Reclamation

6—May 16, in the Net, Hour 22:34:34, Planet Time

Walls towered solid and insurmountable on all sides, leaving only one tiny chink for Dorias to squeeze anything through. He extended his arm, slowly and painstakingly. There was barely enough room inside to grope for useful pathways without disturbing the existing network. Still more walls hemmed him in. Dorias strained, stretching out his fingers as far as they would go, carefully feeling his way along the quivering veins that carried packets of information. All of the veins threaded their way straight into the walls. They left no space wide enough for Dorias to even attempt to fit through. Dorias withdrew his arm and sent a probe back to the storage space to see if there were any explorer modules ready and waiting. Dorias seldom moved his entire self. It was an uncomfortable, unwieldy process. He had to squirm his way into fibrous paths and drizzle his consciousness into processors that were so loaded with their own data that each thought would become a leaden weight dropped without any accuracy. As he let his thoughts go, they would vanish completely, and he could only hope for their return.

Instead of enduring that, Dorias had designed a retinue of mobile parts that could travel the networks for him. Smaller and quicker than he was, they could bring back information, or perform tasks that required the manipulation of machines and datastreams light-years away from the direct line of thought from his den.

The probe came back. Luck. A module had returned today and its information had been emptied into storage, waiting for assimilation. Dorias sent the probe to fetch the explorer. When it arrived he lifted it into the newly discovered space. The explorer was smaller than his hand, but it was still a tight fit. As Dorias watched, the explorer began to methodically catalog and examine each vein where it met a wall, looking for patterns, vulnerability, usefulness. The explorer automatically posted a sentry for itself. If anyone watched it too closely for too long, it would withdraw to storage with its report.

PING!

Dorias shrugged aside to make room for the incoming signal.

PING!

The signal shot into his path and Dorias caught it neatly. It proved to be one of his wanderers. Wanderers piggybacked out on ships or stations, sometimes with preassigned tasks, sometimes just to wait quietly in case he needed a presence there.

This one’s home was aboard the U-Kenai and it held a new message from Eric Born in its teeth.

Dorias drew the wanderer into himself and waited while the message it carried dispersed into his working consciousness. The message said only that the U-Kenai was finally on its way to May 16, and that Eric was on his own. Bare facts, thrown together without much thought. Eric in a hurry, and more than likely, Eric worried.

About the Vitae, thought Dorias. The name brushed against old sores. The Vitae built walls that enclosed whole worlds and left him clawing at the entrances. They blockaded old pathways, dropping barriers between him and the wanderers, so he had to design searchers to retrieve them. The rescues could take years, or never happen at all.

Dorias didn’t mind that the Vitae made life difficult for him. Challenges were stimulus, not obstacles. What he did not like was the nagging idea that they might manage to make life impossible for him, or anyone else like him.

He was also worried about the fact that Eric hadn’t told him where the woman, Aria, was. It didn’t take much work to guess that if she wasn’t with him, Eric had probably taken her to Perivar as contraband. But the fact that Eric hadn’t volunteered that information spoke volumes about how little he trusted Dorias’s offer to help.

Dorias sent the wanderer back to storage. He could replace it aboard the U-Kenai when Eric arrived. Dorias activated the monitors surrounding his den. All communications would be checked, categorized, and stored for the duration. Projects in progress would be monitored and he would be alerted if any strayed too far from the herd.

He called for a talker and a dancer and attached leashes to them. Then he opened one of the dozens of lines that ran out of his den, shot the explorer down its length, settled himself at its mouth, and waited.

Seventy-six seconds later, the leash jerked into life, humming and tingling with the myriad signals that made up a human voice. Dorias drank them in.

“Ross, here.”

“This is Dorias, Madame Chairman.” Holding the end of the leash, Dorias felt the talker relay his signal while the dancer began to move, painting and repainting his portrait across Ross’s video screen.

“What can I do for you, Dorias?”

“I have just gotten a message from Eric Born. He is on his way to May 16, but he is not bringing the woman.”

“Damn.” She followed the curse with a five-second pause. “Well, we knew that was a danger, didn’t we? Has he said how much the Vitae found out?”

“This is what I have from him.” Dorias shook the leash so a copy of Eric’s message spilled itself along the line. The dancer took up the new pattern and repeated it on the screen and waited while Ross assimilated it for herself.

“Not a lot there.”

“I believe he had other concerns at the time.”

She chuckled. “Can’t argue with that, can I? And before you have to ask, yes, I’ll see he gets landed as soon as he gets in-system.” Another pause. “And, of course, I’ll extend our offer in person. What do you think he’ll say?”

Dorias felt through the places where his memories of Eric Born lay stored, looking for the right answer. “It’s difficult to say,” he admitted at last. “I think he’ll be more likely to agree, as long as he doesn’t know his brother-in-law is helping our team in the Realm. He’s never said what grudge he holds against Heart of the Seablade, but it is a strong one.”

“Mmmmph. How does he feel about the war, then, do you suppose?”

“He’s concerned. Eric works very hard to make it known that he does not care what happens in the Realm, but much of that is bravado. It is my guess that he did not wish to bring the woman, Aria Stone, to May 16 because he didn’t know if it was safe for her here. Teachers, you see, are bound to protect the lives of the People.”

“Mmmmph,” Ross said again. “Important considerations, but at this point, he can’t have any wish to see the Vitae in the Realm, can he?”

Dorias didn’t answer.

“Is there anything else you think I should know?” Ross asked finally.

“Yes. Eric will almost certainly be in need of sanctuary…and I will be helping him, even if you decide not to.”

“Even if he decides against the Unifiers?”

“Eric probably will not decide for or against the Unifiers. He will be deciding for or against what will allow him to live as free as he can for as long as he can. I owe him for past favors and I will help him do this.”

“I am at least glad you let me know, aren’t I?”

“I owe you for my own sanctuary, Ross.”

“I can’t stop you from helping your friend if that’s what you need to do.” Ross’s signal became heavier and a bit slower. “All I ask is that you remember your cause is still our cause.”

“I would not choose to forget something so important.”

“Just wanted to hear you say it, didn’t I?” Ross’s signal lifted itself back to normal. “I’ll meet Eric Born at the port if he’s not likely to raise objections. Talk. Show him a few things. Hand over our offers. Try to find out what he really cares about and how much. Then…” She decided not to finish the sentence. “Thanks for the news, Dorias.”

“You’re welcome to it.” Dorias reeled in the leashes for both modules and sent them back to storage.

They did not talk about debt. They did not talk about blackmail or the damage they could do to each other. It was the same with Perivar, and with Eric. Without each other they were alone, and the fact was, alone it was impossible to survive. Dorias knew. He had tried.

