Free ARC: Under Nameless Stars by Christian Schoon Page A

Katie?”
    “Yes. Katie will like.”
    “She can hear you, this Katie?” Jules said. “I thought she had no hearing?”
    “We’ve been working on lip-reading,” Zenn said. “We’ve only just started, but she’s picking it up really fast.”
    “She has a smart brain in her, then.” Jules peered down at the rikkaset. “Well done to you, Katie.”
    Katie ignored him and took a tentative bite of the food before her. Deciding it would do, she ate eagerly.
    Jules pointed to another covered dish on the tray – a treat for Zenn. He held the dish out for her approval. On it was what looked like a small, leathery-skinned fruit with a delicate orange-and-aquamarine coloring.
    “Can you guess what this is?” he said. Zenn peered more closely at the dish and its contents. “I will wager you cannot guess,” he said, taking out his relay and brandishing it at her. “Shall we say one unit? As a wager between friends?”
    Zenn laughed and took out her own relay.
    “Only one unit?” she said. “How about two… between friends?”
    Jules bobbed his head in agreement.
    “So, how many guesses do I get?” Yes, eating had definitely left her feeling much more like herself.
    “Only one guess, of course. It is a wager.”
    “Just one guess?” she said. “Gee… let’s see… could it be… a Lyran Rooloo?”
    Jules’s beaked jaw fell open for a second, then snapped shut.
    “You knew its identity the full time.”
    “Yup. But the betting was your idea,” she said, smiling as she watched Jules’s relay blink on and off again, transferring the winnings to her account.
    “Yes, true enough and well done,” he exclaimed. So, dolphins were good sports, at least.
    “Answer me this: have you ever coaxed out a Rooloo?” She shook her head no. “It’s an experience to be had.” He crossed his mech-arms in front of him and watched her. She gave the tiny sphere a tentative poke with her finger.
    “Hold it in the palm of your hand,” Jules instructed. She obeyed. It was dry and cool to the touch. “Now breathe on it.”
    She gave him a puzzled look.
    “Like you were breathing on a mirror to clean the surface.”
    She opened her mouth wide, held the fruit up to her face and huffed on it. The Rooloo vibrated softly against her palm and, with a soft “whump” of rind and juices, it exploded. Zenn jerked back in her chair, her face covered with a sticky wetness like popped bubblegum, except the gum was moving – it was alive! In alarm, Katie leaped up on the table and uttered a fierce little growl at the offending Rooloo.
    Zenn peeled the clinging thing from her cheek and held it at arm’s length. It looked like a sort of turquoise starfish, and it quivered and wobbled as it tried to get a grip on her hand and crawl up her arm. With some effort, she scraped it off into her empty water glass. She put a plate on top to keep it from getting out. Katie eyed it closely until she was certain it couldn’t escape. Then she hopped off the table and returned to her dish of food.
    Zenn realized that the chirping sound in her ears was Jules’s staccato laughter. Across the table, he was shaking his large head rapidly up and down, obviously relishing his little surprise.
    “You did that on purpose,” Zenn said. She mopped at herself with a napkin. Jules had stopped laughing, but he couldn’t keep his head from bobbing with pleasure.
    “You should have seen your countenance and its expression. This was an excellent example of humor based on the unexpected. Do admit it.”
    “I don’t admit anything of the kind.” But Zenn’s outrage was now totally manufactured, and she struggled to keep herself from laughing. The stories she had heard about the dolphin sense of humor were apparently true. “You might have warned me.”
    “But that would entirely undo the purpose of humor premised on the element of surprise.”
    “Oh, right, silly me. So, what do we do with this little guy?” She pointed to the Rooloo crawling up the