Touchstone 1 - Stray

she’d ignored the question. This time Zan sighed, ever-so-softly. “If you want to talk, go inside out of this cold. I’m supposed to be watching your health.”
    But, of course, as soon as we got back inside someone called her away. And it’s back to kindergarten in a box.
    Tuesday, January 29
    Bored Spitless
    I suck at learning languages. Other than English, the only one I even begin to know is sign language, and even with that I spend a lot of time spelling words out because I don’t know the sign. It annoys me, because I have a good memory, but there’s a difference between remembering and knowing something, I guess.
    Despite having an entire dictionary in my head cheating for me when I listen to Taren, I’m struggling to ‘know’ the words. I know yes and no and hello. And new words like Muina and Setari seem to have sunk in far better than ‘bed’ or ‘morning’. Which is all just a whiny lead-up to saying I figured out how to trigger those interface tests and still can’t pass because it takes me too long to phrase answers. I need multiple choice answer tests! What kind of planet gives kindergarteners tests this hard?
    I can only do the tests once a day, so now I’m sitting around hoping Zan will show up and still be willing to talk. And feeling a bit annoyed with her for not coming back yesterday. And wondering what her other duties are beyond babying me. It looked to me like she doesn’t get on with the rest of her squad, or at least not that obnoxious blond guy.
    I wonder what they’d do if I drew patterns on the walls? Everything on this planet is so undecorated and white because they use interface ‘skins’ as their decoration. I’ve been trying to work out if the buildings are made of the same whitestone as the buildings on Muina. They don’t look anywhere near as simple, of course, but they feel the same to touch.
    *sulks*
    Bleh. Instead of training, I had medical examinations this afternoon. More scans and blood tests and seeing how my heart is going and dull and uncomfortable as hell.
    One thing, though – I don’t think any of the Setari have told anyone else what my Lab Rat symbol means. At least, Ista Tremmar didn’t pay any more attention to it than last time, and wasn’t giving me psych tests or anything.
    Wednesday, January 30
    Tactics
    Zan likes ‘classical’ music. I should have guessed: it fits in with her being all serious and proper. They call classical music ‘orchestral music’ (tennanam anam). The instrument Zan plays is called a Tyu and looks and sounds to me a lot like a zither, but is larger than the zither they had in the music room at primary school – about the size of an A3 sheet of paper, but much thicker of course – and has softer strings which she plucks. It’s made of wood, which is super rare on Tare. I think it’s probably rare to have an actual musical instrument, as well, rather than playing a virtual something in a virtual space.
    I was just as interested in her rooms. I had been picturing all the Setari stuck in little boxes like mine, but Zan had a small apartment: one bedroom, but with a separate lounge-kitchen combo and a study nook thing and a larger bathroom than mine – bathtub! I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised. You can apply for adult rights at 50 (almost 17) here, and the Setari are a few steps above an ordinary sort of soldier. Keeping them permanently in barracks or whatever probably wouldn’t have worked.
    Anyway, I thought Zan’s apartment was wonderful. She’s decorated it in muted shades of green and blue (the public space, that is) with curling patterns which look a bit like ferns that shift and wind about. And she has a cat! A cat like that screensaver cat that drops down from the top of your screen and wanders about, except this one wanders about Zan’s entire apartment, and is blue-green to blend in with the walls. You can sort of pat it, even, because your interface will pretend like you’re touching something. I asked if there were real cats on Tare and she said a few brought from a planet called Kolar. Only the really rich can possibly have actual pets.
    I’m not under any illusion that Zan suddenly wants to be friends. She’s been given me as an assignment, and she still acts exactly like I’m an assignment, just that the assignment has been expanded to my mental health as well as physical fitness and dodging. I don’t know whether I like her or not, beyond that she’s the only person on