"I think I'm going to go have a wander," says Lalita, kissing Isabella's forehead. "I'll see you at your mom's place in a few days, how's that sound?"

Two days later, Lalita comes back.

"...What happened?"

"Isabella's been arrested for - something. They put her on a private trial yesterday. I wasn't allowed to record it, something about the risk of - criminal contagion - but I was allowed to be there - they've put her on Niamh 6. It's a life sentence and she'll get an appeal next y-year." And at this point in the narrative Renée bursts into tears.

"It was something about," sobs Renée, hugging him, "the Prime Directive, and she didn't even dispute the - the charges - so they didn't go into any detail, but I don't understand, I don't know what's going on, and I didn't have a way to call you."

"It's okay," he murmurs, hugging her. "It'll be okay."

Renée cries on him. "I don't understand, I never took her for a lawbreaker, there has to be some kind of mistake, why wouldn't she dispute the charges?"

"I think they impounded it. Evidence or something. I might get it, after they've finished going over it in as much detail as they please."

"I don't know what to do now," he murmurs. "I guess they don't exactly let her take visitors."

"She's allowed to write," says Renée. "I don't know. You can stay here as long as you need, if you don't have anywhere to go but Prometheus or you'd rather just be here."

"I think I'm going to need some time alone," Lalita says softly.

"All right," hiccups Renée, and she finishes her glass of water. "I understand."

He hugs her again before he goes.

Renée is very grateful for the hug.

She runs to him, tears prickling her eyes.

"I love you," breathes Isabella.

"I missed you too," he says, nuzzling her face.

"Where are we going?"

"Remember Davlia?"

"The one with the anonymous messageboard science. Yes."

"Given that they're still holding out on joining the Federation because they think the Prime Directive is against every reasonable principle of collaboration and social unity, I figured it was the logical place to go."

"That sounds good to me." Kisses!

Yes. Kisses. He missed those.

She missed him. She's got her palm on his cheek. It's been months. "Can I -"

"Of course."

She missed him she loves him she's so glad he came and got her.

He missed her, and he loves her, and he's so glad he came and got her.

Kisses. She wonders if this thing has decent autopilot.

This thing has excellent autopilot, and can safely be left to navigate them out of the system on its own while they celebrate their reunion.

Celebrations! Telepathic lovey snuggly celebrations. She missed him so much.

Yes. Telepathy and love and snuggles. All of these things are good things.

"The Potomac."

"I hope the Potomac contains food and so on for our trip to Davlia; I don't think it's anywhere near Niamh."

"Of course it does."

"Did you pick it out in advance or did it just happen to still be available?"

"In advance, of course. This was a very well-planned operation," he says.

"Oh, good. I will stop worrying about being caught, then."

"Probably better not. I can make it safer but I can't make it safe."

"All right. She'd want me to really be safe, not just to know about it."

Snuggle. "How'd you do it?"

"The breakout? Selective sabotage," he says. "I found the ship that was going to come in with the next routine resupply, snuck on board, snuck off again when we got there, waited until half of them were in the control room and the other half were eating dinner, and convinced the computer systems that both those rooms were leaking air into space. Then I loaded up my chosen ship, opened all the cell doors, and came and got you. I knew nobody else would steal it before I got back because there was plenty of room on the others and every single one of them was easier to break into. But if they had, we could just have gotten away in one of the other ships."

"I love you," says Isabella. "I should've said so before. I regretted not having done."

"It's as close to a sure thing as it gets."

"I just hope our metabolisms don't disagree with the ecosystem too much... I keep worrying. I should stop. There will be plenty of time to worry later." It is currently time for snuggling.

"I love you," he says, snuggling her. "Worries and all."

"I love you too." And then she sets about quiet ponderings.

Are they snuggly ponderings?

They are ponderings had while snuggly!

Good. Best kind.

"It's a good thing you weren't with me when they came by Renée's," she murmurs.

"A very good thing, yes. It would've been a lot messier that way."

"...Do you mean that literally?"

"Define 'literally'."

"Would literal cleaning supplies of any kind have been useful after the fact? Would Renée have screamed?"

