Page 50 of Pirate By Parrot

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“ARE WE THERE YET? AREwe there yet? Are we there yet?” She thudded the basketball up and down the halls as she walked. Whee muttered a repeat of her tone as they moved through the ship.

Occorin’s projection was in front of her, and she walked through him. “Stop doing that, Mel.”

She grinned and kept walking. “Why? It’s hilarious. Why did it take only a bit over a week to get to Possitt II, but we have been heading back home for three weeks?”

He projected further ahead. “Because planets move, and the station is moving. We have to make a course to have two moving objects intersect. We are nearly home. You will get to feel actual gravity under your feet.”

She smiled and kept her slow walk with her basketball down the hall until she reached the projection and dribbled slowly. “I will believe it when it happens.”

Whee chirped confirmation. She was developing a jaded personality. She was making Mel proud.

Occorin looked at her and shook his head. “We are about to intercept the station.”

“Like... when?”

The engines ceased, and the hum of the station pull started. “Now. Now would be when. So, yes, Melora. We are here.”

“Where is here?”

“We are on the station, over Vendar.”

“Oh, so all the things.”

“Yes, and can you get yourself under control because we have a guest.”

“A guest?” She looked down at her bodysuit and the sash that she now considered her daily uniform. The sash made her smile when she put it on.

“Yes. He will meet us on the station, and I am begging you to be on good behaviour.”

“Why?”

“Because Vendar missed a deadline to offer you a home, and this representative can remove you from us.”

She paused. “You are kidding.”

“I am not kidding. He represents your avatar and can make that call.”

“My speech patterns are rubbing off, so to speak. So, when do I meet with him?”

“We finish docking in two minutes, and he is right outside the door.”

“Oh, are you sweating?”

“My body? Yes. Vendar? Yes. He has been very nervous to meet you, so he has been over-fussing on the home he made.”

“Nervous?”

“There hasn’t been a female Vendari in five thousand years.”

“Oh, right. And that is how your folks got into trouble. All boys and really frisky.”

“Correct.”

“Which is why Vendar got excited when my genetics showed up.”

“Also correct.”

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