

## Keelic and the Space Pirates

by

ALEXANDER EDLUND

The Keelic Travers Chronicles

Book 1

Keelic and the Space Pirates

Copyright © 2016 by Alexander Edlund

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express permission of the publisher. Thank you for respecting the rights of this author.

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locales, and incidents are products of the author's imagination and any resemblance to actual people, places or events is coincidental or fictionalized.

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#  Table of Contents

#

Chapter 1 — Who are you with, little boy?

Chapter 2 — When I think you are fit, we will go for a hike

Chapter 3 — Yes, we just did something wrong

Chapter 4 — What do you say, little Dreep?

Chapter 5 — Warm orange

Chapter 6 — The Gleaming Door

Chapter 7 — Is your dad Crew?

Chapter 8 — Want to take an orbit?

Chapter 9 — Thotti

Chapter 10 — The Death Cloud

Chapter 11 — Translight!

Chapter 12 — I am in command

About the Author

#  Chapter 1

Who are you with, little boy?

Floating weightless, Keelic looked out the porthole at the utter black beyond. The translight barrier blocked his view of the stars, his view of home and friends, now thousands of light-years away.

A siren cut through the room. Keelic twisted to look back at the console by his bed. The sound was piercing, louder than the last emergency drill. He touched the wall to turn around.

"All passengers," ordered the Ship-Announcer, "are to enter their bed, or the nearest safety pod. Immediately. Do not attempt to return to your quarters. Follow local guide lights and enter the indicated pod. All passengers—"

The console lit with the image of his mother. "Keelic, go to your bed."

"Why?"

"So it can pod."

"Another drill?"

Mother went stern. "Keelic."

He knew that tone, and pushed off from the wall. The bed's force web caught him, then pushed him into the bedding. Was this a drill or something real? Were they being attacked? Had the translight engine malfunctioned? He opened his mouth to ask, but a new siren layered over the other, a twined harmony that demanded attention. This was no drill.

"Commencing emergency deceleration," announced the Ship-Ann.

Keelic was thrust against the bed's field as stars appeared in the porthole. He grinned. Deceleration from translight speed to standard flight in seconds! He didn't know a transport could even do that. Only military vessels had engines for such maneuvers, or so he'd thought. Something seriously cold was happening.

The wall lights dimmed and the nominal-space engines engaged with a hum that roared. Keelic raised his head, listening. Not once in the twelve planetfalls since leaving home had the engines sounded like that. Stars streaked in the porthole. He felt the ship turn, and grabbed for the edges of the bed. He couldn't believe it. You never felt inertia in normal space flight. The ship had to be maneuvering at near light speed if the stabilization field wasn't able to compensate. Space outside the window burned white, and he shoved a hand up through the bed's field to block the light. He glanced at the console to see his parents' reaction.

"Everything's going to be all right," said his mother. She forced a smile and looked to the side.

Keelic's father leaned into the image and said, "It's just the shield going up."

The shield! Keelic lowered his hand to squint into the light.

His mother said, "We should pod the beds."

Turning to object, he found the image frozen. Crimson lettering blazed over his parents' faces:

ALL NONESSENTIAL COMMUNICATIONS

AND POWER CONSUMPTION

TERMINATED

The image of his parents faded slowly.

"Father?"

Keelic reached for the console, but the panels were dark. A touch of fear fluttered through his excitement, and he settled back into the bed.

The white light of the shield streamed in through the porthole too bright to look at, casting harsh shadows. The hum of the engines thrummed in his chest. With a moment to think, understanding came fast—shield on, power conservation, and radical course changes could mean only one thing.

Battle.

Bearneb rebels? No, the Bear Nebula was now a long, long ways away.

The sirens cut out as the hum of the engines died. With a metallic ping, his bed began to recede into the wall. He touched off the tensile-web and shoved free. Momentum took him to the far wall, where he waited for the Ship-Ann to tell him to return. The bed rose back into place as light from the window faded.

Violent shudders rippled through the vessel as the nominal engines stuttered back online. Shield light returned from the window, though less bright. Keelic pushed back to the bedside console and tried to bring up a view screen, then an infobase, but its panels didn't even beep in response. Giving up, he drifted in an agony of fear-laced curiosity.

What if this was a pirate attack? The life of a pirate was what he wanted. Freedom, your own ship, you could go anywhere you please, and have everything you want. He devoured every story he could find about Jaw Taka-ta-Kua, captain of the stolen warship _Death Cloud_ , the last surviving Terra Corps super-dreadnought from the Galactic War. Jaw's fleet raided whole star systems.

Keelic touched the magnetic-guide on his belt, and drifted over to the cabin door. It didn't respond to his proximity. Locked? He touched its pad, and the door opened with a sigh. He put his head out and looked both ways down the dim corridor. All clear.

He grabbed an aftbound pull-me, but it didn't move. He checked around once more, eyes lingering on the door to his parents' quarters. With a heave, he went sailing toward the aft lounge, reveling in the forbidden free flight.

His trajectory was sending him at an angle into the wall. He tapped his mag-guide to correct, then assumed the aspect of a slant-winged proto-fighter, and started shooting each door as it passed by.

The lounge doors at the end of the corridor slid apart in time for him to flash past. As he sailed across the room, he looked ahead, saw where he was heading and how fast. Too late, he slapped Stop on his mag-guide. Gyring his arms, trying to rotate so he could land with his feet, only made him turn sideways and roll. With a small cry of despair, he slammed into the lounge's main viewing screen.

Holding an aching shoulder, he looked around. Most of the safety pods in the room were closed, their oval doors gleaming in the pale light of the walls. He knew from safety drills that you couldn't hear or see anything from inside a pod. The gaming tables were silent. Drink receptacles, game pieces, and other stuff floated idly with the air currents. No maintbots were active, though, to clean it up.

He mag'd over to the console set back from the immense screen where a comfortable chair was nestled into an arc of control panels. The chair gave the best view of the screen and was the perfect place to imagine you were captain of the ship, but he knew from experience that sitting in it prompted the Ship-Ann to ask what you wanted. Why hadn't she told him to get into a pod? Ever since the bridge tour incident, and the time he'd found the maintenance access to the engine room, he could feel her sensors tracking his every move.

He quit wondering about the Ann, and maneuvered until he was horizontal above the console. What he really wanted was real-time exterior views. An ensign had shown him how to get ship stats, game screens, and display the scanner visuals when the transport slowed to sightsee, but the entire layout had changed. There were all kinds of ops and ship-tech, but no sensor views. Then he found something very important-looking.

This was too easy. Where was the Ship-Ann? It didn't matter; he would never have another chance. He noticed he was drifting, and gripped the console against the pull as the ship changed course. He touched a pad labeled Bridge Emulation. It menu'd out, and after a quick review, he selected Tactical Overview. The console reorganized, and the lounge screen structured out in full-dimensional glory.

Two brightly shielded vessels were closing on Keelic's passenger transport and her military escort, a large cruiser named the _ADL Darklight_.

The attacking ships opened fire with needles of energy that gouged arcs of gray across its shield. The _Darklight_ returned fire with a staccato burst of coruscating lances.

Another ship, small and unshielded, leapt into the image and spat a streak of red at Keelic's transport. A boom rocked the ship, and the console lunged, hammering him. He flew back, cartwheeling all the way to the ceiling, hitting it hard. As he rebounded, he managed to clutch a holdfast. Tears of pain flooded his eyes, and his head reeled with dizziness. He wished he had webbed himself into the console chair.

Onscreen, the shielded attackers were flanking the cruiser. The _Darklight_ concentrated fire on one attacker then the other, forcing them back as she whirled end over end to bring fresh weapons to bear. The pirates' maneuvers were boring in comparison, and their shields were taking a beating, but there were two of them.

The enhanced image flickered from view to view as different sets of sensors scanned the battle. Images split and merged as the battling ships maneuvered. Ruler-straight lines of energy connected the ships, flashing, shifting colors, and cycling on and off. Beams bleeding rainbows of light struck into empty space, and images onscreen vanished as observation probes died. Views color-shifted and warped, went to static, and then cleared. Scanner jamming and countermeasures! This was just like in the vids.

Full-spectrum scans revealed moon-sized engine signatures, and twisting wave patterns that linked and interfered with the engine waveforms. Keelic had never seen such images before, but he knew what they meant: warfare at the substratum level. The fight was moving fast, and his transport ship struggled to keep pace. Around him, the vessel groaned and creaked under the strain.

He was on that transport. All of this was happening out there. All around him. His sense of the battle expanded in three dimensions. A flurry of color brought his gaze back to the screen. Both attackers were closing on the _Darklight_ , firing close-range particle cannons that flashed blue where they struck, leaving broad swaths of blackened shield. On both pirates, shield ports opened and streams of brilliant sparks poured out. The _Darklight_ vectored to evade the storm of kinetic weapons, but there were too many, and black pocks spread across her flanks.

The third vessel, shieldless, flashed into view and fired on Keelic's transport ship. The lights dimmed as enemy weapon fire cut streaks of black across the transport's shield. High-band lasers, Keelic knew, invisible until they struck.

"Cold," he said.

He'd seen that maneuver on vids. The ship was making strafing runs by dropping out of translight, firing, then accelerating away. It was hyper-dangerous, but the only way for old, shieldless vessels to fight with shielded ships.

The cruiser's forward shield irised open and eight green streaks flashed out.

"Torpedoes!" screamed Keelic.

Each took a different vector, flowing outward in a cone, then streaking inward at the nearest enemy ship. Light burst from the pirate as its point defenses fired, and space around the ship flashed into expanding bubbles of white violence as torpedoes detonated. The vessel vanished among the expanding energy spheres, and its engine signature collapsed. The ship emerged intact from the maelstrom, shield so blackened that it was visible only where it occulted the stars beyond. A last torpedo, having taken a longer route, struck amidships, and the entire vessel vanished in a blinding burst.

The shieldless pirate flew into view and fired another red torpedo at Keelic's transport. The ship groaned as she maneuvered under full power. Feeling himself falling from the ceiling, he hooked his feet under holdfasts. It felt like he weighed a ton, and something across the room failed with a crack. Grimacing in pain, he glanced at the screen and saw a red ball of plasma streaking toward his ship from six different angles.

In a desperate bid to dodge the torpedo, the transport's engines roared deceleration, and Keelic was pressed hard against the wall. The maneuver failed. All light died, and Keelic was slammed free of the wall, reeling through darkness. This time he had the presence to touch on his mag-guide and curl into a ball. He struck something hard and caromed off in another direction.

The screen expanded back to life, the only light in the room. Rebounding from another wall, Keelic missed grabbing a handhold and coasted across the room, turning gracefully, twisting his head each rotation to look at the screen, getting dizzy until his mag-guide stopped his motion.

The cruiser was pursuing the last pirate. Both vessels spun to spread the effect over shields gone gray with ugly black wounds that didn't fade. As the cruiser whirled, she released two green torpedoes from openings in her shield on the opposite side. The torpedoes arced in both directions around the cruiser. The enemy tried to go translight, but the cruiser's engine signature was twined with the attacker's, holding it in place. The torpedoes struck the pirate, and its shield buckled.

Beams from the cruiser scythed through the pirate's exposed hull, carving rents with bright edges, from which flickering explosions spewed glowing material into space. The cruiser rounded on the burning carcass, slicing it into smaller and smaller pieces.

A space battle. He had been in a real space battle! It made the whole trip worthwhile. Tamarin would explode with envy. At the thought of his friend, homesickness carved a hollow darkness in Keelic's middle. He didn't simply miss home; he had lost it. His parents said they would never return to Pesfor.

They had suddenly said one day, "We are moving!" They were so happy to get off Pesfor 3. So happy to get away from everything he knew. "Ermol is a beautiful planet," his father said. "Unspoiled, if a little backward by Galactic standards." Whatever that meant. They said Keelic would see many new wonderful things. He would make new friends. But didn't they know that he didn't want new friends? He wanted the old ones. A tear floated from his eyelashes when he blinked, and he batted it angrily.