Schippend leveled his drooping eyes at Eric. “We’re processing three hundred new arrivals right this minute. Your information will have to wait in the queue with everybody else’s.” Without another word, he resumed his meticulous poking at the U-Kenai’s control keys, looking for viruses or contraband software before he issued Eric a permit to hook into May 16’s communications system.

Eric bit down the urge to order the bureaucrat to move his lumbering body like he had a brain under his skull. Instead, he brushed past Cam, who stood motionless in the back of the bridge, and stalked toward the open airlock.

May 16 was an impossibility. May 16 had a stable, planetwide climate, something which was about as likely to occur naturally as fiber optic growing on an evergreen tree. In a feat of engineering that had even made the Rhudolant Vitae blink, somebody had given the planet a solar-synchronous orbit and a perfectly adjusted tilt and rotation. It was always spring, wherever you went and whenever you arrived. A lot of planetologists spent a lot of time arguing about how it had been done. No agreements had ever been reached, because whoever was responsible for the place had neglected to leave even their name behind.

The Alliance for the Re-Unification of the Human Family had discovered it, unpopulated, and had promptly adopted it as their base. They said it was a symbol of the need for the establishment of the universal Human Family. Once, here, on this spot, someone had been able to engineer an entire planetary orbit, not clumsy terraforming or even more clumsy domed colonies, but an entire orbit and possibly an entire planet. Now they were dead and dust and all the current inhabitants could do was try to recover old knowledge.

Eric leaned against the outer threshold of the airlock and breathed the fresh, moist air. His eyes restlessly scanned the port that surrounded the U-Kenai. The vast, bleak expanse of concrete under the cloudless sky made it impossible for him to really relax, even in the soothing warmth of the day. Other ships sitting in their own bays broke up the horizon and the cargo haulers that chugged between them helped fill up some of the space, but there was too much left over. He could barely see the sharp, artificial lines of the Hangar Cliffs in the distance. Pride kept him from circling to the other side of the U-Kenai, where he could stare at the City of Alliances. Its carefully planned and meticulously maintained buildings made a border wide enough to fill in the ten-mile-wide plain that had been leveled by whoever had originally owned May 16.

It wouldn’t have been enough, anyway. Nothing was ever enough to kill the last trace of agoraphobia that nibbled at the edges of his mind. Eric had been secretly grateful that his assignments from the Vitae kept him mostly on space stations. He frowned at the port and his thoughts at the same time as he remembered tearing through Haron Station with Aria on his heels.

I wonder what she’s looking at right now. Eric’s gaze traced the orderly forms of the distant cliffs. / hope she’s got the sense to listen to Perivar and do what she’s told. I hope…His thoughts pulled themselves up abruptly as he realized what he really hoped was that he’d get the chance to find out what had happened to her.

If I live so long…Eric cast another glance back toward his bridge. Schippend was muttering something into his torque.

I hope whoever Dorias drafted to get me into the city can wait awhile, he added sullenly. He could appreciate, in theory, the Unifier philosophy that living human beings ought to deal with living human beings. He could also understand their desire to keep both their people and their machines free of ailments caused by contact with outside sources. He ruefully rubbed the spot where he’d been injected with an armful of antivirals and antibiotics. In practice, however, their philosophy combined with their caution made for a customs process that could stretch on for hours.

One of the smaller, open port cars whirred up to the U-Kenai’s bay. A squared-off woman from a cold climate climbed out of the driver’s seat.

“Sar Eric Born?” She squinted in the bright morning sun.

“I am.” He straightened himself up.

“You’ll be accompanying me once your processing is completed.”

Eric managed to keep his voice smooth and patient despite the abrupt goading her tone gave his strained patience. “Thank you, but a friend of mine has…”

Her broad mouth smiled in jerky stages. “Sorry. Used to people knowing me on sight, aren’t I? I’m Sealuchie Ross and I am the transportation your friend arranged.” She must have read the look on his face as skepticism because she added, “We could hunt Dorias up and confirm it, if you want to.”

Eric studied Ross for a moment. That was the name he had from Dorias. It also stirred a separate, vague memory in the back of his mind that he couldn’t make show itself clearly. She was not a young woman. The blond color of her hair was faded and streaked with grey. Time had pressed her rose-and-white skin close to her bones and the wrinkles around her eyes proclaimed she had a serious outlook on life. She certainly did not have much use for ceremony. Or fashion. Eric looked over her loose green shirt and trousers and flat-soled boots. Her torque had several thread-fine cables that adhered to her flesh, one led to her translator disk, one to a pad pressed against her temple, and two others to pads pressed against her wrists, where her pulse could be measured.

Security wired. Eric dug harder in his memory. Whoever she was, she was important.

“I’m sure that won’t be necessary,” he lied, and looked over his shoulder toward the U-Kenai’s bridge again. “I’m just waiting on my IDs and communications clearance.”

“Are you?” Without asking permission, Ross climbed past Eric through the airlock. Eric followed her, at a loss for the words to ask this woman who she thought she was.

“Who’s processing this arrival?” she asked as she reached the bridge.

Schippend turned laboriously around with his mouth open. When he saw who came through the doorway, his mouth stayed open and he jumped out of his chair, holding himself rigidly at attention.

“Madame Chairman. This is ah…”

“Unexpected would be a good word, perhaps?” she replied without smiling. “This arrival is now to be given priority. Do you require my authorization?”

“I may, ah, Madame Chairman,” stammered Schippend. “There are delays in the…um…background check…” His eyes shifted restlessly to Eric.

She nodded. “You will tell me personally if there’s anything requiring special handling. I shall leave a line open from this ship.” She tapped at her torque and her mouth moved as she added a subvocal command. She turned to Eric with a hint of real apology in her manner. “I am sorry about this, Sar Born.”

“Thank you.” Eric found himself struggling through a mental readjustment. This, at least, explained why her name had struck a chord in him. Madame or Master Chairman was the title used for the appointed head of the Unifiers.

Sealuchie Ross, Madame Chairman Sealuchie Ross, he corrected himself, ran the planet he was standing on.

What this did not explain was why the person who ran the world was running errands for Dorias.

“Dorias forgot to mention your position when he said who was coming to meet me,” Eric said over the sound of Schippend demanding to know where arrival Eric Born’s IDs were, damn it!

Ross’s mouth twitched. “Very like Dorias, don’t you think? Not one to care much for a person’s rank.” Eric couldn’t tell whether this amused or annoyed her.

