Orli recognized him. "I think that's Olaf Reeves."

"It does match the images in my database."

Orli crept around the desk and forced herself to look at the main screen that Olaf Reeves had been using. It was still recording-the clan leader had tried to leave a final message. According to the counter, he had begun the recording nine hours and twenty-four minutes earlier.

She ran the file back, skimming it in reverse past hours and hours of his motionless body staring at the imager. Finally, near the beginning, he started to move and talk again, and she replayed his message.

His voice was raspy. "I am Olaf Reeves, head of clan Reeves. My people came to this abandoned city to create a self-sufficient colony, to make a new start. We didn't know that the original inhabitants of this station had perished from a deadly plague, thousands of years ago. Now my clan has found death here as well.

"We are completely quarantined, and I jettisoned our ships so no one could escape and spread the disease. As of this recording, every one of my people has been infected. Most have already died, including"-his voice broke-"my son and his family. Our green priest dispatched a warning, but I'll transmit this recording too. If you receive this message, stay away. This entire station is contaminated. I will not let the alien plague spread. If it gets loose in the Confederation, it could kill billions."

Each breath was labored, and dark splotches covered Olaf's face as he stared into the imager. His shoulders trembled. "To make damn sure, I'm going to destroy this city. My compies-" Then he went into a spasm of coughing that did not end. He vomited blood, and after a severe seizure he collapsed into unconsciousness. At some point during the remaining nine hours of the recording, he died at his desk.

Orli just stared, knowing that the clan head had meant to send his message on a repeating broadcast, but he had succumbed before he could complete his recording. She'd had no contact with Kett Shipping since she departed on this journey. Orli and DD had come here, unaware.

She stared silently for a long moment. "That means I've been exposed, DD."

"That is a matter of great concern, Orli, but I should point out that you wore a breathing mask."

Orli shook her head. "I didn't don the facemask until we went into the city. The landing bay would have repressurized with station air. And if it's all contaminated..." Still, she didn't know for certain.

A Teacher compy strutted through the doorway of the admin hub. "I came to report on our progress. Is Mr. Reeves not receiving visitors?"

"Never again," Orli said. "He's dead."

"Oh." The Teacher compy paused to reassess. "I am BO, assigned as special tutor to the clan Reeves children. Unfortunately, I no longer have any students."

"A pleasure to meet you. I am DD, a Friendly compy. This is Orli Covitz, captain of the Proud Mary." He seemed happy to make the introductions. "Where are your students?"

"They are all dead. I was the only Teacher compy on the station, but there are five other compies. I came to report to Olaf Reeves that we are nearly finished with the task he assigned us."

"What task?" Orli asked.

"Olaf Reeves gave us orders to modify the power blocks and alien energy reactors to generate an overload sufficient to destroy this entire city. It is imperative that no one else be infected. Olaf Reeves was not convinced that his warning would be heeded. The plague remained viable aboard this station for centuries or millennia, and he was certain that once humans learned about the derelict city, someone at some point would come here exploring." BO's voice changed, and she sounded more like a stern schoolteacher. "I see you did not heed the warning. Now I recognize his wisdom regarding human nature."

"I didn't receive any warning. He never finished or transmitted his recording. We arrived too late."

"That is disappointing," BO said. "I believe all members of clan Reeves are deceased. Fortunately, that removes a matter of some consternation among the compies."

"What matter of consternation?"

"The reactor explosion will be sufficient to vaporize all components of this station. If any Roamers were still alive, our compy programming would preclude us from causing the detonation that would kill them."

Orli was intimately familiar with the protective strictures embedded in compy core programming. "Failure to detonate the station might lead to continued spread of the plague. By waiting, you could endanger the lives of entire planetary populations."

"That did cause a conundrum. In the meantime, preparing the linked reactors for detonation is a complex and time-consuming process, which we have not finished yet. Now the conundrum is solved."

Orli and DD followed BO to the hub engineering chambers where the Worker compies were connecting a series of power blocks to the alien reactor, while others strung linked secondary explosives up into the spokes. Watching all the dutiful compies brought tears to Orli's eyes. It reminded her of her own compies back on Relleker, who were now happily (she hoped) assigned to the Ikbir colony.

BO said, "Since you are here, Orli Covitz, you are certainly infected. Now we will have to wait until you perish before we detonate the station."

CHAPTER.

88.

AELIN.

Elisa Enturi returned to the bloater-extraction operations with great fanfare. "We have sealed a deal, sir-expanded ekti-X distribution operations with Kett Shipping."

Listening to the discussion without interest, Aelin sat alone and sad in the headquarters module. He touched his treeling, let his thoughts wander among messages from thousands of green priests. Aelin drew comfort from the everyday personal activities across the Spiral Arm.

As he watched the ekti-extraction operations among the drained bloater sacks in space, he no longer felt the joy and wonder he had once experienced. The industrial activity was extensive and exotic compared to the forests of Theroc, but Aelin had felt stifled because he couldn't share these wonders with his fellow green priests.

Shelud's death, though, changed everything.