The captain of the escort cruiser was on the screen now, talking as sweat rolled down his face.

Turning his back on the screen, Keelic mag'd for the lounge door. When he was halfway there, the nominal engines surged for acceleration, then cut out, leaving a low harmonic. A rapid transition to translight. Were they being chased? Keelic found that he didn't care anymore, and drifted back to his quarters.

As he reached his room, the all-safe sounded. Touching open the door, he dove for the bed, slipping into the tensile-web. His father appeared on the console.

"You are all right?" asked his father.

"Yes I'm right...I'm fine."

"Your mother wants you to come over."

Keelic touched off the bed, and pushed for the door. It opened and he sailed across the hall to his parents' cabin. His mother, crying, hugged him tight, and filled the air with little droplets of tears, saying how happy she was that they were all alive, and what a good idea it had been to get a transport with cruiser escort, and how much she loved him and Father.

Keelic dutifully hugged her back, and took more comfort in her presence than he was willing to admit. His father patted him on the back.

A man's voice announced, "There will be a general address by the captain at thirteen hundred hours. All interested passengers are invited to attend in the fore and aft lounges. The Ship-Ann is temporarily out of service. If you have any immediate needs, please address them to your section's steward. Thank you."

Keelic nodded to himself. So that was why the Ship-Ann hadn't done anything to him.

His father was talking. "Out of service? What does that mean? You can't take an Ann out of service. Announcer matrices do not go offline."

Keelic didn't want him to pursue this. It would be just like Father to help them fix the Announcer and find out about his excursion during the battle.

"It's okay, she's not as nice as Anny," said Keelic.

"That's true," replied Mother. "Anny is special. I know she really misses you."

At least they hadn't left Anny behind.

"Can I talk to her?"

"No, dear, Anny needs a house matrix. She'll be waiting for us when we get there."

"Can't we load part of her? Just the—"

"No," said Father. "Announcers don't work like that. They need a whole matrix. The house is the body, and there is no sentience without a body. You should know this by now."

He did, but he also knew that there was sometimes a difference between what his parents said and what could really be done.

"Can I go to the freefall?"

His mother looked at Father. Her expression said, _I really wish he wouldn't._

"He's eleven," Father said. "He needs to work out the excitement. Keelic, be back here at twelve thirty hours, exactly. Then we'll all go listen to what the captain says."

After the real battle, then bounce-soaring around the empty freefall-gym trying to simulate it, Keelic found the captain's speech an agony of boredom, full of long-winded reassurances meant to calm people who weren't smart enough to know what a great thing they had experienced.

When the captain showed sequences of the battle, explaining in a limited way the tactics, and why the pirates failed, Keelic's interest returned. The captain also mentioned that the Ship-Ann was being reinitialized because of battle damage, but refused to say more. A passenger asked why the transport hadn't left the area. The captain explained that the way the attacking ships had forced them out of translight was a sure sign that the attackers had intended to board the transport. The only way to avoid being taken was to stay near their escort. As well, by remaining in the area, the transport aided the defense effort by coordinating sensor data, effectively doubling the escort cruiser's sensor coverage.

Keelic felt good. He'd already figured that out.

After the captain's talk, Keelic got some of the other children to join him in the freefall-gym to play Cruiser. They never seemed to get into it like he did, and soon tired of losing repeatedly to his tactics, so they switched to Free-Tag and Spin-the-Dunce until his parents called him to dinner.

*****

The next morning his father called him to the gyro-gym. Building strength for Ermol's strong gravitation was Keelic's least favorite activity onboard. He drifted into an acceleration room, pulled himself down in a huff, and buckled in. As the room matched speed with the spinning gym, he was pushed into the seat until he was sitting firmly in it. The door opened onto the clank of metal weights and the soft whir of gyrocycles.

Something caught his eye, and he looked "up" part way around the wheel-shaped room to see blonde hair, and lots of it. The young owner was on a treadmill, laughing with two other girls. They were all in 3-Dyed exercise outfits. Two had scenes of some vid playing over them, but the third's was black until something moved across it. A ship? Yes, and the shape was unmistakable. It was the far-space probe _Galahad_.

A girl who knew about _Galahad_? Keelic knew more about the probe ships of the Pathfinders than anyone he knew. He stared at her, wondering what to do. In three months of exploring the ship, he was sure he'd never seen her. His mother called to him from the other direction. He cringed. One of the girls looked at his parents, then at him, and then ignored him, laughing at something another girl said.

His parents began him on the first machine.

"I know how to do it," he snapped.

His mother scolded, "Do not speak to me in that tone."

He mumbled an apology, glanced at the girls to see if they had heard, and did his sets in record time. He jumped to the next machine and started in, watching the trio as they finished warming up on the treadmills and began working out along the curved wall. He spent extra time at the bench press so he could watch them.

He ended his workout as they did, and entered a deceleration chamber with them. The one with blonde hair looked directly at him, and he suffered under her frank gaze until she looked away. The other two girls giggled, and Keelic clenched his jaw. He took a pull-me behind them and followed their track switches. To his dismay, they went straight toward the bow of the ship, forward quarters section. Reserved for the ultra-wealthy, it was the only place on the vessel he had been unable to get into. He had been to the engine room, bridge, crew galley, crew quarters, maintenance corridors—everywhere except the forward quarters.

The section door slid open for them. Keelic tightened his grip on his pull-me and went through the door after them. The pull-me stopped, a chime rang, and the Ship-Ann said, "I'm sorry, but all guests must be declared."

The girls, still going down the hall, looked back at him. He could see that the corridor beyond them ended in a large round chamber. A steward in a gold-embroidered uniform emerged from a side door between Keelic and the way aft.

The man was broad shouldered, with a mean twist to his mouth. He said, "Who are you with, little boy?"

Keelic hated being called little. Deciding to die with honor, he pushed back, and then pulled hard, launching himself after the girls, away from the steward.

"Stop!" called the man.

Keelic sailed past the girls, and saw on one face a surprised, delighted smile. Entering the circular room, he looked back at her, and found that he had pursuit coming in at twice his speed. He calculated approach and distance to the far wall. Too far. The steward would arrive first. Keelic pulled in his legs and waited.

The steward reached out, and Keelic pushed away the man's wrist with one foot, planted the other on the steward's shoulder, and shoved off using the steward's mass.

Spinning out of control, the man used his mag-guide to stop himself, but not before Keelic reached a wall. There was an audience watching from the eight halls leading from the room. Some were smiling, but not the steward, whose face was red with cruel intent.

A woman called to the steward from a nearby doorway, "Why don't you just have the Ann call in his mag?"

The steward ignored her and, using his crew-class mag-guide, accelerated toward Keelic.

Skimming along the wall, Keelic slid just above its surface. The steward adjusted to intercept. The man had obviously never played Free-Tag. Keelic let the steward accelerate for a few seconds more, then spun lengthwise and kicked the wall with both feet, rocketing away in the opposite direction. Even with his powerful mag-guide, the steward's speed forced him to a wall to change his vector to pursue. Keelic had already flipped and bounced off the far wall and was sailing toward the doorway where the three girls watched, blocking the exit.

The steward shouted to the Ship-Ann, "Mary-Ann, catch that boy!"

Keelic was ready for that and unlatched his belt, letting it get pulled away. The girls scrambled to get out of his way, but scrambling didn't work in zero-g. He would have laughed, except that he was about to collide forcibly with the blonde-haired girl. She was grabbed out of the way by a friend so late that his face brushed through her hair. He memorized the smell of it as the steward behind ordered the Ship-Ann to close the door. A group of people using pull-me's were coming through, keeping the door open, and he sailed past them.

Free—until he reached his quarters, where his parents and another steward were waiting. Their expressions were not forgiving.

*****

Next morning, Keelic drifted around in his room unable to leave, and daydreamed about the blonde. He created names for her, stole starships for her, and named them in her honor. The Ship-Ann announced lunch, and he longed to go out and search the ship for a way into the forward quarters. His mother brought food, but she wasn't angry any more, only smiling and quiet. He wondered at her lack of anger, but was afraid to break her mood by asking about it.

His console was locked out of all the entertainment systems, and after trying to break the locks, he called up history education and spent the afternoon watching battles from the Galactic War on the walls of his room.

His mother brought dinner. Though he tried to make her stay, she seemed disinclined and left, telling him not to stay up too late.

Lonely, and filled with thoughts of blonde hair, he ignored the food. Aloneness turned to anger and he hated his parents for keeping him away from her, hated the Ship-Ann for keeping the door locked, and most of all hated where he was and where he was going. His thoughts turned to Tamarin, and the adventures they'd had. Tears were drawn away by the ventilation system, but not the pain.

In the morning of his second day of confinement, the Ship-Ann announced imminent arrival at the Ermol system. Deceleration would commence in six hours. The lights were out and he was still in his bed. Something hard formed in his throat, and he tried to go back to sleep to make it go away. His parents appeared on the console and cheerfully asked him to breakfast to end his punishment. Keelic declined.

Shutting off the bed, he let himself drift around the room in darkness and silence. There was no direction, no light, no sound to give bearings, only the universal tone of the translight engines. In the darkness the ship hummed about faraway places. Places a ship could call home. Other ships to talk to and fight with. Ships with a sense of adventure like Tamarin had.

The door opened, and he squinted against the light.

His father, talking and beaming at Mother, stopped with a frown. His parents floated for a moment in the doorway, light from the hall streaming around them. Their son was upside down to them, drifting away.

"What are you doing?" Father asked.

Mother squeezed Father's arm and said, "We're going to pack our things and then go forward to the observation deck for deceleration. The approach to the system will be at slomatter, and we're sure to have a wonderful view. We've reserved observation deck seats. Front row."

Father seemed to remember something and smiled encouragement. Keelic almost said he knew how ships approached, and it was called _nominal_ not _slomatter_ , but he kept silent. He was remembering watching his home, Pesfor 3, receding into nothing.

Despite his misery, the thought of watching an approach from the observation deck was thrilling. They had never watched the other planetfalls from there because of the expense.

Father said, "Mary-Ann, raise the lights two hundred lumens." The walls began to brighten, and Mother poked him in the ribs. He said in mock exasperation, "Okay, okay. Lights, faint glow."

Keelic blinked, not from the light, but in surprise. Mother never played with Father that way.

"Pack your things, and we'll go get those seats," she said.

*****

The observation deck was starting to fill with people. Keelic's family used their mag-guides to float down to the first rows of plush seats. The area was full of people Keelic did not recognize, which was odd, because he knew nearly everyone from his wanderings, at least by sight. Tensile-web spheres floated around the room covered with varicolored foods, many with labels touting their Ermolian origin. He munched rapidly, sampling everything to satisfy a tremendous hunger. Slowing down, he peered at the people near him. They barely touched the food, but held drinks in automatic receptacles as they talked and laughed. Bright clothing showed skin in strange places as the fabric floated around them. Much of what they wore was nanoform enhanced, producing effects on the fabric or in the air around them. They had to be people from the forward quarters. He felt pride that he and his parents were here among such important people. After a few minutes, he was bored.

Using his mag-guide, he moved around the room, hating the slowness of movement, but not daring to push off anything and risk parental wrath. A single piece of curved carbon-glass formed the forward wall and ceiling. He floated to its apex. Exterior armor reflected dull gray on the other side of the glass. His eyes wandered over the people below, picking out aliens, and some kids he knew. Then he found a pair of pale-blue eyes beneath blonde eyebrows staring at him. She smiled shyly and turned away.

"Deceleration will commence in thirty minutes," said the Ship-Ann. "Please begin finding your seats."

She had smiled at him! Watching the girl, he pushed off from the ceiling toward his chair.

