THE HUMAN MAP
JUST AFTER DAWN, the humans’ starboat zoomed away through the clouds. Aliri had expected that, since the humans had arrived on her world just as quickly two months earlier.
What Aliri had not expected was for her younger brother to come running from the village as the starboat’s hum faded. “Where are the humans?” Otero panted.
“Gone.” Aliri frowned at her brother. Their people almost never ran.
Otero craned his neck, as if he could stretch it to see over the clouds. “Already? They went so quickly.”
Aliri returned to picking the berries she was harvesting. “Humans always hurry, rushing around to see this and that. Even their speech is almost too quick to understand.”
Otero put his head
