"It was an accident," murmured Kevin.

"Shut up!" shouted Adrian. "Just... shut up! I don't care what it was!"

He didn't. He was scared; he wanted to run, but there was nowhere to go.

Okay. Okay. You know what to do. Do it.

The radio still showed up green. He hit the key for Scarab Fourteen again. "Scarab Fourteen! Scarab Fourteen! Come in, Charlotte. Talk to me!"

Still nothing but silence.

"Send the mayday to Venera," Adrian ordered his boss. "Tell them Scarab Fourteen isn't answering. I'll put together a com-prehensive on the damage." If we've still got hull integrity, we'll be all right. Hull integrity, all the pumps, most of the air tanks. ... He cast a quick glance out the window, trying not to see the battered hulk of Scarab Fourteen. The black and gray land outside was a mass of sharp ridges and steep descents, as if someone had slashed through the ground with a razor. Scarab Five had come to rest against one of the sharp-backed ridges. Orange glow oozed in the distance, filling the crevices below them. Lava.

But that's over there. Not here. Adrian dropped his gaze to his hands.

Keep it together. You know what to do. This is why you're here.

Kevin had pulled himself far enough back into the present to work the radio. "Venera Base, this is Scarab Five. Mayday, mayday. I repeat, Venera Base, this is Scarab Five. Mayday. Mayday. We are down. Scarab Fourteen is down and not responding."Adrian tuned him out and concentrated on the instruments. Most of the electronics seemed to be functioning. The com-puter gave him no errors as he requested a comprehensive list of the damages.

Adrian scanned the report. Bad, bad, bad. The rear axle had collapsed.

Two panels on the exterior wall had buckled in to the point they were pressing on the interior insulation and had cut through a whole set of coolant pipes on the way. Ice tank one had been completely crushed. So had air processor three.

Okay. First thing, get back and see what's to do about those buckled panels. They break through and we're very, very screwed.

"We have you, Scarab Five." Tori's familiar, infinitely wel-come voice sounded from the radio. "Your position is fixed. Rescue team being readied for drop now. What is your status?"

Kevin turned to Adrian. The helplessness on his face made Adrian want to hit him.

"Not good, but not dead," said Adrian toward the speaker. "Crew unhurt. Lost mobility, lost one ice tank, lost one air processor, and have sustained partial loss of one cooling pump. All remaining pumps, scrubbers, and tanks look green. Possible danger of hull compromise. I'm going to check it out now."

Adrian unsnapped his catches and got to his feet. As he did, a new trembling grind vibrated through the scarab's floor. The world shifted backward. Adrian pin wheeled his arms for bal-ance. He stared involuntarily out the window. As he toppled backwards, his eyes told his brain that the scarab hadn't moved, the ground outside had.

The floor hit his back, knocking all the wind out of him. Something hard caught his head, and stars burst in front of his eyes in sync with the pain.

"Holy God!" gasped Kevin. "Oh Christ!"

Adrian tried to lift his head, but the world spun. The floor vi-brated again. The scarab slid backward. The front end came down with a crash that rattled his teeth and sent fresh flashes of pain through his head."Scarab Five, what's going on? Talk to me, Adrian!"

"There's something alive," rasped Kevin. "Venera Base, can-cel drop. I repeat, cancel drop. There's something alive out there, and it's coming toward us."

What? Adrian pulled himself to his knees. I did not hear that.

"We've found the goddamned aliens," grated Kevin.

Adrian planted one hand on the counter and pushed. He reached his feet and looked out the front window. At first he saw nothing but black rock hunched up between the streams of lava. Then, two of the islands moved. They slid out of the lava stream and over the steady ground. From behind them rose a translucent jellyfish half the size of the scarab, its tentacles tipped with pincers.

The world spun and Adrian toppled back to the floor. Con-sciousness started to slip away. To his shame, he let it go.

Br'sei flew into the main chamber with the speed born of agitation.

T'sha shifted on her own perch, turning away from the recorder and its reports that she was still reviewing to get herself up to speed on New Home and its New People.

