Chapter 2: The BoxI met Julian on the flight over to Hydron. I didn’t take the Vacation Station line, but the basic flight package since Hydron was slightly out of the typical tourist orbit. There was a mixture of all types of people on board; from businessmen in suits to creatures with more eyes than me, I could have chosen anyone on board to fascinate me.
But Julian was sitting alone next to an empty seat on an otherwise packed ship. I’d first noticed him when I went to use the bathroom during one of the flight’s easier passages, and he looked up at me with frightened blue-green eyes. I recognized that sense of fright—yet I saw no scarring under his nose and no other scarring on his arms, or a military tag to his shirt collar, when I walked back from my short jaunt into the lavatory. Th
