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introduced them to his parents down on Notter, then brought their clan leader into the happy return chatter. The chamber in the spire where they met was much like a college food hall, filled with hundreds of other Slinkeroo. He and Jane had tasted the booze the snakes liked. To him it resembled Japanese rice wine, or sake , that he had tasted while training at Coronado. Two of his fellow trainees were Japanese-Americans like Jane and they had convinced him to try the stuff. The sake gave a good buzz. As did the Slinkeroo booze, which they called mejian . Their Engines Chief was joining them for the critical meeting on where to go next, now that Chester had gotten the Council of Seven and its Prime Elder to join the NATO of the Stars. Plus, they’d gained six Slinkeroo volunteers as a result of the meeting with his family and clan leader. Jane gave him a nod, her expression command serious.
    “Executive Officer, good to see you ate after that booze we had downplanet.” She looked up at the ceiling. “Star Traveler, send a hover bot over with a pitcher of Heineken beer and cold mugs. For everyone including Time Marker.”
    “As you order,” hummed the AI. Who was part of the gathering due to its electronic eyes and ears being everywhere on the Blue Sky .
    Bill gave thanks the table where he sat was big enough to seat seven humans and a walking snake. He gestured at the round table. “Have a seat everyone. The alliance is started. Let’s celebrate!”
    Jane lifted an eyebrow at his perkiness, then sat opposite him on a round pedestal extruded by the floor’s flexmetal. To his right sat his buddies who were ship captains. Next to him was Alicia Hoffman of the brown ponytail and Ranger daring. Beyond her were Coast Guardsman Joe Batigula of the big belly, barrel-chested Frank Wurtzman of the Marines and finally, his fellow SEAL Stefano Cordova, who sat at Jane’s left. To his captain’s right was Chester of the broad shoulders, followed by Time Marker’s six foot long slithery shape. The Slinkeroo stretched out over a long bench that lay between Bill and Chester, his black-skinned head twisted to face them all. Jane grabbed the beer pitcher from a plate carried by a hover bot as it floated beside her. Stefano grabbed mugs off the plate and handed them around. His wife’s dark brown eyes scanned them all, including him. There was no sign of her passionate love nature in them. Today she was all business. As befit a meeting of the fleet commander and her fellow ship captains.
    Alicia lifted her foaming mug. “All hail to the captain in charge!” she yelled, her soprano voice filling the large room where everyone on the ship ate meals, played video games, watched movies, read something from the ship’s incredible Library, or tried their hand at cooking in the Food Alcove that ran along one side wall.
    Jane looked surprised by their tough lesbian’s mood change to cheeriness. “This isn’t a party. Though I am pleased at the six Slinkeroo volunteers we gained, thanks to the influence and support of Time Marker,” she said, nodding to their Engines Chief.
    The yellow glow around their crewmate was low, just a foot thick. Which told Bill the critter had to be feeling happy, or relaxed or anything other than tense and anxious. It was hard to tell about the body language of Aliens. While he’d spent ten months in the company of Time Marker and the other Alien volunteers on the Command Bridge, he was still learning what certain behaviors meant for each of the species now aboard the Blue Sky . The walking snake, while a reptile by biological heritage, loved to play chess, enjoyed swimming in the ship’s Water Pool Chamber, liked sunning himself in the Greenery Chamber, and often spent long hours in the bowels of the Engine Chamber studying the operations of their Magfield engines. Its behavior was a close analogue to a dedicated geek, leastwise so far as he had ever known any. And the snake was far more sociable than