Something leapt into his vision, and wetness and goo crashed over his head. He shoved away from the food sphere in a cloud of shock, horror, and debris. Laughter erupted, and everyone turned to see. He dared not look at either the girl or his parents. He keyed his mag-guide for the exit and floated for the door, face burning. The laughing continued, but now some shushes sounded, and he heard his parents call. He reached the door after avoiding some hands offering help, and shoved with all his might down the hall, heedless of anyone else.

In his room, he shut off the light and locked the door. Miserable, he floated in darkness. The door opened.

His mother's voice said, "Lights."

The door shut, then she was beside him, gathering him up, using her mag-guide to maneuver them to the edge of the bed. She turned on the tensile-web, and touched off the lights. His mother said nothing for what seemed a long time. She stroked a comforting hand down his back, and started to pat his head, but her fingers stuck.

"Lights. Let's get you cleaned up, okay?"

She took his clothes, which were not very messed, and he went into the shower. Putting on the breather, he touched the water temp to really hot. He came out fifteen minutes later feeling cleansed. His mother was waiting with clean clothes. He put them on.

"Ready?" she asked.

He shook his head without looking at her.

"You know that pretty little blonde girl? Well, she saw what happened, and never laughed. Her father started laughing, and she told him to be quiet. Actually, to 'shut down.' She got into trouble for that."

He looked up, questioning.

She nodded that it was true.

They took pull-me's back to the observation deck. Everyone was seated, and the exterior shielding had withdrawn, revealing the light-absorbing blackness of the translight barrier. No one noticed his entrance. Almost. A pair of blue eyes he couldn't look at followed him. As he turned to sit, he glanced her way and was met by an intent gaze, and a small smile.

"Deceleration in thirty seconds," said the Ship-Ann.

Keelic felt a change in the tone of the ship. The space beyond the glass filled with dazzling white tracery that reached ahead to infinity. Keelic felt himself pushed forward as though he were on a slow swing. The tracery split and grew, coloring in waves of rainbow hues that rippled away to forever. With each successive wave, he felt himself fall toward the distant apex of light as if the web were pulling him in. Something far ahead flashed like a fired torpedo. It grew into a shimmering ring of light through which streaming stars showed. The ring expanded, and with a blast of light the ship flashed through the hole. Bright clouds of stars surrounded them. Never before had he seen so many. He sat forward. So this was the inner frontier. The starscape shifted as the ship changed course, then back again in another direction, and he knew they were navigating the minefields that protected a planet from superluminal attacks. One bright star grew larger until it resolved itself into a planet. Something closer came into view, and he strained forward in his chair.

Massive compared to the transport, it was a black machine with blacker torpedo ports, and flashing particle-beam directional crystals. A defense satellite, all engine and weapons. It passed out of view, and he looked to the planet. It was brilliant green and blue, with pastel-blue swirling clouds. Squinting his eyes, he could pick out the grid of catcher-net satellites, rows of black specks against the planet's color. He could hear his father talking and, curious about his new home, Keelic tuned him in.

"—and only one city."

Mother nodded with a tolerant smile. She had heard it all before.

Father continued. "Only thirty-thousand inhabitants. Can you believe it? Pesfor 3 had over twenty billion. A completely intact biosphere. Except for the farms, of course. But the rest is unexplored. Well, it has been mapped, but not explored. No one has seen it on the ground. There's a lifetime of work here. I cannot wait to see an Ermolian flier!" He paused as the planet grew large in the window, and put an arm around Mother.

She said, "It's more beautiful than I thought it would be."

Ignoring her comment and continuing his train of thought, Father said, "The Exobiology Society thinks the fliers could be an H3 intelligence. Remember the recordings of them feeding on the Patamic bulbs? And the Patamic trees. How adaptive such a dominating ecotype must be. Look at all that green! Thousands of varieties in there, but all Patamic forest. There, see the White Desert? Completely devoid of the trees. Seed bulbs don't even drop there, and no one has any idea why." He started drawing in the air with his hands. "The bulb fills with helium as the stalk grows, lifting it into the air. The great mystery, of course, is the trinary biocode..."

Keelic tuned him out as the docking station loomed. He looked into the big windows in the bright white side of the station and saw tiny people watching the ship come in. He waved and was rewarded by a few returning the gesture. Only two other docked ships were visible, a common merchant design, and a fast-looking yacht.

They disembarked in a stream of people that thinned out as they stepped onto various floways and were carried through a series of customs scanners. Everything inside the station was slick and spotless as only new equipment could be, and the few people he saw were station workers. Keelic wondered if this was normal. It was nothing like the crowds of Pesfor 3. They were routed to a hangar, and boarded a shuttle bound for Ermol City.

# Chapter 2

When I think you are fit, we will go for a hike

As they descended through the atmosphere, the pilot maneuvered the shuttle so that the passengers could get good views of floating Patamic seed pods. The bulb of each was shaped like an inverted teardrop and trailed a long flexible stalk that pointed toward the land kilometers below. In his window seat, Keelic looked from a passing bulb many times the size of the shuttle, to the intense blue of an ocean, to a long expanse of white shore, to the forest, and back to the blue sky.

He noticed an odd, somewhat familiar smell.

"This is your pilot, ladies and gentlemen and Galactic friends. Welcome to Ermol, the last unspoiled oasis in Alliance space. You're in for a rare treat today because I've just been authorized for some extra hover time to allow you to see one of the famous Ermolian fliers feeding nearby."

Most of the passengers murmured excitedly or looked out the windows. One man that Keelic had not seen before swore under his breath in a strange language. Keelic stared at him.

His clothes were definitely not of a standard style, being made of real animal skin. Keelic could tell because he could smell them, and it was similar to a skirt Tamarin's mother had.

His own mother quietly admonished him, "Don't stare. It's not polite."

Looking away for a few seconds satisfied her, and he went back to his scrutiny of the man. Long hair flowed over strong shoulders. He was unshaven like Father got on outings when he forgot to bring his shaver. The man noticed Keelic and looked at him before he could turn away. Cold yellow eyes looked him up and down, and then crinkled as the long face smiled savagely. The animal power and human cruelty of the smile frightened Keelic. He looked to his father for reassurance, but Father was pointing at something out the window.

A dark-blue creature soared past, banking sharply. Wings that seemed to brush ground and sky met in a long streamlined body. Slow and majestic, it curved around a Patamic stalk, out of which several large chunks had been taken. A wide dark tail stretched out behind, twisting as the creature maneuvered. Around the sleek head, four oblong, blue eyes gazed forward past a short rounded beak. As the flier came around, it opened its mouth and ripped a chunk out of the stalk near the base of the bulb. Floating lopsided, the bulb began to rise. The flier turned, going completely vertical, and sailed past the shuttle, which rocked in its wake. The passengers watched as the flier took a bite from the top of the bulb, leaving a gaping hole. Then entire structure fell twisting toward the distant forest.

The flier turned for the shuttle, but rather than flying past, it bent around the shuttle and encircled it, gazing in the windows with the two eyes on the underside of its head.

The shuttle swerved and rolled in the turbulence. Tensile-webs snapped on to hold passengers in their seats. Then the flier was gone and the pilot regained control. The cabin was silent until a woman began to cry. The man in skins chuckled.

The pilot's voice said with a small tremor, "Well, there you have it, ladies and gentlemen, the Ermolian flier," and was quiet until they reached the hover port.

When they disembarked, Keelic said, "Dad, I gotta pee."

Both parents looked at him.

"Let's find the hovercraft dealer first," Keelic's father said.

"No. I gotta go."

"Okay, see that blue icon over there?" Father said, pointing at the sign Keelic had picked out as soon as they got off the shuttle.

Keelic would have run if he could. He entered the restroom outfitted for most of the Alliance races, and stopped. Standing at a urinal was the man in skins. And again, before Keelic could look away or retreat, the man looked at him.

"Ya wonder who I is, don't ya, little boy," he said in poor Galactin.

Keelic felt a twinge of resentment at the term _little_.

The man grinned and said, "Ya will know soon enough," and walked out.

Keelic wrinkled his nose at the smell of the man, and went into a stall marked Human, where he locked the door securely.

Back with his parents, they found the hover dealer, who proceeded to talk Father into buying a fancier model than he and Mother had planned.

Minutes later they were soaring high over the Ermolian forests as Keelic and Father played with the gadgetry of the family's new Hover Master XL Turbo Photon. Mother watched them with superior amusement.

Father noticed her expression. "What? What?"

She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

He blushed, then grabbed Keelic's hand before he could touch the propulsion field control.

"See how fast it can go," said Keelic.

Father looked at Mother for permission. She shook her head in exasperation and said, "Make sure you're strapped in, Keelic." Then to Father, "Not too fast."

The acceleration pushed Keelic into his seat, and he watched in glee as the forest below flashed past. He looked at his parents. Neither of them would have even heard him back on Pesfor 3, or actually flown faster than two hundred klicks. He glanced at the speed, and was thrilled to see it reading eight hundred and fifty.

"We're here!" sang out Father.

They decelerated to circle a hilltop where a three-towered house stood surrounded by steep meadows. A small river flowed sparkling aquamarine around the base of the hill, and a massive mountain range loomed to the north. Father landed on the hover pad, and Keelic jumped out.

Strange sounds and smells competed for his attention as they walked up the path to the house. Three-legged, long-necked creatures with mottled olive fur hopped through the wispy vegetation beside the path, pulling seed clusters off plant stalks as tall as Keelic. Animal calls sounded from the forest at the base of the hill, and strange creatures buzzed through the warm air.

The house was larger close up, and he had to crane his neck to look up at it. Three elegant towers styled after the ancient Earth Japanese and modern Vewbon towers rose over a triangular two-story base. Everywhere there were walls of glass, and balconies beneath upward-sweeping eaves. He sprinted up the path. Heavy double doors swung open for him, and he burst into a vaulted atrium.

"Anny?" he called.

"Hi, Kee! I've been waiting for you," said the house.

"Where's my room?"

"Top of the north tower."

He ran throughout, discovering hideaway storage rooms, an exercise room, guest suites, libraries, studies, labs, and his own rooms on the top floor of the north tower. After an hour of following every passage, he began to understand what his parents meant when they had talked about having the house designed after the Vewbon. Despite the number of halls, rooms, and stairs, everything seemed to meet in various gathering areas, for the Vewbon believed that anything that could be enjoyed should be shared.

Sitting on his bed looking at the snow-capped mountains, he asked, "Any secret rooms or passages?"

Anny replied, "You will just have to find them yourself. If there are any."

He grinned, then asked, "Do you like it here, Anny?"

"I do. This new matrix is wonderful. I go all the way to the bedrock, and am about four times as big as I was on Pesfor 3. There is so much more to be aware of. The weather protocols I'm learning are amazing. This matrix is remarkably flexible. I'm even armed." The House-Ann paused. "It is taking some getting used to. It's different, but comfortable. Your mother says lunch is ready."

While they ate, a cargo shuttle arrived with their things from the ship. Keelic watched for his own containers as a small army of auto-movers unloaded the shuttle.

*****

The next morning they ate in the breakfast room on the west side of the house, and watched the sun rise through patchy clouds in a blazing display of every imaginable shade of pink and fire orange.

Despite the wonders of his new house, the scenery, and Anny, Keelic felt homesick and ate very little. His father got up from the table and returned with a light-duty environmental suit, a belt with various attachments, and a small pack.

"This is the equipment of an explorer."

Keelic bolted upright in his chair.

"This is a tracking transmitter," his father said, pointing to a box on the belt. "This proximity stunner is linked to this scanner. Here is a communicator, a far-scanner, a magnetic compass, and a knife. The pack has a water filter, space for food, three collecting containers, an aid kit, and a world map. This is a Class III environmental suit, same as mine. It will keep you dry and comfortable, and has a six-hour air supply if we want to explore a pond. You must take very good care of this equipment. It is high quality, and not cheap. This compass is from Earth, and was my great-great-great-grandfather's."

