I went to the dragon corral and cared for my machine personally. Id taught my troops to perform minor repairs on their dragons rather than depend totally on the techs. Out here on a wild planet, your kit wasnt someone elses job, it was your life.

In the corral, I met up with Della for the first time since shed dropped the baby-bomb on me up on Cyclops. Wed been placed in different platoons, and Id been too busy coming up to speed on being a veteran in a brand new cavalry cohort to talk much with her. The truth was, I reflected, Id been avoiding this moment.

"Hi Della," I said cheerily.

She gave me a thin smile and a nod. Im not the best at reading feminine responses, but to me she looked a little put out.

"Hey," I said, walking up to her and wiping my fingers with a dirty rag. "I hope you didnt take things the wrong way up there on Cyclops. Ive been so busy learning how to command a squadron of these dragons, I didnt have much time-"

"Its okay, James," she said. "Like I said, Ive moved on."

"Yeah, sure. The marriage thing. Whod you marry, anyway? I hope it wasnt that d.i.c.khead named Stott."

She smiled at me then, and it was the real thing this time. "No, not him. Its a man you dont know. A good man."

"Great, great," I said, turning away to go. Id left things in an unclear state up on the ship, and Id wanted her to know I wasnt mad at her or anything. I felt a little relieved Id accomplished my mission. It was disturbing that some other guy Id never met was taking care of my kid-but the whole thing was mind-boggling to me anyway.

"James," she said before Id gone one step. "Dont you want to know more about your child?"

"Uh...I am curious. But I kind of figured that with you being married and all, I should bow out of the picture, if you know what I mean."

That was the wrong thing to say. Her face hardened. She was unhappy all over again. d.a.m.n.

I knew I was out of my element on this one. Sure, I could write a book on how a man should talk to a girl whod caught him hanging around with a rival woman, or how to explain to a lover he might have forgotten to text for a couple of days-but this? I was without clue.

Whatever my feelings, I could tell by the look in her eye that the ball was in my court. I took a random stab at serving it back.

"Why dont you tell me about her?" I asked brightly. "About Etta, I mean."

That broke the dam. I was treated to about an hours worth of pictures and video and even a lock of the girls hair to wrap around my fingers. I smiled at that last part.

"Blonde hair," I mused. "Real gold-colored, like mine used to be when I was young. Flaxen, my grandma used to call it."

"Do you feel better now?" Della asked, her eyes searching mine. She was trying to look cool-h.e.l.l, Della was the ultimate cool-as-cuc.u.mber woman. But I knew she was gauging my responses carefully.

"Yeah!" I said, giving her a big grin. "Can I keep some of the hair?"

"Yes, certainly. Ill transfer the pictures and recordings to your tapper, too."

"Great."

We touched tappers, and it was all over in a second. I had a full dump of my daughters pictures and videos on my arm-permanently. Right at the moment I wasnt sure if that was going to be a good thing for my mental health or not, but I could tell it made Della happy.

"Hey, when did you get a tapper?" I asked her.

"After you left Happy Valley, we absorbed as much of your technology as we could. We duplicated most of the simple things like your tappers."

I didnt consider tappers to be simple tech, but I nodded. They were complex machines embedded in the flesh of every full-grown human from Earth. They were powered by our bodies and symbiotic with our flesh. The screens even grew hairs sometimes, and you had to pluck them out.

"You guys are wizards," I said. "Ive never been so impressed with a group of humans in my life. Stuck out there on Dust World with squids hunting you every so often-I never could figure out how you managed to build up a technological society under those conditions. Maybe we did send our best and brightest out into s.p.a.ce a century back."

She was beaming now. I was proud of myself as well. Id turned a cold-shoulder situation into a happy family reunion. That was quite an accomplishment for a rube like me.

"Well," she said, "we had help."

"You mean from the Galactics? Did they contact you after we left?"

"No, they didnt. They barely pay any attention to our part of s.p.a.ce. From what I understand, thats a good thing."

