One day out from Eridani, the only inhabited planet in the Epsilon Eridani star system. Lilah locked her door and pulled out her holoscreen. Tapping it quickly brought up Sam’s contact card, and she waited impatiently as the screen faded through a series of rainbow pastels before the pixels finally resolved into Sam’s face.

“Chanukah sameach,” he said.

Lilah froze, her heart rate spiking. “Already?” Time was hard enough in space without having to think about multiple calendars at once: two Earth calendars as well as Eridani’s primary calendar. Her parents were going to kill her for missing her holiday holo-call— worse, they’d be disappointed in her!

“No, two more nights.” Sam grinned. “You’ve still got fifty-something hours. What’s up?”

“First, I hate you,” she said flatly. “Second, find anything for me yet?”

“Yeah, but only my best friend gets that information. Not some random spaceship captain who hates me.” Sam shifted the screen on his end, but not before Lilah caught the corner of his grin.

She smiled sweetly at the screen, raising it over her head. “Sammy. Dearest darling Samuel, neshama. Have I mentioned how much I love you?”

“Say it again,” Sam said. He tapped his chin, which was just about all Lilah could see of him. “And… if this information is useful, you owe me a movie when you get back here.”

“Deal.”

The holoscreen moved again as Sam lifted it back to a normal position. “Alright so. I still haven’t been able to find out much.” Before Lilah could protest, he held up a forefinger. “But! I did find out that nine ice dragons who have studied in various human-led science programs and been living in human cities all suddenly returned to the arctic about three months ago. Your dragon wasn’t one of them, unless he was using a different name at school.”

Lilah brought up her e-notes. “What science programs?”

“Let’s see….” She got a close-up view of Sam’s nose as he leaned in to check his own notes. “All the schools you’d expect, MIT, Harvard, et cetera. All of them had at least four-year degrees in engineering, physics, computer science, or math, except one whose degree was in medicine.”

Lilah finished writing and stared at the words. There was a connection there, she could feel it, but it refused to come.

“Three months ago…” she mused. “August-ish?”

“Near the end, yeah. Right before the start of the school year; one of them had a year left on their master’s.”

Lilah whistled. “Last year, and they left. And you can’t find out why?”

Sam shook his head. “I did get their names. I’m probably getting the pronunciations all wrong, but…” He squinted. “Actually, can I e-mail them? The transliterations, I hope you don’t need the actual Draconic because there is no way I can find those.”

“That’s fine,” Lilah said absently, thinking. What was the connection between these dragons? Nine of them, with degrees in five different subjects. Ice dragons. Why?

Ping!

Lilah jumped, only to realize the sound was Sam’s e-mail coming through. It wasn’t much, just nine words.

Andrltykhir, Ciedyrazt, Jezdrylyn, Khrnztarge, Lyxtrin, Myrkkhinth, Nerikhynnl, Svariichrn, Voriinataln.

“Thanks, Sam.” Lilah stared at the names. Could she pronounce them from only seeing them? Could she pronounce them properly? “I’m going to see if these mean anything.”

In the dining room, Haze was nodding along to something Devon was telling him. He looked interested, Lilah thought; she was pretty sure she was getting better at reading him.

With a smile on her face, Lilah set one hand on the back of Devon’s chair and leaned down to ask aer, “Dev, do you mind if I borrow Haze? I’ve got a question about Andreltykher.”

The change in Haze’s body language was immediate. He stiffened, leaning forward as if preparing to jump up, claws digging into the plastic seat of his chair. His hair-spines lifted.

“What’s that?” Devon asked, oblivious. “Another dragon?”

“It’s between me and Haze,” Lilah said. “And next time you get up, could you ask Kit to bring me some of the bacon-flavored thingies you like so much?”

“Okay…” Devon hesitated. “I could just—”

“Ask Kit, please.” Kit, like most of the crew, knew what anything involving bacon meant when Lilah said it. She never ate it, so if she asked for bacon it always meant I think something is about to go very wrong. Unless it meant things are already going very wrong. You never knew when you’d need a quiet, diplomatic way to warn your coworkers of a bad situation. Lilah smiled, then extended a hand to Haze. “Come on, Ekhazyrnkh.”

Haze pushed himself up without touching her hand. Lilah walked quickly, trusting him to follow her, until they got out of the dining hall.

“I know about Andreltykhir and the rest,” she said softly. “Cederatz. Lixtrin. All of them.”

Haze was quiet for a moment. Then, “Andrltykhir, Ciedyrazt, and Lyxtrin,” he corrected.

So he does know them… Unless they were common names. Lilah would know what someone meant even if they pronounced Kit’s name Crestosphere. Probably.

So she took a wild guess and said, “What were the ten of you doing on that spaceship?”

And that hit a nerve.

Haze backed away, spreading his wings, teeth bared like a cornered animal. “Nothing!”

Out of the corner of her eye, Lilah saw Kit’s shadow coming closer. She took a step towards Haze. “Nothing? Really?” She softened her voice. “Ekhazyrnkh, it’s fine. It’s me. You know me by now, right? It’s okay.”

Haze made a growling noise deep in his throat. His wings hit the wall.

Lilah took another step. “Ekhazyrnkh, I just want to know.”

“Why!” He snapped out the word like it was an effort to speak. “I told you already, why I was out there won’t hurt you! It’s nothing to do with you!”

Lilah set her shoulders and took another slow step, keeping her hands spread, palms down. “It’s concerning,” she said, tone even, calm, soothing. Defuse the situation. Get the other party back to a calm state where you can discuss the issue at hand. “Ekhazyrnkh, if something is wrong… if you got kidnapped, we need to find the people who did it.” And if it wasn’t that… She didn’t know what would be more concerning: If someone had managed to take a dragon into space against his will— ten dragons, possibly— or if Haze and the others had gone into space of their own free will. Why?

“I—” Haze said. His wings dropped a fraction from their tense extended position.

Lilah stepped closer again. “Talk to me, Ekhazyrnkh. Please.”

With a sudden growl, his wings went wide again and he threw himself forward, shoving Lilah towards Kit as he barreled down the hall, wings wide as if it would help him go even faster. Within moments, he was gone.

Kit steadied Lilah as she stared after Haze. “Want to share what that was all about, Cap?” His hand brushed her cheek and she flinched as something stung needle-sharp. “You’re bleeding.”

Lilah pulled back and touched her cheek. Her fingers came away red. This wasn’t good, her mom would worry herself sick if Lilah appeared at the candle lighting injured. Maybe she could find a way to edit the hologram so it didn’t show the scratch, or dig out her concealer from wherever it had disappeared to now…

“Let’s get you bandaged up,” Kit said, taking her right arm.

“Kit, it’s a scratch, I’m fine.”

Kit jerked his chin at her left arm. Lilah followed his gaze and cursed quietly.

Haze’s claws had torn her sleeve and skin open when he’d pushed her. That did need bandaging.

Maybe Mom wouldn’t notice if Lilah wore a sweater.