Fortunately, the pause went unnoticed, and Alexis merely looked thoughtful. It wasn't much of a theory, as theories went, that the aliens picked them up while they were going somewhere. Most everybody went somewhere most of the time. If they had all been asleep or eating dinner that would have been easier.

"And you play music, right?" Alexis gestured to the instrument Stefen had been playing when she'd walked up. A thought clicked in her mind, his words, her initial misunderstanding. "Are you a court musician?"