“No, he’s not,” Eric agreed, trying to haul together an appropriate set of manners. “I should perhaps apologize for taking up so…”

She cut him off with a wave of her hand. “One of the prerogatives of the job. I get to decide what I spend my time on, don’t I? Now, if you’re ready, we can go talk somewhere more comfortable.” She started toward the airlock.

Eric hesitated. Beside him, Schippend was sweating and swearing quietly into his torque. Cam stood motionless waiting for orders, and Madame Chairman waited for Eric to make some move.

The idea of leaving a stranger aboard the U-Kenai made Eric uneasy. He wanted to talk to Dorias and get his side of this story, but until he had his May 16 IDs, there was no easy or legal way for him to get into the system. He certainly wasn’t going to use his power gift with so many unknown factors surrounding him.

“I’ll be joining you in a moment, Madame Chairman.” Eric gestured her politely toward the airlock and walked back to the common room. He picked up the satchel he had packed with a change of clothes and a few pieces of communications hardware in case his visit became…complicated. Then he hit the combination of keys on the comm board that opened a line straight into Cam’s private ears.

“Cam,” he whispered, “once the inspection’s complete, seal the ship. Keep everything up and running.”

“Yes, Sar Born,” Cam acknowledged.

Eric nodded to himself. Some things, at least, were predictable. He shouldered the satchel strap and made his way back outside.

Madame Chairman Ross waited in the port car. Eric climbed into the empty seat beside her. “Whenever you’re ready, Madame Chairman.”

“Ross,” she corrected him. “The title’s for Unifiers and formal occasions, isn’t it?”

“As you prefer.” Eric stowed his pack under the seat. Ross released the brake and steered the little car into the main traffic lane that crossed the port. Eric kept his eyes on her to avoid having to acknowledge the stretch of empty space around the port or the open sky overhead.

Ross, it turned out, was not one to make small talk. She drove with her gaze on the shifting traffic, projecting an air of intense concentration. It was not from lack of skill, Eric decided. She handled the car well, sliding smoothly in and out of the stew of maintenance, transport, and private vehicles that flowed through the port. She was just extremely single-minded.

They left the port car at the free-standing arch that was the gateway to the main roads and transferred themselves to one of the automatic cars that waited there for hire. While Eric took his seat, Ross punched in her ID code and the address of their destination on the keypad and the car rolled into traffic.

“You have a room reserved at one of the diplomatic hostels, Sar Born,” Ross told him. “Once we have you cleared for the networks, you may use it for an hour or a year, if you require.”

“You have my thanks, Ross.”

“I hope you won’t mind if I also have your company for a while yet.” She released a catch on her seat so that it swiveled around and let her face him. “There are a few things about the City of Alliances I want to show you, and some questions I’d like to ask you.”

“I’ll be happy to be of service if I can,” Eric said. I’ll need new employers, after all, he added to himself, that is if your crowd is even marginally more trustworthy than the Vitae.

The cityscape they moved through struck Eric as highly organized. The low brown-and-green buildings clustered around common courtyards. Ruler-straight streets crisscrossed the plain under the raised tracks carrying the monorail trains that provided most of the public transport.

The place had clearly been designed to provide comfort and convenience for its citizens. Eric couldn’t work out why it made him feel so uneasy.

Ross’s car had precedence on the streets. The roadway pulled other cars out of the lanes to give the chairman clearance so her transport could breeze through the traffic. Eric guessed they were probably moving five to ten miles an hour faster than the other cars.

Madame Chairman may not go in for formalities, but she’s got no problem using her privileges.

“Dorias said you’re a friend of his,” Eric ventured.

“Select circle, isn’t it?” she said in a voice more relaxed than anything Eric had heard from her yet. “I think it’s just you and me.”

“No, there’s a couple of others.” She waited for him to name names, but he didn’t.

She shook her head. “We’re almost to my offices.” She glanced at the readouts on the car’s dashboard.

“But he is working for you?”

She nodded.

“As a Family member?”

Ross considered this. “Strictly speaking, no. But I’m not a xenophobe, Sar Born. I don’t think that the creation of the Human Family means we should become isolated from the other sapient beings who share our galaxy, especially those we have created. Dorias is dedicated to the idea of a stable Human Family and I welcome him into the Alliance.”

Well, she certainly speaks dogma fluently, and she knows how to talk without saying much.

He tried another tack. “I got a message from Dorias telling me to contact you.”

“Part of a message, you mean,” Ross’s mouth twitched. “He told me the transmission didn’t arrive intact. Yes, I asked him to get in touch with you. We wanted to offer you a contract for your services as a systems handler. Dorias says you’re even better than he is.” She lowered her eyebrows. “It’s difficult to believe anyone could be better than a living piece of netware.”

What do you want to hear, Madame Chairman? Eric wondered.

“Dorias has some limitations I don’t,” he said, watching her face closely. “Then again, I have some limitations he doesn’t. Who’s better depends on the job you have in mind.”

“That will come when I present the formal contract.” She pulled her gaze away from his and set her jaw at a different angle.

“Dorias also said it was the Unifiers who originally removed Stone in the Wall from the Realm.”

“Stone in the Wall?” Ross repeated the syllables awkwardly. “Is that her name?”

“One of them.” Eric ran his hands down his thighs. His palms were itching where his sun tattoos had once been.

Ross turned her bland face toward him. “Yes, we asked her to come to us as an emissary. The Vitae kidnapped her en route.”

You’ve had that line ready for hours, haven’t you, Madame Chairman? The itch in his palms intensified and in the back of his mind an outraged voice demanded to know where she had the gall to interfere with the life of one who had been named by the Nameless?

“Here we are.” Ross pointed toward a domed, green glass complex behind a wall of milk-and-coffee stone. “I should warn you, Sar Born. There’s going to be a bit of a scene when the car stops.”

The car turned a corner smoothly and rolled through the slated, iron gates into a walled courtyard. The car stopped and the door opened itself.

The “bit of a scene” turned out to be a small army of assistants and security personnel that swarmed out of the grandiose buildings that fenced the yard.

“Madame Chairman, I’ve got the report on the…”

“Madame Chairman, you have an appointment with the…”

“Madame Chairman…”

“Madame Chairman…”

Ross stood like a statue in the middle of the zoo and let a big man in a grey uniform peel off her security patches and replace them with fresh ones. She seemed to drink in everything at once, occasionally rapping out a monosyllabic reply. “Yes.” “No.” “Go.”

“Sar Born, if you please?” One of the security men stood at his elbow with a set of patches in his hands. Eric nodded briefly and let the man press one patch against his translator disk and the other against his temple. The wires tickled briefly as they adhered to his flesh.

