“How old are you?” Carson turned his head, remembering to ducking Ship’s opened hatch panel just in time, and glanced over at the newest addition to the gaggle of colony kids who were watching him work.

“Because Tina says you’re really really old.” The girl clearly didn’t think her friend had gone quite far enough with ‘really.’

“How old do you think I am?”

She took a moment to think it over. “You look like Jeffy and Jeffy’s thirty, but Tina said you’re older than Petra and Petra’s Jeffy’s aunt, so she’s really old.” She obviously wasn’t buying Tina’s guess. “But Dad said they called you when Mr Beckerson was in charge, so that’s as old as Jeffy just to get here.”

“Do you mean how old am I by ship-time or by real-time then?” He sat back on his heals and tried not to think of how old it made him feel to have to ask– Old news to Core kids was still brand new to colony kids.

There was a quick conference among the kids. “Real-time!”

“When I was born, your great-great grandparents were getting on the ship that brought them here. Ship here is a little bit faster.” He patted her hull and Ship made rude noises down the link at his use of ‘little bit.’