"Okay, I guess that leaves just the two of us to enjoy the evening together, Alex," Jim Valenti said, after Michael and Maria had left through the door into their room. "Unless you're going to invent some errand to go off on too."

"No, I'm okay right here, keeping you company, Mister V," Alex drawled back. "Figured that it'd help to have a friendly face nearby, so that you don't freak out or anything."

"Actually, yeah it does," Jim admitted. "It's not that strange to be sitting here on an alien planet, though it probably should be - but frankly I've been expecting something like that to happen since I started to learn more about alien politics, that eventually I'd get sucked into it enough that I'd find myself in the middle of something really unearthly. But the idea that we've also gone back in time - I didn't even realize that aliens could do that until a few days ago."

"Yeah, well, I only heard about Max and Future Liz a few hours before you did," Alex shot back. "Though I can understand about her wanting to play it close to the vest."

"But still," Jim muttered, and Alex looked up at him in surprise. "I mean, the last thing that I want to do is reopen old wounds, but most of the gang had heard, one way or another, before the Doctor came to town."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Alex agreed, actually laughing at it. "I'm always one of the last to know - but I guess I've made my peace with that, as long as they include me once it does make sense to start telling people what's going on. Kyle hadn't been told either, and nobody really told Michael, he just happened to find out while making out with Maria. That's the way it goes."

"Well - again, forgive me if I'm asking about things that are none of my business, but do you ever - ever find things out from Isabel, that way?" Jim asked.

"Well, occasionally, not very often. Neither has Maria, actually. We're not entirely sure if that's the fault of our partners, not opening up, or if humans aren't as good at receiving as hybrids are. Max and Liz seem to have something much more like a two-way street when it comes to flashes. It is what it is."

"Okay." There was a short pause. "Speaking of receiving - do you hear something, really faint? Like a chime or a bell?"

"Hmm? No." Another beat. "Okay, yeah I heard it that time. Coming from inside one of the rooms, I think."

"Oh!" Valenti suddenly charged up onto his feet, passing by the patio doorways one by one, moving fairly quietly when he did, and pausing in utter stillness every two steps or so - outside each door and between each pair of doors. Alex tried to ask just what he was doing, but got clearly shhed, and soon the answer occured to him - the lawman was listening to see which room the sound was coming from. Outside the room that Isabel and Alex had moved into, he turned back to Alex and gestured him over. "It's for you - a doorbell I think, and you probably shouldn't keep your guest waiting any longer."

"Oh, right!" Alex exclaimed, and scrambled to his feet himself, stepping across the threshold of the patio door, which had been left open since the air outside was so fresh and pleasant, and pressed his thumb against the hallway door. After a moment, it slid open to reveal a young Antarian man about his own age or a little younger, and not one of the castle residents that they had met before. "Greetings, may I help you?" he asked, and the caller shook his head slightly, seeming slightly surprised at that response. Unsure how else to respond without a clue to the identity of his guest, Alex shot an instant look at Mister Valenti, (who seemed also somewhat bemused,) and added, "Would you like to come inside, sir? Alex Whitman, at your service."

"Umm, yes please - we can all go out to the balcony, if that pleases you," the young Antarian said, and Alex turned off to lead the way back outside. only to freeze in his tracks when Valenti made a kind of gulpy swallowing sound, as if he had just figured out that Alex had done something wrong. Totally nervous now, Alex turned back around to face the new guy, who had just stepped through the hallway door and let it slide closed behind him. But Alex still had some momentum in the direction of the balcony, and half-tripped backwards over the little ridge that guided the sliding door, which stood up about an inch from the floor.

"It's alright," the Antarian said, smiling in what was probably a reassuring way. "And yes, to answer your question, I hope that you can help me. My name is Zan Liaret, and I believe that one of your friends was looking for me, Alex."

"Your highness!" Alex blurted out, suddenly realizing why Jim had been so stricken - it was a horrible breach of etiquette with Earth royalty to turn your backs on them, unless given very explicit permission - or at least that had been true in the heydey of the great European royal families, Alex remembered. Was there a similar tradition here? Very carefully, Alex took a step backwards over the door ridge. "It - it's a great honor to have you visiting us..." He broke off, wondering if he should try some kind of a deep bow. Probably he'd been starting to flex his waist a little in preparation.

