“I wish I could stay, but I can’t. I’m sorry,” I said and hugged her. “However, the room is paid up through the weekend, so you can stay as ...ong as you like.”She looked up again. “How will I get to work?”“I’ll make sure someone comes and gets you,” I said.“Why can’t she just use your car?” someone else asked outside the bathroom door.Leanne jumped, which made me jump. Behind Leanne, I saw a hand reach out and wave at us in the open bathroom doorway. “Sorry,” the voice said. “Just thought I’d. ” A few pages later, “This ... um ... this is our son Rolf. He died when he was six. Margaret blamed me for his death and divorced me.”Stars exploded behind his eyes as his head snapped back. “YOU SON OF A BITCH! HOW DARE YOU!” Donna jumped off the bed and snatched her red shirt and bra from the blanket. “I was going to let you. You didn’t have to claim a dead child. You were going to be my first.”“CHILDREN!”Donna spun towards the door.“Oh, put your arms down Donna. It’s not like I haven’t seen. " It's my job Emma, just try to make the appointment will you?" Yeah, once Will leaves," Emma answered with a sigh.I detected some friction in those few words. Apparently the reunion last night didn't exactly go as hoped. Something I had deduced last night by the absence of moans and cries of passion. I figured Emma had been too tired, but apparently something else was playing. I turned back towards my seat and coffee as I heard Will's voice rising behind the door."Again?! I come all the way. ..”“We’re currently on the outskirts of HD-217107, roughly sixty-four light-years from Earth,” one of the men sitting at the table volunteered.“Out in the sticks,” Fielding grumbled. “Coalition space is a bubble about a hundred light years across, and we’re right on the edge of it. Has this system been surveyed for habitable planets?” He looked around the table as he waited for a reply, but nobody had an answer for him. Instead, he hunched over his touch screen, spending a minute or two digging.