Free ARC: Under Nameless Stars by Christian Schoon Page B

inside of her water glass. Jules bent down to watch it, leaning forward slightly. “Oh, no, you don’t,” Zenn told him earnestly. She snatched up the glass. “You’re not eating him. He’s way too cute. I know it’s just walking fruit, but it’s still too cute to eat.”
    “Did I say I intended to ingest it?” Jules protested, a little too strongly. “I have seen that the galley kitchen here keeps a Rooloo breeding colony. We’ll purchase its freedom and put it out to pasture. There is rind-juice on your chin…” Jules picked up his napkin and handed it across the table to her. “My First Promised enjoyed Rooloo. It was a favorite of hers, even though it was not fish-based. We were to serve it at the bonding ceremony.”
    Zenn took the napkin from him and dabbed at her face. “If you don’t mind my asking, Jules, how old are you?”
    “I am eighteen years on the moonrise of the coming migration season,” he told her. “But as I grew up at the institute facilities away from my birth pod, I won’t undergo the usual initiation.”
    “The institute?”
    “Yes, the Claussen Institute. It is a research unit of the TerrAqua Corporation. TerrAqua is the company that designed and built this walksuit. The business was owned by Per Claussen. He was kind to me, much like a father, in fact. But he died.”
    “Oh, I’m sorry.”
    “During my growing-up period at the Institute, I assisted in refining the workings of the newer suit models.” He raised both mech-arms. “Upon Per’s passing, he arranged to leave me this newest model. As well as a good deal of his money.” The dolphin lowered his head slightly, his gaze growing distant. “In any case, it is his gift of funds I now use to pay for this starship ride and this comfortable cabin. It was his final kindness to me.”
    “But you were taken away from your family when you were young? And you didn’t mind? You didn’t miss your family group, your dolphin pod’s initiation and all?”
    He leaned closer to her and dropped his voice. “Don’t tell it far abroad, but the pod initiation is a ritual I am pleased to avoid. There is no small amount of biting and slapping with tail-flukes involved. And, as you have seen, with my years of practice, I am most expert in the operation of my walksuit. This mobility upon land was a… great side-benefit… to…”
    The dolphin’s voice trailed off and he slowly closed one eye as his beaked chin dropped. A sound like a softly deflating tire emanated from the blowhole on the top of his head. It sounded like… snoring.
    “Yes, I’m sure it was a benefit,” she said. “And so, were there other dolphins at the Institute?” Jules didn’t respond, but continued his soft, rhythmic breathing.
    Zenn was about to ask again when she noticed one of his mech-arms had dropped to his side, and the hand-unit was trembling in little waving motions. She leaned over the table to ask him if he was OK, and saw that he had one eye open. It followed her movement. Then, the other eye popped open and he sat upright.
    “Oh… excuse me,” he said, clearing his blowhole by exhaling in a short burst. “I dozed away for a second.”
    “You were asleep? But your eye was open. I saw you watching me.”
    “It’s how dolphins sleep.”
    “With one eye open?”
    “Yes. The term is called unihemispheric slow wave sleep. ‘Uni’ meaning ‘one’, ‘hemi’ meaning ‘half’, and ‘sphere’ indicating–”
    “Jules. I know what a sphere is.”
    “Naturally you do. In any case, this kind of sleep arose in dolphins to permit us to rest and yet breathe at the same moment. One half of our brain goes into light sleep mode while the other stays awake. One eye is open to keep us oriented toward the water surface so we can breathe and watch for predators – such as sharks and, before the Cetacean Cooperation Treaty, killer whales. First, we rest one side of the brain; next, the other. Generally this goes in eight-hour cycles during