"Alex, I'm good," Zan repeated firmly with a faintly dramatic gesture. "In fact, I much prefer to avoid the bowing and scraping and the constant references to great honors, especially when I'm here at Brok Bay. I admit that I was a little - um, surprised that you didn't immediately start that routine when you first saw me, until I realized that you didn't even recognize me as a Prince. But come on - you were doing all the right things - you were still being respectful and polite and all, just not..." He broke off, apparently not sure how to finish that sentence.

"Not overdoing it," Alex filled in with a smile.

"Exactly, that's perfect. Almost poetic," Zan mused, and Alex had to wonder what Antarian turn of phrase that fairly ordinary English word had been translated into.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Zan, and this is Jim Valenti," Alex said, waving at his older friend, and as Zan nodded in princely fashion, Alex quickly backed the rest of the way out to the balcony and stood next to a chair, still facing back towards the room.

Zan made a sort of a barking laugh sound. "Nice to meet you, Jim - but I see what you did there, Alex." He strode out to the chairs on the balcony. "And it seems I'm going to have to force the issue once, and see if you get the point. I insist that you take your seat first."

With a little shrug, Alex sat down, and Zan waited until Jim had wandered out and reclaimed his original seat before seating himself. "So, now that we're finished with that nonsense for now," the prince continued, "can we get to the matter that brings me here?"

"Umm, yes, certainly, but just let me catch up for a moment," Jim said. "You got a message that - I guess that Isabel and the Doctor wanted to talk to you, but because they were looking for you all over the palace themselves, you couldn't find them directly, so you came up here to see us?"

Zan paused thoughtfully for a moment. "I suppose that may be what it amounts to. I didn't realize that they were in search of me directly - usually in a situation like this, if you tell the help that you want to meet with so-and-so, you also give a location for a rendezvous, to avoid these kind of problems. When there wasn't a destination included with the message I thought it was implied that I should go to one of their rooms - and you answered at the door that I was told was Isabel's, Alex."

"Yeah, we're both in there," Alex explained. "And the protocol that you explained makes a lot of sense, but I guess it's something that we're not used to."

"Oh." Zan's face fell. "So do we have to wait for them to return in their supposed failure to find me, or until someone helpfully explains that I was headed here?"

"We could send a message to them through the same network, couldn't we?" Jim suggested thoughtfully. "In the meantime, I think that we can handle their business on their behalf, right Alex?" Alex nodded a bit doubtfully. "The Time Lord was wondering if you could join him and a few of our friends - well, up here for dinner, actually. A more casual affair than the big dinner downstairs with your parents and friends, I think."

"Hmm - an interesting offer," Zan said, mulling it over just briefly. "Am I permitted to invite a few friends along with me?" His tone was softly teasing.

"Like we could stop you, your highness?" Alex shot back. "Umm, who were you thinking of?"

"Is there somebody that you don't want me to be thinking of?" Zan asked in his own turn, his blue-black eyes suddenly penetrating.

"Not that we don't want you to... umm, but I know that the Doctor was curious about if you'd want to bring - well, your eldest sister, or - or Rath. If you do, then - well, then his own guest list might have to be adjusted," Jim blurted out, and immediately looked annoyed with himself for having mentioned that, "which is really a very long story."

"Indeed," Zan said, nodding. "I do love long stories. But - no, I wasn't thinking of Vilandra's company or Rath's - they can enjoy the hospitality of downstairs if they please. But - but there is a certain young lady that I think I'd like to bring along for a casual dinner with fascinating visitors from faraway places."

"You mean Ava?" Alex asked, and winced slightly in his turn as Zan turned a shocked look on him. "We, umm, well, we met her on our way in, and - umm..."

"Yeah, that's her," Zan admitted, and shook his head slightly and sighed. "I really like her, ever since I first met her, at Dimaras Rock. And Ava - well, she's always happy to spend time with me or anything, but - well, I keep watching for a sign that she really likes Zan, and isn't just humoring the Crown Prince."

"Umm, yeah, it can be hard to tell that kind of thing, I know," Alex admitted. "And your royal status - must just make it harder."

"Maybe she's just shy," Jim put in, and Alex shot him a surprised look. "Have you made it clear to Ava that you - well, that she's very special to you, not just a passing fancy?"

"I - well, I've kind of tried," Zan said slowly. "It's hard to find the right words to say that kind of thing for the first time, and not have them sound foolish." He looked around. "It seems strange that I'm burdening you with these deep concerns about my personal life when we've only just met."

"No, that's okay," Alex said, something deep inside him thawing at Zan's all too relatable teen angst. He had some legitimate axes to grind against Tess, but Ava wasn't Tess, any more than Zan was Max, and just because Max and Tess didn't belong together didn't mean that Zan and Ava shouldn't take what pleasures they could before tragedy cut their lives short. (And of course, he couldn't risk changing the course of their lives anyway.) "So, what is Ava doing up here at Brok Bay, if the two of you aren't..."

