Chase stepped out of the elevator on the third floor, following Valentina down the empty hallway toward the patient rooms. Along the way, he took out his phone and began snapping pictures of the entire area—the hallway, the locked rooms, the staff, and the tall glass cabinets filled with medicine.
Valentina turned toward the nurse's station in order to get the keys for Pete's room.
"What are you doing?" Valentina asked, glancing at his phone as they walked. "I thought we had an agreement to keep this quiet?"
"Oh, we do," Chase said. "These pictures are just for my scrapbook. Don't worry—they're not going anywhere public."
Valentina pulled open the bottom drawer of a tall steel filing cabinet, flinging her dark, curly hair to the side as she rifled through the various key rings.
"A scrapbook?" she asked.
Chase had no desire to tell her the truth. Aside from his resistance to their mind control, he had no leverage. If push ever came to shove, he needed something that he could use against them.
"Yeah," Chase said. "I'm titling it 'Close Encounters of the Weird Kind.' I have no idea what to use for a cover picture yet, though. I was thinking of photoshopping Nathan with a finger in his nose, but I don't think he'd like that."
Valentina closed the drawer, and looked at Chase with an extremely confused expression.
"Don't worry," he assured her. "Like I said, it's just for me. It won't go anywhere public."
"You are very strange," she said.
"I know. Hey, while we have a moment, can I take a selfie with you?"
"Pardon me?"
Chase didn't wait for an answer. He put his arm around Valentina and stretched his phone as far out has he could before snapping a picture. He wore a gigantic smile, and Valentina looked bewildered.
She shook her head and turned her attention to the key ring, trying to find the one for Pete's room, "I've been told that my English is quite good, but I don't understand half of the things you say."
"That's not your fault," Chase said. "Most humans don't understand me either."
Valentina shot him a look, and said, "Indigena."
"Indifferent?"
"No," she said. "We refer to you as indigena. Not as human. We are all human."
"We are?" Chase asked.
Valentina nodded as she picked her way through the keys. When she found the one to Pete's room, she singled it out, and said, "Follow me."
Chase followed her to Pete's door, taking more pictures along the way.
"You know," Chase said idly, "I'd like to say that I've never seen the inside of a mental hospital before, but I'd be lying. That probably doesn't surprise you though, does it?"
Valentina glanced at him but didn't answer.
"Do you guys have looney bins—on Caelus?" Chase asked.
"Looney bins?" she asked.
"Yeah, you know, for people not playing with a full deck?"
"What is a full deck?" she asked.
"Ugh," Chase said. "Let me try one in your language. How about, the lights are all on in the spaceship, but nobody's flying it?" He paused, and said, "No? What about, spinning crop circles over water? Is that better? Still no? Okay, how about, not the brightest laser in the—"