Ross’s mouth bent in what might have been a smile of approval or smug satisfaction. The expression passed too quickly for Eric to read.

“With me, if you please, Sar Born,” she said. The crowd parted quickly as Ross strode toward the nearest door.

Eric gathered his wits. He followed Ross through the arched doorway flanked by a contingent of administrators and guards who had been selected from the army either by prior arrangement or telepathy.

The halls inside the complex were a combination of history lesson, bureaucrat’s nest, and academic monument. On this side, the green glass was stained with a myriad of colors to depict the cities of a hundred different branches of the Human Family. Guides in black-and-blue coveralls pointed out individual scenes for gaggles of onlookers, lecturing them on the derivation and significance of each. The public access terminals were as much sculpture as they were information sources, each one done up as a different style of architecture. The Unifier administrators hurried around these obstructions without giving them a glance.

Security herded family tour groups to the side as Madame Chairman and her entourage breezed past. The professionals stepped aside, occasionally remembering to give some kind of salute in acknowledgment of their leader.

Finally they reached a lobby fenced by walls of translucent silicate. Half the entourage stayed respectfully outside while Madame Chairman and her most select group funneled themselves through the doors. The lobby was filled with worktables and around them clustered Unifiers and petitioners gabbling away in a dozen languages.

And unmistakably waiting for Madame Chairman stood two Rhudolant Vitae.

Eric froze. The Vitae leveled their attention on him like a lead weight. They marked him. No question. Ross did too. She was watching him.

She had known. She had known they were going to be here and she’d paraded him right up to them.

“You’re with me, Sar Born,” she reminded him as her security men opened up the doors to what Eric assumed was her inner office. One of her nameless assistants stepped up to the Vitae, explaining in cool, polite tones Madame Chairman would be with them as soon as possible.

The doors swung shut behind them, leaving Eric and Ross alone together in an airy, comfortable office. It had two walls’ worth of windows and a third full of monitor screens that showed scenes from the City of Alliances, maybe real-time, maybe historical. Eric wasn’t sure.

“Please, sit down.” Ross gestured toward a stuffed, stationary chair and took her own seat behind a desk that looked as though it had taken a half acre of forest to build.

Eric ignored her invitation. “What do you want from me?”

“Your help,” she said simply.

“And you had to show me the Vitae to make sure you’d get it?”

She didn’t even miss a beat. “I had to show the Vitae you had come to meet with me. I’m hoping it will help slow them down.” She ran her hands across the desk top. “Have you seen this yet?” She pressed a silicate key inlaid in the natural wood.

The video on the center monitor blurred until there was nothing left but a mottled grey background. Eric’s spine stiffened. The greyness shifted and stretched until it became a pair of Vitae, one about ten centimeters and four kilograms heavier than the other.

The shorter one dipped his, if it was a him, chin in acknowledgment toward whatever camera had made this recording. Eric’s brow furrowed. The Vitae did not use gestures like that, in public anyway.

What is this?

The taller Vitae spoke. “I am Ambassador Ivale of the Rhudolant Vitae. With me stands Ambassador Asgaut. We have been authorized by our representative assembly to make this recording and see to its distribution across the Quarter Galaxy.

“We are asking any and all individuals who hear this in their official or private capacities to respect the Rhudolant Vitae’s claim of the world designated MG49 sub 1 by the Meridian system of Coordinates.”

Eric felt the lids on his eyes pull themselves back as far as they would go. He was vaguely aware that the harsh, ragged sound under the sudden ringing in his ears was his own breath.

Ambassador Asgaut spoke. “We do not ask for any group’s approval. We are not requesting permission for this endeavor. We are publicizing our intentions so that, in future, the system may be treated as Vitae territory subject to our laws and governance.”

“We thank you for your attention,” said Ivale.

The image faded to black.

Eric’s knees shook. His eyes couldn’t focus properly on the still, dark screen in front of him, and he had to fight to even keep them open.

“They’ve never done anything like this,” said Ross coolly. “The Vitae don’t claim worlds. They buy or trade for what they want until a culture’s under their thumb, in case they need its resources for something.

“I was hoping you could tell me what’s so fascinating about a place that is so old and decrepit it doesn’t even have a proper atmosphere on three-quarters of its surface?”

Eric turned around as quickly as his weakened legs would let him and raised his eyes so he could see her.

“What is being done about this?” he asked hoarsely.

“Not much.” Ross leaned back, resting just the tips of her fingers on the edge of her desk. “I wonder, Sar Born, if you have any idea exactly how powerful the Vitae are? They do a significant percentage of the building, maintaining, and managing for the known members of the human race. Most of their clients are willing to simply let them have MG49 because they can’t afford to upset them. Some of them are even eager for them to get it, because they think whatever it is the Vitae found there will eventually be up for sale.” She eyed him carefully. “They don’t even care whether it’s contraband or not.”

Eric’s gaze drifted toward the blank screen again. Faces flashed in front of his mind’s eye. Lady Fire. Heart of the Seablade. Aria.

Ross sighed. “Sar Born, whether or not you understand that it’s in your interests to cooperate with the Human Family, I can’t say, can I? But you should see that both our kind have an enemy in the Vitae.”

Eric’s eyes widened again. “What do you mean, both our kind?” he croaked.

Ross kept her gaze focused on him. “When we discovered what seemed to be a culture of the Family on MG49 sub 1, the Alliance sent a delegation to begin the process of reunification. We were extremely startled to discover for all the superficial matches, your people aren’t really Family. Telekinesis, for example, is not something that has ever evolved naturally for any branch of the Family, although several have managed to induce very weak forms of it through genetic engineering.” She paused. “Whoever worked with your ancestors was rather more successful, I gather.”

Eric jerked backward half a step. “How did you…”

Ross waved dismissively. “It was one of the first things our observation team noticed. Everybody’s got legends about telekinesis, or telepathy, or any of a whole host of extrasensory perception and skills. But nowhere, except on MG49 sub 1, can they be performed on a macroscopic level, on command, by a significant portion of the population. There’re other proofs, too, if you want them. Your people were not born, Sar Born. They were made .”

No! shouted a voice in the back of his mind. We were named by the Nameless! “The Nameless spoke of the People then. They named Royal, Noble, Bondless, Bonded, and Notouch. Each life they named became Truth and took up its place in their Realm…” He silenced the voice harshly.

When he could finally speak again, he said, “If we’re not Family, what are you doing there? Why don’t you leave us…them in peace?”

Ross leaned across her desk. “Because while you yourselves are not Family, you are part of the family legacy, like Dorias. We need to understand you so we can welcome you properly.” She looked at him and her eyes were intense. “And you can be sure we will welcome you, where the Vitae will only enslave you.”

