“I know the perfect place,” he said. With a teasing expression, he picked up the pace and rushed past her.
With a laugh, she easily caught up and jumped on his back, then scrambled up until she was sitting on his shoulders.
“I’m all powerful!” she said in the deep booming voice she’d perfected for when she helped Plosia with herOne Against the Godsshort play. She’d gotten to play the voice of a vengeful god. She’d had fun with Plosia and only wished they could’ve performed that play more often. The problem was that many species didn’t like to watch morality plays so they only got to do it once or twice a year.
Thinking about Plosia and the circus made her curious about the Hissa.
“What do you do for entertainment?” she said, resting her hands on the top of Miran’s head.
He didn’t respond right away. Had she asked something painful?
She leaned over until she could see his face. “Miran?”
He gave her a smile. “I’m trying to think of an answer. Our entire species has been in survival mode for so long that I’m not sure any of us think about fun things.”
“Do you mean because of the Great Death?” she asked.
“That was almost the end of us, but only the beginning of our troubles. We found dimmerion on our moon about the same time as the Great Death. While we were dealing with a species wide catastrophe, we were attacked by several other species who saw us as an easy target. We spent years at war teaching them that we refused to give in. Our home solar system is very well guarded now, and we have an excellent military. No one but the Kaklans dare challenge us, and we’ve defeated them at every turn.”
“I should give you a hard time for not telling me about the Great Death,” she said.
He sucked in a breath. “I didn’t? I’m sorry.”
“Nisha explained it to me,” she said. “You lost so many people. I can’t imagine how devastating it was.”
“It was bad, but it helped to have a species-wide purpose; find a way to keep ourselves from dying out,” he said, patting one of her legs.
“I can see where that leaves no time for fun,” she murmured.
“I think we might’ve turned training into our fun,” he said. “We’ve created all kinds of games around both physical and mental training.”
“That’s logical," she agreed. “But that means you guys don’t read books, watch shows, or attend theatre?”
“I remember visiting a theatre in one of our cities when I was a child. I don’t remember what the play was about, but I loved the lyrical way all the people on stage spoke. It was as if they were talking in song, but there wasn’t any music.”
She was intrigued. “Are there any recordings? I’d like to see them.”
“Yes, but probably not in the ship’s database,” he said. “I’ll ask around and see if anyone has a personal recording.”
“I’d like that,” she said, then ducked down so he could walk through a set of doors. Inside was a large space with about half of it taken up by stacks of crates. The rest was mostly open with a few pieces of exercise equipment near the center.
She unhooked her legs from his shoulders and dropped backwards, doing a quick flip to land on her feet. To her delight, the floor gave a little and had some bounce to it, similar to one of the stages on the Delight.
“This is great!” she said, then cartwheeled away from Miran. It felt good to move, and her ankle wasn’t bothering her at all.
Halfway across the open area, she paused briefly to gauge her space. She did a few hand springs, then landed the last one with a little hand flair.
“That was amazing!” Miran said.
“Can you show me how to do that flippy thing?”
Both of them turned to see several warriors standing in the far corner of the room with an open crate on the floor next to them.
Miran frowned, but Nova was thrilled at the idea of teaching someone.
“Sure, but you might not learn it all at once,” she warned them.
“I want to learn too,” the other warrior said, following his friend across the room. The third one followed, also looking eager.
