*super* powerful. i wanna find the cpu interface and push all the buttons.

why don't we want the doc coming with us again?

does she? huh. didn't know that. ooh, check *this* out!

space number. spaceber :)

i won't tell if you don't. gimme your arm?

( she writes with her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth, brow furrowed deep in concentration. )

. . .

okay, *that's* the basic equation . . .

. . .

. . .

( drawing again. a row of numbers, then a ;P. )

aaaand *that's* my number!

( patting her suit down for a pocket with paper, or a pencil, or a pen, or anything . . . yikes! )

hey, do you have . . a pencil or, . . . anything? and some paper?

why not? doctor who?

yeah, no, you're right, my hearts weren't in it . . . sorry.

space paper. spaceper. is this anything?

i can just write the solution down on paper for you if you want?

well, i mean . . . is it?

( sucking in through her teeth, cringing. ) ooh! that's so . . . interesting.

why?

really? do you guys just *never* leave your planet? woah. why not?

uh, to be clear, that's an alias, that's not, like, my legal name.

( hands on hips: ) the lancer.

oh it's totally crazy. hang on, ( rolling up her sleeve; it doesn't go high enough so she pulls down her shirt from her shoulder to show her. ) look! i got *a ton* of them. they all, like, snake out from this big patch on my back.

hey girl wanna come over and see my cocoon scars?

difficulties? you, uh . . . wanna talk about it?

ahhh, fuhgeddaboudit.

education in the entire universe. i travelled, a lot. but that was alright, ( laughing. ) 'cos i was screwing his kid. anyway, all of it was pretty scientific. nothing like quintain classes at all.

i picked up a lot crukking around in the army. then, uh, the other half of my education, i was the apprentice of a very senior politician. he was a skilled diplomat, but he could see my skill with machinery, and my whole . . . naivety, so he took me under his wing and got me some of the best

from the *male* perspective. we never learned the stuff *around* sex. it was very cold and rigid. we didn't learn about female bodies. i remember as a young man thinking of chicks as these mysteries, everything about them, their bodies, their characters . . . but that's another story.

average *my* education was, because it was kind of two different worlds. i went to our main, um, elite, like, school and all, but it was all supplemented with the . . . how do i describe it? spiritualist, religious bend of my home. so stuff like . . . sex ed, puberty, well, i mean that was all

it was all pretty specialized. we were assessed at a young age and our whole lives *basically* decided from there, so that affected, like, everything else. but i was lucky, because i was raised by some pretty influential people on strulia . . .

i guess it's difficult to say, like, *how*

what do you mean by 'how bodies work'? biology? sex ed?

( a shrug. ) fertility wasn't something strulia talked about.

they never warned me about mating cycles in class, it was too religious! is it like this, like, *forever*?

you are sooooo unsubtle. i love it.

my eyes are up here and on the other side!

mmmmm . . . axis . . .