"Yes," Zoe said, staring up at Jane. "I understand, Jane. Not a word."

"Thank you, Zoe," Jane said, and then bent down and kissed the top of Zoe's head. "Go ahead," she said, to me.

"Hickory, you remember when we had the conversation where I told the two of you that I wanted you to hand over your consciousness implants," I said.

"Yes," said Hickory.

"We talked about the Conclave then," I said. "And you said that you didn't believe the Conclave was a threat to this colony."

"I said that we believed the threat to be negligible," Hickory said.

"Why do you believe that?" I asked.

"The Conclave prefers that colonies are evacuated rather than destroyed," Hickory said.

"How do you know this?" I said.

"From our own information on the Conclave, provided to us by our government," Hickory said.

"Why didn't you share this information with us before?" I asked.

"We were told not to," Hickory said.

"By whom?" I asked.

"By our government," Hickory said.

"Why would they tell you not to share this?" I asked.

"We have a standing order from our government not to share information with you on matters about which you are not substantially informed," Hickory said. "It is a courtesy to your government, which requires security and confidence from our own government on numerous matters. We have not lied to you, d.i.c.kory and I, but we are not allowed to volunteer information, either. You will recall before we left Huckleberry that we had asked you what you knew of the status of this part of s.p.a.ce."

"Yes," I said.

"We were attempting to discover how much of our knowledge we were allowed to share with you," Hickory said. "We regret to say it did not appear you knew much. So we were not able to share much."

"You're sharing it now," I said.

"You're asking now," Hickory said. "And Zoe has told us not to lie."

"You've seen our video of the Conclave destroying the Whaidi colony," I said.

"Yes, when you shared it with all of your colonists," Hickory said.

"Did it match your own video?" I asked "No," Hickory said. "Ours was much longer."

"Why would our version be so much shorter?" I asked.

"We cannot speculate why your government does the things it does," Hickory said.

I paused at this; the construction of the sentence left a lot of room for interpretation.

Jane jumped in. "You said the Conclave prefers to evacuate colonies rather than destroy them. Are you saying this because of the video or do you have other information?"

"We have other information," Hickory said. "The video shows only the first attempt by the Conclave to remove a colony."

"How many others have there been?" Jane asked.

"We do not know," Hickory said. "We have been out of communication with our government for the better part of a Roanoke year. However, when we left, the Conclave had removed seventeen colonies."

"How many of those were destroyed?" Jane asked.

"Three," Hickory said. "The rest were evacuated. In ten cases the colonists repatriated with their races. Four chose to join the Conclave."

"You have evidence of this," I said.

"The Conclave extensively doc.u.ments each colony removal and shares it with every nonmember government," Hickory said. "We have information on all the removals up to our arrival here on Roanoke."

"Why?" Jane asked. "What relevance does this information have to the two of you?"

"Our government was well aware this colony was being founded despite the warnings of the Conclave," Hickory said. "And while we did not know for certain, we expected that the Colonial Union would attempt to hide this colony from the Conclave. When the Conclave found your colony, we were to show you this information."

"For what purpose?" Jane asked.

"To convince you to surrender the colony," Hickory said. "We could not allow it to be destroyed."

"Because of Zoe," I said.

"Yes," Hickory said.

"Wow," Zoe said.

"Quiet, sweetheart," I said. Zoe lapsed back into silence. I studied Hickory carefully. "What would happen if Jane and I chose not to surrender the colony?" I asked. "What if she and I decided the colony should be destroyed instead?"

"We would prefer not to say," Hickory said.

"Don't evade," I said. "Answer the question."

"We would kill you and Lieutenant Sagan," Hickory said. "You and any other colonist leader who would authorize the destruction of the colony."

"You would kill us?" I said.

"It would be difficult for us," Hickory allowed. "We would have to do it without our consciousness implants active, and I believe neither d.i.c.kory nor I would choose to activate them again. The emotions would be unbearable. Also, we are aware Lieutenant Sagan has been genetically altered back to Special Forces operational parameters. This would make killing her more difficult."

"How do you know that?" Jane said, surprised.

"We observe," Hickory said. "We know you try to hide it, Lieutenant. Small things reveal you. You chop vegetables far too quickly."

"What are they talking about?" Zoe asked Jane.

"Later, Zoe," Jane said, and turned her attention back to Hickory. "What about now?" Jane asked. "Would you still kill me and John?"

"If you choose to surrender the colony, yes," Hickory said.

"Don't you dare dare," Zoe said. She stood up, furious. "Under no circ.u.mstances will you do that."

Hickory and d.i.c.kory trembled with emotional overload, attempting to process Zoe's anger. "This one thing we must refuse you," Hickory eventually said to Zoe. "You are too important. To us. To all Obin."

Zoe was incandescent with rage. "I've already lost one parent because of the Obin Obin," Zoe said.

