On a ship that was headed to the Andromeda system, a crystallizer woman turned to a man next to her. She looked afraid.
"Are you a crystallizer?" she asked.
"Yes," the man said with a nod. He sounded rather cold.
The woman looked very surprised, and she said, "I can't believe I have met someone of the same race here. My name is Lydia. You took the hall's quest to venture to the Andromeda system to hunt xenogeneics, didn't you?"
"Yes," the man answered. His emotions didn't seem perturbed at all.
"That is great. Can we combine forces and do it together?" the woman said.
"No, we cannot," the man answered.
The woman seemed disappointed, and she said, "That's fine, I guess. What is your name, anyway? Can we exchange phone numbers? There are too few crystallizers here. We can contact each other."
"No, we cannot," the man said. His face remained impassive.
