Shiva wasn't really sure how to react. "I've never been to Earth before," she mentioned, if only for the sake of mentioning something. Really, she had expected some rimworld or backwater colony. Some kind of pirate den, or perhaps some place more similar to her own home planet. The most fortified location in human controlled space was the exact opposite. [i]And I might be firing a weapon there,[/i] Shiva thought to herself, [i]I'm not sure whether to be more or less comfortable.[/i]

Thinking about it more carefully, the only things that Shiva knew about the human home world were scant details. She had read some texts from earth-born medical academics, that was about it. Shuo brought up a good point, though. "What's it like in...[i]Pear-ess,[/i] anyway? Are the people there dangerous?"