There are some advantages to having a weird kid you don’t really remember suddenly deciding to join your question to find evidence that your hosts have less-than-pure motives. For one thing, it’s useful to have an extra pair of hands available when you’re trying to dismantle a metal vent and lower it to the floor without making too much noise. It probably also helps that this particular weird kid has also spent some time creeping around in spaceship air ducts and maintenance hatches, and is willing to follow quite dutifully.

There’s one problem, though: thanks to some mess-up genetics, said weird kid is awash with upper-respitory allergies, and they have only gone a few feet before he is struggling to hold back a sneezing attack. Each time Clarke looks back, though, Pal is smiling encouragingly, his nose twitching, barely breathing for fear that he’ll give them away completely.

By the time Clarke pushes aside the vent—which, to be fair, makes quite the clatter itself—Pal can’t hold back any longer. Taken over by an attack of sneezing, he all but rolls out of vent and onto the floor beyond. A few moments pass before he can raise his head and look around.

And when he does, the breath goes out of him all over again.]