OK, definitely deliberately avoiding answering questions about who they are or what they're doing here. Interesting. Also sort of suspicious. But they're so nice.

She wonders whether serial killers are nicer than other people. No, that doesn't make any sense, if you were a serial killer you wouldn't be wandering around in the middle of the Arctic wilderness where there aren't any people. At least, you probably wouldn't be. No, if you were a serial killer, you might be nice, but mostly you'd be normal, because you'd want to deflect suspicion. And they're being super suspicious. So suspicious that they probably can't be serious criminals, because a serious criminal of any sort would be taking more care not to act suspicious. As a serious criminal, she feels like she has a certain degree of expertise in this area. So if anyone would know, it would probably be her.

Yes, sensible. She nods.

"OK! Anyway, I have to get back to delivering stuff. I did promise the guys at the research station. I should be back, like, really late tonight? You guys can hang out here as long as Kor's here. If he wants to take Zada back to his house, then....?"

He doesn't offer to let them hang out at his house.

"...then, uh, I think the hotel lets people hang out in the lobby? You probably don't have to buy anything to hang out in the hotel lobby. And it's warm and they have TV. OK?"

"Thank you very much again." M is looking at her, but she will not ask for a night at someone's house if it is not offered. "Is there a way we can contact you, or would you prefer that we not do that?" 

"Oh! Yeah." She takes out her pocket everything and pulls up her contact info. "You guys can come back as soon as I'm back! Or, well, that'll be really late. But I'll let you know when I'm back, and then you can decide if you want to hang out here again? Uh, can I get your contact info too?"

"You continue to be extremely kind. And I am afraid we do not have that form of contact. Is there a particular hour at which we could be in a certain place?"

"You don't have everythings?" he says, incredulously. "Where are you from, the 3100's?"

She glares sternly at him.

"You can come over for breakfast, if you want. I don't have to work tomorrow. Say seven in the morning?"

She looks at Jewel, again lowering her voice confidentially. "I don't have an everything either."

Presumably the hotel or some other location will have somewhere where they can learn this location's time tracking. "Thank you, we will be glad to do that."

"OK! I'll see you guys tomorrow, then! And like I said, feel free to stay as long as Kor's here!"

She hugs Zada, then motions for Kor to follow her to the entrance hall. She speaks quietly, hoping they can't hear her.

"I think they're kind of confused. And foreign. And confused. So make sure nothing catastrophic happens while I'm gone, OK?"

When she's satisfied that he's accepted this responsibility, she leaves the building and heads off to finish work.

She thanks her again and wishes her a good workday.

They can hear her. They won't give any indication of this. Among ways to be described, that is in fact a rather positive-for-them one.

Unless Kor starts talking to them, she's going to be surveying what she can see of the house for books, other pocket everythings, or other potentially informative electronics they might be able to ask to borrow.

There are no pocket everythings lying around. The kitchen is devoid of anything particularly interesting, apart from some colorful ceramic mugs and various drawings by Zada that have been taped to the cabinets. The living room has a bookshelf, dominated by science fiction and books about science and history, many of them written for children. There's an end table with a child's truck toy on it, though the cover for the electrical parts has been ripped off, and the wires don't appear to be in their original places. There's a TV set. There's also a short hallway that leads to the bathroom and two more doors, both of which are closed right now.

Kor frowns at them. Particularly at Xeyr. "So. You guys like TV?"

She notices the frown and stays by.

She bounces. "I like TV!"

She notices both the frown and M. "Yes, thank you. Would you mind if I read?"

"You like to read too?" she asks, as though this is weird and noteworthy. "We have lots of books! More than anyone! They have paper, and auntie can read them all!"

She smiles. "Your aunt is clearly very excellent. And yes, I do like to read. Would you like to show me some books?"

"I like books too. And TVs!"

She runs into the living room and pulls some books off the shelves. "These ones are good! This one is about caves, and this one is about the 'gesive system, and this one is about bugs, and this one is about every country in the whole world, and--Kor I can't reach the one with the supernova--"

He pulls a college astronomy textbook down and gives it to her, then presses a button on the TV and sets it to people playing bell and stick.

She will happily watch people playing bell and stick!

She will with thanks take the book about countries.

The atlas seems to be written for a child approximately two years old. The information it contains is simplified and incomplete, but it still gives a decent picture of most of the well-known countries, including Tapa, Anitam, and Cene. Voa itself is glanced over, on the assumption that the reader is already familiar with it, but it still contains some limited information about Voa's climate, history, and political system.

Zada sits down next to Xeyr and opens her astronomy book, occasionally looking over at the maps in the other one. She points out a paragraph of text next to an illustrated cross-section of a star. "This says, stars are very hot, and if you touch them, you will be very hot, too. So hot you will melt. Even your eyes will melt. But you don't touch them, because they're very far away."

This is not at all what the paragraph says, though it does confirm that stars are hot.