Vee snagged a piece of toast off the breakfast table, earning a dirty look from Sheila, whom she smiled at as she breezed by. She plunked herself into the copilot's chair, toast in her mouth and tea in her hand.

Good morning, T'sba, she typed, one-handed.

Good luck, Vee. Vee had quickly given T'sha her nickname after theyhad established that the long form gave the People's translator trouble.

T'sha seemed agitated this morning. Her body shrank and expanded as if she were breathing heavily. She shifted her weight on the perch that had been set up for her, and her wings twitched even though they were folded neatly along her back.

Is there something wrong? typed Vee.

Politics, replied T'sha. We are on the verge of an important poll in the High law Meet. Vee, I have worked on a scene I wish to show you.

Something of Home. When you have seen it, I will ask you some questions and I will then take your answers back to the Law Meet. Will you watch?

Of course. She wanted to add, "I'm all eyes," but she wasn't sure what T'sha would make of the metaphor.

T'sha's words faded, leaving the bubble clear and empty for a moment.

Then a blur of color filled the bubble like smoke. The blur resolved itself and Vee saw another Venus.

But this one had life.

The bubble showed her an island made up of swollen roots and leaves covered with translucent gold and silver blisters. Green tendrils that might have been vines or blades of grass waved in the wind. Light, white feathers protruded from clus-ters of seeds, or maybe they were little mushrooms.

They all hooked together as if hanging on for dear life. A nearly spher-ical slug crawled along one of the ash-colored branches only to get sucked up by something that looked like a cross between a jellyfish and a kingfisher.

This is the canopy, right? asked Vee.

Yes, came T'sha's answer. The canopy is below the clear. It is a complex tangle of life which, with the living highlands, sup-plies all the nutrients that we need to live and thrive. The plants intermingle and grow out from each other creating, what... wait, islands of vegetation that support both fliers and runners, which live on the canopy as you do on the crust and never lift themselves from it.

Vee glanced up at T'sha, trying to find words for the sheer wonder ofwhat she saw, but T'sha was deflated on her perch, smaller than Vee had ever seen her, so small that her sparkling gold skin hung in wrinkles and folds around her frame. She was gazing at the image in the holobubble.

This is a construction from old records, read the text. This was what we think it might have looked like several thousand years ago when the canopy was little more than loose islands floating on the wind. This is what it looks like now.

A solid, verdant carpet, green and gold, red and blue, and brown.

Broad, bubblelike leaves reached up into the wind from a solid mat of intertwined roots. A series of six-legged, what? Reptiles? Or birds? The local equivalent of chickens, maybe? Whatever they were, they picked their way between the leaves, sticking their beaks into bubbles here and there and draining them dry. But large patches of this field, with its one kind of "bird," were twisted black or limp brown.

I guess death and disease look the same no matter where you go, was Vee's first thought. Her second was, Wait until Isaac gets a look at all this .

Vee saw T'sha sagging next to the image, and details from the past few days' worth of conversations clicked into place. You don't build things-I have that right? You grow them or breed them?

Mostly, yes. T'sha shook herself, inflating a little, like a per-son trying to shake off a malaise.

And if they're alive, they have to eat, so they drain off the same stuff from the air that you do?

Yes. T'sha dipped her muzzle, an affirmative gesture.

And so you cultivated the most useful stuff in the canopy and in the clouds to thicken the soup in the clear which nourishes your living infrastructure, and you've overtaxed whatever the canopy eats?

Again, T'sha dipped her muzzle. That is one of the things that is happening. Another is blights. Huge portions of the canopy are dying, and we cannot stop them.

Vee nodded to herself as she typed. Monoculture. We've had thatproblem on Earth too.

T'sha inflated a little further, hesitating before she spoke. It is more than that. Some of the symbiotes and the living infra-structure made more efficient use of the... soup than the food crops. The tenders are actively killing the crops. We have lost the balance and have not yet recovered it.

Vee felt a twinge of sympathy. Imagine if the ladybugs stopped eating the aphids and turned around and ate the grain? What could anyone do?

So your world is dying?

Dying? T'sha flapped her wings as if to drive the word away. No. It is changing. The change will be violent, and the outcome is uncertain. We cannot predict what the new balance will be like or how well it will support us. The most viable solution heard was to use the World Portals our technicians were exper-imenting with to find another world where we could spread a controllable life base and transfer ourselves. We could wait until the pace of change on Home slowed down, and then we could return, possibly reserving the New Home and... wait... allow one world to lie fallow and stabilize while we lived on the other. T'sha turned her gaze directly toward the scarab. This is our case, you understand. This is what we wish to do here. We wish to spread life. We will take no more than we need. Do you understand?

