ARC: Under Nameless Stars by Christian Schoon Page A

now.”
    “Yes, the influence of the Temporary Executive Authority government on Earth.” Jules sounded thoughtful. “Their campaign to ban all non-Earthly creatures made for unpleasant times for many beings. It is certain the situation would have been more dire had the New Law faction prevailed. The New Law would have seen aliens of all sorts on Earth simply exterminated, if the rumors were credible.”
    “But the New Law faction never had any real power, right? My uncle says they’re just a small group of Earther fanatics, too crazy for even the Authority to listen to.”
    “Honestly, I do not know the pertinent details,” Jules said. “Politics was never one of my interests. I simply recall there was considerable fear among the off-world beings during the time of the purge. And after the embargo of the Rift was imposed, no Asents or their alien animals at all remained on Earth. It seemed an empty world then. Emptier, at least.”
    They were both quiet for a moment.
    “But we were discussing your sad and failed socialization on Mars,” Jules said. “So, you are not in love with this Liam?”
    “No, I’m pretty sure I’m not,” Zenn said. “Liam and I were just… friends.”
    “Yes. The ‘just friends’ phrase. But your expression communicates the situation still contains the complexity mentioned earlier.”
    Zenn sighed. “You could say that.”
    “I also see that you tire of this subject,” he said. Quite perceptively, Zenn thought, feeling addled and vaguely embarrassed by the topic. “Tell me this, then: how did you adjust to it – growing into your upper years in the absence of peer-group interaction?”
    “I had my uncle and the Sister. And Hamish, our sexton. He’s a coleopt – basically an eight-foot tall beetle. He was someone I could talk to, at least. But I was busy, too. With my chores and with school. And I had the animals, of course. They gave me more than enough interaction. Too much, sometimes.”
    “I can understand,” he said. After a brief pause, he went on. “Now, there is the fact of these interludes during which you and some of your animal patients shared thoughts together. And the memory-thoughts of the Skirni. Do I understand correctly? Shared thoughts?”
    How absolutely ludicrous it sounded to her, spoken aloud. Still, she found it easier to discuss the subject with this amiable dolphin than with Otha. Her uncle was a scientist through and through, and espousing a belief in anything remotely like ESP was simply not something one did around him. And Zenn had always been the same way. She was raised to base her convictions on sound evidence, to assemble the facts, weigh them carefully and draw conclusions from what the real world told her. But the links she’d experienced with the animals were infuriatingly beyond the logic she’d always depended on. No matter how she approached the issue, there was no denying the fact that she’d “felt” the emotions of these creatures. It was impossible. But it had happened. Science, for the first time in her life, seemed to offer no answer. And this was as deeply distressing to Zenn as anything else that had taken place over the past few unnerving weeks.
    Jules sipped his juice, then lowered his head to stare directly into her eyes, as if looking for something. “So, you are an insane person, perhaps?” he asked her matter-of-factly. “Deranged in some way, out of your mind, a raving lunatic, hearing voices?”
    “No,” she said, a little too insistently. “Of course not.”
    “Yes, but a deluded person would respond as you just did, I believe. They generally fail to see their own mental disintegrations, do they not?”
    “Well, yes, I suppose that’s true, but–”
    “No,” he interrupted, waving one mech hand in the air. “I am of the opinion you are not a deranged and gibbering psychotic. There is something unusual affecting you, however; that we can say with assurance. You are convinced you share thoughts with