Several hours later, Urle left the bridge.

There had been no need for him to stand still on the bridge while working; the desk in Brooks's - he would not yet think of it as his - office would have been the more proper location.

But he worked fine anywhere. His knees could literally be locked if he wished, to allow him to stand with no effort. He was more capable working with digital hands in his own virtual environment than with even his mechanical hands.

And no physical action could ever surpass the speed of his thought.

He might not be Dr. Y, he likely would never approach that until he became purely digital, but his computational power was still formidable.

He'd looked over every report, approved or rejected every bit of paperwork, submitted them to all relevant parties, handed out twelve accolades to various personnel in seven departments, and then checked in on Hannah and Persis via remote cameras. They seemed to be quite involved in the gardening project their class had begun a month earlier.

He was still on-duty, and he decided to head to Brooks's office, now that he actually had no more work to do. He'd made his point of being present on the bridge, and he would still be only a message away.

As he left the bridge, he received a notification that surprised him; Ambassador N'Keeea had been passed through security to the pre-bridge.

That in itself was not surprising; as an Ambassador, he would be able to access certain areas beyond the norm, when under official business. Not the bridge, not without special permission from the Captain, but this far, yes.

He thought it was the first time that N'Keeea had used such clearances since boarding their ship, however. If anything, the being had been completely quiet and kept to himself all this time.

His system informed him that it was indeed the first time, and further that N'Keeea's path seemed to be taking him towards the Captain's office, with an 87% certainty.

Picking up his pace, Urle decided to be ready when he arrived. His system predicted he had time to spare.

It proved to be correct. He had sat in the chair behind the desk for all of 34 seconds when the chime came for a requested entry.

All the data on the caller confirmed it was N'Keeea.

"Enter," Urle said. The door opened for him.

The Hev Ambassador was slightly chubbier than most Hev, a sign that he came from a wealthy clan - or at least was accorded luxury in his home clan.

He was also short, even for a Hev, though most of his people were shorter than humans.

His face was rodent-like, the plates that ran down his back of a more subtle nature than many of his kind. Most Hev reminded humans of a humanoid rat, but N'Keeea reminded Urle more of a hamster.

He'd heard of systems, human and other species, that were suspicious of Hev. And some clans indeed seemed to have no scruples when it came to lying and cheating. But he rejected that idea; Hev varied more than any other species he'd heard of in temperament and outlook.

"Greetings, Acting-Captain Urle," N'Keeea said, with a bow. "Do you have time for me to speak with you?"

Urle did, but he did not like the being simply coming here unannounced. It was not the politeness - though certain rules and precedents should be followed in diplomatic encounters - but that he was unprepared for the interview. He would have liked to review everything they had on N'Keeea, his clan, the Hev in general, and whatever else he could think of that was relevant.

"Briefly, Ambassador. Apologies, but I am quite busy."

"Of course, of course," the Ambassador replied. "I will make my inquiries short, then."

Urle nodded, and gestured placatingly, which he hoped N'Keeea's system would recognize. "In the future, it would help if you called and made an appointment. Then we could schedule the time you needed."

"I see - yes, I will do that in the future, Acting-Captain." The Hev paused, still standing in the doorway, and finally stepped in just enough for the door to close behind him.

"Have a seat," Urle said, gesturing. He then frantically checked his knowledge database, to make sure that wasn't incredibly rude to a Hev.

But the Hev were so disunited in culture that he found about a dozen conflicting versions of proper chair invitation etiquette, and the archive noted that it was incomplete.

Ambassador N'Keeea did not seem bothered, anyway. "Oh, no, you need not concern yourself with my comfort, Acting-Captain. I thought we might discuss a few things of the most trivial importance."

It seemed odd for him to be playing down his own matters as trivial, but Urle nodded. "Very well."

"The cuisine on your ship is quite good. It is not tailored towards my kind, but I find myself with ample options for dining nonetheless," N'Keeea said.

That really got Urle confused. "Ah . . . well, I am glad to hear it. We do typically keep the patterns for food for most known species in our memory drives, to be sure we can accomodate any guest."

"Yes . . . Very wise," N'Keeea replied. "Now, I suppose there is the matter of my bill."

"Your bill?" Urle echoed. How could they owe the being money? He was about to ask that when N'Keeea continued.

"Yes, I am in your debt for transport to your home system," N'Keeea said.

"You need not pay us for that," Urle replied.

"I insist," N'Keeea said.

"Truly," Urle told him. "We don't have a running rate or way to calculate that. It's just a service we extended to you."

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The being had an odd expression, and Urle's system tentatively identified it as suspicion.

"I see," the Ambassador replied, his tone giving away nothing.

A silence fell again.

Urle finally ventured; "If you'd like, I could summon an Ambassador from Earth, if you wished to speak about more diplomatic issues . . ."

The Hev immediately waved it away. "Oh, no that is entirely unnecessary. Do not trouble yourself."

"Very well," Urle replied. He was not sure what exactly was occurring. "Is there anything else I can do for you, then?"

"I would not want to trouble you, Acting-Captain," the Hev replied.

Urle nodded, but said nothing else. N'Keeea likewise fell silent.

