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will hasten.’
    They helped each other as far as the cucina, where Fariss appeared. The tall soldier’s face softened when she saw Thales.
     ‘You’re awake.’
    ‘Could you help him to a cabin?’ Mira asked her.
    Fariss stuffed the biscuits she held into her mouth,and scooped up Thales in her arms as if he weighed nothing. The young scholar sank against her with complete trust.
    As Mira watched them disappear along the stratum, her heart tugged a little, not from jealousy but envy. She hadn’t experienced
     comfort in another’s company since her sister Faja had died. Even
Insignia
and the nurturing of the Primo vein did not fill her need for humanesque intimacy.
    She continued on to her cabin, where she bathed and brushed her hair, taking care to keep her movements slow and steady. When
     she was finished, she located an absorbent wad in the cabin cupboard and inserted it into her fresh underwear.
    Feeling more ready to cope with what would come next, she sat on the bed.
    ‘Wanton?’
    The Post-Species individual was where she had left it, resting on her bed covers against the tiny blisters of mycose. The
     pile had dwindled since her last visit to her cabin, indicating that Wanton was still in trouble.
    ‘Mira-fedor. Wanton is most pleased to hear your voice.’
    ‘H-how are you?’
    ‘The mycose has preserved my life. It is not an inexhaustible supply though. I would hope to heal the fracture in my casing
     before it has depleted much further.’
    Mira leaned closer to the small gelatinous object. Its voice sounded plaintive, but she was never sure if attributing humanesque
     characteristics and emotions to it was appropriate. Did Wanton have feelings in theway she understood them? The Extro had helped her to escape her Post-Species gaol, and had displayed a very humanesque sense
     of self-preservation throughout their escape from the Hub world, but something was intrinsically different between them. Something
     she couldn’t qualify.
    ‘We are in Scolar space,’ she said.
    ‘Yes,’ said Wanton. ‘The biozoon has been exchanging information with me.’
    ‘
Insignia?
’ said Mira with surprise. ‘And you?’
    ‘We have shared our knowledge of humanesques. It is surprising to see what information we both lacked.’
    Mira sat back, annoyed and amused. Wanton and
Insignia
had been talking about her. ‘And what did you learn?’
    ‘Contradictory would seem the most appropriate word.’
    Mira couldn’t control her defensive reflex. ‘I wouldn’t specify that as a solely humanesque trait. I have known you to be
     evasive, and
Insignia
to be contrary.’
    ‘It is true that both biozoons and Post-Species Hosts display minor idiosyncrasies, but with humanesques it seems to be …
     quintessential.’
    ‘What do you need to heal yourself?’ Mira changed the subject quickly. Together Wanton and
Insignia
, it seemed, would be impossibly superior.
    ‘I am not permitted to disclose the required healing substance.’
    ‘Then how can I help you?’
    ‘I will tell you when and how.’
    Mira let out an exasperated breath. ‘Now who is being obtuse?’
    Mira
, interrupted
Insignia
,
Thales is ready to contact Scolar.
    Mira pressed her hand down into the bed to ensure that the mycose blisters rolled as close to Wanton as possible.
    I’m coming.

B ELLE -M ONDE
    The tyros filled the ménage lounge with chatter and the smell of fruit cocktails. Chief Balbao seated himself, stiff-backed,
     in a lounge chair in the centre of the small bar and waited for them to assemble around him: Miranda Seeward, Javid Javiddat,
     Labile Connit, Lawmon Jise, Ra of Lostol and the uuli pair whose names he could never remember.
    ‘What is so important, Chief, that you would brave us in our den?’ warbled Miranda Seeward.
    The eminent dicter was perhaps the most irritating and repulsive of all the tyros, her rolls of loose flesh and superior attitude
     a counterpoint to each other, as though one gave the other credence.