“Oh, come, now,” Aaron chided, unable to keep the bitterness out of his voice. “I know when I’ve been had.”“Sir...” Kayla started.“Don...��t, Kayla.” Aaron’s eyes were hard, and he showed his teeth in a parody of a smile. “We will settle accounts with Miss Luisa McDaniel just as soon as we can get to Twenty-Eight Librae. If she tells the Terrans about the map, we are all screwed. In fact, she may have already told them for all we know.”George cleared his throat. “What do you want us to do,. ”“Why did you do that?”“If I was going to survive on this planet I knew I would have to be able to communicate. I had only been able to pick up a rudimentary understanding of the language from the mind of the man that I had killed. I needed to learn more, so I read and re-read the book until I had picked up a lot more of a vocabulary. I’m sure I must have sounded strange when I first began talking to others, but at least it was a start. It was also how I got my name and why I gave Adam his. ” I signed off and handed the phone back to Amy so she could say goodnight to her husband. She pressed the end button and sighed as she dropped her phone back into her purse.“He promised he wouldn’t call home drunk again tonight,” she laughed as she finished her drink. “Now I’m lonelier than ever, I really miss him.” A sad look came across her face for a moment then she brightened up. “Ah fuck him,” she said firmly, “if he can go out on the town, so can I.” She waved the waiter over and ordered. If that doesn’t happen…”“She doesn’t get involved with all of those losers. Including the one she married.” Syd dropped his hands and nodded.“Truth is, I was still getting over being rejected by Tina the day before. Nessa blind-sided me with her confession, man.” I palmed the smoothed rear of my noggin with one hand and braced the other on my hip while shaking my head.“Okay look: Let’s talk a bit more on our way to the university I work at alright?”“Why we going over there?”“Because that’s.