Page 138 of Every Almost

"Okay, so let me try it."

Charlie took a moment and really looked at him. He was such a force to be reckoned with, even at his smaller stature, owning that compact energy that still filled every room he entered. The way he'd thrown himself at the boundary problem for weeks without giving up. The way he'd realized the answer was within the gradient Charlie herself had presented to the engineering team and Reyna. This man had no ego, just joy that the problem was beaten.

"Well, what kind of music do you like? What do you listen to?"

"I don't know if it would make sense. Music on Solmari is mostly just the sounds of how our people move from place to place. It sets the rhythm for how we move and travel and find one another."

"That's such an amazing way to use music," Charlie replied, honestly.

"I guess, yeah. But it doesn't really help with me telling you what kind of human music I may like," he stated with a short laugh. Then he looked pensive before asking, "What do you think I'd like?"

Charlie thought about it and she was surprised at how quickly she came up with an answer. Her eyes lit up because she knew the exact song to introduce Tavi to human music. And the band that would get him hooked.

She pulled the cord of the headphones and handed one to Tavi while she placed the other into her own ear. "I know theperfectsong."

Tavi took the headphone and looked at it. He raised his free hand and felt around his ear, then looked back at the headphone. He made his own attempt to insert it, but Charlie saw that it didn't sit right. Tessarae ears were slightly wider at the canal, and the small plastic bud kept slipping out. He turnedit sideways. It fell into his lap. He tried again, pressing it in with determination. It popped out.

"This is humiliating," Tavi muttered.

"Here," Charlie said, laughing. She took the headphone back, angled it slightly, and nestled it into Tavi's ear with a gentle twist. "Hold still. There."

He did, his eyes locked on Charlie with an intensity that he knew he was about to experience either something wonderful or something dangerous. But his expression also showed that he did not even care which it would be.

"Ready."

"Fuck yeah," Tavi replied, a bright grin on his face. Charlie chuckled before looking down at the Walkman and pressed play.

The guitar rift began. The drums drove the rhythm.

And that famous scream hit.

Robert Plant's voice tore through the headphone like a war cry from a civilization Tavi had never heard, a sound so raw and primal and alive that Tavi's entire body went rigid in his seat. His hands gripped the armrests and his eyes went wide enough that Charlie could see the amber all the way around.

Then the riff kicked in.

Jimmy Page's guitar, relentless and driving, and John Bonham's drums underneath like a heartbeat that refused to slow down, and Tavi wasgone. His head started moving first, a sharp nod that caught the rhythm, and then his shoulders, and then his whole body was bouncing in the shuttle seat.

"WHAT IS THIS?!" Tavi shouted, because one headphone in meant he couldn't gauge his own volume.

"Led Zeppelin," Charlie said, grinning so hard her face hurt. "'Immigrant Song.' 1970."

"IT'S INCREDIBLE!"

From across the shuttle, Kess looked up from her medical station with an expression that suggested she was consideringwhether Tavi was having a medical event. Maren's gaze found them and a smile grew across her face as she watched. Even Torvax turned his head, but only slightly.

Reyna, who had been reviewing the mission plan at the front console, turned around in her chair and looked at Charlie.

Charlie shrugged, still grinning. "He asked what I thought he'd like."

Reyna shook her head, but Charlie saw the smile she was trying to contain.

She and Tavi kept going. Charlie played more Led Zeppelin, then some Kansas, and Tavi took every song like a man who'd been starving and hadn't even known it. When a Cyndi Lauper track came on, slower than the rest, he tilted his head.

"This one's different," he said. "The others were loud on purpose. This one's soft on purpose."

"Yeah. It's a love song."

Tavi considered that. "How can you tell?"