"Mestra
E'bett?" Tress said, falling into step with their teacher. "You
should know, I didn't hear that from Aunt M'kar. I heard it when my mother was
practicing her Nisandrian vocabulary."
"Of
course …" E'bett sighed, then she winked at the girl. "Unless you're
acting as a translator because your mother isn't around and the translator
equipment is broken, I suggest you not use that word until you're much older.
Agreed?" When Tress nodded, she rested her hand briefly on the girl's
head.
They
wandered through the arboretum, and for at least twenty minutes it felt like
they had the place to themselves. None of the girls had been down on an actual
planet for nearly a whole year, so this was a treat for them. When Lt. M'kar
gave them self-defense training, she sometimes used the simulator room to give
them an illusion of being down on a planet. Holographic projectors moved and
changed the environment around them, so they felt like they were running down
forest paths or hiking along beaches. The sensory programs pumped smells and
sounds and varied the temperature and humidity, so sometimes they could believe
they really were being pushed along by the wind or spattered with raindrops. It
never lasted very long. This was much better. Tress laughed when she realized
something. The other girls asked what was so funny.
"I
was remembering self-defense class with Aunt -- with Lt. M'kar."
She
caught herself a little late, but did remember that it really wasn't nice to
refer to the lieutenant as Aunt, when the other girls didn't have the right.
Lt. M'kar had always been there, just like Captain Arroyan had always been
there, good friends with her parents, just a little bit closer than the rest of
the "family" of the Defender.
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