Mariah and Dutch were home from Hibiru in time for lunch. They went to the kitchen, made their selections, and chose a table. Stovie happened to come in shortly after them. Carrying his lunch tray, he stopped at their table and said, "Mind if I join you?"

Mariah said, "Not at all."

As Stovie took his seat, Dutch said, "Stovie, have you met Mariah?"

Stovie looked at her and said, "You must be Mariah. Pleased to meet you. I think I've seen you around. Recently joined us, have you?"

She said, "I came for Mars Days and decided to stay."

"Do you mean you came from Mars?"

"No, I came from the Sea Shell. My dad's a cruiser pilot and usually does a Mars Days flight. Mama and I crewed on his ship. This time I decided to stay on here." She looked at Dutch and said, "I'm glad I did."

Stovie said, "Some guys have all the luck." Then he realized what she might think he was implying. His face got red and he said, "I meant he was lucky to find you, not that he's had a lot of girls or anything."

Dutch gave him a look that meant, "You can shut up now, Stovie." So he did.

Mariah just smiled and said, "Aren't you one of the guys who flew a drone to Hibiru?"

Stovie welcomed the change of subject. He said, "No, but I went on one of Dutch's tours. That was during the Hibiru craze. Those tours were crowded. We must have had fifteen Hibiru drones active at the same time. I don't know how Dutch pulled it off."

Dutch said, "I wasn't the only one. Lots of the guys who flew their drones to Hibiru rented them out afterwards."

"But weren't you the one who got the tour thing going?"

"I wasn't the only one who did that either. There were a few others. But when the craze was over they ended up just renting out their Hibiru drones and leaving the tours to me."

Mariah said to Stovie, "But you've been there so you know what it's like. It's an eye-opening experience."

Stovie said, "You get those feelings too, do you? Something about going to Hibiru makes that happen."

Dutch said, "It's nothing new, though. It's like when you get the feeling someone you know wants to talk to you, before the QAR link comes up."

Mariah said, "Or when you just know what a close friend is thinking, without them saying a word."

Stovie said, "That's all true. But I swear, after visiting Hibiru it happens more. At least it seems that way to me."

Mariah said, "But it wasn't just Hibiru, was it. After you guys found the artifacts on Mars, it went totally viral. I mean, it was like everybody just knew that they had been there."

"Whether they had or not," said Dutch.

She said, "Sure, there was that. Don't they say it's all connected with the Q? "

Stovie said, "Oh, the Q. I know what you mean, but I'm not very good with that."

Dutch said, "It's the thing Newt's all excited about lately."

Mariah gave him the big eyes and said, "Are you going to show me how that works next, Dutch?"

Because Stovie was there, her question almost felt like entrapment. Except that he really did want to do that. Almost more than anything. He just didn't know why.

So all he said was, "Um, sure. But don't you want to work on your translations first? "

Stovie said, "Translations?" His head swiveled back and forth between them. He ended up looking at her and said, "You do translations? "

She said, "No, not really. What Dutch means is that I took images of some Hibiru inscriptions. I want to try to figure out what they say." She looked at Dutch. "You're right. I'll take a look at them this afternoon."

She hesitated, then said, "I don't know what possessed me to think I could actually read them, though. Something about being there on Hibiru, I guess."

Dutch said, "You might have to work the Q."

"Work the Q? What do you mean?"

"It's what you asked me to show you next, actually. I kind of thought you already knew that. It has something to do with knowing things we don't know we know until we know them."

She looked at him like he might be one of those things.

He said, "Go ahead, spend some time this afternoon trying to read those files you made. You can try to be on Hibiru mentally while you do it, that might help."

She still looked mystified. "Just give it a go, like you planned to," said Dutch.

Stovie said, "It's what Newt was talking about. Links. Starting from a place we're familiar with, and seeing what we can link to from there."

Dutch said, "You have a link to Hibiru now. Use it."

She still looked a little dubious. He said, "Call me if you need help. I'll be there. We can figure it out together."

She said, "You can already read Hiberu, can't you."

She was inexperienced in this, but certainly not stupid. He said, "A little. I have a feeling you'll be way better at it than I am soon."

She said, "Okay. I'll go see what kind of luck I have with those tablets." She was beginning to trust Dutch's feelings.