Megamind woke slowly. He had a headache and his stomach was both empty and upset, so he couldn't be in Heaven, but he could feel Minion on one side of him and Roxanne on the other, so it couldn't be Hell. Therefore he was alive and so were they. While that wasn't Heaven, it was a very, very good thing that he hadn't been at all sure of. He opened his eyes with a smile. Minion's suit was standing in its tank access position at the foot of the tub. Next to it stood another Opuulu in a suit. The suit was very simple and utilitarian, and mostly blue. Its occupant was twice the size of Minion. He knew that size indicated age; this fish must, therefore, be considerably older than Minion. A couple of brainbots hovered on either side of him. They bowged.

"Daddy's here," he reassured them. "I'm all right."

"[Welcome, Ilu Amnang,]" the stranger said. "[I am Anyöp Lei, the senior doctor here in Harolup High Orbit. Please describe your symptoms.]"

"[Well, let's see. Mild headache, immense relief at being alive, some stomach discomfort, great affection and a disinclination to move which may be an aftereffect of the drugs and may also be a response to this perfect situation in which I find myself.]" As he'd hoped, the medical fish chuckled. Roxanne gave a little giggle, too. Minion just snuggled against his ribs.

Then Anyöp Lei said "[Please sit up and I will do the manual examination.]" Megamind and Roxanne sat up together. The doctor did the same examination he-or-maybe-she had done on Roxanne. "[It looks like the aftereffects of your experiences during the journey are typical and will wear off without treatment. However, like your Opuulu here, you have a longstanding case of inlander's malnutrition. Don't be surprised at getting special food in the dining room for a while. Roxanne, may I see your hand?]" Roxanne held one hand out. The blue rubbery mechanical hands turned it palm up. She had been lying in the water for over three hours. Her hands were very wrinkled from the long soak. "[Ah. You have immersion texturing, probably indicating that your species, like your husband's, is evolved for an amphibious life, which would suggest that you might also be suffering from inlander's malnutrition.]"

At that point, she stopped him-or-maybe-her and had Megamind translate the term, which he defined for her. "It means a dietary deficiency resulting from not getting enough of the nutrients that are plentiful in aquatic foods but not in land foods. Considering that a tuna sandwich for lunch and a fillet of some cheap white fish for dinner once a week was all the aquatic food we got in prison, it's not too surprising."

"And he thinks I -" She broke off and addressed the doctor. "[You think I might have inlander's malnutrition?]"

"[It's possible. When the Yi[gulp]vi were at the stage of development that humans are at now, it was very widespread. We know that these two, " he indicated Megamind and Minion with his eyes, "have it because they have the markers, but we don't know enough about what a healthy human is like to judge that in your case. Hmm.]" The medical Opuulu frowned a moment in thought. "[Have you ever given birth to a baby?]"

"[No.]"

"[That won't help, then. Wait. I know. The teeth. Did your last four teeth, the ones that come in when you're a young adult, come in healthy and functional?]"

"[No. They all came in crooked, and they hurt a lot. They were removed.]"

"[Then it's very likely that you have it.]"

"[But wait,]" interrupted Megamind. "[My last four teeth came in perfectly. The dentist was amazed.]"

"[The effect on the teeth is established prenatally. You were gestated and born on Lup, so you have no dental symptoms. Your wife has been malnourished, not only from conception, but for many generations back. I'm going to prescribe a remedial diet for her, too. All the details will be sent to your wrist units, which I have right here.]" A compartment opened in the chest of the blue mechanical suit. From it, he pulled out two watches. The first one was beige; he handed it to Roxanne. The second was blue; he gave it to Megamind. "[Menang, yours is already installed in your suit. And if you ever get tired of this suit and want to get a more ordinary-looking one, this one should be preserved. It's a work of art. And now, good bye.]"

They thanked him-or-maybe-her, said goodbye in return, and he-or-maybe-she went out.

