He let my elbow go.
“Would you like to fly out with us?”
I shrugged.
“I’d love to. But I had those malfunctions yesterday. I think I better stay.”
“All right,” he said with an uncertain expression on his face, suddenly turned around and left.
I stood around the mess hall for a while, pulling myself together. My mind was in disarray, but I felt like I just passed an exam.
They waved me goodbye and flew away, and I didn’t even look at the glider after it took off. I immediately returned to the ship, picked a stereo pair of crystal players, armed both of my ears, and dropped into the seat in front of my console. I watched the kids work, read incoming messages, talked to Vadim and Ninon (it was comforting to find out that Vadim is also playing music very loudly), cleaned the premise
