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“Greetings!” Hestorum shouted, her voice carrying well in the space. The domed ceiling probably helped. That’s when I noticed the ceiling had been painted blue, with white fluffy clouds. Had that been there before? We’d taken this route a few times to visit our ship, but I don’t know if I'd ever looked up.

“I’m proud of Ortheema Station; we’ve done something meaningful here,” she said, projecting her voice like a pro. “This morning I agreed to a contract and dedicated station funds that will make sure everyone’s efforts will be kept in good working condition in perpetuity.”

I grabbed hold of Tolly’s hand and squeezed, barely keeping my stress in check. What could possibly be behind the curtain? A statue? A fountain? A statue in a fountain?

What was it? Anticipation was going to kill me!

Finally, after thanking several individuals by name, Hestorum turned to face the curtain. “Humans, I present to you a gift from all of Ortheema Station.”

The ties holding the curtain up were released, and the fabric fluttered to the ground. For a moment I couldn’t understand what I was looking at. I took a step forward, biting back a laugh.

“Is that a playground?” I asked.

“It is,” Hestorum said. “We studied all the image captures we could find of where humans used to play when you had a homeworld. This is what we designed based on those examples."

Set inside a waist-high fence was a round green area that looked to be about a hundred feet across. There were swings, a sandbox, a dome-shaped climbing structure, and potted shrubs and small trees scattered around.

There were even a few benches that looked just like the ones from an Old Earth movie I used to watch before the data crystal it was stored on cracked.

“That’s amazing,” Cleo said, walking past me. Lexarit must have put her down, and now he rushed past her to open a gate for her. Narmuna followed her.

“Human Cleo said it’s amazing!” Hestorum shouted to the crowd. “Human Opal seems to be overwhelmed by our gift.”

I stood there processing it as Cleo walked to the climbing structure and ran her hand over a few of the rungs.

“It’s just like Old Earth,” I said, realizing that all these Talins had worked tirelessly to create a park on a space station for a couple of humans. “It’s beautiful.”

“Human Opal believes the park is beautiful,” Hestorum shouted. “We have done well to give the humans a familiar environment to allow them to thrive among us.”

All the Talins made sounds of excitement that died down the moment Hestorum held up her hand.

“As joyous as this moment is,” she announced. “I remind everyone of the rules we all agreed on. Do not ruin all our effort.”

With that she left, but all the law keepers stayed. I was still watching Cleo walk slowly around all the park’s features.

“You should join Cleo,” Tolly urged. “It would make everyone watching very happy.”

“Sure,” I agreed and let Tolly lead me into the park. The moment the gate closed, Talins moved. Within a few seconds there were Talins standing at the fence with the only gap being where the gate was.

This made me a little nervous.

“Don’t worry. One of the rules is that only Talins accompanying a human can come into the park.” Tolly pointed to a black square at the top of a pole in the center of the circle. “That’s a vid capture that monitors the area. If anything happens, then an alert is sent straight to the law keepers. This is a safe space.”

Safe from being accosted, but not safe from watching eyes. I almost felt like I was on a stage. What made me feel uncomfortable would probably delight some kids. When Jasper was young, he loved to have an audience when he played. But I found it a bit disconcerting.

Cleo didn’t seem to notice.

“Opal, come look at this!” she called.

Letting go of Tolly’s hand, I walked briskly over to her. She’d toed off her shoes and was standing in the sand pit.

“It’s real sand,” she said. “Feel it!”

I crouched down and sank my fingers in. It was a pleasantly cool sensation. “All we're missing is a little pond.”

“Don't say that too loudly or they might do it,” she said.

Standing up, I brushed the sand off my hands and noticed Cleo didn’t look good. “This is nice, but why don’t we come back tomorrow?”