"Everybody calm down," I said. "No one is killing anyone. All right? This is a nonissue. Zoe, Hickory and d.i.c.kory aren't going to kill us because we're not going to let the colony be destroyed. Simple as that. And there is no way I would let anything happen to you you, Zoe. Hickory and d.i.c.kory and I all all agree that you are too important for that." agree that you are too important for that."

Zoe took a sharp intake of breath and started sobbing. Jane reeled her in and sat her back down. I turned my attention to the two Obin.

"I want to make this clear to the two of you," I said. "In all circ.u.mstances, protect Zoe."

"We will," Hickory said. "Always."

"Good," I said. "Do try try not to kill me in the process. Or Jane." not to kill me in the process. Or Jane."

"We will try," Hickory said.

"Good," I said. "Settled. Let's move on." I had to stop a minute to recollect my thoughts; being informed I was an a.s.sa.s.sination target and Zoe's subsequent and entirely justified meltdown had well and truly rattled my cage. "You said there were seventeen colony removals that you know about," I said.

"Yes," Hickory said.

"Fourteen of them had the colonists survive, and four of those joined the Conclave," I said. "You mean those colonists joined, or the whole race joined?"

"The colonists joined," Hickory said.

"So none of the races whose colonies have been removed have joined the Conclave," I said.

"No," Hickory said. "This has been a matter of some concern within the Conclave itself. It was a.s.sumed that at least some of these races would then accept the invitation to join the Conclave. The removals seem to have hardened resolve otherwise."

"Races are not forced to join the Conclave," Jane said from the couch.

"No," Hickory said. "They are simply not allowed to expand further."

"I don't see how they could enforce that," I said. "It's a big universe."

"It is," Hickory said. "But no race has been willing to forgo administration of their colonies. There's always a way to discover the colonies."

"Except this one," I said. "That's why they've had us hide. It's more important for humans to survive in the universe than it is to control them."

"Perhaps," Hickory said.

"I want to see those files you have, Hickory," Jane said. "And the extended version of our video," she said to me.

"We will need to go to the technology lab to transfer them," Hickory said.

"No time like the present," I said. Jane and I kissed Zoe good night, and then we headed out the door to the Black Box, Hickory and d.i.c.kory taking the lead.

"Why did you say that in there?" Jane asked, as we walked.

"Say what?" I said.

"That we wouldn't allow the colony to be destroyed," Jane said.

"For one thing, our daughter was on the verge of a nervous breakdown thinking about Hickory and d.i.c.kory running us through with knives," I said. "And for another thing, if the options are surrendering and turning every man, woman and child in the colony into ash, I know what I'm going to do."

"You're making a.s.sumptions on limited information again," Jane said. "I need to look at those tapes before we make any sort of decision about anything. Until then, every option is on the table."

"I can already tell we're going to go round and round on this one," I said, and looked up at the stars. Jane looked up with me. "I wonder which one of those has Huckleberry around it," I said. "I think maybe we all should have stayed there. Then this would be someone else's problem. At least for a while."

"John," Jane said. I turned. She had stopped several steps behind me now and was still looking up.

"What?" I said. I looked up again. "Made a constellation?"

"There's a star up there that wasn't there before," Jane said, and pointed. "That one."

I squinted, and then realized it didn't matter whether I squinted or not, since I didn't know which stars were supposed to be there and which ones weren't. And then I saw it. Bright. And moving.

"Oh G.o.d," I said.

Jane shrieked and fell to the ground, clutching her head. I sprinted over to her. She was convulsing now. I tried to get hold of her and her arm whipped out, her hand smacking palm first onto the side of my head, slapping me hard into the ground. I saw a white flash and spent the next few indeterminate moments immobile, trying not to vomit.

Hickory and d.i.c.kory hauled me up from the dirt, one at each arm. I looked around groggily for Jane. She was no longer on the ground; instead she was stalking furiously, muttering like a mad woman. She stopped, arched her back and screamed like a banshee. I hollered myself, in total surprise.

Eventually she stalked over to me. "You're going to have to meet them without me, because right now I will f.u.c.king kill every last one of them," she said.

"What are you talking about?" I said.

"The f.u.c.king Colonial Union," Jane said, and stabbed a finger skyward. "That's them, and they're coming down now. Here."

"How do you know?" I said.

Jane looked away and laughed an eerie little laugh that I'd never heard from her before and sincerely hoped I never would again. "Yes. Well. Remember when we were talking earlier about my new abilities, and I said I didn't have a BrainPal?"

"Yes," I said.

"Yeah," Jane said. "Turns out, I was wrong."

"I have to tell you, I thought you'd be happy to see me," General Rybicki said. "Everyone else seems to be." He waved out my window to the street, which was filled with the early morning image of Roanokeis going out of their minds with joy that their isolation was coming to an end. "Where's Sagan?"

"You need to tell me what the f.u.c.k is going on, General," I said.

Rybicki looked back toward me. "Excuse me?" he said. "I'm not your commanding officer anymore, Perry, but I'm still your superior. A little more respect would be in order."

"f.u.c.k that," I said. "And f.u.c.k you too. There hasn't been a thing about this colony you've been straight about since you recruited us."