2.44.

The object that the Yonohoan teens had found was a star that was in the process of being born. The coalescing gases had formed a thick accretion disk that would eventually become its planetary bodies. In the center was a massive orb of swirling storms and heat.

Hot, but the ignition of the fusion reaction in its core was centuries, if not millennia away. The super massive gas giant that would eventually become a yellow dwarf, according to the surveys that the students ran, was warmed by the intense pressure as it greedily drank from the universe and sought more, more, more to fill its greedy stomach.

The students were delighted with the find. Half of them were trying to get Dornodo to confess as to whether this baby star was charted or not. If it was not, then they would get the honor of naming it, and they were already discussing names.

Dornodo remained firm that they would find out whether they were the first to discover this celestial wonder when the time for the Toormonda to turn around and head home came. Until then they should proceed according to the rules and spirit of Toormonda, in which every wonder that they encounter is to be re-charted and re-explored as though it was being found for the very first time.

Some of the students were disappointed with the pronouncement, but most of them simply worked on their models of the developing star system, mapping the accretion disk and predicting the final form of what would come.

In some model their were six planets. In another, sixteen.

Sarah wandered from station to station, watching the students work. They were eager to involve her in their work, explaining what they were doing and detailing their analysis and predictions. She watched in wonder as their time-lapse models fast-forwarded to the day of ignition and beyond.

Then the scheduled education time ended, and abruptly everyone simply walked away from their stations. Sarah was still amazed at how readily they shifted gears. The boys went to take their showers, while the girls went to eat in the cafeteria area.

Sarah had been enjoying Yonohoan cuisine for a while now, but she was feeling a longing for something from home, so she ordered up a bowl of macaroni and cheese with a side of chicken and green beans. The imprint for this meal had come directly from Earth and was available at all Yonohoan food forges at this point. It was immensely popular among the teenagers, and when the girls sat down at the table with Sarah, two others had the same meal.

“Earth food is so delicious,” one of the girls said. Her name was Mirella. At some point in her genetic past one of her ancestors had altered their genecode to turn her hair blue, and Mirella inherited the alteration.

“I enjoy many of the Yonohoan dishes I have tried,” Sarah said, carefully enunciating her words in Yonohoan. She still wore her ear-thingy, as she thought of the device that was helping her learn the language, but was using it only to define words she did not know at this point. “I was simply in the mood for a taste of home.”

“If I lived on Earth, I would be fat because of how much I would enjoy eating your food,” Vanya, a girl with pitch-black hair but violet eyes declared. “No boy would even bother hiding from my Topoka.”

Sarah smiled. Most of the Yonohoans didn’t really care that the Topoka took such a detailed interest in their romances, but teenagers were expected to try to hide their dalliances from their furry guardians. Not because of shame, but because it was a game which they enjoyed; often tricking their Topokas into memorizing a scent for no reason or trying to hide a budding romance from their guardians.

She was beginning to pick up on the humor of it.

“So is there any boy that you’re going to introduce to your Topoka when you get home, Vanya?” Sarah asked casually.

“I am having trouble deciding, to be honest,” the teenager admitted. “On the one hand, Tarek is very cute.”

“Tarek is not interested in you,” Alaria, another teenager at the table, declared.

“Yes, it is most frustrating,” Vanya agreed. “I will soon have to be less subtle in my advances if he doesn’t pick up on my interest. But I am also very fond of Kalenda. If Tarek does not take the hint soon, I might revert to my backup plan.”

“Kalenda is not interested in you either,” Alaria informed her. “Did you not know? Tarek and Kalenda are both more interested in each other than in any of us.”

“No! Is that really true?” Vanya asked.

“I have seen them together. I will say no more than that out of respect for their privacy,” Alaria said.

“Nooo!” Vanya exclaimed. “Why is it that all of the good boys are gay?”

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“You may actually have a chance with Kalenda, but I would not think that he would take the relationship very seriously,” Mirella said. “You may have seen him with Tarek, but I have also seen him with two other girls. I believe that he will kiss anything with a pulse.”

Sarah giggled and listened along to the girl talk.

“What about you, Sarah?” Vanya asked. “I have seen the way that you and Donodo have been looking at each other. Will you Tuunka Powan with him?”

Sarah almost choked on a chunk of macaroni. “What?”

The girls giggled. “It is very obvious. If you had a Topoka it would be very clear in its gathering of his scent by now.”

“You think that he’s interested in me?” Sarah inquired.

“He is male. He has eyes. You are beautiful and exotic. Of course he is interested in you,” Vanya assured her. “The question is are you interested in him?”

Sarah considered the question for a long minute. “I haven’t really thought of him that way. I just – because of my medical condition I am not certain that it’s a good idea for me to have that sort of relationship right now,” she explained.

“Does your condition affect your judgement?” Mirella asked.

“It has in the past. I am receiving treatment that may or may not correct it. I do not really wish to talk about it right now. Let us talk about the boys that you like instead.”

And so the conversation turned back to teenage girls talking about teenage boys. Soon it was the boys turn to eat and the girls turn to shower, and the routine of the day continued uninterrupted into the ‘evening,’ which was marked as free relaxation time.

Many of the groups split off to other parts of the ship, but Sarah remained with the girls she had eaten with in the primary room with the largest group of the teenagers. They discussed how to spend the evening for some time before they decided to put on an entertainment program. They discussed which ‘film’ -- as Sarah still thought of the programs as despite their holographic nature -- they would watch.

Eventually they decided on a comedy/drama entitled, interestingly enough, Tuunka Powan. Sarah was surprised because she thought a program with such a title would be inappropriate to be shown aboard a Toormonda, at least while its occupants were all teenagers. However, she quickly realized her misunderstanding.

The film wasn’t pornographic at all. Rather, it followed the story of a young girl who was the result of Tuunka Powan as she discovered her place in the world.

It began as the girl, no more than two or three years of age, asked her parents why her father had a Topoka guardian. The practice of assigning a male a Topokan guardian was generally considered humiliating for the man, and was usually only done when they had produced an unregistered child.

Or if they had a significant historical ancestor.

The parents exchanged embarrassed looks and flat out lied to the child. So she grew up believing that she had a historically important ancestor instead of knowing that her parents loved each other enough to break the rules regarding reproduction.

Or that they were careless enough to let it happen, at least.

Her belief carried her right up until it was time for her to register for school, at which point the truth came out and she was furious with her parents. The names that she called both of them were ones that Sarah had never heard of before, but had the teenagers in stitches.

The matter was further complicated when it was revealed that the parents had neglected to register her birth with the Topokan government, which was the correct and legal response to having an unplanned pregnancy. There was another fight scene, this time between the parents, in which they screamed at each other, and their Topokan guardians, saying things that Sarah didn’t really understand.

But the Teenagers thought it was hilarious.

The girl responded to this drama by going onto one of the infonets and registering her birth herself.

With the Acklatic empire.

Who took her word for it, since she was Yonohoan, that she had a historic ancestor and were eager to have her emigrate into one of their worlds.

The resulting drama lasted for half-hour as the parents fought to keep their child, who was trying to run away to an adoptive set of parents in another world. In the end, the Yonohoan parents lost the battle and she left planet Totola behind.

The film spent some time showing her failing to fit in with the Acklatics, and then she abruptly called her Topokan guardian, who had been left behind, and asked him to take her home. The film ended with her happily reunited with her family.

Sarah smiled as she watched it. There were many parts of it that she didn’t understand, including most of the jokes, but it was kind of funny.

She went to bed soon after thinking about all that she had learned that day.

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