“You really are a believer, aren’t you?” His voice was heavy with exhaustion. This was too much all at once. Far too much.

“Yes,” she said without hesitation.

“Even though you know you’ve started a war?”

“I didn’t start the war. Isolation from the Human Family started that war.” Ice glittered in her eyes. “Reunion will end it.”

Eric’s head drooped. “I’m going to ask you one more time, Madame Chairman,” he said toward the carpet. “What do you want from me?”

“I want you to speak for the Realm. I want you to say you do not want the Vitae there and that you protest the invasion. I want you to repeat it for broadcast to the Family members and attendant governments. I want you to make life difficult for the Vitae.” She paused. “You know you can see it from here.”

“See what?” asked Eric, confused.

“MG49 sub 1. The Realm of the Nameless Powers. Your sun and its companion are one of the stars in our sky.”

“And?”

“And it’s a crashing funny-looking place, isn’t it?” She touched the inlay on her desk again and Eric, almost involuntarily, looked toward the central screen. The monitor showed an extremely out-of-scale representation of a binary system; a golden primary star looming over a white dwarf. Eric watched their gentle motion. He could remember his father’s stories of his father’s delight at the discovery of that companion. It confirmed the Teacher’s assertion that the sun, the suns, were Garismit’s Eyes watching the Realm, as the stars were the eyes of the Nameless, watching from afar.

At the edge of the screen hovered a lopsided planet, rotating gently to display a surface of bare, radiation-burned rock. If he watched long enough, Eric knew, it would eventually display a blur of cloud cover held in place by a ragged circle of mountain. The Realm of the Nameless Powers.

“Just sits there, doesn’t it?” said Ross, resting her elbows on the desk. “All on its own, in a steady orbit around a binary star. No moon, no other planets, not even a gas giant or two for company.”

“Madame Chairman, what are you getting at?” Eric said in a strangled tone.

“I mean the Unifiers make it their business to hunt down unknown worlds. We’re very good at it…but your world…this arrangement is so manifestly unlikely for the production or support of human life that we didn’t even bother to look at it. It was an accident that we found your people at all. One of our spotters calibrated a probe incorrectly.”

Her voice was steady but her eyes practically glowed with eagerness. “You know, there’s only one world we’ve searched for that we couldn’t find.”

“Which is?” Eric tried to keep himself under control. Let Madame Chairman lead him along. Let her play her game out. When she was finished, he would still be standing here and she would have his answer in full.

“The Evolution Point for the Human Family,” she said. “We have been looking for three centuries now and we have come up empty, haven’t we? After three centuries.” She spread her hands. “I think I know why.”

Eric said nothing, he just let her go on.

“Dorias told me that your mythology is founded around the idea that a servant of the gods moved the world to a safe location.” She smiled so wide that he could see her teeth. They were white, clean, and as even as the lines of the Hangar Cliffs. “I think they didn’t just move it, I think they hid it.” She nodded toward the screen again.

“Madame Chairman"—Eric did not let himself look at the screen—"why would anybody want to hide the Evolution Point?”

“To keep it from the Rhudolant Vitae?” she said archly. “Or their ancestors. I can’t say for certain, can I? We haven’t got an overall history of the Quarter Galaxy for ten years ago, let alone three thousand. We do, however, know that engineering a planetary orbit was possible for someone, at some time.” She pointed meaningfully at the ground.

Eric could feel her assurance reaching out to him, as palpable as the touch of a hand.

“You see what it means, don’t you? No one even vaguely connected with the Family would willingly let the Vitae lay sole and whole claim to the Evolution Point and the people on it. Since the Shessel were discovered, safe and sound on their own Evolution Point, there has been a reemergence of interest in the Family for finding ours. Sar Born, speak for your people, the Guardians of the Evolution Point, and you give us all a real fighting chance against the biggest stopping block to the reunion of Human Family. You could put the Vitae back in their place, just by speaking out.”

“And if I don’t,” said Eric, “then what?”

She spread her hands. “Then nothing, Sar Born. You have the use of the room and will have use of all the nets as soon as your IDs are cleared. You are my guest. I, on the other hand, am Chairman of the Unifiers and I will harry the Vitae in whatever way I can until I find out what it is they are trying to do. Why, for instance, they are kidnapping natives from MG49 sub 1.”

Eric’s mind reeled and his sense of balance finally failed. Forgetting pride, he collapsed into the nearest chair. Ross didn’t take her attention off him. Despite that, he curled his fists around his palms and pressed his knuckles against his trouser legs. He remembered looking toward First City’s walls and thinking if you will break the law, I will break it more grandly and more permanently than you ever could, and wishing his father could hear him, and then he remembered the tears that mixed with the icy rain, because part of him still wanted to run home and find out that none of what he had seen had happened.

He stared at the smooth, unmarked backs of his hands and fought to remember it had been ten years since he had told the Realm to go drown itself. Ten years of making his own life unburdened by the laws of the Nameless and the conflicts they bred. It was a freedom he could not, would not, just toss aside.

“Madame Chairman, I don’t speak for anyone in the Realm. I left there and I have no intention of going back, or of getting myself caught up in whatever war you want to fight with the Vitae. I have business of my own to take care of that will use up my personal resources. I thank you for your hospitality and I hope I shall not have to impose on you for long. I shall pay for what I use, I assure you.” He stood and found his knees held steady.

Ross pressed both palms flat against her desk top. “There is one other thing of which you should be aware, Sar Born.”

Eric held himself still. “Which is?”

“Two unifiers, good people, friends of mine, died when the Vitae kidnapped your kinswoman.”

Eric almost said “she’s not my kin,” but he stopped himself in time.

“There are Trustees and Board members here who want to publicize what those two died for. Do you have any idea what will happen to you, and to your world, if I let them?”

“I am sure, Madame Chairman, you will do exactly as you see fit whenever you see fit,” said Eric. “And that there is nothing I could do or say to stop you.

“May I go now?”

He had to give her credit; she had obviously prepared herself for this possibility. She did nothing more than lean back in an attitude of resignation and wave toward the door.

“You are a free individual, Sar Born, you may come and go as you like. I have no claim on you. Especially since you say you will pay for what you use. One of my clerks will see that your debts are totaled and sent to your room.”

Eric left. Behind him, Ross must have given notice that he was coming out, because the security man was waiting to remove his patches and the floor indicators were lit up with the way back to the courtyard clearly marked. An auto waited for him with the door raised.

He climbed in. The door closed. It was then he realized he had no planet ID to enter to make the thing move.