Keelic grabbed the belt and pack, put them on, and started fiddling with the belt systems.

"Now, Keelic, listen. Listen."

He returned his attention to his father.

"The stunner is omnidirectional, and can discriminate between organic body structures. The scanner's range is one hundred meters on open ground. Stun range of twenty. Less in the forest. It is programmed not to stun Alliance member life forms, but I want you to leave it off and never turn it on when you are near people, understand?"

Keelic nodded.

"You will not need it when we are out together, because I will have my collecting stunner, but if we are ever separated, you must turn it on. Now, I want you to read the instructions for every piece, and when I think you are fit, we will go for a hike."

Even though most of the equipment was fully automatic, it took all day for Keelic to learn how to operate all of it well enough to satisfy his father. His father decided to wait, against Keelic's wishes, until the next day for their hike.

*****

An early violet sky greeted Keelic and his father as they walked out of the house. Keelic bounced down the hillside, making his father take long strides to keep up.

In the Patamic forest, four-meter-wide tree trunks rose, tapering only slightly, to where it looked like someone had chopped off their tops at the thirty-meter mark, leaving them with two-meter-wide flat tops. Leaves two to four meters long grew in rings from the trunks on segmented stems. Each segment of the stem connected at a hinged joint. Father showed Keelic how the joints worked with natural hydraulics to enable the branches to swing and twist without breaking. Keelic discovered that they worked as excellent swings and even catapults.

Small flying creatures buzzed among the trees, or flew up from their feet. One that he liked was about five centimeters long, and had two sets of translucent blue wings at each end of its orange and pink body. It seemed to have a head at each end. These creatures flew past with the sound of crinkling stiff cloth, then stopped and hovered, turning this way and that as though unable to decide which way to go.

He walked beside his father or behind him when the undergrowth was thick, heedless of where they were going. Small gliding animals soared from place to place. The gliders were everywhere, being snared, pounced on, snatched, and generally eaten. Furred and scaled animals leapt or crawled through the trees, some in groups calling out with barked chirps.

Keelic caught a glider. Its opaque wings beat gently against his fingers. Four legs tried to push out of his grip with tiny force.

"When they hatch, everything comes to the feast," said his father. "They must have an excellent flavor."

Keelic acted out eating it.

His father frowned and said, "Remember what I told you. You must never eat anything. Many life forms here have chemistries that are incompatible with ours."

Tired of his parents' warnings, Keelic tossed the critter away.

"Look," said his father, pointing to the top of a tall trunk fifty meters away. Keelic raised his far-scanner and saw a large blue-green-furred creature staring back at him. It hung from a high leaf stalk with two of its three arms, then lifted its triangular head, opening a wide mouth to cry loud enough to echo through the trees. Others answered.

"That is a yuwabpa," said his dad.

Keelic remembered from his studying. This animal looked much bigger than the pictures he had seen. He checked his stunner's scanner.

His father said, "They are not dangerous. It is rare for them to even let us see them. They are the largest arboreal animals on the planet. They have hollow bones and other weight-reducing adaptations. There she goes. Probably to join her troop."

They collected a host of species for study by his father, putting them into breathable containers for later release.

Thirst and hunger, mostly Keelic's, prompted them to stop beside the river. They climbed onto a toppled Patamic trunk beside the water, and pulled out their lunches.

His father asked, "So, where are we?"

Keelic took out the map and discovered that they had gone in a circle around the house.

"You will need to pay more attention to where you are. Especially if I'm ever to let you go on solos."

He looked at his dad and they smiled at each other.

"There are requirements that you are going to have to meet before your mother and I will be satisfied of your safety."

Nothing seemed impossible with the prospect of solos, and Keelic nodded.

"You are going to have to understand all of your equipment. You will have to know how to program the stunner, how to navigate without the map or compass, and how to send a signal if you are separated from the belt. If you lose even one piece of this equipment, neither your mother nor I will ever let you go out by yourself, understand? You will also have to know every predator, poisonous plant, and potentially dangerous species. Additionally, you will only be able to go where I have already been."

Keelic nodded again, but with less enthusiasm.

*****

After a week of daily hikes for experience, and evening study of the equipment and Ermolian life forms, Father declared Keelic fit for his first solo hike. At dinner the night before, Mother seemed tense as Father outlined the course he was to follow.

"If you have enough energy, there is a cave four kilometers north of the house. It is at the base of that bluff you can see from your room. It's about forty meters deep, and inside is incredible. At the back end is a small stream that comes out of the base of an old cave-in. A unique life form I've named aquamite lives in the deeper pools."

"Did you get any recordings of it?" asked Keelic.

"I saved that for you. After your mom sees what's there, I'm sure she will want to visit it, too. I put a recorder on your bed for you to—"

He never finished, as Keelic sprinted away to his room.

Later that night Keelic got up to get some water and saw light shining from around the window curtains at the top of the southeast tower. His parents were up. He checked the console by his bed and saw that it was after midnight, and decided to ask if he could have a snack.

He turned on the intercom. An angry voice, his father's, said something about adjustment, then asked, "What is it, Keelic?"

"I...I wanted to know if I could have a snack. I'm hungry."

"No. Go back to sleep." The com clicked off.

Sitting on the bed, he watched the light shine around the edges of the curtains of his parents' bedroom in the black Ermolian night. Like his, their bedroom occupied the entire upper floor of the tower, with glass on all three sides. They usually closed the curtains at night while Keelic preferred the open view. Their arguing reminded him of Pesfor 3. They fought a lot there, and the hard ache it put in his chest returned now. He stared at their windows for a while longer, then scooted down to the end of his bed, brushing the carpet with his toes.

"Anny?"

"Yes?"

"I'm hungry."

"I know. I heard you ask for a snack."

"Will you tell if I go get one?"

"Have I ever?"

Keelic dashed downstairs to the kitchen.

# Chapter 3

Yes, we just did something wrong

Keelic set out as planned after mother stuffed him with a huge breakfast, various warnings, and instructions to be home well before supper.

Hours later, standing on a treeless knoll, he surveyed the bluff and cave entrance. The cliff was covered with vines reaching upward, while others dangled from the height above. The cave mouth was overgrown with plants that grew in a chaotic green net. Getting there would require a short climb. Clear pastel-blue water flowed from the cave entrance and leapt down the rock face into a pale-blue pool. Violet moss lined the stream and clung to cracks where water seeped from the rock.

Using the vines, he climbed up beside the cascade, and entered the cave. Water gurgled from pool to pool along the cavern floor. He touched off his hood, took out his recorder, and switched on the suit's lights.

Glass-like needles in jumbled heaps covered some areas, and large pyramid crystals grew from crannies in pools of still blue water. In others, irregular clusters of rounded white knobs clung to the sides. About thirty meters in, the stream flowed down the cave over wide, step-like dams a few inches high that stretched completely across the cave. Pale creatures scampered away from his light. He checked the stunner scanner. All the animals were relatively small, none dangerous that he knew of.

Farther along he found rock stalactites and stalagmites in weird shapes. He came to a small lake and found that he could go no farther. The other side was a jumbled mass of boulders that tumbled from the ceiling to the bottom of the lake. It was deep and full of the many-colored glowing aquamites. Keelic touched his hood and stuck his head into the water with the recorder. The aquamites did tight swirls around one another whenever they came near.

Something moved near the bottom and he edged forward to see. A white animal undulated from beneath a stone, snapped up a mite, and returned to its hole.

"Cold," he said.

Another one swam out directly in front of him. He jerked back, hit his elbow on a stalagmite, and lost his grip on the recorder. It bounced once on the rim of the pool and splashed in. He watched it sink, flashing its light as it tumbled down the steep rock wall, raising a cloud of silt.

"Dreep! Liquid Dreep!" he swore, stopping with a spasm as he realized that his mother could be listening if she opened the comlink without talking. He checked, and with relief saw that the link was off.

Still, he had to get the recorder back. Even though his father had absolutely forbidden him from going into any water bodies, he stepped into the pool. The suit kept him buoyant, and he had to use the wall to climb down headfirst. He had gone underwater in suits before, but never by himself, and never this deep. He kept a tight grip on the stone. At the bottom, sediment obscured his view, and he lost sight of the recorder. He waited, feeling the water pressure squeezing him, but the current was slow to push the sediment clouds away.

He pulled his legs down and gripped a rock with them. His suit lights lit up the area, but the sediment was too thick to see the recorder, even with its light. He began feeling around, found something, and pulled. It came loose, but was much larger and heavier than the recorder. He pulled it close, and lost his grip on the stone that kept him down. He floated upward staring in disbelief at what he was holding pressed against his faceplate. Reaching the surface, he clutched it to his chest and paddled to the edge.

His hood slid away at a touch, and his mouth dropped as he looked with an unobstructed view at a vintage Mark V Nuclear Laser Rifle from the Galactic War.

A hand strayed to his com, then stopped. His parents would never let him keep it, or even let him return here. He checked the stunner's scanner, but all it showed were cave creatures.

With care, he washed caked sediment off the weapon. Except for many scratches, it looked undamaged. He found a rock to sit on and lay the weapon on his lap.

Taking a deep breath, he touched the Status button on the activation pad. It began to glow, showing six charges out of ten unused. Trying to remember what he had read about GW weapons or seen in the vids, he pressed a button marked with a symbol he recognized as Target Finder. A small grating noise came from the weapon, and a black scanner rose from a hatch on its top. A control panel was revealed as a small door slid away. Symbols indicated target type selection, scanning modes, evasive modes, and magnification. He raised the heavy weapon with difficulty, and looked into the scanner.

Most of the Target Finder selections had no effect that he could detect, but some were obvious—heat, movement, organic, and vegetative discriminations were easy. Before his arms got too tired, he discovered that he could combine different modes to look for combinations like organic, warm-blooded, moving. The rifle even had the ability to look through objects and scan what was behind them. Heaving a big sigh, Keelic lowered the rifle to his lap.

The communicator spoke and he jumped.

"How are you doing, Kee?" asked his father.

"I'm okay."

With a sinking feeling, he looked down into the now clear water at the recorder.

"Get any good recordings?"

"Some," he said, praying that Father would not ask for a visual.

"Well, it is time for you to come home. Sarah's compiling an excellent dinner, and she will feed us both to pouncers if you are late."

"'Kay, I'm coming. Keelic out."

As fast as possible, he dove for the recorder. Before letting go to float back up, he gazed across the lake bottom to the dark hole where the water poured silently from beneath the boulder jam. Holding the recorder tightly, he floated to the surface and climbed out of the pool. A few taps on the recorder's panel erased everything after the aquamites. After viewing the last minute to be sure, he began searching for a hiding place for the rifle. He was well into the forest before finding a suitable spot, and stuffed the rifle into the rotted fibers of a downed Patamic tree.

Halfway back, he remembered that he hadn't eaten lunch, and decided to stop for a drink and a bite to eat. He climbed the closest tree, and sat on the round bump on the treetop that would become the tree's giant seed bulb.

Late in the evening, Keelic slogged into the west dining room covered with gray mud and bits of green foliage.

"You're late," his mother admonished.

"Did you see how far I got?" he asked, avoiding his mother's gaze.

"You're late," his mother said.

Keelic sagged.

Father said, "Yes, I did, almost eight kilometers round trip. Very impressive. How was the cave?"

"I found—"

His mother interrupted, "First, young man, you will go to the clean room."

Father nodded, and Keelic sagged again, dragging his feet.

"Don't put your belt in with the suit. Wash it in the sink," his mother called after him.