"If I had resisted arrest? Both of those are possible," he says. "Nothing's certain. I could have tried, I could have not tried, I could have succeeded, I could have failed. They could have ignored me completely. We're never going to know. But almost no matter how it fell out, it would've involved more of a metaphorical mess than breaking you out of prison. This way, there's just no way for them to tell that you were the target of the breakout in the first place - that it wasn't one of the hundreds of friends of the hundred-odd politically active hackers that just escaped with you, or someone trying to stir up shit against the Federation. After all, as far as they know, you don't even have any criminal contacts."

"I'm probably not even the highest priority for recapture."

"Not by a long shot, especially if they assume that it's one of the others who was responsible for the whole thing. You can bet they'll be incredibly keen on patching the security holes I slipped through."

Telepathic saying-so will at least add variety, right?

Yes. Also it will not conflict with kisses.

"Klingon, Davlian, Cardassian... and of course the warp drive isn't the only Federation scientific advance that we can sneak under the table," he laughs.

"As long as I've already been caught, why not."

He giggles and kisses her.

Kisses! Lots of kisses. There are months to make up for.

Months and months. And it's a long way to Davlia.

"Of course."

"I suppose it's safe to land, if they've been in talks with the Federation already."

They land in pastoral countryside, spread with some white-flowered crop. A small Davlian child is sitting nearby and watches the ship descend in fascination, hoofed feet stretched out in front of her, little twirly horns peeping out from her hair.

"I have yet to find a species whose children aren't adorable," comments Lalita. "I think I'll go say hi."

"Hello," Lalita says cheerfully in the local dialect.

"Hello, sky people," she calls back.

"I'm Lalita and this is my friend Isabella. What's your name, ground person?"

"Viv!" giggles the child.

"It's very nice to meet you, Viv!"

"It's nice to meet you too! What are you doing here? All the sky people who want us to join the Federation of Unfriendliness go to Baraia."

"Well, we don't want you to join the Federation of Unfriendliness, so we came here instead," he says reasonably.

"Oh, okay. That makes sense," says Viv.

"In fact, we left the Federation of Unfriendliness to come here," he says. "Because here is much friendlier."

"It is!" Viv agrees.

"Do you think anyone will mind if we leave our ship here, or should we move it somewhere else?"

"It's on the priv," she says, plucking at a nearby stalk. "But no one is going to harvest it till it seeds. And it's already squished all the stalks it's going to squish."

"I tried not to squish very many. Did I do a good job?"

"Yes," says Viv. "The sky boat feet are only on a little bit of the priv and it wouldn't even make a bowlful."

"That's good."

"Yes," Viv agrees.

"Should we tell anyone we're here, do you think? I guess they'll probably find out," he says, glancing at the sky boat perched at the edge of the priv.

"I could go tell my daddy," Viv offers.

"Okay," says Lalita.

"Federation of Unfriendliness, I succeeded at not squishing too much of the priv, our new friend Viv is going to go tell her daddy the sky people are here."

"Federation of Unfriendliness," laughs Isabella. "Yes, this was a good place to go."

"Wasn't it just?"

"That would be one way to put it," Lalita agrees. "They disapprove of distributing useful technology to prewarp civilizations. You might have heard."

"It's all over the nets," says Viv's father. He pauses. "I don't wish to pry, but it would form a more complete picture if I knew why that would cause someone to run from it."

"You might also have heard that a little while ago, someone posted a few juicy equations on a popular physics board and then was never heard from again."

"I did hear that. I don't remember the pseudonym." He looks Lalita and Isabella over. "You need somewhere to be, then?"

"It would be nice," Lalita agrees.

"City folk have been talking to Federation people about joining up ever since they saw our first warp signature," he says. "I can't say it'll happen, I can't say it won't."

"I guess we'll just have to see," says Lalita.

"The ship is fine there for now, but it will get in the way of the priv getting all the sun it needs. There's room for it by the riverside, if you don't mind little twirlets climbing on it." He pats Viv between her horns and she giggles.

"I think it can survive the attention of little twirlets," he says, smiling. "Could you show me where to move it to?"

"On a map. Bit far to walk when supper's so soon, and the subway doesn't go there."

"A map would be fine."

Viv's father pulls a portable screen of some sort from his pocket, calls up a map, and shows the priv field and the riverside in question.

"I guess we can just live aboard the ship for the time being wherever it is," Isabella says.