"[Wrist unit,]" said Megamind, holding it up to his mouth. "[Show our location in a 3D representation of the internal layout of this satellite.]" His watch projected a hologram into the air in front of him. It showed the lobes of Harolup High Orbit, solid at first, but then its skin and all the antennae and solar panels and so forth outside it disappeared and the maze of corridors was visible, translucent, with a bright little light in one of the lobes. The whole thing was about three feet long. At the same time, Minion's suit seemed to start to straighten up, then stopped. It was left bowing a little less deeply. As its tank began to fill with water, its hands reached down, picked up Minion from the water and slipped him in through the hatch on the top. "[Higher resolution,]" Megamind commanded, and the hologram expanded until it filled one end of the room. Translucent people about half an inch tall were visible, and machines, and smaller spacecrafts in one big room in which people and machines floated rather than walked. The Adventure was visible. So were an Yi[gulp]vi couple in a small room next to it who were making love while floating. "Look, Roxanne," he said, leaping from the tub and running right into the hologram to point it out, grinning wildly. "We didn't miss our chance after all."

Roxanne smiled back, but she had already spotted, in the little glowing room, tiny figures of themselves in exactly the positions (and state of undress) they were really in, and of Anyöp Lei going down the corridor. She could see Minion's suit standing straighter as its tank filled to the top, the tiny one in the hologram moving in unison with the real one next to the tub. So that couple in the weightless part of the satellite was probably a real couple, really getting it on. Realizing that she could see anyone, anywhere on the ship, and they could all see her, at any time, no matter what she was doing, a strange combination of delight and distress overcame her, professional instincts and personal vulnerability tangling and spiraling without much recourse to logic.

"How can I be a nosy reporter in a place where there's no privacy?" she burst out. Then more calmly, "I know that doesn't make any sense. I know I couldn't expect to work as a reporter here. But being a reporter isn't just what I did for a living back on Earth. It's what I am. And with this," she gestured at the hologram, "there aren't any secrets to find out. I bet this thing has sound, too, doesn't it?" "[Wrist unit, zoom in on the work being done in and around the Adventure, and let us hear the sounds there.]" As he commanded, it was done. The Adventure grew, the rest of the habitat fading away around it, until it was a yard across and the people around it were about the size of Barbie dolls. Actually, there were only two that counted as people, one Yi[gulp]vi woman in a gray coverall with a tool belt and one Opuulu in a suit with four identical limbs, all with hands on the ends, emerging at equal intervals from a central "body" in the shape of an inner tube with the transparent tank in the middle of it, protruding on both sides. Effectively, it was identical whether seen from above or below, perfectly adapted to a weightless environment in which that distinction was meaningless. There were also two brainbots about as long as Roxanne's hand. The skin of the little starship was translucent in this hologram, and two more brainbots worked inside, releasing the cargo tie-downs on a big rectangular box and wrestling it out the hatch. This was a larger hatch than the one with the airlock attached to it that the three of them had boarded through. The cargo area was three-quarters empty already. The sound was mostly thumps and clicks, which echoed in the big hangar.

"[What's this one?]" they heard the tiny Opuulu ask.

"[Says] 'frozen food'," said the Yi[gulp]vi. "[This must be the samples of Earth food species. The bio lab people are going to go crazy over this.]"

"[Just so they leave enough so the rest of us can have a taste. Yes, sweetie, what's going on?]" A faint, high voice seemed to come from the suit.

"[Mom, he's awake! And they're all together, and guess who they're watching? You!]" There was youthful giggling in the background.

"[I guess we should take a break, then,]" the Opuulu replied. "[Can you see what camera they're centering from?]"

"[Three-fourteen, I think.]"

"[Thanks, Vri.]" The two little figures turned in the air, seemed to look right at Megamind, and called out "[Hi, Roxanne. Hi, Amnang. Hi, Menang. Can you hear us?]" At the same time, words appeared in the air above them. Roxanne's comprehension of written Tseri[gulp]uu was a little shaky, but she was pretty sure it was asking whether Megamind wanted a two-way voice connection.

"[Yes, connect,]" he said. "[Hello. We hear you just fine.]"

The miniature faces lit up.

"[How do you like the brainbots?]" Minion asked.

"[They're great,]" said the tiny Yi[gulp]vi. "[Everyone is going to want brainbots.]"

"[Then we'll try to get them out where they can do some good. Hey, where is the food going?]"

"[The biology lab first. They'll study everything and make sure there's nothing in it that's bad for us, and then you can make that dinner you promised us.]"

"[Great. We'll let you get back to work now.]"

