Squeezed her hand. “We’re never disappointed in you, Jamie-Kat. Ever. You’re the best little girl any parents could ever have.” Looked at Jamie out of the corner of my eye, which was possible in these goggles—she seemed quite pleased. Good. Considered what to say next. “How often do you talk to Auntie Mimi?”
“Oh, once in a while. Don’t worry, I won’t tell Uncle Chuckie, Uncle Paul, or Auntie Abby. I understand why it would make them feel bad to know that Auntie Mimi isn’t talking to them.”
Whatever story Naomi had to give Jamie to keep her from sharing this news was A-okay with me. “That makes sense.”
“Oooh, look at Spehidon, Mommy. It’s twinkling!”
It was, looking like sparkly orange confetti was coming from the planet, which was presumably some reflection from the sun. But it was beautiful to watch and we stopped talking about stressful things and just enjoyed floating on an ocean of mercury on the other side of the galaxy from where we’d started.
Finally, though, it was declared time to try and get some sleep. There was much good-natured complaining about this, but no one seemed peevish or on the verge of a tantrum. The utopian atmosphere seemed to be rubbing off on everyone.
Swimming, sunning, so to speak, splashing, and floating became a twice-daily pastime. We got up and ate, then everyone went to the platinum beach that felt like sand. We made platinum castles, swam with the septopi, played beach volleyball once that concept was explained to Feoren and the right equipment was created, rowed around on boats made of silver filigree with copper paddles, and generally acted like the happiest bunch of tourists anyone could hope to meet.
Lunch was followed by different trips each day. One day we went to the forest areas, other days we toured the rest of the light side of the moon—different towns that all looked alike, different people of all interesting kinds, ever-shifting landscapes that never got boring—and we always checked on the rabbits, who were making steady progress on the Orange Scourge. They all looked a bit bigger to me, but not fatter, every day. Decided not to worry about it.
Dinner led to the second beach excursion of the day, where we all did more of the same as we’d done after breakfast. Then it was bedtime for everyone, with Mother allowing us natural sleep. Jeff and I got to have a lot of great sex, too, because once the kids were asleep they were out for at least eight hours, which made this a fantastic vacation in my opinion. The only bummer was that we weren’t able to do it in the mercury ocean, but you couldn’t have everything. Jeff managed to make up for this by figuring out how to do it in the Moon Suits, so that was a very sexy memory we’d have that was just ours, too.
We even got Hacker International to join us for a few hours each day, with them alternating the excursions so they could experience all of them, too. Chuckie felt that the mental breaks were important for them, and by the second day, they weren’t whining about said breaks at all.
Adam and the Kristie-Bot spent their time having fun and bemoaning that they’d run out of video on the first day on the moon, since they hadn’t had the extra memory on them when the Distant Voyager took off. Dion quietly took pictures, without rubbing it in, since his camera was digital and he’d brought a ton of spare memory cards with him. Jenkins was interviewing every single Cradi who was willing to talk to him, which was pretty much all of them. So the Press Corps was having fun, too. Presumed Oliver was having fun being part of the away team, so didn’t feel sorry for him, though had a feeling Adam and the Kristie-Bot were both jealous that they hadn’t gotten to go.
The fourth day’s midday excursion was to the rubidium lake. This wasn’t treated as a place to swim, but more like a great mud bath with medicinal advantages. The Cradi waded in up to their necks and relaxed, chatting about various things. We were safe to do so as well, though most of us just went up to knees or waists. Other than the young adults, all of whom went up to their necks, presumably because Sidney dared everyone to do it.
The rubidium was warm and comforting, making this seem like a trip to a fancy spa. It seeped into the Moon Suits, but that was what it was supposed to do. We couldn’t feel the rubidium on our skin, but it seemed to revive the Suits. It certainly revived the Cradi, all of whom were more sprightly when they got out of the rubidium lake than when they’d gone in.
Considered how pleasant and benign this moon was, especially for how different it was from what we were used to. Earth was abundant, so were most of the other planets our various friends, allies, frenemies, and enemies came from. But Cradus was even more giving, in that sense. It was hard to come up with another world that altered itself in whatever way its people and guests wanted.
Something about that thought made my brain nudge, but couldn’t figure out why.
We were just leaving the lake when Louise Valentino, the eldest young adult here, looked up and pointed, interrupting my musing. “Look!”
We all did, in time to see what looked like sports car section heading for us. We took the fast ground roller coaster back to the Distant Voyager and were in time to watch it rise up to join with the saucer. This wasn’t a quick process, but it was pretty and interesting to watch, and as the two sections came together, everyone cheered. We were definitely in the vacation spirit. Hoped we didn’t make the away team feel bad for missing out.
Once the complete ship was back down again, we waited for said away team. Didn’t have to wait long. They all came out with bathing suits on under their Moon Suits. “Mother said that we might as well relax while we debrief you guys,” Tim said with a grin.
“Good,” Jeff said, “but it’s dinnertime first, though.”
“We won’t say no,” Kyle replied. “We’re starving.”
“Didn’t you eat on the trip?” I asked.
“We did,” Drax said, as Fathade and Feoren ran to each other, hugged, and kissed. “But we chose to not eat these past few hours and just focus on getting back as quickly as possible.”
“We found something,” Len said to me quietly. “We need to discuss it, and soon. Over food seems best.”
“What’s the status on finding Kreaving’s location?” Reader asked as we headed off.
“Nada,” Stryker said. “We’ve narrowed more, but we’ve still got too much space to cover. We haven’t been able to pinpoint a system yet, though we think we may have found his home planet.”
“Well, it’s something,” Tim said. “Not what we need, but something.”
Camilla took my arm, nodded to the others, and held me back. Jeff stayed back as well. “What is it?” I asked her once the others were farther ahead. “We all need to go into the safe room at the same time.”