"That's an option," he agrees. "And maybe move somewhere nicer after we've gotten to know some people and figured out how things work around here. Should we move the ship now, do you think?"

"What's the scale on that map? Can we walk back here to known friendly people after moving it?"

"Quote, 'bit far to walk when supper's so soon', end quote."

"So we eat first, and meet them after they've had dessert, perhaps."

"I'm sure we can make do," says Lalita. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," says Viv's father, and he picks up his daughter and heads away with her, presumably for suppertime.

Lalita reports this exchange to Isabella, including the cultural context, and heads back into the ship to move it down to the riverside.

She accompanies him, of course, and then they eat dinner, and then there is a long leisurely hand-holding walk to the priv field.

"This won't be so bad, I think," Isabella says. "Although I'm already wishing I'd had the sense to pack a few outfits while I was waiting for you after the locks failed. Perhaps I'll learn to love Davlian fashion."

"I can make clothes," says Lalita.

"Of course you can. Why would I ever have imagined that just because you have not previously mentioned being able to make clothes, you could have omitted to learn it?" she laughs.

He kisses her. "I love you."

"I love you too."

He squeezes her hand.

"I'll catch up on the language and we'll work out some way to support ourselves - or whatever the equivalent is in such a Friendly place - and we'll find out what priv tastes like."

"Yes," says Lalita. "I like this plan."

"Better than spending the rest of my life on Niamh 6, certainly. Which I expected I was signing up for, when I started working on stealing fire." Her thumb makes little circles on the back of his hand. "I suppose you'll tell me you don't mind being dragged - well, having dragged yourself - in after me."

"Of course I don't mind." He kisses her forehead. "I love you."

"Hello again, Viv!" says Lalita.

"Daddy is making sure no one minds if you live in the empty house. Do you want to live in the empty house?"

"Good question!" He switches languages. "Do we want to live in the empty house, darling?"

"Probably, but perhaps we could see it?"

He repeats this answer to Viv.

"No one will mind if you look at it. Probably no one will mind if you live there, either, but it was worth checking," says Viv. "It's over here. It's three houses from mine." Clop-clop-clop.

"Okay!" says Lalita. "Let's see the empty house."

It has a roof and a bed. That's good enough for Lalita.

"If it's going spare I could see sleeping here, although I'm envisioning slipping off to the ship for the occasional proper shower, or to cook things," says Isabella, noting the absence of a room architecturally designated a kitchen on the grounds that Davlians eat everything raw.

Lalita shrugs. "That'd be nice, sure."

"What's she saying?" asks Viv.

"That it would be nice to live here, but we might go back to our ship sometimes because it has things we're used to."

"What kind of sky people things do you have in there?" asks Viv, stotting.

"Chairs."

"Oh! Because your legs bend funny, so they aren't just for when you have to do stuff with your feet," nods Viv.

"Something like that," he says.

"They bend very funny," Viv adds, stretching out one of her own hooves and doing a little dance step. "It looks uncomfy."

"We manage," says Lalita.

"You can walk. I bet you can't dance."

"I can dance," says Lalita. "Would you like to see me dance?"

"I think there's room," Isabella says, and she hums a few bars of waltz.

He twirls again, then holds out his hand to Isabella.

"We can," Lalita agrees, twirling Isabella into his arms and hugging her.

"We'll do our best," says Lalita. "But seeing as we grew up in the Federation of Unfriendliness, I'm not sure we know how to be good neighbours properly. Perhaps you could tell us."

"Oh, keep occupied, don't hoard or give anyone attention they don't want, keep the noise level down," says Viv's father.

"I think we can manage those."

"That's good, then," says Viv's father. "I don't think I gave you my name; it's Tayn."

"Pleased to meet you," says Lalita.

"Viv gave me your names but I am not sure if she pronounced them correctly."

"I'm Lalita and this is Isabella."

Tayn repeats these names; he is not having an easy time with the vowels.

"Close enough."

Tayn nods. "Well. The house is yours if you want it. We are three that way, if you need anything and don't prefer to ask someone else."

"Thank you," says Lalita.

"No thanks are necessary," says Tayn, and he picks up Viv and goes out of the house with her.

"Well. Here we are."

"Yes. Our new home. I suppose we should start moving in some of the things from the ship, and see about how you can obtain something as unpopular as chairs here."

"Sounds like a plan."