In bed later, he looked up the Galactic War and the weapons used. There was an entire section devoted to the Mark V. Within a reactor housed in the stock, a controlled nuclear reaction produced a split-second gamma-ray pulse that was organized into a coherent beam. He also learned that the weapons had been used near the end of the war in the assaults on the last Quat-lat Kay-ku–held worlds, and were instrumental in routing the extragalactics from their strongholds, being one of only a handful of infantry-portable weapons capable of piercing a Quat's armor. Production of the rifle had ceased at the end of the war because of radiation hazards. The weak shielding required to make the weapons portable rendered them easily damaged and thus highly toxic.

Radioactive? What if the weapon was damaged? No, Anny's health scans would have picked that up when he got back. Perhaps a soldier stationed on Ermol had dropped it, or lost it in a battle here. When Keelic looked up bases that had existed in the last ten years of the conflict, Ermol was not listed. The region of space where the Ermol system was had not even been probed before the war.

He did some queries, paying attention to the dates and locations. Most of the Galactic War had happened a quarter turn around the galaxy over two hundred years ago.

He looked up the geologic mapping of the planet that had been done in the first planetary surveys. A vague flooded cavern complex showed beneath the bluff, but no detailed scans had been made of it. He zoomed out the view of the area. A bunch of depressions marked as sinkholes showed on the top of the bluff. He panned and focused on one. Nothing remarkable.

As he was about to quit the system, a feature caught his eye. A very small line ran up the face of the bluff a few hundred yards east of the cave. Zooming in on it showed that it was very regular, almost like a...

Keelic killed the screen. He checked where his parents were in the house, then hurtled down his stairs and up into the observation tower with its scanner scopes.

"Anny, I'd like to be private."

He called up a holo of the bluff, and zoomed in on the spot. He told the scanners to filter vegetation. A ramp barely a meter wide followed a zigzag path up the face of the bluff.

"Penetration scan the area."

Only rock showed along with the flooded caverns, but the resolution was poor, showing no detail.

"Reset system."

*****

Keelic could not sleep. Why a ramp there? If Ermol was uninhabited, who had built it? Should he tell anyone? Sometime near midnight he decided to explore the ramp by himself, perhaps go down a sinkhole, or even swim up under the boulders at the end of the cavern.

In the morning he sensed something unusual about his parents. Mother looked determined. Father looked serious. Did they know about his midnight snack runs? The ramp? Or, worse, the rifle?

His father said, "Sit down, Keelic."

Keelic sat.

"We think that you should return to school. Don't whine. Listen. You have had a week to adjust here. It is time to continue your schooling. There will be no argument. We have already arranged it. The school bus will begin coming for you from now on, starting tomorrow. It's a regular school week, five days, just like Pesfor. The Chief Instructor tells me they have accelerated courses here." He sat back, looked at his wife, then back to Keelic.

"Okay?"

Keelic nodded, looking at nothing.

*****

The hover bus came sailing over the trees right on time, killing Keelic's hope that it would be crushed by a falling Patamic seed stalk. The vehicle was an old model with lift-assist fans that had seen too much service and not enough maintenance. It didn't land properly, but hovered close to the ground kicking up dust, rocking and swiveling so that he had to quickstep and hop to get on. Inside, he looked up at the pilot. In need of a shave, the man smiled a stained-tooth grin.

"You Kalick?"

Keelic didn't correct him, and looked down the aisle. The bus was nearly full, almost every face turned his way except a few in the back who were laughing at something.

"Sit, sit!" the bus pilot said.

Keelic started to sit by a human boy about his age, but the boy put a tablet on the seat. Awkwardly, Keelic straightened and looked around for another place. Fans screamed and the bus surged upward. He sat next to a small furry Vewbon. It ignored him, and he glanced around the bus as the seat buckled him in. The other kids looked sullen. Some of them were a bit grubby in their clothing, and the boy who had refused him a seat had blackened fingernails. Most of the talking was going on at the back of the bus. One look was enough. He knew the type that sat back there. They started a loud debate about whether his house had an Announcer or not, and it was generally decided that it did, so he must be an Annboy. Keelic knew the term but hadn't heard it for a long time. House-Anns were relatively common in the Pesfor system, at least among the people his parents knew, but out here he guessed it was rare.

The bus dropped altitude to a road in the middle of ordered fields of red and pink plants where giant auto-farming equipment moved along the rows. The nearby house was a modest prefab type with pieces of auto-farmers scattered around it. Keelic's own house could have swallowed three houses its size, and he wondered if all the kids on the bus lived in similar places. Two girls and a tough-looking boy got on. The boy was greeted from the back of the bus with jeers and insults, which he returned happily. Keelic heaved a tight sigh. The farm kids here were just like hivers and low-dwell on Pesfor 3. And to think Tamarin had actually wanted to go with him out here, believing it would be better than the world-city. The girls sat near him, and he remembered the blonde girl on the transport. He checked the bus, but she wasn't there. Maybe at school.

The bus climbed high and the distant sea came into view, bright in the morning sun. Keelic resolved to see that ocean someday. He would go with her.

Landing with a thump beside a squat olive-green school building, the bus shuddered then went quiet. Students started filing out. Keelic looked out the window at the schoolhouse. A row of tall windows girded the ugly structure. He got off last and walked across the field. The entrance looked like a toothless mouth swallowing a thin stream of children. Two sets of open doors faced the hover-bus landing pad, and he knew they would slam shut once he was inside, sealing him forever in the guts of the drab-green school-beast.

Inside, an instructor was watching the students. Keelic noticed that other kids were plugging their tablets into archaic wall slots. He looked at the side of his tablet, not sure if it would work in an old-style jack like that. He shoved his tablet into the slot indicated by the harried-looking woman. The screen above welcomed him with a stupid hologram, logged him as arrived, and ejected the tablet with instructions to follow the map now onscreen. He studied the picture and looked down the hall in the direction of its flashing arrows.

Someone slammed into his back. He stumbled and his tablet went skittering across the hall. He ran to retrieve it, and looked back. A slouching boy pick himself up as a pair of older kids laughed by the tablet slot where the boy had obviously been. The instructor said something the boys ignored. Keelic rubbed his back where he'd been run into, and followed the tablet map to his first classroom.

He walked in and scanned it for blonde hair. Most of the students were humans, but three tall scale-covered Paboosht sat at the back, neck gills fluttering. The only open seats were near the front, so he went up to one, slid his tablet into the desk slot, and sat down. The desk booted and attached to the school primary. He wondered what type of system it was. The desk looked pretty old and was a type he had never used before. All the crack-and-pillage smartware he had for the Pesfor 3 school desks would be useless here.

The instructor walked in, a half smile on his shiny slick face, and sat on the front of the instructor's desk. Keelic looked up at him.

He met Keelic's eyes and said, "Good morning."

Keelic was about to reply when the instructor turned his head to greet another student. Keelic looked at his desk, which now had a space-shot image of the planet rotating too fast, and in the wrong direction, with "Ermol: Life and History" written over it. A corner of the screen showed last night's homework assignment, along with, "Instructor: Mr. Drin."

Mr. Drin, whose permanent smile was already irking Keelic, greeted the class.

"Good morning. We have a new student today. Keelic Travers from Pesfor 3. Stand up, Keelic. Stand up. Turn around so the class can see you. Keelic's father is a famous exobiologist. He has won the Nobelin Prize for Exobiology two times. Who knows what an exobiologist studies?"

Someone raised their hand and said, "They study life on different planets, and also in space."

"Very good, Iroun. Who knows what a Nobelin Prize is?"

No one answered, and Keelic felt his face getting red.

"Keelic, tell the class what a Nobelin Prize is."

Keelic muttered, "It's an award."

"Do you know who gives it out?"

The instructor's voice was smooth with seeming friendliness, but something about Mr. Drin was out of phase. Keelic knew precisely who awarded Nobelin Prizes, but he didn't answer.

"You don't? You can sit down now. There are many, many kinds of Nobelin Prizes, all of which are given out each Terran year to good people who deserve them by the Interstellar Institute for the Advancement of Knowledge."

Pressing his lips together, Keelic stared hard at his desk.

"Go to chapter three, section two," Mr. Drin directed.

Keelic smirked at the picture of the planet, and shook his head at such a stupid mistake.

"Is there a problem, Keelic?"

Though embarrassment urged him to stay quiet, a shot of rebellion spurred him to nod.

Mr. Drin said as though speaking to a very young child, "What's wrong? You can't use the desk?"

Feeling himself heat up, Keelic answered, "The title screen is wrong."

"What?"

"The planet is rotating the wrong way, and too fast," he said without looking up. "It's not accurate."

There was a pause, then Mr. Drin said, "Well, when you get to Astronomy, you be sure to point that out to Ms. Onkalwitz. This is a life and history class. The text is accurate, I can assure you.

"Now. We were reading about how the wonderful spices of our world are wanted all over the galaxy. Lauras, why don't you start at the top of page forty-six."

After suffering through Mr. Drin's class, then an Expansion History class where the instructor didn't know half the battles, then a Galactin course where he was two weeks behind, Keelic welcomed recess. He did what everyone else was doing and stashed his tablet in a locker, though it took him a few minutes to find the one reserved for him.

Out on the field behind the school, he was picked last for the teams, but it didn't matter. In a game of Dodge Ball, he leapt for a ball which he caught with fingertips.

"You're down!" he shouted at the boy who had thrown it.

Someone behind shoved him hard, and he whirled. Narrow brown eyes surveyed him for weakness. Keelic recognized the boy as the one who had been pushed earlier that morning.

"That was my ball," the boy said, and made a grab for it.

Keelic snatched it away, retorting, "Get spaced."

The boy lashed at Keelic with a small fist. Keelic leaned away, and backed up.

"Give it!" said the boy, approaching with clenched hands.

Everyone was watching. Keelic knew what had to be done. Back on Pesfor 3, Tamarin was one of the toughest kids in their level, and had taught Keelic how to survive in the giant schools there.

The boy stepped forward, squinty eyed. Dropping the ball, Keelic stepped in swinging, landing a blow on the cheek, and was about to swing again when the boy backed off looking hurt and cowed.

The other boys were grinning. Someone picked up the ball and gave it to Keelic. Angry, and watching them all, he took it, unsure what to do at this friendly gesture. He looked at the ball, then ran and threw it as hard as he could. It hit someone on the shoulder, and the boys around him cheered. He didn't even know their names.

When the chime rang that ended recess, his teammates seemed indifferent to him. Most contrived to jostle in front of him as they all crowded back into the school.

Lunch was noisy and confusing in the cafeteria. Keelic had to be directed twice. Once he had his food, he tried to sit with the guys he'd played with at recess. They glanced at one another with little smirks and told him all the empty seats at that table were saved. He sat alone at another. No one sat in any of the other chairs at the boys' table. As soon as he finished eating, he hurried out of the cafeteria, retrieved his tablet, and checked it for his next class.

Wondering, he walked back onto the playground field. The map pointed across the field to a solid, dingy white building with "Study Hall" written in faded black letters over the door. As he approached there was no sign of life, no other students around, or any coming out of the main building. Dirty windows showed little of what lay inside.

The end-lunch chime rang. Deciding that this had to be a mistake, he turned and started back. He heard the door grind open and turned to see a man in loose dark clothing standing in the doorway. He said nothing, looking at Keelic with light-blue eyes in a finely bearded face. Turning, Keelic looked at his tablet then at the man, who seemed mild in all ways except his eyes.

Keelic asked, "Is this Accelerated Mathematics?"

"It is."

The Study Hall turned out to be a one-room chamber filled with rows of ancient-looking desk terminals and shelves of discarded equipment, all showing signs of recent cleaning not very well done. When he looked, he saw that the man was gazing around with much the same expression.

"Better than this, that new schoolhouse of yours, eh?" asked the man.

Remembering the boys at lunch, Keelic said, "It's not mine."

A smile crept into the man's bright eyes, and he held out his hand. Keelic did the same and the man clasped hands with him, old-Earth style.

"Charles Hallod, pleased to meet you," he said, using the Terran inflection.

