"They only do it when they're scared!" I told him. "And lonely and miserable! He's not scared now! He likes us, worse luck!"
"He was homesick, eh?"
"That's right! For his past, for his mistress." I looked at Pete. "As for the ship, I can make a pretty good guess. Ship went into an orbit of its own, close to Saturn. It drifted around for about a century. Then a salvage crew found it and towed it to Callisto City to be sold as junk. It has happened before, plenty of times!"
"Never with a mirage pup inside, I bet!"
"Maybe not!"
I turned away, feeling all hollow inside, like one of those caterpillars that pupae wasps sting to death and feast on until they're nothing but husks. Grave bait, lying in a tunnel deep in the earth.
I knew the only chance I had of crawling out of the tunnel into the sunlight again was to give the little beast a kick. If he got lonely and frightened, he'd see her again! He'd start dreaming about her, and she'd come to life again, as a memory in the brain of a mirage pup!
But I never could be that cruel.
"What's the matter, Jim?" Pete asked, concerned. "You look sick!"
I wheeled on him. "I didn't tell you what happened outside. If you open your trap again—I will!"