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“Then I’m going as well, Jace! No AIs left behind!” Thammah insisted.

“You and Matzen will make a great team. What about you, Davies? Feel up to another expedition when the time comes?” Jace asked.

“I would do anything for Gehenna except leave you unprotected, Pilot,” Davies said.

“I have Khoth with me.” Jace reached over and touched Khoth’s shoulder. A trickle of electricity went through him just touching the Thaf’ell. He definitely was feeling better. Much better. “So let’s see where we all are when she’s found.”

“Understood, Pilot.” Davies inclined his head.

“I leave it to the two of you to get Matzen kitted out and assigned some duties,” Jace instructed. “I am going to rest for now.” Except he didn’t feel like resting at all. He wanted to be alone with Khoth before it was impossible for them to be. Then guiltily, he added, “Unless, Commander, you would like to catch up with Matzen?”

“My place is with you, Pilot. Such reminisces can wait as we both go about our duties,” Khoth said.

“Indeed.” Matzen inclined his head.

Jace had to hold back his smiles. Him and Khoth! Alone! With a bed! Or, better yet, with a shower and bath! Oh, yes, so many wonderful things.

“Well, don’t let me keep you,” Jace said, in a tone he hoped wasn’t too eager.

Thammah, who was glancing between him and Khoth, got up with alacrity. “Yes! We have no time to waste. We must leave. Now. And we’ll make sure that no one bothers you. So you can get your rest.”

Teach

The moment the crew left, Jace popped up from bed. He had been lying relatively still, seemingly he was about to go to sleep, but now sleep was the last thing he appeared to want. Khoth’s brow furrowed. Jace’s eyes went electric blue for a moment and a grin appeared on his lips.

“Locked,” Jace whispered. “Thank goodness. Finally!”

“What is locked?” Khoth asked, lifting an eyebrow.

“The door. And there’s an equivalent of a do-not-disturb sign on it.” Jace chuckled and smiled into the distance at something.

Khoth looked where Jace was gazing. But there was nothing. “What are you looking at?”

“It’s one of the AIs. They’re being really cute,” Jack explained as he refocused on Khoth.

“You see them? They are visible?” Khoth asked as he stared harder at the door, the walls, the ceiling, the air.

He expected to glimpse tiny flickering somethings in the air. Or maybe smaller balls like the one that had burned all the Khul remains away. But no. The air was perfectly clear, except for dust motes. Were those dust motes? Maybe those were the AIs that had Jace smiling so broadly? But how could Jace see them being “really cute”? The dust motes--or AIs--appeared to be floating and drifting in the air currents as they usually did.

“Well, yes… and no. I mean…” Jace shrugged. “I can see them. I don’t think anyone else can. But they’re cute little buggers. Hopping up and down. Sending me smiley faces. They are really into emojis.”

“Emojis? Ah, the little faces that show simplified emotions that humans text to one another?”

“Yeah. Exactly. And I guess it makes sense that they’d use them, because they don’t communicate like we do. They talk in bits of code so emojis are sort of like that, but for talking to humans,” Jace paused and frowned, clearly realizing that there were no humans in that room, including himself. “I mean… Altaeth or… people like me and you. Anyways, the point is that the door is locked and no one is being let in! Not for a while anyways.”

Having filtered and understood most of what Jace was speaking about, Khoth lifted up the blanket and urged Jace to lay back down. “That is good. Now you can sleep--”

“No!”

“No?” Another eyebrow life.

“I mean yes. Well, I actually mean yes, but later, because now…” Color bloomed in Jace’s cheeks and his eyes were bright. “You know how they say facing death makes you really appreciate life and makes you not want to waste another minute?”

“Life is precious,” Khoth agreed, still trying to push a resisting Jace back down on the mattress.

“Yes, exactly! And we shouldn’t waste a minute of it! I mean, we thought the only danger on Haseon was that the Alliance was going to kill us, when, in fact, it was the Khul going to kill everyone and… what?” Jace paused again, seeing something in Khoth’s expression.

“The Alliance were not--and are not--planning to kill us.” It was his turn to pause. “Except my mother. But she was emotionally compromised at the time she used violence. She appears beyond that now.”