"Well, we are kind of paired together already, but it's complicated," Zan explained. "I told you that I've asked her to - to do things together, get to know each other, and she's gone along with that. My parents - well, they can tell that I'm interested in making something more of my friendship with her, so that's why they invited her out here to spend time with us. Father's had Ava's family checked out, and Mom keeps saying that sixteen isn't too young to be thinking about a Royal Wedding for." He stretched again, not really noticing the impact that his words were having. "So when are we all sitting down to dinner?"

"Umm - well, the plan was actually that we were going to be going downstairs," Alex said. "But maybe we can reshuffle things somewhat."

"I'd like that," Zan said. "But I don't mean to be any trouble, really. Have dinner wherever you like. We can talk more tomorrow."

"Why don't the two of you keep talking about your lady friends," Jim said, with a smile. "I'll find a servant to find, to let our friends know that they can wander back here when they're ready."

"Okay," Zan said, and focused a very penetrating gaze on Alex. "So, is Isabel your lady, if you're staying in the same room together?" Surprised, Alex could only nod, and then Zan was speaking again. "Are you - married, betrothed? Do they even have conventions like that on Earth?"

Alex had to laugh. "Yes, we do have marriage, and - well, not betrothals commonly, at least not around the place where I live on Earth. There's 'engagements,' which is slightly more informal I guess - the man asks a woman to marry him, often offering her a valuable ring as a token of the promise at the same time, and they tell their friends and family, and start to make plans for the wedding."

"Oh." Zan considered this. "The friends and family aren't consulted beforehand?"

"Oh - that depends. Before 'popping the question' - asking the woman, a man will often ask his family, his friends, for advice - and may ask her friends as well, usually swearing them to keep the secret until the moment that he asks. Sometimes he'd ask her friends for their help in selecting a ring that she'd like, if he isn't sure about picking them out himself. And there's a lot of old traditions about asking the father for permission before you pop the question, but I'm not going to get into all of that." Alex took a deep breath. "To answer your more specific question, no, Isabel and I aren't even engaged. We're both in high school - that's the later stage of public schooling in our homeland, though the later teen years of adolescence more or less. It generally isn't common for young people to get engaged while they're still in school, because when they marry they're expected to have a source of income to support themselves with."

"Right, okay," Zan said, nodding. "I think that part is mostly the same here on Antar, if you don't happen to be..."

"...The prince," Alex finished in unison with him. "But Isabel and I are an established couple, and I love her very much. We don't share a bedroom back home, but this trip is something like a holiday, and our chaperones aren't being particularly picky, so why not take the chance to spend some quality time together?"

"No reason that I can see," Zan agreed. "I wish I got chances like that - though I guess Ava wouldn't be too receptive if I suggested something like that out of the blue."

"Yeah, you have to work up to it," Alex admitted.

"So - tell me, what was the first time that you realized that Isabel was that somebody special for you?" Zan asked him. "I've asked Vilandra about this kind of thing, but she's never helpful."

Alex blinked, momentarily overwhelmed by that contrast of Isabel and Vilandra in adjacent sentences - then decided to let Vilandra fall back out of his mind and concentrate on the question about Isabel. "Umm, I guess that was on a camping trip - a big group of us from school, students and parents, and Isabel - well, she didn't really want to be there. But I was sitting near her, out in the woods together as the night closed in, and started watching the stars. She knew more about them than I did, and pointed out all kinds of constellations and even another galaxy or something, I think." Alex looked up at the sky, but it wasn't dark yet, though Antar's reddish sun was starting to dip close to the bay. "It doesn't sound completely amazing or anything, but I guess that was when I really knew that I was falling in love."

Zan nodded contentedly at that. "Maybe - maybe it doesn't need to sound completely amazing to anybody else."

#

"Whoo, yeah-hah!" Kyle exclaimed as Rath turned the vehicle called a 'fin-car' into a hard left turn, and then twisted back to the right and stamped on a pedal to accelerate and resume the speed that had been lost in the showy maneuver. "I thought my car back home was a sweet ride, but - is it hard to learn how to drive one of these things?"

Rath just let out a booming chuckle that faded away quickly as the wind blew past them. Vilandra made a sound that was much more like a snort. "No, it's not hard," she said, "but Rath never lets anybody else work the controls of his fin-car. It gets really annoying sometimes, how persistent he is about that."

