Oh, boy. He knows that starry-eyed look...it's the same kind he used to get asking his dad a billion and one questions about space and everything.

Big difference there was young-him was safe at home on Tabito, not washed up on some mystery beach.

Manabu's hand falls away from his neck, mouth tugged weakly on one side.

"Auh, sort of...I mean--once you're off planet, it's gates, not tracks. Hard to build lengths of steel in space and all...it's like, um. Here, can I see that?"

He takes the saber back, hoping whoever the true owner of it won't mind if he uses it to draw in the sand. He makes a series of ellipses in a row, capped on each side by circles. He draws a line through the length of them.

"The trains travel through barrier gates from planet to planet. It makes like, a...a kind of tube of safety. So they don't get hit by any space debris or bothered by pirates."