"Yeah..." I thought about the Galactic Id shot the other day. It was a very good thing the Empire was looking the other direction on that one. All my bulls.h.i.t might get me past a Mogwa, but Id never have managed to pull a fast one like that on the Nairbs or the Empires Battle Fleet commanders. "If not the Empire, who helped you?"

She gave me an odd, almost shy look. "Im not supposed to talk about that, James."

Frowning, I shrugged. "Okay...but who told you not to talk? You can trust me, you know. Im in more trouble with the Empire than you could ever hope to be in your lifetime."

This cracked her up. I couldnt recall ever having seen her laugh much before, and it was a nice change today.

"I believe you," she said. "So I will speak of a mutual friend. But no one else must know."

"Uh...okay."

"Natasha taught me. She taught all of us. She took tappers from the dead-bodies you didnt recycle before you left-and she rebuilt new ones for us. Shes quite talented, you know."

"She sure is," I said, looking as confused as I felt. "But when did she have time to do all that?"

Della stared at me for a second. "You dont know?"

"Know what?"

She winced, put her hand on my arm, and shook her pretty head. "Forget what I said. Erase it from your mind. It doesnt matter."

She walked away then, and I stared after her in bafflement. It took a full twenty seconds for the light bulb to go off in my dim brain. Sometimes, Im pretty slow on the uptake. When I did get it, the bulb was like a flash of lightning in my skull.

"Oh s.h.i.t," I whispered, eyes wide.

I ran after Della. She ducked me, walking into the tent with her squaddies. I chased after her and threw open the flaps. This p.i.s.sed off everyone inside as it let the stinky air from the outer mechanical bay into the living quarters.

"Hey, close that!"

I did. Then I moved to loom over Della.

"Weve got to talk," I said.

She was looking away from me, changing her clothes. Shed been in her grease-monkey suit, a coverall with nanofiber surfactants that shed any liquid that came in contact with it. She stripped this off and dropped her clothes in a heap on the floor, never even looking at me while she pulled a normal combat suit out of a locker.

Dropping ones drawers in a tent full of people wasnt all that unusual in Legion Varus. We had to live pretty close, especially on a planet with an atmosphere that wasnt quite human-flavored. Still, Della always had been even less shy than your typical trooper, due to her upbringing on a harsh colony world.

For just a second, I was distracted. Dellas bare b.u.t.t was as fine as the first day Id laid eyes on it back on Dust World in an underground hot spring. Possibly, it looked a shade better than it had back then, as the cavern we made love in had been pretty dark.

A big hand laid itself on my forearm, interrupting my staring session. I knew that hand and that firm grip-Id know them anywhere. I turned to look at the face glowering at me. It was none other than Veteran Harris.

"Look, McGill," he said. "The lady has made it pretty clear she doesnt want to talk to you. I think you should show a little tact, and move the f.u.c.k on."

It was an awkward moment. I looked around and realized the whole squad was watching me. I outranked them all except for Harris, but that didnt make this situation any more acceptable. From their point of view, I was hara.s.sing a female soldier who was trying to get away from me.

"Im sorry Vet," I said. "But Della and I need to talk for a moment. Do you mind?"

Harris shook his head. "You dont give up, do you? Quit chasing tail in my squad! Get on back to your own squad if you want to pull that s.h.i.t!"

"What? No-hold on, Harris. Thats not how it is. Della and I have a history. She had my baby, back on Dust World."

Harris did everything but cross his eyes at that statement. I could tell he didnt know what to make of it.

"Are you s.h.i.tting me, boy? Youre a real piece of work, you know that?"

"Yes sir. Everyone tells me so."

Shaking his head, Harris turned away. The rest of his squad melted as well. He ushered them out of the flapping, imperfect airlock. When they were all gone, he poked his head back in for one last statement.

"If she screams or something, Im putting you down. You hear me?"