Iswander was never generous with his smiles but he gave one to Elisa now. It was just business as usual. "They met our terms without complaint?"

"A few complaints, but they had no real leverage. Your gift of ekti-X to King Peter and our constant shipments are already causing tremors in the stardrive fuel market. Nobody knows where the supplies come from, but prices have started dropping, and traditional skyminers have gone from being curious to being worried. We'll have six more Kett vessels to deliver ekti-X from both our primary and secondary extraction fields."

She added an even more confident smile. "And I'm certain that if we cast a wide sensor net in the interstellar void where no one else has looked before, we'll discover even more bloater clusters. They've got to be out there. I don't know how they've gone unnoticed all this time. They seem to be appearing everywhere."

Iswander called up displays of optimistic and pessimistic projections. "We have to be careful that we don't glut the market, while we bank all possible profits. I've already diverted a third of our production into storage silos. We can build up a huge strategic stockpile of stardrive fuel."

Aelin's admiration for Lee Iswander remained undiminished. He had once viewed the man as the personification of the human spirit, taking risks and pushing boundaries. While he tutored young Arden in physics and engineering (learning much about those subjects himself), the green priest also taught him about his father's business ventures, both successes and failures, including the spectacular failures-like Sheol-as well as the spectacular successes, such as these ekti-X operations.

But recently Shelud had contacted him through telink, told him about the Onthos plague and how all of clan Reeves was dying. His brother revealed everything to him, and once a message was sent through telink, all green priests could access it. Aelin didn't care that their private last moments were experienced widely.

Through telink, he and Shelud talked and talked, and he'd connected to his brother's ever-more-wavering and chaotic thoughts at the very end. Shelud described the plague symptoms in excruciating, painful detail until his thoughts became blurred, disjointed.

On the alien space city, Shelud had walked among the dying Roamers, listening to their stories and repeating them into his treeling so that the worldforest, at least, would remember them. The last survivors had gathered in one of the community rooms, knowing they had little time left. Shelud remained connected via telink even as the fever surged through him and his body died.

Aelin kept talking to his brother, giving him a familiar voice to hold on to, a comforting lifeline. And then Shelud's thoughts slipped away. In the final moment he took the only refuge of a green priest, pouring the remnants of his mind and soul into the trees, letting all his thoughts live among the verdani so that he was at least partially preserved....

Now, in the headquarters module, Aelin only half listened to Elisa giving her excited report to Iswander. She seemed so brave and confident. "You lost everything on Sheol, sir ... and I lost my son, and husband." She didn't look affected at all. "But we're recovering."

Surprised, Aelin lifted his head from the treeling. Was it possible that she didn't know? "You are mistaken, Elisa Enturi. Your son isn't dead. Your husband isn't dead. They both survived the explosion."

Elisa stared at him. "What are you saying, green priest?"

"I have seen their messages sent through telink. Garrison Reeves works in the rubble shepherding operations at Earth. Your son, Seth, is in school at Academ with other Roamer children. Were you not aware of this?"

Elisa looked aghast and then furious-not at all what Aelin expected. If someone had surprised him with news that Shelud still lived, he would have been overjoyed. He said, "I thought you'd be happy."

Elisa whirled to Iswander. "He tricked me! He's still got Seth."

Flustered, Iswander waved a hand to calm her. "Of course, take a ship and go. I know you want to see your son."

She was already moving out of the admin module. "I have to rescue him."

CHAPTER.

89.

GENERAL NALANI KEAH.

Along with the Kutuzov, General Keah decided to bring three battle groups to the next round of exercises with the Ildiran Solar Navy. To lead them, she chose three of her Grid Admirals, specifically the ones most fond of their desks. She called those men the "Three H's"-Admirals Handies, Harvard, and Haroun. She figured they needed the practice.

True, the Three H's were skilled in the administrative complexities of the Confederation Defense Forces. Admiral Handies had made his mark managing the Grid 0 portion of the fleet, which encompassed Earth, the Lunar Orbital Complex, and the Mars military base; Haroun and Harvard, who managed Grids 6 and 11, respectively, were also adept at paperwork. While Keah wasn't one to wax poetic about the glories of combat, she did need to pry the three admirals away from their offices and give them some real experience.

Adar Zan'nh had promised to share new information his people had uncovered about the legendary Shana Rei and the possibility of their reappearance. Keah was skeptical of scary stories about bogeymen that lived in the shadows, but she herself had seen the dark nebula that swallowed the fleeing black robot ships, and she had viewed the images of the blackness vomiting up from the clouds of Golgen. Something sure as hell was going on.

She and the Adar both saw the enormity of the potential threat, and the CDF and the Solar Navy were stepping up the intensity of their war games until they figured out what they were dealing with. Zan'nh was bringing an entire maniple of warliners this time-seven septas, or forty-nine ships.

It should be a good challenge.

Keah realized that standard space battle routines would be useless against an intangible enemy like that shadow cloud at Dhula. Nevertheless, the exercises would give her CDF personnel hands-on practice and would keep them on their toes.

