Richard had seen his share of science fiction films and he had read a wealth of books in the genre, too, but those journeys to the stars could never have prepared him for standing in a city on a planet in a faraway galaxy among alien lives and alien creations.

Fifteenth had driven the bus away from the Entry Facility, taking the crew members of the Beyma to the AIP tenements in the Las-Kendarrian city of Rukubak. The tenements were towering apartment buildings standing near a large park, which itself was near a central city district: shopping, official buildings, lots of people.

"This is it," she said, opening the doors. Her passengers traded glances and then piled out of the bus, their few belongings in rucksacks over their shoulders. They walked a few paces along the walkway that surrounded the park, then drew to a stop in an unspoken accord, staring around them.

There was no earthly experience quite so humbling to Richard as standing in line at an airport coffee shop or preparing to board his plane and watching the endless stream of people passing him by, waiting for their own journeys to start, or to end, or to continue. He could watch people at an airport for hours. It wasn't that he was a creative seeking characters for art or fiction. Nor was he particularly interested in the details of others' lives.

It was more about the experience of being alive and being one man in a sea of thousands. It was about witnessing proof of his simultaneous importance and utter insignificance. Watching people, hundreds of people, made him feel that way. There were people of every color whose homelands and destinations were a complete mystery, people in high street fashion, in saris, in jogging clothes, in religious dress, in stiletto heels and in flip flops, people who covered their hair or dyed it hot pink or had none at all, people of every walk of life, people who carried designer handbags and people who carried their belongings in net laundry bags under one arm and a skateboard under the other. They were all people completely unlike him and yet so very much the same: people with a past and a future and a present full of problems to solve and small joys to relish.

That's what it was like standing on the pink brick walkway surrounding the vibrant park in Rukubak, watching strangers pass them by. There were people of every color, people with skin and scales and bionic body parts, people who walked, slithered, hovered, or crawled.

Being there was like being in an airport times a thousand.

"Are you alright?" asked Fifteenth. She had gotten off of the bus, leaving it parked in a slot at the side of the street. She approached, blinking eyelids that closed vertically. "You ssseem unsssettled. It is a lot to take in, isn't it?"

Garth murmured, "Yeah."

The others were silent.

From where he stood, looking up, Richard could see nothing of the endless, yawning vastness of space. The sky was mild, lavender, strewn with hazy pinkish clouds that drifted past the burning Las-Kendarrian sun. But he knew that space was out there, above him and around him, wrapping him in the awareness that he was just a grain of sand in the infinite universe. And the glorious diversity of life from other planets milled around him, each individual with their own complete story he would never know, proving to him that he was a universe unto himself.

Fifteenth was patient. Soon, the newest Las-Kendarrians began to drift back toward her, and then, in silent agreement, they all began to move toward the tenements. When they arrived at the front doors, Fifteenth handed out a key badge to each new resident, walking them through the simple process of badging their way past the secured entrance.

Inside, the group gathered again and fell into step behind Fifteenth, who guided them to their rooms. She situated the Karra first, and then the Chorodonians—

"Do I really get my own room?" Shashi cried, ecstatic—

...and the humans trailed along, making mental notes of their friends' room assignments as they worked their way down the hallway. The building seemed familiar to Richard, who'd lived in his share of apartments in his life: halls with doors on either side, tidy little rooms hidden away behind them.

"Thisss will be yours," said Fifteenth, checking Garth's key badge against a chart on a tablet she carried. She gestured at the door, which Garth unlocked with a swipe of his badge against the digital lock to one side. He stepped in and looked around. Richard and Kavita trailed him.

"This reminds me of college," said Garth. "This doesn't even qualify as a closet."

The room was perhaps eight feet by eight, with a basic bed, a desk, a chair, a set of shelves, and a cabinet. At one end of the room, right by the door, was a cubby in the wall with additional shelves.

"Well, luckily..." Kavita pulled the rucksack off of Garth's shoulder and tossed it onto one of the shelves in the closet. "It fits."

"Valid point," he said. He sat on the bed and bounced experimentally, then flopped onto his back, spreading his arms. "The bed's a little small, but considering that we're in an alien space colony, I will be generous in my Yelp! review."

Richard and Kavita exchanged a glance. He rolled his eyes, grinning as he headed out of the room again. "So, any chance of swapping neighbors, or...?"

Fifteenth smiled. "We assssssumed you would want to be housed in proxsssimity to one another. If you want to trade, I can arrange it."

"Ah, I'll manage. Which one's mine?"

She nodded down the hall and beckoned for Richard and Kavita to follow, showing each of them to their own dormitory, all of them identical.

Alone in his new room, Richard shrugged off his own rucksack. He smiled to himself as he placed it with exaggerated caution on the shelf in his closet. "Perfect," he said. "All moved in."

Kavita's voice from down the hall. "Oh, excellent!"

"What?" he called.

"She just said—tell 'em, Fifteenth!"

"The shower facccilities are down the hall!"

"Brilliant!" Richard called back.

"What? What's brilliant?" Garth shouted.

"Showers down the hall!"

"Oh! Brilliant!"

A curious burble came from the hallway. Richard poked his head out to see Ol-Maran and Saah-Ladri. "We came to make note of your room numbers," said Ol-Maran. "Has something happened?"

"We just heard the showers are right down the hall."

Ol-Maran gazed at him, their eyes slowly narrowing. Then they shook their head. "I do not understand the human fascination with showers. It was a most uncomfortable procedure."

