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The furnishings were cheap, and they broke almost at once because the gravity is heavy enough that not even the pressurized bubbles are enough to keep us from trashing things. Including, I’m afraid, each other. Making handicrafts and babies doesn’t keep people involved enough to keep them out of trouble. Aunt Kimmie Sue did the cultural classes to try to hold us together, but a lot of people couldn’t believe that we could have ever had something as good as she described. The company makes sure that the only way out for us is the worker resource program they organized for their subsidiaries, or enlisting in the Corps.”
    “Well, I’m sorry I believed the lies, then.” She shook her head, trying to reconcile what he was describing with the glowing images on the screen. “I’m glad we can offer you and yours a home.”
    Ke-ola nodded, but he looked worried.

CHAPTER 3
    T HE TWINS AND Ke-ola were on the bridge watching as the
Piaf
approached Halau. It was a large planet, orbited by two moons and an asteroid belt. As Ke-ola had intimated, it didn’t look like the pretty pictures on Intergal’s vid clip. Its surface was as pocked and colorless as someone in the last stages of a contagious illness.
    It didn’t look like a place anyone would want to visit, much less live. Nevertheless, the
Piaf
was not the only ship in the vicinity. In the huge viewport, plainly visible between them and the asteroid belt that partially obscured the pitted planet, another ship hung in space.
    The comscreen lit and suddenly another bridge with another life-size crew was looming above the deck of the
Piaf
’s bridge. A woman with dark, almond-shaped eyes and strawberry blond hair bobbed asymmetrically across her forehead and down one cheek to just below her ears was looking straight at them. She wore a uniform similar to the one that hung in a bag in Mum’s wardrobe. Company Corps. Of course, she was only a lieutenant, and Mum had been a colonel by the time she quit for good.
    “This is the Intergalactic Enterprises Company Corps carrier
George Armstrong Custer,
” the woman announced. “You have entered restricted Intergalactic Enterprises airspace. Please identify your vessel.”
    The
Piaf
had a com officer too, Steve Guthe, who spoke twenty-seven languages and could sing in even more, but Johnny spoke up instead. “This is the passenger liner
Piaf,
flagship of Algemeine Intergalactic Enterprises. Captain John Green speaking, but Madame herself is aboard if there’s a problem you and I can’t sort out between us.”
    “No problem, sir, and nothing to sort out. Your ship must reverse course and leave this area immediately. Even under normal circumstances unauthorized vessels are not allowed to visit this world. And at the moment Halau is experiencing a condition-red emergency. We’re standing by to be of assistance.”
    “I think you will find that as a senior council member of the Federation, Madame has clearance, as does this vessel, to visit just about anywhere in the known cosmos she wishes. Maybe if you fill us in on the emergency, we might be of assistance too. We’re quite handy, you’ll find, for civilians.”
    “No doubt, sir, but it’s none of your concern, or Madame Algemeine’s. Halau routinely experiences meteor storms. Such a storm is in progress at this time. We are standing by until our instruments indicate that it is safe to land and render aid to the inhabitants, if necessary.”
    “Where are the hits?” Ke-ola asked urgently. “What coordinates?”
    The woman took in Ke-ola, who was peering over Johnny’s head, with no sign of surprise. “I don’t have that information at this time. From your appearance, I surmise that you may be a native of Halau, is that correct?”
    “My people live there now, yes,” Ke-ola said. “Can you tell me if the area around New Puna has been hit?”
    “I’m sorry. I do not have access to that data at this time,” the woman said.
    “Perhaps you could obtain it,