Feeling strength in Charles Hallod's hand, Keelic replied, "Keelic Travers."

"Let's begin," said Mr. Hallod. "Some of these desks still work."

Keelic sat in the first row. It would look silly for him to sit in the back like he preferred. He did not want to look foolish in this man's eyes.

"What level are you at, Keelic?"

"Level 6. Level 9 math."

Mr. Hallod nodded.

Keelic added, "I was into elementary algebraic geometry."

"Tell me three ways you can prove a triangle right knowing its coordinates."

Squirming in his seat, Keelic struggled to remember. Nothing came. He glanced at Mr. Hallod, but the instructor was looking at something else, and Keelic relaxed, seeking what he had learned back on Pesfor 3. He knew this.

"Distance formula!"

"Yes, how else?"

"Slope?"

"Show me."

An hour later Keelic wandered back to the main building feeling drained. Astronomy class was disappointing and boring, the tired-looking Ms. Onkalwitz explaining things he already knew. The time drifted past as he daydreamed about anything but where he was. In Expressions he spent more time looking out the window than at the picture he was supposed to be drawing and writing a story about, so that when the end-class chime rang, it was a surprise and relief.

The hover pad was full of buses neatly arrayed and already filling. He found the location where the morning bus had landed, but the space was empty. As he searched for his bus, others began taking off. He sprinted down the rows. Kids boarding their buses snickered at his panic. His tablet chimed and guided him to his hover bus. He boarded, giving a muted hello to the same stain-toothed pilot. He sat near the front and slouched down in the seat, relieved.

A tall kid with sullen eyes got on last. The only open seat was next to Keelic. The boy stood next to him and said, "The window's mine."

Keelic ignored him, staring out the window, fear corroding his joy at going home.

The boy leaned in and grabbed Keelic's shirt by the shoulder. Keelic twisted away and balled his fists, but couldn't rise because the seat had strapped him in. The boy's eyes narrowed with intent, and Keelic felt trapped. He hammered the belt release and stood up, back to the window. His breathing was short, fists tight.

The kid leaned back and let go of Keelic's shirt, reappraising him. The whole bus was quiet, watching.

Lift fans whined. Keelic glanced at the pilot, but he was busy with his console. The bus lurched up, and both Keelic and the boy grabbed for something to hold on to.

The driver bellowed, "Sit!"

Wary, Keelic and the boy slid into the seats next to each other.

The kid got off midway through the flight at a spice farm, and Keelic's spirits rose with the ascending craft. Living so far out, he was close to the last to be dropped off, and was impatient by the time his house came into view.

In the evening dining area, munching on chocolate-swirl cookies, he told his mom and dad and Anny all about the rotten day including the two attacks. His mother gave him a stern lecture about not fighting.

When he tried to explain that he didn't start the fights, his mother said, "It takes two. And you are one of the two."

That had to be the stupidest thing he had ever heard her say. He looked to his father for support, but Father was watching Mother with an unreadable expression. They sent him off to start his homework before dinner. Sitting on his bed, he took out a pocketed cookie but didn't eat it, staring instead northward, across the forest to the bluff. His parents didn't even notice how much he hated school, and his mother thought he started the fights. He tossed his tablet into a corner of the room.

"Did you meet anybody you like?" asked Anny.

"No. They're all Dreep!"

"Swearing is very crude, Keelic."

"So?"

"So, if you ever want to impress someone, it is a good idea not to be vulgar."

Keelic took a breath to give the best cursing response he could think of, but the memory of a certain pair of blue eyes from the transport ship silenced him.

He asked, "Do you have a list of everyone at the school?"

"No, but I can get one. It is on your console."

Instructors, maintenance staff, and hover bus pilots were all listed, but Keelic ignored them for the student list, and realized that he had no idea who she was.

"Can you get a list of all the kids on the transport we came in on?"

"That information is not readily available."

"What do you mean?"

"That data is—"

"You can get it, I know you can."

Anny did not reply, and Keelic knew he had her by her false-data inhibitor.

"Kee, I know what you're thinking, and I won't do it."

"Please?"

"It's not right. What have you been taught about data that is not yours?"

"It's really important."

"Why?"

It was his turn not to reply. Finally he said, "What about when you broke the security of the system on Nebula?"

"That was to protect the lives of your parents and many others. It was judged by Announcer Conference to be lawful cohabitant and self-defense. I didn't really break their security. Just...mangled it a bit."

Keelic flopped down on the bed to look at the ceiling where Anny's voice was centered.

"This is really important."

No response.

"What about the time you got that data on whatever it was for Father from the Disserian datastor?"

"What do you want the information for?"

He rolled over and looked at the floor to hide his blushing, and didn't say anything for a while.

"Anny?"

"Here."

"Do you ever feel alone?"

"Yes."

Shocked, Keelic forgot his train of thought. He had not expected an affirmative answer.

"What do you do?"

"I usually search out another Announcer on one of the nets."

"Well, that's what I'm doing."

Anny replied in an impressed tone, "Most young people just wait for friends to come along."

"You don't."

"I guess we're both a little quicker than average."

"Yeah," Keelic said. "Will you help me?"

"What's her name?"

"I don't know."

"What does she look like?"

In a small voice he answered, "Blue eyes."

There was no response for several minutes, but he kept quiet. Getting restricted data wasn't a matter of tapping out a simple query.

"There were four girls aboard the transport near your age whose eyes could be considered blue."

The console by the bed displayed images of the four. Keelic sat up, and touched the one he knew. Her image filled the screen. At the bottom was written "Leesol Hallod." He sighed, then glanced at the open door to the stairs.

"Yes, we just did something wrong."

He grinned.

"If I am caught, I will get so wrapped up with inhibitors it will make your grounding look like freefall."

His smile faded, and he said, "I'm sorry, Anny." He had met Announcers under strong inhibitors. He never wanted to see Anny like that.

"Don't worry. I wasn't detected. I did it of my own free will. For you. My friend. That makes it worth it for me, Kee."

He turned back to the picture, and looked into the pale-blue eyes.

"Dree—"

Stopped in mid-swear by a disapproving "tsk" from Anny, he stared. Leesol Hallod. Same blue eyes.

"Is she Mr. Hallod from school's daughter?"

"Ask, 'Is she Mr. Hallod's daughter, my teacher from school?'"

"Is she?"

"Yes. They were on the transport with us. Your father is coming."

Keelic sat against his pillows, pulled the console around, and pretended to be reading.

His father walked in and sat on the bed.

"How are you doing, Kee?"

"Okay."

"You seem a little distracted. Dinner is ready."

Father left, and Keelic let out the breath he had been holding.

"You still have her?" he asked.

Anny replied in mock hurt, "You doubt me?"

Keelic sputtered to deny it.

Anny laughed and said, "A Disserian audit couldn't find it."

"You're the best Ann in the whole universe."

"Thanks, Kee. Your dinner is getting cold."

#  Chapter 4

What do you say, little Dreep?

The next morning, scattered gray clouds ran southward in a fitful wind. It tugged and buffeted Keelic as he waited for the bus, each shove of air puffing up his anger at being forced to return. He'd looked at the school roster. Leesol didn't attend his school. He saw no reason to go back, but his parents didn't care. It was such a stupid place. He almost told his parents about the rifle just to create a distraction, and maybe get them to take him seriously. But they would take it away, and he would have nothing again.

The bus loomed and he stepped back as it came down. Not looking at the pilot, Keelic sat in an empty seat near the front. The seat buckled him in and the bus soared away.

Mr. Drin droned on about the benefits of good business. Keelic disliked being at the front because he wasn't able to draw. Most everyone typed notes on their desks, though a few used desk pens to hand write. Keelic could type, but had over the years developed a credible ability to fake note-taking by drawing across the desk in sections.

He was luckier in Expansion History, for his desk was in the back corner, and he planned to make good use of it today. The instructor was displaying something on the front wall about the first tries at humano-alien agriculture on Hell's Outpost. Keelic called up his tablet's drawing program, and began sketching the top of a defense satellite.

The end-class chime rang and he dumped the drawing to his tablet, but not before the girl next to him saw it. He glanced at her desk, and saw it was full of fancy cursive notes. With a disdainful flourish, she pulled her tablet out and walked away.

Galactin was taught by a fat little man who barked the words they were to repeat, barking again and again until he thought they did it right, though Keelic never could hear any difference except in volume.

After class he charged onto the field at recess, ears still ringing. The two boys who had been team captains the day before picked roughly the same teams, except that he was chosen in the middle of the picking, and by the other team.

The strength gained on the transport gave him an advantage, and he ended up winning. No one cheered except the boy Keelic had fought for the ball the day before. Everyone regrouped, and the team captains began choosing new teams. On Pesfor 3, if you won, you were the next team leader. Crestfallen, Keelic gave the ball to the captain of his new team, and they started over. The end-class chime rang after only a few throws. The boy who had cheered walked off the field with Keelic, told him that he had played a wild game, and that his name was Jasinal. Keelic was wary, wondering why Jasinal was so friendly. On Pesfor 3, if someone attacked you, they were the enemy, not your friend.

In the hall, a boy shoved both Keelic and Jasinal, saying, "Out of the way, Annboys!"

Jasinal took the shove without comment, but in a flash of anger Keelic lashed out with a foot and tripped the boy. The kid landed hard, swore savagely, and scrambled to get up. Keelic dropped his tablet and prepared to fight, but the kid glared and cursed, and backed away. Jasinal had vanished. Keelic picked up his tablet and headed out to the Study Hall for his Accelerated Mathematics class. He walked slowly to let the after-fight trembling fade.

Mr. Hallod had the wall screen in pieces all over the room. Greeting Keelic with a smile, he motioned for him to sit.

"A large work surface is essential. You must be able to see the entire problem at once, from as many perspectives as you wish, in order to find your solution. Show me what you did last night."

Keelic called up his homework problems and wondered why Leesol had blonde hair while Mr. Hallod's was brown. Their eyes were the same.

"Concentration, Keelic. Don't wander."

They worked for a few minutes, but Keelic kept fumbling. He could not stop thinking that this was Leesol's father.

"Your mind has taken a sabbatical today, Keelic."

Embarrassed and irritated, Keelic said, "What's that?"

"It comes from the Greek _sabbatikos_ , literally, the seventh day of an old-Earth week, a day of rest in some of the old religions. It also means to take a break to study, as instructors at higher levels do. It has fallen out of use since the religions have evolved, and universities began allowing regular time for instructors to keep up to date on current advances instead of only every few years."

"Oh," said Keelic.

"Why don't you help me with this screen?"

Keelic looked at the half-graded homework, then at Mr. Hallod, feeling as though he had been asked to do something wicked. But by an instructor?

Seeing Keelic's expression, Mr. Hallod said, "I don't believe learning occurs when your heart is not in it, or when something completely distracts you."

Later, walking back, Keelic stopped midway. Staring at the schoolhouse, his happiness drained away, and he wished he could spend more time with Mr. Hallod. An antique hover shuttle lifted silently from behind the Study Hall and headed northeast. After watching the craft disappear into a cloud, Keelic returned to the school with slow steps.

As he walked down the hall toward Astronomy, Jasinal rushed up to him.

"Blaine's in the restroom!"

Shrugging, Keelic didn't bother trying to figure out this cryptic statement.

"He wants to fight you."

Keelic looked at Jasinal. "Who?"

Jasinal's eyes glittered. "Ert's brother. The one you tripped? He's waiting."

Other kids were watching. If he backed away from this, he would never recover. He clenched his jaw and turned toward the restroom. The kids made a path, and he walked in. Perhaps he could talk to the boy, and not have to do this.

Blaine was pure spice farmer, nails stained dark by the black Ermolian soil, eyes dull and bitter. He saw Keelic and stepped forward, chin raised. "You tried to space my brother, little Dreep."

Keelic glanced at the ceiling. Wasn't there surveillance in here, audio at least?

