Chapter 5
Kayren lived closer to Jim’s section, as befitted the colony’s history professor and historian. She’d settled with the first wave, as Crithiens often did. Their deep, broad memories had led them to careers as explorers, investigators, and on permanent system juries as well. Computers were wonderful devices, as far as they went. Organic brains, especially Crithien brains, were still by far the best in the galaxy at making connections.
Kayren was still young by her species standards at just over two hundred Earth years. She only had five segments, each holding one of her brain structures. Jim wasn’t nearly as disturbed as the new cadets often were when meeting what looked like a gigantic soft-shelled insect for the first time. But he braced himself when Maerlis knocked on the doo