"[It was great to talk to you.]"

"[Goodbye,]" said Megamind. "[Close connection. Now show us the biology lab.]" While the hologram zoomed out from the Adventure, then zoomed in on a room full of counters and equipment, Roxanne held her own wrist up to her mouth.

"[Wrist unit,]" she asked. "[How many people are watching us right now and what percentage is that of the people watching anything and of the total population?]"

"[You are currently being observed by one hundred and ninety-three people,]" replied a slightly mechanical-sounding voice from both the wrist unit and speakers that must have been somewhere in the walls or ceiling, so that it seemed to come from nowhere in particular. "[This is ninety-one percent of those watching anything and forty-three percent of the total population.]"

"Wow," she said in English, lowering her arm. "Best audience share of my life." In the background she could hear Megamind connect with a Yi[gulp]vi in the biology lab who ordered her wrist unit to show a visual two-way connection. Her hologram, wearing a brown apron over a pale green jumpsuit and a breathing mask which somehow transmitted her voice undistorted, grew until it was the same size as his. The far wall now looked like it opened into the lab. So Roxanne had just acquired another audience member. "Makes me want to put clothes on. Minion, did you notice where the towels are?"

"They don't use towels here. What you do is stand on that little circle right there," the gorilla suit pointed to a round area of floor that was a little darker green than the rest, "and raise your arms straight up with your palms forward."

"Like Megamind does when he has the brainbots change his clothes?"

"Yeah. He programmed that signal into them because he remembered it." Roxanne climbed out of the tub, stood on the circle and raised her arms as she had seen Megamind do. A cylinder accordioned out from the ceiling above her, coming straight down on top of her. Looking up at it, she could see that it was dark inside, with some kind of vague movement visible. Even knowing that it was safe, she nevertheless caught her breath in fear, and that turned out to be a good thing. It was lined with more of those cleaning fingers like the toilet had. It was very close in there for a moment, and she shut her eyes just in time. They dried her thoroughly on the way down, then went limp as they were drawn back up into the ceiling. When she opened her eyes again, one of the brainbots was setting the little stool down just behind her. The other one was carrying her jumpsuit in one of its graspers while holding out her panties to her with the other.

"Minion," she said. "I thought you two told the brainbots I didn't want their help getting dressed."

"We did," he said, "but they asked for an override. They want to help. It feels normal to them, and they're kind of weirded out by all the new stuff they're experiencing right now."

Roxanne sighed. "Okay. Just this once, if it'll make them feel better." She still didn't like it. Being helped to get dressed when she was perfectly capable of dressing herself just felt too princessy. But it was good to have clothes on again. While she was dressing, Megamind concluded his conversation, shut down the hologram display and turned to his companions.

"It seems that a lot of people want to meet with us for various reasons," he said.

"Yes, Sir. I was going to mention it when you asked me what was next."

"Why don't we see if we can set up a calendar?" Roxanne suggested.

###

The great bulk of the messages were invitations to come and satisfy the curiosity of various branches of the Earth Study Group and job offers from the managers of every farm, mine and wild harvesting operation, for themselves and/or as many brainbots as they could make available. The systems manager was finding that interfacing the brainbots with the rest of the habitat's network was a nontrivial task and wanted the brainbots' creators' help. Ileala-Atii, the lone Colna in Harolup space, sent Roxanne a Tseri[gulp]uu vocabulary-building game that she had found helpful, with an enthusiastic invitation to meet socially. And Sa[squish]ikwuë Nawa, Commander of Harolup High Orbit, wanted to question them about Wayne.

"Sa[squish]ikwuë Nawa," Roxanne repeated. "Wasn't he the narrator of the invitation message that got us here?"

"Yeah," replied Minion. "I talked to him when we first got here, when you were still asleep. This habitat was made by welding the six biggest spaceships together, and the pilots of those ships rotate through the job of Commander. It's his turn."

"You know," she said. "I think we should start with a whole day of just learning the basics: manners and customs, background information, the stuff everybody else knows."

"[Wrist unit,]" Megamind said. "[In what situations do the Yi[gulp]vi customarily wear clothes and in what situations do they not?]"