Blaine said louder, "What do you say, little Dreep?"

_Say to what?_ Keelic wondered. Blaine was big, but no older than Keelic. Excited boys crowded into the restroom, careful to leave enough space for the fight, filling corners and standing on toilets to look over the partitions.

There was no way out. Keelic handed his tablet to Jasinal and raised his fists. Some of the boys laughed, but Keelic stood his ground, waiting for Blaine to come to him.

Blaine's face shifted, and Keelic saw that the boy was afraid. Keelic knew then that he could take him, and stepped forward. They circled each other, not for advantage, but because neither wanted to begin.

A spectator lamented, "Blaine's afraid of the Annboy."

Blaine's face went shamed red, then rageful, and he attacked. Keelic's confidence vanished. He skittered away and hit a wall with his back. Blaine closed the range, and Keelic's courage returned through desperation. He leaned in and started swinging. In the flurry of fists, most of their blows missed, but Keelic sensed right away that he was landing more. He pushed his advantage, forcing Blaine back. Blaine bent over, covering his head, and backed away.

The other boys moaned and shook their heads, and one who had been holding Blaine's tablet tossed it into a urinal.

Panting, Keelic took his own tablet from Jasinal and walked out, whispers preceding him.

In Astronomy, Keelic's hands shook. He couldn't concentrate. His face felt strange and puffy where blows had landed, but didn't hurt too much. He didn't seem to be bleeding. Blaine, it turned out, was in the same class. He came in late, and cried the whole time, his head hidden in his arms. Keelic was tense for a few minutes, but it looked as though no one had told the instructors about the battle, nor did Ms. Onkalwitz seem to care why Blaine was crying. Blaine's sobs touched Keelic, and yet he hated the boy at the same time. Victory was a nugget of good feeling that was quickly fading. The other students watched Keelic, but didn't seem to know quite what to make of him. He felt equally confused. And alone.

On the bus, no one sat next to Keelic. That was fine with him. He didn't want to be near any of them, and couldn't wait to get home. The boy who had threatened him for the window seat the previous day got on last. Lift fans whined, and since there were no other seats, the boy sat down next to Keelic. Hands curled to fists, Keelic watched him out of the corner of his eye.

The boy glanced at Keelic and said, "Blaine's such a polepucker. Fights like a girl."

Keelic grunted in response, not trusting the kid at all.

Mother and Father were waiting for him again at the hover pad, but he greeted them with the minimum courtesy necessary. Once inside, he ate his snack in silence as his parents drifted off to their work. He didn't mention the fight to them. They wouldn't care, and would just lecture him. Anyway, they kept sending him back. This fight wouldn't change anything. He stomped up to his room.

Anny greeted him with some Rimsky-Korsakov music. Keelic paused to listen, thought of the rifle, and found his mood improving. He got out his environmental suit, belt, and pack, and fiddled with them until the music ended. He had Anny put on some Triztbagian battle music, got out his starship models, opened a window, and had a gigantic war above the house until dinner.

Next day Keelic dropped his tablet after plugging in at the school entry. Before he could pick it up, the boy from the bus grabbed it. Keelic prepared to fight, but the kid merely stood and handed it to him. Keelic marveled.

At recess he wrestled to the ground a boy who had picked on Jasinal and stole his ball. Jasinal sat with Keelic for lunch, but each time Keelic started talking about something like battle tactics or expansion wars or the Pathfinder explorers, Jasinal got snide and changed the subject to sports or told crude jokes, mostly involving girls.

Girls at the school ignored Keelic, even when he tried to smile or be nice to them. The pretty ones seemed only to care about a few of the most popular boys, always giggling and watching them. The rest seemed folded in on themselves, trying to be as small and unnoticed as possible. Keelic saw that this didn't work if they got in the way of the wrong kids. When those same kids tried to bully Keelic, he attacked.

#  Chapter 5

Warm orange

On the first day of endweek, Keelic was allowed, after homework, to make another trek to the cave. He walked through the forest, suit hood off, smelling the pungent scents of alien flowers and the earthy-sweet aroma of rotting Ermolian vegetation that was unlike anything. The wind played among the trees, making the long leaves bob and sway. Above, the sun shone distant and bright between intermittent clouds. There was no one to tell him what to do. He could go where he pleased. Say what he wished, when he wished. And there was the rifle. He smiled.

Pushing through the stringy underbrush beneath the trees, he came to a letrul's trampled path. It was one of Keelic's favorite Ermolian animals. He followed the easy way and soon found the animal. It pushed through the underbrush with its slow, backward, eight-legged gait, eating as it went, its head at the rear of its body. The round head rose slowly, and took a long three-eyed look at Keelic.

Warning beeps sounded, and Keelic felt the tingling sensation that meant the stunner had fired. The little status screen on the stunner folded out. One glance upward, and he scrambled away.

Hanging limp from a fiber in the top center of its body was a spiked pouncer. Four jointed arms tipped with curved spikes dangled from the corners of a roughly square body. Multifaceted eyes that reflected metallic green in the dappled sunlight gazed blankly from between the legs. The creature's fiber winch in its upper body was slowly letting the stunned animal sink to the ground.

"What happened?" Keelic's mother asked through the communicator.

"It's just a pouncer, Mom," said Keelic trying to sound indifferent, but his heart was racing.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes."

She sighed and said, "Give me a visual, Keelic."

He attached the communicator to the recorder, and raised the recorder to his eyes.

"Oh my. Carl, link Keelic's visual."

"That is a large one, all right," said Keelic's father. "Looks to be at least a meter across. Are you okay, Keelic?"

"Yes, I'm fine," said Keelic, as he struggled to keep the recorder from trembling.

His mother said, "You're in a letrul's path, Keelic. You've been told not to follow them. Pouncers always hunt there. Do you have your hood on?"

"No, but..."

"Wear it from now on."

"But..."

"Now."

Keelic touched the control pad on his arm. The hood emerged from behind his head as the face plate slid up from his chest. The plate curved on top and sides, and sealed above his head.

A faint breath of cool air blew across his face as the suit began filtering outside air. Keelic replaced the recorder and communicator on his belt. He checked his map and compass. Only one more kilometer to the cave. One more klick to his secret. He pushed ahead.

He found the tree where he had hidden the rifle, and pulled it from the trunk. Sunlight glinted off the scratched gray surfaces of the weapon. He found a rock and sat down with the rifle on his thighs. He could feel its weight through his suit, and he wondered. Why was the rifle here? Who had left it in the cave, and where were they now?

Looking forward to getting the rifle was different from having it. Having it was much more serious. And more powerful. He touched off his suit hood and stood, facing a phantom lineup of Quat-lat Kay-ku commanded by the Chief Instructor. He brought the rifle up, aimed it, and pretended to fire, but it was too heavy. Ducking, he dashed to a Patamic tree.

"Admiral Travers, last survivor of the Ermolian slave camps, prepares his last stand." He set the rifle in the crook of a leaf stem and pretended to fire rapid patterns at the forest. "...vaporizes the attacking mob, but only has three charges left...the Chief Instructor sends in a Tritzbagian armored seeker...Travers sights on it..." He raised the sight, and tuned the Target Finder to filter on metallic, penetration, variable-range search. The viewfinder zoomed, and zoomed, and finally stopped at twenty klicks inside what looked like dirt. He forgot his game and swung the rifle back and forth. The range shot back to a few meters and started searching out again. The range leapt out to four klicks and lit up with targeting lines. Pressing his eye close, he centered the gun on what it had found, then snatched his hand away from the control pad.

The screen showed, at precisely 4.143 kilometers, his home. Holding the rifle steady was difficult, and the image kept slipping out of view, but the targeting lines were locked and guided him back. Unease made a knot in his chest. Another set of smaller targeting lines appeared. Gingerly, he tapped the target selector to cycle to the next target, and the view zoomed out to 30.2 klicks, focusing on the next target that matched current scanning criteria. Targeting lines tracked a small hover shuttle across the view finder.

Keelic touched off the Target Finder, and let the rifle lean on the tree. His palms were slick. This rifle was far more powerful than those in the vids. More powerful than anything. Well, not more powerful than a Lasiter Attack Frigate—nothing was stronger than those, not even the newest ships.

He looked at the sky. What if he was being monitored from space? Or what if Anny or his parents were scanning him? No, if they were, he'd already be in so much trouble he would never get out of it. His parents liked Anny to support their lives, but not interfere without specific instructions, which was fortunate. Keelic considered what to do. If he told of his discovery, everyone would be amazed, and then he would be ignored as the adults pursued the mystery of it being here. If he was to keep this secret, he would need to be more careful. He picked up the rifle and climbed into the cave.

After hiding the rifle at the back of the cavern, he walked out into the sunlight. The purple-blue sky was empty to his eye, but he knew that the catcher-nets were up there, and beyond them the outer-perimeter defense sats. All his life he had lived under a catcher-net security blanket. Every populated world had one, and all inhabited planetary systems were seeded heavily with anti-superluminal mines. The catcher-net defense grid protected the world from the weapons of starships, and the mines kept a world from being destroyed by a superluminal weapon or misguided ship. Taught for as long as he could remember that the powerful defense grids were his friend, watching sky and planet, he felt uncomfortable sensing a threat from them now that he had something to hide.

There was one other thing he wanted to see today. With the map zoomed in to display the bluff, he left the cave and walked east along the base of the cliff until he found what he was looking for, obscured by vegetation. It took some effort, but he pulled aside vines and dead leaves to expose the base of a steep ramp about one meter wide cut from the bluff face. He looked up and could see evidence of the ramp as it rose, hugging the contours of the bluff.

He didn't know what the ramp signified, but he felt it was important, and if not important, it was fun to discover things nobody knew about.

"How's the recording going?" asked his father.

Keelic twitched and said, "'Kay."

"Sarah wants you to start home now so you won't be late again. You are not wearing your hood. Put it on. Your mother was serious about that."

Keelic sighed. "'Kay."

After dinner he went to his room and looked up the rifle again. Nothing that he found hinted at the abilities he had discovered in the weapon. He longed to tell Anny about it. She kept his secrets, but this was different somehow. He wondered how Leesol would react. Of course, he had to meet her first. But how?

*****

Keelic spent the last day of the endweek studying Galactic War history in the house library. He examined massive, dynamic maps, tracing the extent of the war as it spread. When that yielded nothing near Ermol, he examined the history of the rifle, especially its use in covert operations. Under the pretext of a school project, he got Anny to help him request declassified war documents that weren't stored in the local planetbase, but it would be months before they arrived. Exhausted, he went to bed early and dreamed of infantry battles.

*****

At school recess the next day somebody called out, "Ship!"

Everyone stopped and looked up.

Keelic scoffed. Pesfor 3's skies were full of space stations and thousands of ships, but here one little ship was a big deal.

"Not a transport," said someone, and Keelic looked up in spite of himself.

Ermol Station hung in the sky like a bright moon, backlighting a sleek, dark ship snuggling up to it. Those lines could only be military, possibly a fast cruiser or even a far-space probe. He wished he had his far-viewer. Nothing else happened and everyone returned to their game, except Keelic, straining his eyes to see more detail. The end-class chime rang.

A military shuttle appeared overhead, banked, and settled down on the other side of the school. Keelic sprinted off the field. He flew through the halls, skidding to halt at the front doors as six tall men in crisp Alliance Defense League uniforms ushered a nonhumanoid into the school. Keelic stood against the wall as they passed, then followed them down the hall. The alien had an oval body shaped like a streamlined turtle with a raised portion identifiable as the head because of the two flexible eyestalks protruding from it. It moved with a bunch of flexible light-pink legs and looked like it would be more at home in trees. Pale-brown fur so fine that it waved and swirled with every air current covered it head to end.

Most of the children in the halls backed away, but Keelic followed closely. The men went into the Chief Instructor's office. Keelic slipped into an empty classroom until the halls cleared. He crept to the Chief's office and put his ear to the wall, careful to stay out of the door's proximity field.

