ARC: Under Nameless Stars by Christian Schoon

magically it would seem – find you are both looking with the other’s eyes and, with a shock of knowing-all-at-once, realize you are in fact soulmates. Seeing that you are destined one for the other, you now commence to share your long, long, happy lives as one. The end.”
    He took a deep breath and stood, mech-hands on mech-hips, nodding his head up and down, watching her expectantly.”I am correct, am I not?”
    “Not quite,” she said slowly, reluctant to dim his enthusiasm.
    “No? This is puzzling. I have encountered this behavior repeatedly in all manner of the old adventures and romantically inclined mysteries-on-paper. I assumed it was standard.”
    “Well, it was complicated, like I said. Vic’s foreman, Graad Dokes, forced Liam to do the bad things he did, so in a way it wasn’t his fault. But when I said I had to tell my uncle Otha what was going on, Liam asked me to wait until he could get proof to clear himself. And then he kissed me. And then he ran off and didn’t show up again, so I thought he’d been lying to me. I thought his kissing me just–”
    “I knew it.” Jules slapped his hands together. “It is the budding of the romantical element.”
    “No, it’s really not. It wasn’t.”
    “It was not? But the moment of kissing is always the budding moment. Oh, I see… he took you by force. He imposed his pulsing will upon you and this then became the moment of passion, uncontrollable, you felt swept away on the rising tide of–”
    “No.” Zenn stopped him. “It was nothing like that. This kiss was more of a ‘thanks for not turning me in to the authorities’ kind of kiss.”
    “Interesting,” Jules said, his voice calm again. “So. What then did you feel?”
    “Baffled, mostly. Not that it was… bad. It was OK. I can appreciate the fact that Liam is my age, he’s not terrible-looking, he’s kind of… intriguing, in some ways. But he can also be really exasperating.”
    “And yet, unless I am mistaken, you do wish to be reunited with this person,” Jules said. “So, perhaps he has demonstrated that he worthy of your friendship. Is he? Worthy?”
    Zenn hadn’t considered the situation in quite this way. The truth was, she’d hardly had time to consider the situation at all.
    “Well, Liam did admit he was wrong about helping Vic and Graad. And he came to warn us that Graad had tampered with the sunkiller’s restraints in the infirmary.”
    “Ah, so he is not an entirely vile and disreputable person, then?”
    “No, he isn’t, not at all. And then after the Skirni took me from the cloister, Liam followed him to the warehouse and tried to rescue me.”
    “A rescue attempt,” Jules said approvingly. “This is surely the sign of his affection and care for you. Maybe this Liam is in fact worthy of your trust.”
    “Well, you might have a point,” Zenn conceded.
    “You are smiling at this thought,” Jules said, regarding her. “It makes you feel better?”
    Zenn had to laugh at this. “Well, I suppose it does. But let’s not read too much into it, OK?”
    “Yes. This is wise, especially since you deny there was any romantical element.”
    “I think it’s safe to say my upbringing might not have equipped me for the romantical element. Does that make sense?”
    “Ah, your faulty and cruel upbringing has crippled your development into a social being. I have read of this tragic issue as well.”
    “Not cruel,” she said. “My mom and dad were great. But faulty? You might have a point. The truth is, I really never made friends when I was very young,” she admitted. “I played with kids from town, from Arsia City, like when we went in to barter crops for supplies. But I don’t even remember their names. And later… I didn’t want to go into Arsia, anyway. Because of how the towners acted. They didn’t like that we had off-world patients – that we treated alien animals at the clinic. There’s a lot of prejudice against off-worlders of any kind on Mars right