Maybe the urgency was imagined, but Vee felt it nonethe-less. Part of her was aware that someone had come to stand behind her and read over her shoulder. She thought it was Josh, but she didn't turn to make sure.

Wait, she typed. You can't transfer an entire population from one world to another every ten years or so. On the other hand, who knew?

T'sha had shown her an image of the portal they used to transfer from Home to Venus, but she couldn't ex-plain how it worked. Vee could give her no words to help out. This was so far up the line from the world Vee knew that there was no way to talk about it. They needed a quantum physicist or something down here.

We would not perform the transfer every ten years, T'sha's, new words said. It would be every three thousand.

Vee whistled. You think in the long term don't you?T'sha froze. Startled? Is there another way to think of life?

You'd be surprised. Vee licked her lips. Look, T'sha, I think you should know there are those in the government on Earth who are not going to be very happy with the fact that you've started colonizing one of our worlds without asking them first.

One of your worlds? T'sha grew and shrank uncertainly for a moment and then settled down, small but not sagging. Then this IS your world?

Yes, replied Vee, wondering at the emphasis.

T'sha's muzzle opened and closed a few times as she watched the holobubble. Finally, new words appeared.

How is it yours?

Vee pulled back a minute. As she did, Josh leaned forward.

She felt him before she saw him. She glanced back, looking for suggestions.

"Be careful, Vee," he said. "I think we're probing close to a , nerve here."

"You too, huh?" Vee shook her head. "Okay, let's go for honesty." She typed, I don't understand.

T'sha swelled and rattled her wings. Impatience? How is it yours?

What do you build here? Where do you live? How do you use this place? I must be able to speak of legitimate use.

Josh looked down at her and shrugged. Vee felt a chill sinking into her.

Josh was right. There was a nerve under these words, and she had to find a way around it. We have our base, Venera, here.

Again, T'sha rattled her wings. Her crest ruffled and smoothed as if it were breathing. But your base does nothing. It does not expand, it does not build or grow, it does not spread life.

Vee hesitated and suddenly wished Rosa were with her. Rosa was the one who could manage a room full of hostile board members. Rosa would surely be able to give the right answers to one alien. Actually, Vee wished there was anyone in this chair right now except her.We have always considered the planets orbiting the sun ours. They didn't belong to anyone else.

Even the ones you do not use? They are yours? Now Vee couldn't see T'sha move at all. The ambassador just hung there, like a holograph of herself.

The idea has always been we'd find a use for them eventu-ally.

No answer came back. Vee licked her lips and tried again.

I'm not saying this is right, T'sha, but it's an old habit of thought, and it's going to be hard to break.

No answer. T'sha's muzzle pointed toward the sky and her wings spread wide. Vee sat frozen with her hands hovering over the keys. What do I do?

What do I do? What made me think I could pull this off?

All at once, T'sha froze. Vee saw her mouth move, but noth-ing new appeared on the translator. This had happened a cou-ple of times before.

T'sha was getting a message from her colleagues over the spidery headset she wore. Vee sat back and glanced up at Josh. His face was tight with worry. She knew exactly how he felt.

Outside, T'sha swelled as if she sought to drink in the whole world.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I must go. I... there is word my city is sick.

Someone will come speak to you. I must go.

T'sha launched herself into the air, rocketing into the dis-tance. The dirigible overhead detached itself from the tent and began to follow.

Vee lowered her hands onto the command board. "Good luck," she murmured.

"Her city's sick?" said Josh.

Vee nodded, watching after T'sha until she vanished over the edge of Beta Regio. "Her city's alive. It's... it's like a friend." She turned her gaze toward the sky again. The horror of the idea seeped slowly into her mind.

The city was a friend and the city was sick, maybe dying. It was too enormous to be really understood all at once, and it overlaid all theprevious conversation, where they scrabbled for ideas and understanding and came up empty.

Friends were dying, families were dying, and they needed someplace safe to go. That place, they had decided, was here. Their only question was whether the humans were here first.

And T'sha wasn't so sure they were.

"Josh," she said, watching the empty perches outside. "I think the easy part is over with."

T'sha rose from the World Portal into the miasma of metallic odors and coughed hard, contracting spasmodically around herself.