They simply stared at each other for an awkwardly long time.

Finally the Hev spoke again. "Well, perhaps that will be all for now, Acting-Captain."

Urle felt that he'd missed something important, but he truly did not know how far he should push this. He was checking records of contact with Hev, looking for a hint, any clue - but he was finding nothing.

"Very well, then," he finally said. "Good day, Ambassador."

*******

They'd been waiting in the Quarantine Scanning area for hours, Apollonia thought. Her system said it had been over two since they'd gotten off Urle's shuttle.

The docking itself had taken awhile, over half an hour, and she had been happy to disembark.

Brooks had dawdled, talking to Urle in a low voice, and she had moved away to give them privacy.

But she still glanced back, just out of curiosity.

The two men shook hands, and then Urle hugged Brooks.

She looked away again, feeling like she'd just seen something private.

Stepping away, she toed at the floor, noting how clean it was, and that for some reason that annoyed her. Couldn't anything be grimy in the Sapient Union?

Brooks walked up next to her. "There's a routine Quarantine Scan for anyone coming in from outside the system," he said. "It won't take long."

But it had taken long, she thought. Two hours was long. And her tablet was deactivated. "It protects it from the scans," Brooks had explained, but that hadn't made it less boring.

A lot of time in her past had been spent just waiting for nothing. She hated reliving it.

And even now, once they'd gotten out, Brooks told her;

"We're going to have more of a wait. "I received a message that there was an issue with our transport."

"An issue? Like it blew up or something?"

Brooks gave her a surprised and confused look, but she wasn't sure why.

Transports had blown up rather often going between Vitriol and New Vitriol. Sometimes it was even an accident.

"No, they didn't tell me," he said. "But I'll get it sorted out."

He began walking, his long strides forcing her to hurry to keep up.

"Slow down a little! When is our new flight?" she asked.

He measured his pace somewhat. "Tomorrow," he replied.

"Is there a place we can stay?" she asked. "Like a hotel?"

Hopefully not the one the hookers all used, she thought.

"Yes, but we won't have to use them," Brooks replied. "I'll talk to someone and we'll find another transport that will take us sooner."

Maybe he did have the clout to pull that off, she didn't know.

The area they'd gotten out in was a star-shaped boarding platform with space for five shuttles to dock. They seemed to be the only ones in this part, and it was as cramped and narrow as she'd have expected of a space station, though there was at least gravity, even if it was spin.

And she had just been starting to get used to water falling straight instead of a coriolis curve . . .

The area quickly widened into a check-in terminal with elevator banks. Everything looked extremely nice, she thought, the floors were made of marble with an almost mirror shine.

Brooks ignored the terminals and went straight to the elevators.

Even this was nice, she thought. Gold leaf was arranged in dazzlingly fine detail, and she leaned over to try and look at them.

"This is the first point that anyone coming to Earth will see," Brooks noted. "So a lot of effort went into it all."

"I'll say. I think I see people in this. Working with the ground?"

"It's a visual history of humanity," Brooks told her. "So they're probably tilling, from the dawn of agriculture."

She stood upright again. "I can't imagine working with my hands in the dirt," she said. "Have you ever done that?" she then asked, turning to look at him.

Brooks seemed to hesitate a minute, but something she said seemed to have made him happy. "I've never done agriculture, but yes - I've worked in the dirt. Planting flowers."

"You don't seem like the kind of guy to grow flowers," she said. "No offense."

"I don't anymore," he replied. The door dinged and opened, and they stepped out into a vast area.

The ceiling was four floors above them, and hanging from it was an incredible chandelier made of what must be ten thousand crystals. Within many of the central crystals were embedded symbols that she didn't know.

"What are-" she began.

"There's 15,000 crystals, for all the colonized human systems when we first joined the Sapient Union," Brooks noted.

"And the symbols?"

"There existed several factions of system alliances that we still recognize as autonomous even if they did join with Earth."

"That was like fifty years ago, right?" she asked, still gazing at it. "I bet there's a lot more now, aren't there?"

"No, actually," Brooks said. "But let's go."

He led the way again, taking them through a crowded visitors area, snack bars, and past some entertainment venues to a set of very official-looking doors. A scanner drone checked him, then her, making a few quizzical beeps as it did so.

"She doesn't have a system," Brooks said to it.

"It asked about that?" she asked him, once they were in.

"It thought it was odd," he said. "But it was just curious."

"Drones get curious?"

"It's just the eyes for an AI security system."

Brooks went up to a desk and spoke to a woman behind it.

"I need to get a call through to Admiral Temohee Vandoss," he said.

"I'm afraid our lines are currently in use, sir," the woman said. "There will be a wait of-"

"Use this override code," Brooks said, showing her a piece of paper, of all things.

The woman looked at it, pursing her lips, but then nodded.

"What is that?" Apollonia asked.

The woman looked to her, then back to Brooks, pausing.

He turned to Apollonia. "I need you to go wait out in the visitor's area. Take this card - it'll let you get some food if you want." He pressed a thin card into her hands.

"Ah, sure," Apollonia replied, feeling horribly self-conscious.