what’s going on?” Okil asked.
    “Just a precaution,” Darl said, and then his footsteps went down the exit ramp, and Okil was left with no clue what was happening to his friend.
    “Reja, we have to go,” he said, heading for the door. Tikki wasn’t there, which meant he was wasting time and needed to get back to the cruiser to help Darl. The Karal