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been working, but she’d never bothered to figure out how to get from one to the other. That was what the nav-sys was for, and she’d figured she’d bring the floater back to the ship, change, and then figure out the best way to get back to party central, whether on foot, by whoosh-trains or by rented zipbike. But Drax ran like he knew the warren of back alleys.
    Or like he had a natural nav-sys. Some flying sentients did, just like birds and Irashi glider lizards and those nasty things on Thrakash that were actually mammals but acted more like ginormous stinging insects.
    Short of breath or not, she started to laugh. Drax turned and stared at her, raising one elegant eyebrow. “This is fun,” she panted. “Scary, but fun. Hide and seek for grown-ups.”
    He looked puzzled for a second, then seemed to get the reference. “You’re crazy!” he said, but he was grinning as he said it. “But I like it.”
    By about the fifteenth turn down a seemingly random side street, hung with purple and green banners but otherwise deserted, its shops and offices locked up tight except for a lonely take-out restaurant, Rita began to wonder if Drax was just as lost as she was. She could hear the festival in the distance—voices, music, laughter—but she couldn’t tell where it was, or even how close. Maybe all Drax’s zigging and zagging was some kind of clever evasive maneuver that made it harder for the bad guys to trail them, but she was willing to bet he was lost at this point. Someone else’s money, not her own, but she’d still bet. If she had enough breath, she’d have teased him about it.
    Then they made a few more turns and stumbled into a bright, crowded space. “Cosmic!” she breathed. The festival was even bigger than she imagined, and brighter, and wilder. Strange, sensual music filled the air, wafting out from three—no, four—stages. It should have been a cacophony, but somehow the acoustics of the great square worked so that the more distant groups were barely audible over the closest one, just adding a pleasant background buzz. Colorful food tents wafted forth odors, some appetizing, others less appealing to Rita’s human senses. Strolling drink vendors with small bar carts offered green or purple frozen drinks, the inevitable green bubbly, or what appeared to be beer or wine. (After visiting many planets, Rita had concluded every culture made some kind of beer and wine. Thanks to Buck, she knew most of it was potable for humans, but not all, and even if it was tasty, you didn’t necessarily want to ask what it was made of.)
    “Closer to the stage,” Rita panted. The crowd seemed denser there, and they could hide in plain sight. This time, she was the one to lead Drax. She might not have an innate sense of direction, but squirming and elbowing her way through a crowd was familiar territory. She’d done it in hundreds of bars on just as many planets, sometimes half-carrying Buck or dragging an irate Xia by her tail before she managed to get them all arrested for doing things that came naturally to a cat-girl.
    Finally, Rita found an open area barely large enough for the two of them and stopped. The band was San’balese, and some of the musicians were playing two instruments at once with their four hands, something Rita figured she’d find fascinating once she wasn’t hyperventilating and mildly panicking about armed thugs in Fieros. If she could have relaxed, it would be one hell of a party. People bopped in time to the music, flirted and danced—and San’balese dancing was something to see and somewhat hazardous to be too near, with all those flailing limbs. Rita found herself swaying to the unfamiliar music as well as she scanned the crowd. She tried to convince herself it was just so she fit in, but really, it was because the music, though unlike anything she’d heard before, was sexy, bouncy and pretty much irresistible.
    She didn’t see any sources of danger in the crowd, but she did spot