After finishing the conversation with Mark, I brought him inside and began leading him up through the hotel floors toward the top.
The most efficient path forward was a direct introduction. Mark and Kunta speaking to each other without an intermediary translating between them—his engineering instincts meeting her knowledge of Starakian systems directly—would accomplish more in an hour than I could facilitate in a day of careful back-and-forth.
"Storing an alien in the same building where sixty people are sleeping and eating and trying to rebuild their lives," Mark said as we climbed. "What an inspired choice, brat. Some civilians in the community will need just that excuse to ask for Margaret's head."