D'han and P'tesk lurched sideways as Br'sei blew past. He managed to snag a perch in time to keep from crashing into the wall.

"What's happened?" asked T'sha.

"I... there's..." Br'sei's muzzle bobbed as he looked around the chamber.

"Where is Ambassador D'seun?"

"He's surveying the wind currents." T'sha raised her fore-hand and beckoned to Br'sei. "What's happened? Talk to me."

"I..." Br'sei's teeth clacked. Was he nervous? T'sha's bones bunched in annoyance at his hesitation. D'seun had them all too well trained. Even Br'sei, for all the doubts he expressed to her. She was an interloper. Only approved information was to be shared with her.I am also an ambassador to the High Law Meet. "Tell me what's happened, Engineer," she ordered.

Br'sei shrank a little in resignation, but maybe also in relief. "There's been an accident."

T'sha's arms stiffened, lifting her off her perch. "Who? How many are hurt?"

"No, none of ours," said Br'sei. "It's the New People."

The words jolted straight through T'sha. "What?"

Br'sei dipped his muzzle. "The overseers watching the New People report that two of their transports have crashed near Living Highland 76.

They believe them to be damaged."

There are overseers assigned to the New People? This isn't in the reports. T'sha went very still. "Are their own kind responding?"

"Not yet," said Br'sei.

"P'tesk, D'han, come with me." T'sha spread her wings. "Br'sei, you will sweep the base. Bring everyone we have. Get the dirigibles flying and bring the emergency spares. We need whatever we've got to work in cold and low pressure."

"What? Why?" D'han fluttered. "Ambassador-"

T'sha was already flying toward the door. "We have to help."

"But their own kind will surely respond." P'tesk held out both forehands, pleading.

T'sha hooked a forehand onto the threshold and turned to face him.

"We cannot leave them there. The research D'seun has so kindly gathered indicates they cannot be exposed to air." The research, based on raw materials he collected, which may not have been raw at the time.

"But if we-" began P'tesk.

"If we what?" demanded T'sha, swelling. "If we go they will find out we're here. Surely. What if we let them die? We are that desperate for oursecrecy? We are that uncertain about our claim to this world that we should fail to help life?"

"No," said Br'sei softly, more to P'tesk and D'han than to her. "We are not." He inflated himself. "We have several construc-tors designed to deal with the New People if necessary. I'll bring them."

Br'sei vanished into the corridor. T'sha winged after him, all but exploding into the open air. She pushed all thought, all suspicion of what had happened here before out of her mind. That was for later. For now, the New People needed her.

"Scarab Five, Scarab Five." The radio called from the main cabin.

"Respond. Adrian? Kevin? Come on, answer me!"

"Shit," exclaimed Josh, and Vee heard him start popping the buckles on his safety straps. She started doing the same.

"Maybe you should-" began Julia.

"No." Vee shoved the straps aside and made her way up the steeply tilted floor after Josh.

Adrian lay on the floor in the main aisle, dazed. Kevin crouched beside him, little better.

"What happened?" asked Vee, dropping to her knees next to them.

Kevin swallowed hard. "It was an-"

Josh just shoved his way past them to the radio.

"Scarab Five, Scarab Five!" came a frantic voice out of the speaker.

Josh slapped the Reply key. "We're here, Venera. This is Josh Kenyon."

"What happened? Kevin said he saw the aliens?"

What? Vee froze.

"I'm not seeing anything except Scarab Fourteen," said Josh. "Theylook hurt. Have you been able to raise them?"

"No. We've got the rescue on standby. If they leave now, they'll make it in three hours."

Josh's lips moved in silent calculation, or maybe prayer. "Drop them down. Now."

"Have you got anybody who can get across to Fourteen and check out their situation?" asked the voice from Venera.

Josh looked at the red lights glowing on the control panels, then back at Adrian and Kevin on the floor.

"We're damaged and have to do control," he said reluctantly. "There's no trained personnel to respond."

Vee stood. Now she could see out the window, and she saw Scarab Fourteen's crippled body alone on the ragged plain, far too near a lava stream. "How much training does it take to shove someone in a suit and get them over here? How much does it take to look around?"