Eric leaned back in the seat, closed his eyes and began to curse. He did it slowly and methodically, using all the blasphemies in all the languages he knew. He even added some he hadn’t heard since he’d been a student in the Temple. By the time he was finished, the entire complement of the Unifiers, and the Rhudolant Vitae, and their ancestors back seven generations had been manned, rendered impotent, ripped away from the shelter of any divinity, accused of bestiality, and blasted headfirst into the marshes the Notouch used for toilets.

A slight vibration trembled the soles of his shoes and the car began to move.

Eric’s head jerked up. A voice spoke over the intercom. “Can’t leave you alone for a moment, can I?”

“Dorias.” A wave of relief washed over him followed fast by a wave of anger. “Dorias, were you listening to what your Madame Chairman said?”

“I was. We’ll talk when we get to your room. I’m making it safe for us now.”

They gave me a bugged room? Eric began cursing through his teeth. The Vitae first, now the Unifiers. Who do these people think they are?

The car traveled three kilometers’ worth of tidy city blocks and finally parked itself in front of a three-story, brown brick building built like an abstract sculpture made of uneven blocks. The silver cables of access elevators stretched between its widespread wings. The car door raised itself and Eric picked up his bundle. As soon as he stepped onto the pedestrian walkway, the car door closed itself up and the vehicle drove itself away.

A second car pulled up in the spot his had vacated. Eric looked back automatically and saw Schippend heave himself out of the vehicle.

“Sar Born,” he puffed. “I have your IDs, Sar.”

Schippend held out four flat squares of shiny polymer embossed with his name, the location of his ship, and his arrival date. One was labeled for access to public transportation, one for the libraries and other public buildings, one for automatic access to communications networks outside his ship, and one for drawing on the credit he’d been required to transfer to a May 16 account.

Eric tucked the squares into his tunic pocket and sealed it. “Thank you for your help, Sar Schippend.”

“I apologize for the delay.” Schippend’s eyes glittered. “Madame Chairman frequently makes things difficult for people who don’t give her her own way.”

“Does she?” said Eric carefully.

“And if she is making things difficult for you, Sar Born, I’ll be glad to help you leave May 16. Immediately.”

Eric’s back stiffened and he wasn’t able to keep his surprise from showing. He also couldn’t help noticing the greedy look in Schippend’s little blue eyes.

“Thank you for the offer, Sar Schippend,” Eric said. “I’ll have to consider it.”

“I am on the public lines, Sar Born. One is open for you.” Schippend climbed into his car and was gone.

Garismit’s Eyes! Eric rolled his own toward the heavens. “Anyone else?” he demanded. The street remained quiet, except for the traffic rushing past.

The hotel did not have a main doorway. Instead, the hatches for six separate access elevators faced the sidewalk. Eric slid his ID card into the labeled slot and a door opened to let him inside. He watched the shiny, gold walls as the elevator rose for about thirty seconds, glided sideways, then forward, then rose again. He did not touch the key that would have turned the cabin translucent and allowed him to see the panorama of the City of Alliances spread across its perfectly flat field.

When the door opened, it led to a comfortably furnished room, about twice the size of the common room on the U-Kenai. Instead of a window, the outer wall was taken up by an elaborate comm center, with all its keys labeled in three different languages.

“Very nice.” Eric dropped his pack on a table.

He sat in the comm screen’s chair and tried not to squirm while it adjusted to fit the contours of his body. He opened the line to Dorias’s home space.

The screen filled with the blur of shifting colors cut by rippling, horizontal lines that was Dorias’s idea of a self-portrait.

“Hello, Teacher Hand,” Dorias said, and the lines jumped, matching the frequency and intensity of his voice. Dorias had never completely dropped Eric’s title. You taught me I could make my own choices, Dorias had said. I choose to remember your earned name.

“Hello, Dorias. I hope you’re doing well,” he added with more than a trace of irony to his tone.

“Quite,” replied Dorias blandly. “Better than you are, I think.” He paused. “Eric, I’m sorry. I didn’t know this would happen.”

“I’m sure you didn’t.” Eric slumped and the chair undulated against his spine. “I’m sure Madame Chairman didn’t give you any reason to be alarmed about what might happen once I got here.”

“Teacher Hand, that is unfair.”

“Is it?” asked Eric bitterly. “Your friend is a schemer and a fanatic, Dorias.”

“Of course she is,” replied Dorias calmly. “It’s fanatics who get caught up in events like this. Normal people know when to give up and go home.”

“Thank you very much,” Eric muttered.

“You were the one who told me the power gifted were trained to be fanatics in the Temple.”

“I know. I know.” He sighed. “What are you doing here, Dorias? What could you possibly want with these people?”

“They’re the only ones around who have even a small chance of making an effective block against the Vitae. They are interested in establishing a permanent, open communications network. If I help Ross with…Family matters…she works on making sure that network is one I can use and the more space there is, the more chances there are that there’ll be others like me found, or made.”

Eric blinked. “Does Madame Chairman know about this grand scheme?”

“Of course she does.”

“Dorias.” Eric leaned forward. “I don’t know how safe you are here. I don’t think Madame Chairman approves of people who are either not Human or not under Family control.”

“Never fear, Teacher, I’ve made myself extremely useful to her. She has a lot riding on my continued goodwill.”

And you’ve got a lot riding on hers. It was easy to forget that Dorias was only six years old. His experiences and memories were mature and complex, but his knowledge of human duplicity, while it existed, was limited. He hadn’t had to plumb many depths yet. Eric debated telling him about Schippend for a moment, then decided against it.

Who knows what kind of pressure Madame Chairman would lay on Dorias if she found out he knew about a member of…Of what, a conspiracy? Political opposition? Black market? What?

Eric’s shoulders started to ache from the weight on them. “Dorias, I have a feeling things are moving double-quick around me. I’ve got to get going.”

“What are you thinking of doing?”

“I’m going to try to tap into the Vitae private network so I can find out what they’re doing in the Realm.”

“You don’t pick the easy targets, do you?” A pair of lines arched in an imitation of raised eyebrows. “You know it’s physically impossible for me to get inside their net, don’t you? It’s like you trying to walk through a brick wall.”

Eric grimaced. “I know. I’m counting on being able to use my power gift to at least open a line in there. I might even be able to work the data retrieval commands. But I won’t be able to interpret anything I pull out.”

“Ah, and that would be my job?” said Dorias.

Eric nodded and then remembered Dorias couldn’t see him. “Yes. The only real problem is I can’t do my part from here. I’ll have to get close to a station or terminal that’s got access to a Vitae system. But I can’t risk a transmission from the U-Kenai to May 16. I’ve got no idea who the Vitae have watching for me. I need…I need to ask you to come with me.” He said it carefully. Dorias did not like data boxes. They could be picked up and carried away too easily.