"What, never?" Rose asked curiously. "Have you tried being, ermm, very persuasive about it?"

"I think she's tried just about every persuasive trick she knows," Rath said, while Vilandra sat back in her seat and looked nettled. "What can I say, she's my baby?" He let one hand stray from the steering controls for just a moment to stroke the side door contentedly. "Maybe for a special occasion I'll let V give her a spin."

"Ahh, I see," Rose said, nodding. Kyle was looking somewhat perplexed and disappointed, but Rose thought she knew what was going on. She'd known guys like this Rath back at home - stubborn men who just dug in their heels harder no matter how hard you teased or wheedled them, if they really cared about something. Vilandra was going to have her hands full with this Antarian fool - but maybe he was worth the effort. Even if they only had a few years before...

She shut a mental door on that line of thought, not liking where it would lead her to.

It was only a few minutes later that Rath fishtailed to a stop, at the other end of a flat expanse from the Brok Bay palace - he hadn't been driving the fin-car in a straight line the whole way, but joyriding hither and yon around the area, which must have been nearly five miles across. Now, they were more or less parked next to a monolith that reminded her somewhat of her one trip to see Stonehenge - (which had been courtesy of the Doctor, not long after construction had finished on the second circle,) but whatever culture had arranged this monument clearly had different geometric preferences than the Stonehengians.

"Is it okay if we go and take a closer look?" Kyle asked, getting up out of his seat and running around to open Rose's door, which was a sweet touch.

"Well, sure," Vilandra said. "Why wouldn't it be, and why else would we have brought you here?"

"It's hard to tell with stuff like this," Rose said. "People often have very particular rules about things like this."

"Oh, right," Rath said. "I keep forgetting that you don't know about local stuff. There's no particular taboos or proscriptions, other than damaging the monument - but it's probably not smart to touch it if you haven't been trained to handle energy discharges. They're not usually reactive like that, but you can never really tell when something's up with a particular part of a particular cube - until it's too late."

"Yeah," Vilandra said. "Other than that, go nuts, explore as much as you can."

"Alright," Rose said, taking Kyle's hand in the excitement of this excursion. 'Cube' was definitely an apt description - though the cubes were obviously not perfectly regular, not anymore at least, they had obviously been constructed with that objective in mind - very flat surfaces, right-angled edges, perfect corners, and the dimensions were all very close to identical except for the obviously intentional difference between large and small cubes - which surprised Rose more than anything, as she approached the nearest one. Each cube seemed to be fashioned of very heavy stone - but if they had been made as long ago as they looked to be, wouldn't the stone have sunk into the soft ground? And if these were just the projections above ground of much longer stone slabs, then how was the height of the portion that poked above the surface controlled so well? Did the level of the soil never vary in this area?

After a moment, almost as if the Doctor was prompting Rose inside her head, she realized that she was making an assumption. "How - how old are the cubes?" she asked. If they had been fashioned and placed here recently, then...

"Something like two and a half thousand years," Vilandra said, from not far behind her. Okay, so that wasn't as old as Stonehenge, if Rose had her dates right, but old enough to not give her an easy out with her questions. She decided not to worry about puzzling it out just at that moment. Kyle seemed to be appreciating the cubes for what they seemed to be, and not asking any big questions about the why and how of them, so she should be able to match his attitude.

The largest cubes were something like eight feet high and wide, dark gray with brown tints, and arranged in a square formation, with perhaps fifty yards between the nearest of them. As they walked around one stone cube, Rose saw that there was another aspect of the monolith within that great square, made up of smaller cubes, less than three feet on a side. At first she couldn't make out any pattern to those smaller rocks, and then Rose thought that they were laid out in an octogon. Finally, as Rath took the lead and brought them to the center of the outer square, Rose worked out enough to realize that the smaller stones, too, were meant to be a smaller square with the same midpoint - but the smaller square wasn't marked out at the corners, but with two stones along each of its sides. She had been 'cutting off' the unmarked corners in her mind, drawing the angled line between stone markers, and that had turned the square into an octagon.

"This is a special place for us," Vilandra volunteered, while Rath slowly turned around to gaze at each of the stones in turn, looking like the master of all he surveyed. "And my little brother Zan, and Zan's friend Ava."

"Why is that so?" Rose asked. Kyle had an odd look on his face, and she locked her eyes with his, but he shook his head slightly. She didn't even know what unspoken question he thought he was saying 'no' to.

