“But…what about the Tum—ahem, the GaIAs?” I asked. “Don’t they get, um…bored, with nothing to do down there except slosh around?”

“Bored?” said Voor. “Oh, by no means. They can listen to what goes on outside—can’t you, Cindy Lou?”

PFFFRRRRRT !

I glared, fanning my hand in front of my face. “Stop that!”

“—and they can also choose to enter into a state analogous to Rapid Eye Movement sleep—except, of course, they don’t have eyes in that form. They have pseudopods, but you can’t make a decent acronym out of Rapid Pseudo—”

“So they just…sleep? And dream?”

“It’s more a sort of semi-sleep; they’re still processing food and managing other functions as well. But close enough for government work.”

I frowned. “And they just…have to stay inside all the time, or they die? That doesn’t sound like much of a life to me.”

Voor raised an eyebrow. “Stay inside or they die? Who on earth told you that?”

I slowly looked down at my stomach. It gurgled in a way that I could almost swear sounded like, “Uh-oh, busted.“