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make her feel valuable and wanted. Most of his interactions with her ended that way and I’d noticed it the very first week the three of us had been together. He hadn’t changed since then. They had a strange relationship, arcing into and away from each other in a bizarre pairing. I loved having him around for the break from each other on those long stretches between presentations when Fransín and I spent way too much time together and smothered each other, Fransín valued him for other reasons that I wasn’t sure she recognized yet. Most pilots and consorts stayed teamed long after their first assignment and it would serve them both to stay together—whether Fransín wanted to admit it or not.
    “She’s going to miss you,” he said. “We all will.” He opened his arms for me and I stepped into them, allowing his embrace to cage me from shoulders to hips. Light pulsed through his body, warming me.
    “It’s going to be an adjustment. You’ll have each other, I’ll see to it.”
    He released me. “I would like that.” A pink hue tinted his cheeks. “She needs looking after.”
    I chuckled. “Don’t tell her that.”
    His skin brightened and the pulses stopped, hinting that he was done revealing emotions. For all that M was a Twilip, he had a fascinating ability to flip his emotions on and off like a phay switch. I envied it. “I’ll see you in a bit, after I…” My throat closed on the words as my dreaded emotions surged. How silly to be upset about my final night dressing up in a pretty gown and spending a charming evening talking to a Samarian, when M and Fransín had so much more at stake. Tonight was merely the end to one portion of my role, not an extreme overhaul like they’d have to endure. M covered my hands with his. “Today will be difficult for each of us in our own way, but that does not lessen our struggle.”
    Tears pooled in my eyes and I blinked to clear them.
    He touched my cheek. “Go ready yourself. I’ll alert you when we are fifteen sectors out.”
    “Gratitude.” I left him and went to the deserted cafeteria, entering a coffee order to arrive in my room’s food dispensary, setting the timer delay so it would stay hot.
    Our closet might be the biggest room, but the shower room was my favorite. Tiled from top to bottom in gold and silver designs, the oval shaped room held three shower bays personalized for our unique species’ tastes.
    I stripped out of my clubbing outfit, dropped it in the laundry hatch, and stepped onto my shower plate. Mist released from the hundreds of heads and the plate rotated slowly. A bell tinkled and I lifted my arms. Gold foam coated me and I relaxed into the massaging nubs of the three large silicon pads that molded to my body, moving the soapy bubbles across my skin. I pushed strands of wet hair off my cheek and sighed, breathing in the minty fragrance. A clean water mist rinsed me and the process repeated for my hair, smaller silicone rods replacing the pads and massaging the shampoo and conditioner into my scalp.
    The water raced off the rotating plate into the recycling grid below, treating the water and putting it back into the ship’s system. Heat lamps dried me instantly and I walked naked to the closet, grabbing my velvet robe off the hook inside the door.
    Fransín wouldn’t wake for hours; I’d always needed less sleep than she did, especially after dancing—that girl took her grooving seriously. I grabbed my coffee from the wall dispensary and ordered another, setting a five-minute delay while I drank my first cup.
    On the far side of the room, a long window overlooked the space beyond our ship, but this morning the swirling colors of the gate held little appeal, only serving to remind me of the grains shifting through my hourglass. I stroked the window, turning it opaque. An image of a Bevi mountain waterfall filled the space, the splash of water reverberating softly through the room.
    Curling up on the chaise below the window, I