"Well, it's the foursquare," Rath explained, as if that should make everything obvious. Kyle blinked, and Rose shook her own head at Rath. "You don't know that we do an exhibition foursquare?"

"I - I don't even know what that would mean," Rose told him. "Though I'd like to hear about it."

"No idea at all what foursquare means?" Rath repeated, as if stunned by that concept. "Kyle, what about you?"

"Umm, not really, Rath," Kyle said. "Unless we're talking about a game involving bouncing balls on a hard court that's divided into four square sections. Or - or some kind of a reference to a group made up of two romantic couples, but I don't even really understand that one too well myself."

"I - I see," Vilandra said. "Well, let's back up. You know about Antarian's inherent powers, right?"

"A little," Rose said, more brightly because she actually did understand that part, she felt. "The Doctor found some old poems and other references. You can change the molecular structure of things, and - and move objects with your thoughts, and..."

"And some of you can heal or change what people think they see and hear, or go..." Kyle broke off awkwardly. "There are a lot of specialties, right?"

"Yes, both in terms of innate talent and practice," Vilandra agreed, smiling. "And we can connect to other people, share thoughts or energy - and work together towards a goal that just one person could never manage alone." Rose nodded. "Just about inevitably, these abilities have been used for the sake of combat and warfare for hundreds and even thousands of years - maybe as long as we've had them."

"Okay," Kyle said. "I think I follow all of that, so where does this foursquare fit in?" Neither Vilandra nor Rath answered right away. "Oh - is it a way to combine your powers, four people at a time, to attack somebody or something else with much more firepower?"

"Not to attack," Rath qualified, though he didn't sound too disappointed about that restriction. "The foursquare is - is badass, but it's badass defensively. Maybe not exclusively - you can still use your powers to hurt the other guy when you're in foursquare, and even turn some of the boosted energies of the foursquare to your attack, but that's not really the way it works best. Protective uses of the power - shields and self-defense fields and squelching attacks so that they don't hurt you - those are the primary advantages to going into foursquare, and the main liability of that mode is that you can't move once you've established a foursquare without letting it fall apart. That's good for making a last desperate stand, or covering the retreat of friends, but not for pursuing your enemies."

"Or escaping safely yourself," Rose put in. "I would think. You might be invulnerable as long as you stay where you are, but if you're stuck there, then the bad guys could eventually surround you with too many soldiers to fight, and just wait you out."

"Yeah," Vilandra agreed. "The perfect shield, even one that points in every direction, isn't a perfect salvation, but as Rath said, you can fight back from inside the foursquare too. None of us have ever been in a truly dangerous situation to use it in, if you don't count the exhibition stuff, which isn't intended to hurt anybody, but could get dicey if something goes seriously wrong. Mom's upset that we're still doing it, but we've never even slipped up once."

"Okay, wait a second," Kyle said. "Just how does this thing work, and can any Antarians do it?"

"Not hardly," Rath boasted. "Though it's a bit of a gray area in terms of the talent versus training spectrum, along with the x-factor of how a group of four works together as a team. We've been working on it for a little over a year, ever since Larek commented on how much psychic resonance there was between the four of us as a group. I think that we all score high for - for 'aptitude' at a four square, and then we had to learn just how to connect the right way to make it work. It's a pattern of links that doesn't really make that much sense until you've felt it working, I think. But - but the sense of being untouchable is such a high, as well as the fun of doing something that only a few other people on the planet can match. There's a lot of people who can do foursquares to a certain extent, they have special platoons for them in the Armed forces, but we're among the best, and getting better as we practice and train."

"Umm, interesting," Rose said, feeling like she was on information overload, but that neither of the young Antarians would appreciate it if she changed the subject at this point. "So, how does it actually work in practice? Do you have to be holding hands or something?"

#

"Hey, how's it going?" Maria called as she rushed down the corridor to join Max and Liz near one of the spiral ramps leading up. She was holding Michael's hand at the time, so he was following along nearly abreast with her.

"Pretty good," Liz said, impulsively hugging her old friend. "Michael, can you find your way up to the balcony from here? Zan and Ava are up there already, along with the Doctor and Isabel."

"Umm, sure," Michael said. He gave Maria a kiss goodbye, so far to the side of her face that it was nearly on her ear, and Max a high-five as he passed through. "I'll say hi to your opposite number for you, Maxwell?"

"Don't make too big a deal of it, Michael," Max called back as he disappeared up the ramp. "So, what took you guys so long, Maria? I know you were supposed to be working out a menu with the kitchen, but we sent a message there, and they said that you'd left nearly half an hour ago, or the equivalent."