"[The Yi[gulp]vi wear clothes when doing work that does not involve getting wet, during governmental and legal activities, on ceremonial occasions and when transiting to or from any of these. Clothes are not worn by Yi[gulp]vi when at leisure, doing work that involves getting wet or receiving bodily services. This refers to ordinary clothes; specialized garments that provide protection or extended ability are considered to be equipment, not clothes.]"

"What's the Tseri[gulp]uu word for privacy?" Roxanne asked her companions. "I want to ask it if there are any rules of privacy in this society."

Megamind and Minion looked at each other for a moment.

"I don't know," replied Minion. "I'm not sure there is one."

Megamind spoke. "[Wrist unit, is there a way of expressing in Tseri[gulp]uu the English concept] privacy?"

"[To the extent that] privacy [is understood, it seems to have two meanings. One is the right to personal self-determination. Its extent is different in English-speaking cultures than in ours, but the concept is essentially the same. The other is a right to conceal certain categories of information about oneself. This is apparently a strategy for self-protection from the irrational reactions and attitudes common among humans, but its misuse is the single most frequent source of plot complications in their drama, so the problems caused by such such secretiveness are known to them. Thus, expert opinion is that, as humans advance, it will be recognized as pathological and abandoned.]"

"Wow," she said. "That was an anthropology lesson all by itself. [Wrist unit, is everyone in Harolup High Orbit allowed to look at anyone they want at any time?]"

"[Yes.]"

"[How many people watched me use the toilet?]"

"[Two hundred and seven.]"

"You're so cute when you blush," said Megamind, watching Roxanne turn bright red.

"Wanting privacy may be considered pathological here, but I can't just abandon it in one day. Hey, [Wrist unit, why does this room have a door?]"

"[To prevent transmission of unwanted sound, to contain dropped or thrown objects, and to prevent air loss in the event of a hull breach.]"

"Now that you mention it," said the blue man, "[Wrist unit, show me the location of the nearest toilet.]" The word [Here] appeared on a section of wall next to the hook where his costume, minus the cape, hung. He walked up to it; the word disappeared and a section of wall slid aside, revealing a toilet like the one Roxanne had used earlier slid out. "I wonder how much of an audience I'm going to have?"

"Probably not as big as mine. You're physically one of them, so there won't be the same novelty factor."

He strolled in, the door closed and the word [Occupied] appeared on it. While he was in there, Roxanne had the wrist unit show her where all the cameras, microphones, speakers and hologram projectors in the room were, with their numbers. She had noticed that the two people unloading the Adventure knew what camera to look into by number, so she figured that this was something she should start learning right away.

After he came out and the brainbots dressed him, they had the wrist units show them where their room was. They walked to it through the public corridors, which had only a few people when they emerged but quickly became more crowded, mainly with people who wanted to welcome them. Roxanne was comfortable with this kind of public attention and glad that she had learned enough Tseri[gulp]uu to do the simple greetings appropriate to the situation. The other two were sort of dazed. They had been famous in Metro City, but they had never known this kind of positive feedback. As more and more people came out to meet them, their progress got slower and slower and their grins got bigger and bigger. A child of about two, carried by a woman, asked "[Roxanne Ritchi, can I feel your head beard?]"

There was general laughter and Roxanne got points for graciousness by lowering her head to the little hands. She expected that the child would pull too hard and was braced for the pain, but the woman said "[Carefully, Dïü... That's enough,]" and she raised her head untugged. When they got to their room, which was almost as small as the sick bay rooms had been, they had to ask where the furniture was. The wrist units revealed that the bed was a hammock and the chairs and tables folded flat and it was all stored in the walls, along with their personal luggage and two brainbot charging racks. Roxanne asked where the cameras were, then asked if there was a penalty for blocking the lenses with clothes. She learned that interfering with the cameras, like interfering with any other part of the safety system, would result psychological testing and possible remedial treatment, in addition to what the system called the inevitable social stigma. Roxanne was just beginning to resign herself to the fact that her and her husband's sex life was going to have an audience from now on when there was a knock, not on the door they'd come through, but on the door opposite it, which they hadn't yet investigated, but which they knew opened into one of the habitat's two big pool rooms. When Minion got close to it, it slid open, revealing a naked Ivri[click] Tsveö, who wondered if they'd like to get undressed and come to lunch.