"You'll need to get in." Adrian struggled to sit up. "I can get you in."

"You saw-" began Kevin.

"I saw null." Adrian grabbed a cabinet handle and hauled himself to his feet. "I saw null," he repeated. "We need to get over to Fourteen. We need to stabilize Five." He glowered down at Kevin.

Pride resurfaced in Kevin's eyes. "Don't tell me my job."

"Somebody has to!" Adrian steadied himself against the wall. Fury shook him. "You're not doing it!"

Kevin shut his mouth and pulled back. He took a long, shaky breath, leaning a hand against the counter. "You're right. Take Josh and Dr.

Hatch and two of the others over to Four-teen. Give them any help you can. I'll stabilize us so we can hold out until the rescue drops." He glanced out the window at the still landscape. "If you saw null, I saw null."

"I'll go get your volunteers." Vee hurried back into the cabin.Her colleagues were as she left them, strapped in and arguing.

"What is going on out there?" demanded Troy.

"We're in trouble, but we're talking," Vee told him. "Fourteen is in trouble and not talking. Terry, Troy, they need us to go over and help. We need to get into suits. Julia," softer, lower, "Kevin's kind of shaky. He's going to need a pair of hands. Wait until we're on our way to Fourteen; then come out and see what you can do."

"When were you elected?" snorted Troy.

"When I was the one who got myself out of this cabin," shot back Vee.

"There's lives on the line, Peachman. You want to leave Lindi Manzur to fry?" It was emotional blackmail and she knew it, but it worked. He shut up. "Come on."

Troy and Terry reached the changing compartment shortly after she did. Josh and Adrian were already there. They suited each other up in silence. Vee went through the motions, trying not to think about the broken hulk of a scarab she'd seen. She didn't want to think about how thin its walls were, how they were all deep down inside a poisonous, pressurized crucible that was just waiting for them to screw up so it could burn them all to ashes.

The airlock's inner door closed and the pump started up, but instead of the normal, steady chug-chug-chug, it wheezed, snarled and sputtered, skipped beats and raced ahead as if to catch up.

God, we might not even be able to get out of here, thought Vee. She felt her self-control slipping a little. Which was un-usual. She tried to be objective and examine her feelings, but that didn't work. She eyed her helmet icons until she got Josh's channel.

"Do you think they might still be all right?" she asked.

"Same as us," said Josh. "If their hull holds and they have at least one of the pumps and a cooler tank, they can hang on."

She licked her lips and asked the next question. "If there is a hull breach, how long do they have?""They don't."

"I didn't think so."

Vee rested her helmet against the wall and listened to the asth-matic pump. She let herself wish long and hard that she hadn't volunteered for this, just to get that feeling out of the way. Then she prayed long and hard that the hull on Scarab Five would hold tight, because if it didn't, she'd just killed Julia by letting her be the one to stay behind. That feeling went away more slowly, even after she assured herself that Kevin would make Julia get into a hardsuit as soon as he thought of it, or that Julia, who was not stupid, just easily stressed, would think of it on her own.

Finally, the outer hatch rolled open, giving Vee a chance to move away from her thoughts. She climbed out, right behind Adrian.

The world outside was like a petrified ocean, with its waves and currents frozen into black stone. Through the ridges, glow-ing ribbons of lava crept down well-worn paths. She imagined it smelled hot, almost spicy, the kind of smell you could taste.

"They'd get into suits, wouldn't they?" asked Terry on the general channel, echoing Vee's thoughts from the airlock.

"If they could get to them, yeah," said Adrian. "The scarabs have bulkheads that seal if there's a hull breach, just like a ship."

Vee tried to clamp down on her imagination. Now was not the time to paint pictures of the future. Now was the time to slog forward, watch her footing and play it straight. Don't look up. Be like a kid. If you don't look at the scarab, it won't change. It won't get any worse because while you're not look-ing at it, it isn't there. Slog up the ridges, pick your way down the side, watch the ash piles that have collected in the hollows, notice how the charcoal veins look like the veins in the Dis-covery walls. Don't look up.

"No!"