Conversation as interrupted as the same robotic servant that had unloaded the luggage entered bearing platters of food which it laid carefully on the table. Tomaz excused himself and returned a minute later with Madge, the girl having been somewhat cleaned but still with a stray leaf or two in her thick red hair. She took a seat at the end of the table and began to pick pieces of fruit out of a bowl of salad to Miranda's evident mortification. 

"Mom says you killed a lot of people," Madge said around a mouthful of crunchy green apple, "is that true?" There was an audible intake a breath at the blunt question but Sayeeda only snickered.

"Yes, that is true," she admitted gravely.

"Are you going to kill anyone here?" Madge pressed on, blissfully unaware of the mood she was inspiring.

"That shouldn't be necessary," Sayeeda responded diplomatically. Madge frowned in evident disappointment.

"What if they shoot at you?" the girl pressed on.

"Well in that case it would be necessary... so yes," Sayeeda said. Taya, Neil and Brahm all laughed, the later covering his mouth at the glare he received from his wife and younger daughter. Farah opened her mouth to steer the conversation back to safer ground but Madge was not to be deterred.

"Why do you look younger than Mom? Aren't you old?" Madge asked. Farah sighed and Miranda and Tomaz both flushed with embarrassment. There was some truth in the observation, despite being nearly four years older than Miranda, Junebug looked as though she were in her late twenties, rather than her sideral age which was closer to forty. 

"Well Madge," Sayeeda responded, ignoring the mouthed 'Margaret' from her sister, "I spend a lot of time in space going very fast which makes time go slower for me."

"Also she spent three years as a popsicle in a cryo pod," Neil interjected, a mischievous glint in his eyes. Madge made a 'whoa' sound which finally gave her mother the chance to reassert control of the conversation.

"I don't imagine you are staying on Celandine very long?" Miranda asked hopefully. Junebug shrugged, a little bemused at the combination of the familiar and the bizarre. Family life like this was alien to her experience and made her uncomfortable in a way she couldn't really define. She had felt this way when she had first come home on leave after five years in the Armored. Fortunately, the sense of alienation she had felt then was attenuated by the presence of Neil and Taya who reminded her she wasn't alone among civilians.

"A couple of days," Junebug responded, "I'm still waiting for exact times and quotes from the dockyard to repair our ship." Madge immediately began asking questions about the Highlander, an odd combination of the charmingly naive and the very well informed. 

"You will stay with us of course," Brham declared, "Your room is still pretty much made up, we will have it aired out for you."