Dorias’s frequency lines wriggled and bunched sharply. “There’s another possibility.” His lines smoothed out. “I could, if you can give me time, provide you with a copy of myself.”

That took Eric aback. The idea sank in and he smiled. “You’d give me your firstborn? Dorias, I’m honored.”

The frequency lines bowed upward momentarily to parody a human smile. “It would not be my firstborn, although it is certainly not something I do frequently, but yes, that is the idea. I’ll estimate the required storage space.”

Eric mentally ran through an inventory of his ship’s information systems. “I haven’t got a whole lot of the dynamic storage to spare, Dorias. I run pretty close to capacity.” He stopped. “Unless you could fit a new program into Cam.”

“The android?” There was a split-second pause. “Yes. I could do that. In fact, it would be easier to fit a program based on my own makeup into the android’s network than the normal ship systems. It’s much more flexible. I am beginning work on it now.” A section of waves and colors fenced itself off in the lower right-hand corner of the screen.

“Thank you.” Eric watched his friend’s fluctuations for a moment. “How long do you think this will take?”

“Until tomorrow morning, I’m afraid. This is a precise job.”

“That’ll do fine. I have some other…inquiries I want to make. I’ll call back later, all right?”

“And I’ll keep an ear out for anything new about…you.”

“I’d appreciate that. Good-bye, Dorias.”

They broke the connection and Eric sat staring at the blank screen for a long time. Why didn’t I tell him? He might even know what Schippend’s up to, or who he’s working for. Garismit’s Eyes, what’re things coming to when I won’t trust Dorias with what I know…

Rather than think about that, he opened his satchel and pulled out a cobalt blue box, six inches on a side, with a small display screen on the top. A hardwire jack had been set in each side. The box could have been anything at all, from a storage box to a private data recorder to a virus apiary.

Actually it was a couple of ghosts.

Eric put the box on the chair and fished a coil of cables out of his pack to lay beside it. Then he knelt in front of the comm board. He ran his fingertips around the edges until he found the catches for the circuit cover. After a moment’s scrabbling, he managed to snap them open and lift the cover away.

In some ways it would be safer to do this aboard the U-Kenai, but from there it would be harder to hide the point of origin for his signal.

Eric opened a flap on his tool belt and laid a pair of small screwdrivers and a delicate knife on the floor. Then he sat cross-legged in front of the board and did nothing for a long moment but study the circuits. Some of the major blocks were labeled. Some were color coded. He noted with a certain amusement that the Unifiers were using a coding system derived from the Vitae’s public standard.

He located four of the major transfer points. After that, it was only a few minutes’ work with the knife and the screwdrivers to splice a quartet of cables into the existing system.

He looked back at the squirming chair in disgust and dragged a single-phase seat over from the table and sat down in it.

He retrieved the box and plugged the free ends of the cables into its sockets.

Perivar had made this box. As soon as he had been able to pick himself up off the deck where Tasa Ad and Kessa had died, he had ordered Dorias to ransack the ship’s data-holds and gather together anything and everything about its owners. Fighting the sickness spreading from his wounded arm, he had taken the readings from Kessa and Tasa Ad as they lay dead on the deck. He had almost lost their chance of escape, but he knew he’d need their retina and finger scans, their DNA echoes, and their images. When he and Eric had ducked the other runners and climbed aboard the U-Kenai, Perivar had dumped all that information into this box. Eric remembered how he had paced between the airlock and the common room while Perivar bent over the box, selecting, organizing, creating. Eric laid his hand on Dorias’s carrying case and, for the first and last time, he pleaded to the Nameless for a Skyman. Perivar jacked the box into the comm board and, using the ship’s intercom, sent orders to Cam to get the U-Kenai under way. The android verified that the orders came from its owners and obeyed.

When Eric got onto Schippend’s line, Schippend would not see him. His screen would show him Tasa Ad standing a little in front of Kessa, who would be hanging back to act as his backup and advisor. Just as they had appeared when they lived. He could scan their retinas, if he had the equipment, and verify the DNA records of their arrival and registry on May 16. As far as the network was concerned, they were alive and well and in residence in the City of Alliances. Eric could view the runner’s images on the box’s display screen and control them with a touch.

Their projected behaviors had been so like what he had seen from their living counterparts, Eric had once asked Dorias to analyze the processes inside the box to see if he could find any sign of independent consciousness in them. He still did not know what he would have done if Dorias had said yes.

Eric cradled the box on his lap and, with one hand, called up the public directory to trace the open line Schippend had reserved.

Schippend’s face appeared on the main screen, and he was obviously none too pleased to see a pair of strangers on his screen. “This is a reserved line, and I…”

Eric touched the image of Tasa Ad and said, “Your pardon, Sar Schippend.” on the box’s display, Tasa Ad’s head inclined smoothly. “I just wanted to be certain that I would reach you,” he went on. “We have a mutual acquaintance, I believe. Sar Eric Born.”

Schippend stiffened. “Sar Born is no acquaintance of mine. I was assigned to clear his planetside IDs. That’s all.”

“He told me that you also offered to help him leave the planet if things got…difficult for him.” Tasa Ad’s face took on a knowing smile. Perivar had done a great job programming the body language. Not surprising, Eric supposed, since ghosts had been his specialty as a revolutionary.

Eric tapped the screen over Kessa and mouthed the words for her. She straightened up. “Or if Madame Chairman made them difficult.”

“What do you want?” asked Schippend.

“Credit,” said Kessa. Eric touched Tasa Ad and gave him his lines.

He waved his sister back. “If there’s someplace you or your employers want Sar Born to be, or not to be, we can take care of it for you.”

Schippend’s expression became wary. “And how is it you can manage that?”

“We are the ones who gave him passage off his home-world,” said Tasa Ad. “He owes us for a few things.”

“And we owe him,” added Kessa darkly.

“I need to clear this line,” said Schippend.

“Of course. We can be contacted at this space.” Eric cut the line, leaned back, and waited.

He didn’t have to wait for long. The box screen lit up in less than a minute. Text lines spilled across it, reporting that Schippend was running his checks. He was making sure that Tasa Ad and Kessa had actually landed, that they had been checked in and verified. As long as he looked in the May 16 network, all his calls would be routed to the ghost box. If he started checking outside, he would find that Tasa Ad and Kessa had vanished six years ago. And then Kessa would just explain that being driven underground was what they “owed” Sar Born for.