"Getting lost in corridors, thank you very much," Maria said peevishly. "This place may not be that big, but the floor plan is still - needlessly intricate." Max coughed awkwardly, and Maria glared at him. "What?"

"Oh, nothing," Liz said, and her face became a much too innocent smile. "I know that getting lost always smears my lipstick." Maria instantly blushed. "Speaking of, hold still." Liz waved her hand slowly across the front of Maria's face, and then nodded critically. "Much better."

"Come on, most of the other dinner guests have already gathered," Max said, leading the way on down the corridor. "Except for Kyle and Rose, Rath and Vilandra. Well, I guess that they won't be dinner guests if they don't show up soon. Looks like they might have all taken a little field trip together."

"Interesting," Maria admitted grudgingly. "And in my own defense, I'll admit that yes, Michael and I did sneak off somewhere private to fool around, but the getting lost was after that, and it really happened."

"Of course," Liz assured her.

"So, what have the two of you been up to since we broke huddle, anyway?" Maria asked. "I can't even remember what your mission was."

"Nothing very critical," Max admitted. "Just looking for somebody interesting to talk to, who we don't have to avoid for any particular reason, which is harder than it originally seemed. For instance, Liz pointed out that it might get very tricky for me to make much of an impression on young Larek."

"Oh, right," Maria said, shaking her head. "Because you've already met him, so if he recognizes you - then, and not just as Zan, but also as Max who came visiting Brok Bay one time... then he'll know that we're time travellers."

"Well, he'll probably realize that it's the Doctor who's the time traveller," Liz said. "But he might be able to guess when the Doctor comes to Roswell, and that's probably mischief that we don't need."

"Even when we already told him when to expect us on Nunyes?" Maria said. "Okay, yeah, it's complicated enough, let's not argue any more." She sighed. "So, did you find anybody interesting?"

The answer to that question was muchly delayed, because the three of them arrived in the dining room, where the other members of their company were enjoying refreshing drinks and appetizer snacks, but seemed to be eager to start on the next course. The seating arrangement had been set up so that the visitors were not all together, but scattered into different groups, so that Maria was between Alex and Larek, and Max and Liz were together, between Queen Alinda and a little sister of Zan and Vilandra.

Once a ceremonial and nonspecific thanks was recited for the food, Max took the conversational initiative and started asking his hosts some background questions about their political situation and the history of this vacation home where they were all staying. Maria was trying to follow the answers, which got a little complicated, (or maybe she was just missing the necessary background context,) when somebody tapped her on the arm. Maria turned around to see what it was, and found herself staring into a pair of rose-purple Antarian eyes.

"If I could possibly draw you away from the fascinating lecture on governmental theory, the Danza sauce dish is just on the other side of your plate there," Larek pointed out.

"What? Oh, this?" Maria reached out to something that did look a bit like - well, a cross between a gravy boat and a miniature honest-to-goodness rowboat, filled with a kind of blue cranberry jelly. and had a small spoon stuck into it.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Larek nod as she touched the rectangular plate that the boat was sitting on, so she carefully lifted and passed it over to him. Larek murmured a soft thanks as he used the spoon to serve a small amount of the sauce onto a pile of white lumpy things on his plate.

"You're welcome," she muttered. "I'm not really that interested in the political stuff, I admit. What are these things anyway?" she asked, identifying a nearby serving bowl with more of the same kind of lumps, and bringing several over to her plate. "Not just 'what are they called,' really, so much as 'where do they come from?"

"Well, they're called Zafrangan, and they - they grow in the ocean. Not as fish do, but - they are underwater plants, I guess you would say."

"Plants?" Maria repeated, prodding one of them with the two-tined fork. "Like seaweed?"

"No, not a weed," he explained. "More -umm, starchy. Like a floating tuber."

"Huh? Ohh..." After thinking for a moment, she tried some of the blue sauce, cut up a white lump, and put it in her mouth. Yeah, it did sort of taste like a soggy roast potato with some kind of spicy gravy on it. Not too bad, actually. She smiled thanks at Larek and turned back to what King Sanren was explaining.

She had more to chew on than the Zafrangan, though. Maria knew that she loved Michael, and they weren't even fighting about anything much this week, but somehow she had felt a thrill go through her when talking to Larek. She'd never been one of the ones to meet him via Brody Davis, back in Roswell, but she'd liked Brody a lot as a friend and even flirted with him. But - so she was attracted to a man other than her Spaceboy. That was nothing to worry about, right?