"So you do."

Moira does not know what to do with this information.

"Are you okay?"

"Sorry, I haven't actually had physical contact with another person in a few years, and apparently this was too long."

"The horses then,"

Moira leads Peka through the houses and out into the fields where the bug horses await.

"Years? The amaliens and whoever don't visit you at home ever?"

"Some do, but lately most of my life has been away from home."

"Oh. Hm, I think it's been less than one Amentan year since I had amaliens over for tea, I was speaking in terms of universal years which I'm more accustomed to."

"Oh, how long's a universal year?"

"A fourth of an Amentan one."

"Is that... how long the galaxy takes to turn around, or something...? - that seems really fast for a whole galaxy, what makes it universal?"

"Humanoid life forms are found most often on planets with years about that long, and even those that aren't often have biological cycles synced to the approximate length."

"Huh, how funny. Does spring being a 'universal year' long count as us being synced?"

"I think so, yes."

"An Amalien named Vira has a theory about how this is related to panspermia - she says the biological cycles seem to crop up even when it seems biologically disadvantageous for it to be that precise length of time."

"Weird. I don't know very much about how evolution does all the stuff it does, let alone how somebody deciding that having two arms and two legs was a great idea factors in."

Can she pet a space horse's neck with her unheld hand?

"Vira thinks that evolution was somehow guided by design, but I don't actually understand the details."

She can pet the horse! It does not react to light touches and the carapace feels cool and rigid.

"Are these from your planet?"

"No."

"They're one of the more interesting life forms that have simple enough brains that the holodeck can fully simulate and store them without using expensive amounts of power. Normally any life it creates are just ... imitations of the real thing."

"When you showed up did you depower half a city?"

"Approximately, yes."

"Well, I existed before that, but at a level of complexity below these horses."

Moira mounts the horse, helping Peka up in front of her.

Ooh, they can ride double! How clever. "How do you make them go?"

"If you press your knees into these spots just a bit hard it will move."

Moira demonstrates, the horse walking forward with a strange insectile gait.

Whee! "How do you steer?"

"You can push more on one side or the other"

Moira demonstrates this as well.

Peka steers the space horse around and then tries to get it to speed up.

It speeds up! Quite a lot actually, galloping faster than any ordinary horse through the rolling hills.

Moira keeps herself firmly balanced on the horse and will steady Peka if she seems in danger of falling off.

"WHEEEEEEEEEE!"

Moira smiles calmly - it's not like they're holding hands or anything.

The rolling hills contain streams and the occasional tree and eventually, in the distance, a tall and gorgeous waterfall.