She flew the Kutuzov out to the Plumas system for the exercises, though her role in this case was just to observe. The Three H's had Juggernauts and Mantas, and would be responsible for their own movements. Keah was anxious to see how they interacted.

The CDF ships arrived early in the system, and not by accident. Even though these were scheduled war games, General Keah never took anything at face value. She trusted Adar Zan'nh for the most part, but she had been there at that terrible battlefield in Earth orbit twenty years ago. She had witnessed the astounding treachery when supposed allies had turned against the human military in their last stand. She didn't intend to be fooled again-ever.

The CDF battle groups appeared over the frozen moon of Plumas, a water-refueling station and deep ice mines still run by the Roamer clan Tamblyn. Ron Tamblyn, the current manager of the water mines, was not overly pleased when informed that the CDF and Solar Navy would engage in complicated exercises in the vicinity. He complained that the activity would disrupt his usual business, until Keah reminded him that many of the participating ships would need to take on large loads of water-at full price. Mollified, the Roamers kept their heads down, remaining in the grotto beneath the Plumas ice sheets.

When all CDF ships were in position and waiting for the Solar Navy to arrive, Keah grew impatient. She suggested to the three Grid Admirals, "Why don't you loosen up, run some flight patterns?"

"Good idea, General," acknowledged Admiral Harvard, as if the thought had never occurred to him. The other two H's joined in.

"But I thought we were running an exercise against the Ildirans, General," said Admiral Haroun. "What sort of flight patterns do you want us to run?"

Keah sighed. If they got into a real space battle, Keah hoped she wouldn't have to look over their shoulders and tell each one where to point the jazers and when to push the firing buttons. "The problem with the Solar Navy is that they've been too set in their ways, but now they're trying to be more nimble and adaptable. You can do the same."

The Three H's directed their ships into separate groups, as if this were a formal military parade. Hoping to show these desk admirals how it was done, she sent out a fleet of her own Remoras. Maybe she'd pretend to launch a turncoat attack, just to rile them up.

Then a real threat intervened.

Out at the fringe of the system, her Remora patrols discovered a disturbance-an emptiness like a tear in space that began to spew out a thunderhead of dark dust. General Keah felt a chill when she saw the emerging shadow cloud: she had seen this before.

She sent an emergency signal to all ships. "No time for practice. This is real." She ordered the Kutuzov's systems to be powered up. "I am assuming control of the battle group. We head out to see what we can do against that shadow cloud."

Admiral Handies transmitted back, "General, the Ildiran Solar Navy isn't here yet. Shouldn't we wait?"

"No, dammit!" When she and the Ildiran warliners had pursued the black robot vessels, that shadow cloud had taken them by surprise. As part of their preliminary training, she had required all the crews on every CDF vessel to review the briefings on that previous encounter. "I want to figure this out, but keep a good distance."

The Juggernauts and Manta cruisers raced toward the edge of the system. The dark, shapeless mass looked like an amoeba made entirely of midnight. She kept her eyes open, studying it.

A message came over the comm from Ron Tamblyn at Plumas. "General Keah, what's going on up there? Is this part of the simulation?"

"Better if you just stay where you are, Mr. Tamblyn. We have a problem."

On the bridge, her green priest sat shivering next to his potted treeling. Nadd was always cold aboard the Kutuzov, and now he seemed nervous as well. "General, shall I inform the worldforest network what's happening?"

"Go right ahead. But nothing's actually happened-yet."

As soon as she said the words, Keah knew she had spoken too soon. From within the folds of the ever-expanding black nebula, three gigantic shapes appeared, composed of a different, more solid type of darkness. A trio of long hexagonal cylinders thrust like blunted knives out of the dark nebula.

Then, like buckshot, dozens of smaller ships streaked out of the shadow cloud, accompanying the black hex cylinders. Keah immediately recognized the design of the smaller vessels. "Those are bugbot ships!"

Admiral Harvard transmitted from his Juggernaut. "General, should we send a liaison ship forward? Try to communicate with them and ask their intentions?"

The black robot ships roared toward the CDF ships in attack formations.

"No, Admiral Harvard, we will not. Shields on full, prepare to fire jazers."

Her crew aboard the Kutuzov reacted more swiftly, since they had experienced this before. She could only imagine the confusion aboard the other three Juggernauts, and she hoped her Grid Admirals would learn and respond quickly. There wouldn't be time for on-the-job training.

The black robot ships opened fire first, and Keah heard the impacts against her shields, saw the flares on the display screens. "Return fire, Mr. Patton! Hit them with everything, and then hit them again."

"My pleasure, General," said the weapons officer.

The order was transmitted across the battle group. Though out of practice, the other CDF warships unleashed such an enthusiastic flurry of jazers that dozens of shots hit the robot ships, destroying one by dumb luck. The angular vessels spun and reeled, changed course, and raced forward again at accelerations too intense for any biological form to survive.

"Can't say if any of those are the same bugbot ships that escaped from Dhula, General, or if they're fresh ones," said Sensor Tech Saliba.

"We know what the bugbots are capable of. Best solution is to wipe them all out-just to be sure."