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alright?” She turned toward him, dreading the answer.
    He shook his head, bent over and ripped a long blade of yellow grass out of the ground. “I hope so. As I headed toward the stables, hoping you’d found your way there, I heard a Transport charging in the Travelling Room. I tried the door, but it’d been jammed from the inside.”
    “How’d they do that?”
    “I’m not sure. If I’d have stayed I probably could’ve figured it out. But I wanted to hurry. As it was it took some time to override the signal. When I finally got in, the Transport had left its dock. I hailed it, praying to the Gods there was a reasonable explanation, but no one responded. So I turned on the holographic imaging and saw you, out like a light. Pulling up the computer’s Voyage Log, the coordinates revealed your destination—Earth. I punched in an emergency return travel plan, but the mechanism had been jammed. That left one option—follow you.” He threw the now mutilated weed to the ground. “I’m sorry. This wouldn’t have happened had I stayed with you.”
    “You can’t be with me every second.” She bent to retrieve a blade of dried wheat grass. The texture was similar to anony, a tall weed on Kelari. With a fingernail, she split it open and then pulled it apart, forcing her anxieties on the helpless weed.
    The notion of being on Earth caused her heart to beat rapidly. Earth Studies had been her favorite subject in school, but then she’d been hundreds of millions of miles away. Studying a planet and living on it were not the same. Sure, their species had similarities to humans, many in fact. There were many similarities between the planets, too. That was the main reason kelarians studied Earth. There were differences as well. Technology, for one. The way kels treated their world was another.
    Worst of all, Earth’s air was poisonous to unchanged kelarians. Kelarians like Venus.
    She could survive here, but not for long. Of course, once she’d made the change, become kelvieri, she could survive anywhere. Now though, this planet’s atmosphere was too thick with oxygen and pollutants for her blood.
    Never had a kelarian been sent to Earth before the metamorphosis. Differences in the air being of the upmost concern. The other obvious problem had been the physical differences. Unchanged kels were all metallic white and silver. Certainly, she could’ve pulled it off, had she needed to. Silver teeth and white lashes might be considered cool in some parts of this country.
    At least she wasn’t blue or green and slithery, like the Smartians and the Skelters.
    When she returned she’d be sure to advise the chancellors of the way this planet’s atmosphere affected her body. The physical alterations, almost like a chameleon, making her appear more human. She worried that when she returned to Kelari, her physical appearance would return to the way it had been. A silver clone!
    On the inside, her organs were much different. But that wasn’t what Zaren hadn’t told her. What more could there be?
    “What else?” she finally asked.
    “Else?” he repeated. His hands were clasped behind his back, eyes averted.
    Fine, she’d wait a moment. Gazing around, she looked for the Transports.
    She and Zaren stood in the middle of a field, near the peak of a mountain. Patches of yellow and green grass surrounded them. Purple flowers, she knew to be aster grew in clumps. A few wild sunflowers swung in the breeze as did the red paintbrush and goldenrod. Blister beetles, honey bees, and spiders that reminded Venus of crabs, ventured among the large, yellow clusters. Almost like a dance, they moved away or toward each other, searching for pollen or prey.
    In the distance, she heard birds singing. They were too far away to tell which species. A large brown bird with a white head flew over, tilting its head toward her. Out of curiosity? Maybe sizing her up for its next meal. She knew the variety—a bald eagle. She searched for another,