When she was able to spread her wings again, Pe'sen was beside her.

"There's a dirigible waiting for you. Let me guide you out of here."

T'sha brushed her wing against his in thanks. "Quickly, Pe'sen."

Pe'sen led the way, calling ahead the securitors and the portals to clear the way. The metallic walls and struts passed by in a blur. All T'sha saw was the dirigible's open gondola. She shot inside, barely hearing Pe'sen's call of "Good luck!"

The dirigible already had its orders. It closed up and lit its engines before T'sha even had time to grasp its perches. She rocked badly as the dirigible shot forward, but she didn't care. She was on her way.

"Ca'aed?" she ordered her headset to carry her voice to her city. Her stricken city. How bad? Maybe not so bad, maybe just a panic, an exaggeration. Ca'aed was strong, Ca'aed had survived so much.

"T'sha?" came Ca'aed's voice, strong, but strained. "Good luck, Ambassador."

T'sha's teeth clacked involuntarily. "Good luck, my city. I'm coming to see what all the fuss is about."

"I'm not sure I can let you near me, T'sha."Fear twitched T'sha's bones. "I'm your ambassador, Ca'aed. You cannot deny me."

"I can't endanger you ei-" The word cut off.

"Ca'aed!" shouted T'sha. Life of my mother, life of my father, what is happening to you?

"Evacuation," said Ca'aed. "We must call for evacuation. I am alerting the safety engineers. Do not come here, T'sha."

T'sha did not answer. She ordered her headset to find her birth mother.

"T'sha, you are returning?" came her anxious voice. "There is trouble-"

"I know Mother Pa'and. Listen to me. You must organize the family.

The safety engineers are being called. Ca'aed says you need to evacuate."

"Life of my mother..." breathed Mother Pa'and.

"I know, I know, but we can't let this get away from us. We are a million and we may all be ill. A quarantine shell is a pri-ority, but even before that we must keep everyone from scat-tering. Spread the word. Everyone must stay together. We cannot let anyone flee. Do you understand?"

"I understand Ambassador." Mother Pa'and's voice was firm now. "We will do as you say."

"Thank you. Good luck." Hurry, hurry, hurry, she thought to the dirigible. I need to be there! But she could hear the whine of its engines and taste the ozone and electrochemicals. It was already straining to reach greater speeds, sacrificing smooth flight to plow straight ahead. She could ask nothing more of it.

She did not even ask it to open its inner eyes. She did not want to see Ca'aed growing in the distance. She did not want to see its people, her people, swarming around it like flies. She would see that soon enough. She had to concentrate, call the speakers, call the archivers. The city's records had to be stored and saved.

A million people. A million to be quarantined and examined and provided for, even as Ca'aed itself had to be quarantined, examined, andprovided for. She alone could make promises for her city. She needed to know what her city had left to give.

If Ca'aed should become sick now, you will have nothing left. Z'eth's words dropped into her thoughts. T'sha shoved them away. It was not that bad. She had not been that profligate. Surely not. They had caught this in time. There would be damage, yes. There would be expense, but they were a million strong and they loved their city. They were united and they had acted promptly. Their city had not let them try to keep quiet and hide this illness from the world. They would call in help from their neighbors. It would be all right.

The dirigible banked sharply and slowed. Its portal opened and T'sha shot out into the open air. She saw her city spread-ing before her, and her body collapsed.

Directly in front of her, heavy, fungal blotches filled the deep crevices of Ca'aed's coral walls. She could taste them with her whole mouth. Her throat and skin tightened against the sick-ness. The wake villages were already being brought around to the leeward walls. The safety engineers hovered with their tools, draping the villages in the gauzelike strainers to keep out contagion, if that was possible. Shells were being lifted from Ca'aed's body and orderly flight chains of people filed into them. As they filled, the shells were wrapped in strainers and tethered together with bloodless ligaments. The people were closed inside to wait for the doctors, to wonder if the sickness had spread from their city to themselves.

It was so orderly, it was very nearly a dance. The enormity of it dived straight to the center of T'sha's being and left her stupefied. Her family was in there somewhere. Mother, Father, her little sisters, her brother...

Oh life and bone, brother!

"Ca-" she began, but she cut herself off. She could not rob Ca'aed of any of its concentration. She instead ordered the headset to find her brother on its own. A cluster of dirigibles flew the speaker's flags. She turned her flight toward them, beating her wings against the wind until she felt her bones would break.