"Loud and clear."

He left then, and Della turned to face me. She had her arms crossed and her clothes on. I was vaguely disappointed, but at least she couldnt get away.

"You shouldnt press this," she said. "For the sake of our mutual friend."

"Natasha?" I asked.

"Yes."

"You know her-really know her. Dont you?"

She looked troubled. "I should never have said anything."

"I already know. From your reaction, I figured it out. Natasha told me, back on Dust World, that she might be a copy. I know about that-I wont tell anyone."

Della searched my face. "Its a violation. Hegemony Law, Galactic Law-nothing a person can do is much worse. There can only be one person with the same DNA sequence running around at one time. Natasha made that very clear to us."

I wasnt sure about it being the worst violation a person could perform, having committed a number of acts I would consider to be significantly worse, but I smiled rea.s.suringly.

"I wont tell. Your secret is good with me."

"All right then."

We eyed one another for a few seconds.

"So," I said in a whisper, "She got off the doomed ship Corvus somehow and survived? I can hardly believe she made it across all that empty s.p.a.ce to Dust World. Was she injured?"

"Yes. Radiation burns. Exhaustion. Only three of the techs returned to Dust World about a month after you left. The other two died within months, but Natasha hung on."

"How did they do it?"

"I dont understand it all," Della said. "I know they managed to rig up some kind of life-pod and used a slingshot effect around our star to reach planetary orbit. They finally made reentry a month after Corvus crashed into the star. Natasha was thin and sick, but we nursed her back to health."

Thinking it over, I could believe it. If anyone could figure out a solution to an impossible physics problem, it was Natasha. "I should have known shed make it. I told her-my copy, that is-that there was no way it could happen. I didnt want her to worry about it."

"We owe her so much, James. She taught us the tech that we didnt grasp. We had tech samples from the Empire and the squids. There were piles of forgotten debris all over the valley. She put it all together for us."

I nodded thoughtfully. Natasha was, flat out, the best tech Id ever met. It made total sense to me that shed be up to such a herculean task.

"She taught you, and you came up with trade goods. Nanites, dragons. Trade and viability. Im sure you do owe her a lot."

"Your legion abandoned us. They left us to die, really. Youre right, we owe her so much. She knew she could never go home to Earth again, so she did her best to make Dust World livable."

"One new colonist," I mused. "Just the kind you needed to get your world going. Did she hide when the ships finally came from Earth to trade?"

"She didnt have to. By then, shed blended in with the rest of us. No one would ever have guessed who she really was."

Dellas explanation was followed by an awkward silence, and I was the one who broke it.

"Okay," I said, forcing a tight smile. "Now I know everything. Ill be going now."

She stopped me with a hand. "Theres one more thing. James, she never stops talking about you. Shes in love with you. I cant figure that out, myself."

I chuckled. "Love, hate...theyre just two sides of the same coin with James McGill."

-16-.

Before dawn, I woke up with a hand pawing at me. I slapped it, but it kept coming back. Opening my eyes, I saw Carlos grinning down into my face.

Now, I dont know about you, but a hairy, round-cheeked male face was about the last thing I liked to see in the morning.

"What the h.e.l.l do you want?" I demanded. "What time is it?"

"Its explaining-time for you, you big freak."

Growling, I came up off my bunk and landed on my feet. Carlos had pushed our friendship too far. Id advanced in rank, and he hadnt, but he still thought he could treat me like that first day we met at the Mustering Hall in Newark.

"Whoa, fella," he said, pointing toward the tent flaps.

They parted to reveal Leeson. "About time you got off your a.s.s, McGill. Mind you, I think we should just blast this thing and not even bother having you try to talk to it, but thats not my call to make."

"What?" I asked.

"Havent you heard? That alien-looking mechanical bug-thing you made love to out on the ice is outside, trying to communicate. Now, get out there and figure out what it wants, p.r.o.nto."

"Uh...yes, sir."