Eric stretched. Between checking up on Tasa Ad and then contacting his employers, Schippend could be at this for hours. Eric used an unaltered line in the corner of the comm board to order a meal from the kitchen. He yawned. Some sleep would be good, but he couldn’t risk it. He had to be awake in case something went wrong with the ghost box. He called up his account from the clear line, saw the negative balance, and choked. If he wanted to keep his word to Madame Chairman, he’d have to drain his own accounts to the bone. The credit listing flicked over as he watched. Now, he’d have to go into debt.

When it only took Schippend three hours to open the line to Tasa Ad again, Eric was surprised. The man was nowhere near as slow as he pretended to be.

Eric activated the ghosts and tapped Tasa Ad. “Sar Schippend, I did not expect to hear from you so soon.”

“For this particular project, there is not much time to waste.” Schippend leaned forward.

“We’ll keep that in mind,” Eric said for Kessa. “Is there a way we can help you?”

“Yes. You can get Eric Born off May 16 and take him to the ship the Morning Glory, docked at Orbit one.”

“We’d be glad to,” said Kessa. “If the pay’s good.”

“Oh, very good. It’s Vitae pay.”

Eric almost swallowed his tongue. The ghosts froze for a dangerously long pause. He jabbed a finger at Tasa Ad and choked out the words. “I should have guessed.”

“Is there a problem?”

Kessa laughed. “No. I just prefer working with men with hair, that’s all.” All three of them laughed.

They haggled over prices then and delivery of credit, which went straight into the ghost box. Eric smiled grimly to himself as he realized he now had an easy way to pay off the outrageous bill he was running up.

He cut the line to Schippend and opened a new one to Dorias.

“Dorias. Is the copy done yet?”

“I told you, tomorrow morning, Teacher.”

“Dorias, I have got to get out of here.” He explained the conversation he had just finished with Schippend.

Dorias was quiet for a long time. “All right, Teacher. I’ll move as fast as I can. Get back to the U-Kenai and get Cam ready to receive a transmission.”

“Thank you, Dorias.”

Eric called for a car with a preprogrammed destination. He dropped most of the credit Schippend had sent Tasa Ad into his May 16 account.

The car arrived and Eric climbed inside. He spent the ride trying not to fidget.

It was all so ridiculous. The Realm was a dead world and a dying people and all of a sudden empires were ready to go to war over it. If they wanted the power-gifted, they could just hire a few contraband runners and take them. They weren’t exactly hard to spot. And if they just wanted the genes, Eric forced the thought through, the Vitae had had plenty of opportunities to get them from him. And if the Vitae wanted the planet? That was the most ridiculous part. There were plenty of dead rocks in the Quarter Galaxy that they could have laid claim to without anyone kicking up a ruckus. Almost as ridiculous as kidnapping a Notouch.

What would the Seablades say if they knew? he wondered. What would Mother say ? Nameless Powers preserve me, what would that old goat First Teacher Signed to Still Water say?

That’s if they’re still alive. He bit his lip.

The auto pulled up to the port and Eric transferred into one of the port cars. It was a good thing there was little traffic at this hour. He drove with only half an eye on where he was going.

The U-Kenai waited undisturbed for him. Eric boarded his ship and sealed the airlock. He let out a long breath. Home, he thought. And as safe as I can be anywhere.

“Cam,” said Eric as he walked onto the bridge. “Sit down. Open interface.”

The android sat in the pilot’s chair and stretched one arm toward Eric. With the other hand, it lifted back a socket cover on its wrist.

Eric pulled a single cable out of a storage compartment under the main boards. He plugged one end of it into the comm board socket and the other into Cam’s wrist. The android did not move.

Eric opened the line to Dorias.

“All ready, Dorias.” Eric stood back.

“Eric,” said Dorias’s voice. “I am not happy about this. I have not had time to fine-tune the copy. There may be flaws…”

“Dorias, I can’t wait. Please,” he added softly.

There was a measurable pause. “Sending,” said Dorias.

Eric waited. The only sound on the bridge was the vague hum of machinery. Then Cam turned its head toward Eric and blinked twice.

“Hello. I have been sent by Dorias to help you retrieve the data from the Vitae system.” For the first time, Eric heard intonation in Cam’s voice. The android held out one smooth hand.

Eric stared at it for a minute, before he reached out and shook its hand. “I am honored to meet you…” he stopped. “Dorias, what’s its name?”

“I hadn’t thought of one,” said Dorias. “That is part of your ceremonial role, isn’t it? I thought you’d give it one.”

Eric considered the android for a moment and then took the hand he had shaken between both of his and spoke in the language of the Realm. “I speak for the Nameless Powers. I see for the Servant Garismit. In so doing I name you. Your name is Adudorias.”

“Adudorias.” The android nodded. “Does it mean something?”

“Just ‘Son of Dorias.’” Eric tilted his head. “Is it all right with you?”

“I find it quite appropriate,” said the android. “My parent informs me that Abassyd Station would be an optimal site for our endeavors. You will be able to open a direct line to a communications terminal that has a hardware connection to a Vitae junction box.” Adudorias reached across to the comm board. “Excuse me,” it said as it unfastened the cable.

“Nice manners,” Eric remarked toward the comm board, feeling a bit strange. Dorias he was used to, but polite phrases coming from Cam were unsettling. “Thank you, Dorias. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” He reached for the shutoff key.

“Eric?”

“Yes?” Eric pulled his hand back from the board.

Dorias hesitated. “I think it would be better if you did not trust anyone else more than necessary. You are right. A war is brewing.”

Eric felt his eyes narrow. “I’ll remember that. Good-bye, Dorias.” Eric closed the channel down and eyed the android sitting in the pilot’s chair. Cam had been the one fixture in Eric’s life since Perivar had left. Cam didn’t move unless it was ordered to. Cam didn’t quest or question. Cam did exactly as it was ordered to and no more.

Adudorias ran Cam’s hands across the pilot boards, checking their layout and display sequences. It scanned the bridge, taking it all in with something that appeared to be interest.

“Adu,” said Eric. “We need to get going. Can you head us out for Abassyd Station?”

“As soon as we’re clear,” it answered.

Eric went into the common room and laid himself down in the landfall alcove. He felt a twinge of obscure remorse inside.

How was I to know I’d miss a nonsentient machine? He set his jaw and stared at the wall. Garismit’s Eyes. He rubbed his hands together. I will be glad when this is over. Shaking the thoughts away, he fastened the webbing over his torso. He’d left the view wall on and through it he could see the nighttime stealing in its strange, slow way over the City of Alliances. A few stars were visible over the tops of the distant cliffs.

He couldn’t stop part of his mind from wondering if one of them belonged to the Realm.