Lucky shivered. They’d been over this before, but her words never seemed to sink in. Lightning Dust always acted as though she was talking metaphorically, or else saying she “didn’t have” parents as her way of denying they had an influence in her life. You’re in for a shock, Mom. More than a few. For the first time, Lucky felt a little self-conscious about that thought. She’d been living with Lightning Dust so long that it was quite natural to think of her as a parent. But those waiting back at Landfall base, or the new human city, or wherever they went, wouldn’t see her that way. They’d see Lucky as a PhD-level translator, one who’d cracked an alien language by herself in less than two years.