Next, Fifteenth showed the new residents a kitchen and communal food storage at the end of the hall. There, a group of people was already sitting at a table, sharing their lunch. There was one human among them.

The rest were Chorodonians.

Everyone went silent. Richard could not help the instinctive chill of fear he felt when he saw the Chorodonians seated at the tables, but they were at rest, none of them waving guns.

There was a lengthy silence. Then, one of the diners spoke in the clicking, purring Chorodonian language. They rose to their feet, spurring everyone else at the table to rise, too, all of them staring straight at Vaivala—President Vaivala.

Shashi murmured in English, "They recognize her."

"Woah," whispered Garth.

As one, the group of Chorodonian strangers bowed their heads, bending their forelegs at the knee so that they lowered their bodies slightly in a sign of obvious deference. Richard could not understand the conversation that passed between them and President Vaivala, but the meaning in it was clear enough: they were offering her respect and welcome.

"Did you know?" Kavita whispered to Fifteenth.

Fifteenth shook her head, obviously moved by the scene. "I did not. The Gods of Fortune have favored these people: they have found their heart within their new community. My soul sings blessings for their spirits."

After a few minutes during which Vaivala and the strangers conversed and the others respectfully waited, Wessona turned to the rest of the group. "Thank you," she said. Richard did not know if Chorodonians cried, but there was a detectable waver of emotion in her voice. "Thank you all. Our hope has not been broken. You have kept the coals burning, and we may yet find tinder."

She extended her hands to Ol-Maran, who took them and pressed them. The two gazed at one another for a moment.

"I wish you peace, health, safety, and success," said Ol-Maran. "I am pleased and moved to have seen you returned to the company of your people. Aialo-El would be proud."

Richard laid a hand gently on Ol-Maran's good shoulder. "That they would, mate," he said. He smiled at Wessona. "We'll see you around."

"We'd better," said Garth. He pulled Shashi into a tight hug. "Don't be a stranger. We have to explore the world of Las-Kendarrian snacks!"

With their heartfelt sentiments expressed, the Karra and the humans took their temporary leave of their Chorodonian friends, following Fifteenth back down the hall toward their quarters.

"Okay," said Fifteenth. She sorted through the bag she carried slung over her shoulder and produced a small metal case. "Thisss is a ssstandard issssssue communicator. It'sss regissstered here in Rukubak, but it should work anywhere you've got ssservice on the planet, ssso jussst...don't go rolling your way into any dussst dunes and you'll be fine. It's mossst likely that your connections are sssettled here in Rukubak or one of the sssurrounding ssstructured sssettlementsss, if they are indeed here."

She passed the communicator to Sah-Ladri and pulled out another, which she handed to the next Karran. When Richard reached for one of the devices, she pulled it back.

"Sssorry—we've only regissstered these for the Karra, as they'll be ssstaying. Don't worry: you won't lack for resssources, and if there's sssomething you need, you can always borrow one of these."

Ol-Maran quietly translated the explanation. Once all of the Karra had their devices, Fifteenth showed them how to open the metal cases. Inside were communicators that looked quite a bit like the ones they'd had on their ship.

"You'll jussst go through the ssset-up and enter all of your information," she said, looking over Sah-Ladri's shoulder, Ol-Maran still translating into Karran, "and...yesss, jussst there, tap that and you can enter the names and information for anybody you're sssearching for, and you'll match up with people we might have in the sssyssstem. You can alssso sssearch for connections among our residentsss if you tap...there. Yesss, perfect."

The Karra all peered down at their communicators, going through some of this initial set-up. Richard watched, sensitive enough now to the nuances of their emotions that he could feel the tension, the anticipation. Oh, how he hoped that they would find the ones they were looking for here.

"The ressst of the deviccce is pretty ssself-exsssplanatory," Fifteenth continued. "Map features, community calendars, news, resssourccces for information and assssssissstanccce—check out anything that'sss lisssted for new residentsss. The charging port is here at the back; just plug it into the port in the wall. With thisss and anything elssse that requires electricccity, be conssservative when you can; energy is rationed carefully here. Use of electricccity will automatically cut off at a certain threshold to ensure that no part of the cccity is without power."

"Seriously?" Garth raised his eyebrows, looking astonished.

"Yesss. We run on sssolar here, but the atmosssphere can impede the efficiency of our cccells—dussst ssstorms, cloud coverage...There are periodic outages. Don't worry. They do not tend to lassst for exssstended times. It is sssimply our resssponsssibility as cccitizens to use power wisely."

"Noted," said Ol-Maran. "We will be cautious and respectful of your resources."

Fifteenth smiled warmly. "Our resssourccces, my friend. You are a Lasssss-Kendarrian now. What is ours is yours. You'll be sssafe here and, I hope, happy."

Ol-Maran translated this last, and every Karran face turned toward Fifteenth. Their tentacles quivered and extended toward her, putting Richard in mind of the day they had all stood outside of the Karran spaceship and had gazed up at the sun, the atmosphere in the crop circle jubilant and hopeful.

"Thank you," said Ol-Maran. Several Karran voices echoed them in accented English. "The support of the Alliance for Intergalactic Peace has been instrumental in our survival—and also in our hope for joy after so much sorrow. We are grateful to you and the organization."

Fifteenth smiled and nodded to the Karra. "You're welcome. We are here to help, jussst a call away. I will leave you now to sssettle in."