A strong man's voice. "...know what it is, but it is not dangerous. We recovered it deep."

A far-space probe! Keelic pressed his ear to the wall hard to catch every word.

"It communicates telepathically with images and emotions, but only when it wants and with who it wants. We can't deal with it now. The proper people will be out to retrieve it."

The Chief Instructor's voice said, "Hold on here, Captain. We don't have the facilities to deal with nonhumanoids. There is no way we can take it."

Captain's voice. "You will. You have the only facilities within a month. This has set me back six already. It is highly intelligent, can memorize anything. My analyst thinks it's young, so a school is the best environment for it. All you need to know has been downloaded to your school primary and cleared with your planetary steward."

Chief, ingratiating. "Captain..."

Captain, hard voiced. "League regs required me to save it, required me to bring it back, but I will not keep it. You will."

The door opened and Keelic stepped away from the wall as the captain strode out, right into Keelic. The captain stumbled with an epithet as Keelic spun from the impact to sprawl in the doorway. The captain strode brusquely away with his grinning men.

The Chief Instructor expanded, eyes blazing in preparation to blast Keelic, whose eyes were locked with the alien's. Keelic smiled in awe.

The alien retracted its eyes and leapt away from the Chief Instructor, bounding to cling to the ceiling in the corner farthest from him.

Startled, the Chief stuttered at Keelic, "G-get out."

Keelic ran as three instructors walked past him into the office.

In the lunch hall, the alien was the talked-about subject. In line, Keelic had a large group listening to what he had heard. Even a cluster of popular boys and girls were listening.

"Form a single line!" shouted an instructor. Everyone started bustling for position, and an older boy cut in front of Keelic.

"Go to the end," Keelic told him.

The kid smirked. "You gonna make me?"

Keelic pushed him out of line, and he collided with a girl walking past with a tray of food. The two went down with a crash, getting covered with wet green, white, and orange. Every one near began laughing, except Keelic. The boy glowered at Keelic and began to rise with clenched fists, while the girl, red faced, tried not to cry. Ms. Onkalwitz came over and most of the laughing stopped. The boy stood slowly, glaring at Keelic. The girl on the floor stood up next to him and the instructor looked them up and down.

"Go get cleaned up," she said. Then to the line, "What happened?"

Keelic tried to look innocent. Thom, one of the most popular guys in the school, said, "Uban slipped, Ms. Onkalwitz."

Keelic stood rigid as Ms. Onkalwitz eyed him. After she left, everyone burst into laughter, and Keelic was invited to sit with Thom and his friends. Keelic was pleased. He got his food and followed Thom to the table where the tough boys sat. Keelic put his tray down. A firm hand was placed on his shoulder.

"That's my chair," said Thom.

"What?"

"Sit here," Thom ordered, pointing to the next seat.

Keelic frowned.

"Sit," said Thom.

Keelic replied, "My tray is already here."

Thom handed his food to someone and puffed up his chest, pushing it against Keelic. Keelic knew he should back down, but the unfairness of a week of daily attacks burned. He flashed an angry look up at Thom's freckled face, and tried to sit down. They pushed against each other, scooting the chair around until an instructor's voice cut between them.

"What's the problem here?" said Ms. Onkalwitz.

Before Keelic could answer, one of Thom's friends said, "Keelic tried to take Thom's seat and food."

Ms. Onkalwitz grabbed Keelic's arm as he tried to deny the accusation, and ushered him to a table where no one was sitting.

"Sit here and don't cause any more trouble, understand?"

"But I—"

"I don't want to hear it. Do you want detention?"

Keelic turned away from her. He watched others eat for a while and looked for his tray, but it was gone. He got up to get in line for more, but Ms. Onkalwitz spied him, rushed over, and gripping his arm, lifting it up, sat him down again.

"Sit here or sit in the Chief Instructor's office. You already have a day of detention. Do you want more?"

Keelic almost answered, but sat, feeling abused. When the end-lunch chime rang, he walked to his tablet locker, and found a message from Mr. Hallod canceling his class for the day. Keelic wilted, and went back to the lunchroom to wait for Astronomy class. He sat next to the window and gazed up at Ermol Station, but the ADL ship was already gone. With his tablet, he sent out a few queries about the vessel, but none returned.

Frustration roiled. He hated this place. This whole planet. What was wrong with him that everyone hated him so much? Sadness and rage were all mixed up. The unfairness of everything burned, and he nearly threw his tablet across the cafeteria with all his might. But it was a really good tablet. He slouched in the seat and called up a simulation.

In the halls at the next end-class, everyone was talking about the alien, but no one would talk to Keelic. For the rest of the day, no one talked to him at all. People whispered behind his back when he passed. When he turned to look at them, they stared at him like they knew something he didn't. He chanced a smiled at Jasinal, but the boy ignored Keelic and seemed to enjoy doing it. Loneliness lodged in Keelic's chest.

At the end of the day, Keelic hid in his last classroom to avoid Ms. Onkalwitz. After the halls were empty, he peeked out, then walked briskly to the bus field where the hover shuttles were preparing to take off. He expected at any moment to hear Ms. Onkalwitz screeching for his return and more detention.

Someone called his name. He turned reluctantly and saw Jasinal standing at the corner of the school smiling and waving for Keelic to come. The buses were about to leave, but he was glad someone, even Jasinal, had decided to be friendly, and ran over. Another boy stepped around the wall, grabbed him, and yanked him around the corner. Keelic stumbled to a stop, facing Thom and his friends. He turned to leave but boys blocked him.

Thom laughed. "What's wrong? Scared?"

Turning to face Thom got Keelic a fist in the nose. The world swerved and Keelic fell back onto the grass, pain pounding to the pulse of a warm flow down his face. Something slammed hard into his side, and cuffed his head. They were kicking him. Keelic cried out and rolled over, and tried to hide his head. The boys laughed and jeered.

"Whittle Annoboy! Does it heurt?"

They kicked him a few more times, then ran to catch their buses.

Keelic rolled onto his belly as great sobs of shame welled up. Pain surged in his face with each. He raised his head and watched horrified as blood poured out of his nose onto the grass.

Orange warmth and blue calm spread over his pain and fear, suffusing his mind with sympathy and something he had never felt before. His sobs died as the bleeding slowed. He saw a strangely structured and colored image of himself from above, lying on the ground. He stood and looked up at the school windows. Two black eyes on pink stalks looked back at him. Keelic smiled in wonder and was shocked when a feeling of friendliness bloomed in his mind.

He asked, "Did you do that?"

It stared at him quizzically.

Picking up his tablet, he heard school-bus lift fans.

"No!"

He ran around the corner. The landing area was deserted, the last bus soaring away into the sky. He slouched and his head dropped to his chest. He touched his nose as it began to throb again. A call home was now in order, and that entailed a trip to the Chief Instructor's office, and probably more detention.

Walking slowly, Keelic approached the dreaded office door, passing the storage room where the alien was. He stopped.

Tentative, he asked, "You there?"

Test, purple green recognition swirl, warm orange.

Keelic was pleased that the alien recognized and liked him. Then a wave of dark-gray loneliness coursed through him, and he stumbled back with a gasp as it touched the wounded places inside where his own feelings of isolation bled. He found himself sitting on the floor, blinking at the storage room door. That hadn't felt good. But he had certainly understood it. He stood, unsure what to do.

Yellow image of empty hall.

Was that a question? Keelic looked up and down the hall, and whispered, "Yes."

The door to the room slid into the ceiling. The alien put out one eye to look down the hall, then the other to look the other direction, and hopped out. It reached up and touched the door-close panel. Its skin flushed dark pink with pleasure that Keelic could feel. It reached out to him, and he let it touch his bloody face. The end of the alien's arm was formed of thousands of filaments of different colors that spread to tickle Keelic's face or grasp his hair gently. Pain faded, and he felt the alien's orange warmth grow in him.

A door slid open down the hall, and the alien leapt straight up, flipped, and grasped the ceiling. Keelic turned toward the Chief Instructor's office and walked to the door, head down. An instructor walked past, glancing at him as the Chief's door opened.

The man raised his eyes to glower, then jerked his head up at the blood all over Keelic.

"What happened?"

Keelic explained, leaving out the alien. The Chief called the school medic, and sat drumming his fingers.

"Sit," he ordered.

The medic arrived and examined Keelic with much prodding and instrument reading, and pronounced him mostly undamaged.

The Chief Instructor dismissed the medic and tapped on his console.

Presently Keelic heard his mother's voice. "Yes?"

"Mrs. Travers, I have your son in my office. He has been in a fight. He is not seriously hurt. My medic has examined him. Would you please come pick him up?"

"Yes, I will be there in ten minutes."

Keelic relaxed, knowing his mother was on the way.

More tapping by the Chief Instructor brought a nasal woman's voice. "Oh, hi honey. What do you want?"

The Chief Instructor's cheek twitched. "Don't let Thom go anywhere when he gets home. I am going to have a talk with him."

Keelic felt sick. Thom was the Chief Instructor's son!

The woman replied in a cool tone, "All right. Don't be late tonight."

The Chief nodded curtly and cut off the screen.

The door opened. Keelic looked to see a black eye peering in from the top of the doorway. He snapped his head to look at the Chief, who was also looking at the eye.

"Damn," the Chief Instructor said, and stabbed a finger at his console. "Waters, that damn thing is out again. Get down here and bring the stunner."

Moments later the alien dropped into the doorway and hopped in as a red stun ring hissed past. There was a screech down the hall, and a thud as a body hit the floor. The alien hopped beside Keelic.

Waters stuck his pimpled, chagrined face into the room, along with the humming stunner.

The Chief Instructor exploded. "Imbecile! Don't point that thing at me. Who did you hit? Did I tell you to shoot everything on the planet? Did I?"

Waters's head lowered a couple of inches on his neck. He flipped off the stunner and moved into the room. The Chief, standing now, glowered at him. Waters glanced up, and the Chief raised his eyebrows expectantly.

Waters said, "Uh," and looked down the hall. "It's Ms. Onkalwitz."

Keelic suppressed a giggle, and marveled at the alien as it leaned against his legs, watching Waters with one eye and the Chief Instructor with the other.

Cheek twitching, the Chief shook his head. "Now I'll be hearing from the Teaching Unisociate. Don't stand there, Waters. Help me get it back into the room. Travers, move away from the creature."

As the Chief Instructor spoke, Keelic got a red-edged yellow image of him and the alien making a dash through the open door. He replied to the alien, "No."

"What?" the Chief flared.

Keelic looked up.

"Move away from it. Now, Travers."

Keelic got up and walked across the room. The alien stuck close, touching.

The Chief screwed up his face and walked over to Waters, ripping the stunner out of his hand. The Chief waved a hand at the door. Waters touched the door panel, and it slid closed.

The Chief Instructor said, "Travers, when I say go, you run back across the room."

He turned on the stunner and pointed it at the alien and Keelic.

Crimson fear blazed. Ducking, Keelic and the alien scrambled behind the Chief Instructor's desk. On fingers and toes, Keelic tensed, ready to dodge again. Nothing happened, so he peeked over the immaculate desktop.

The Chief appeared astonished that they had disobeyed him so completely. He was recovering from the shock, though, his cheek beginning to twitch with inarticulate rage.

Keelic ducked back under the desk. After a moment he could hear the man breathing slower, getting control of himself.

"You are going to regret this, boy, if you don't move right now."

Keelic held absolutely still. When nothing happened he chanced another look. The two men stood on either side of the door, Waters sullen, the Chief steaming, but also not sure what to do next.

A hovercraft landed outside. Through the window, Keelic saw his mom striding toward the school. How fast had she flown to get here that quick? The Chief Instructor shoved the stunner at Waters, and intercepted her on the lawn.

She came in, looked Waters up and down, eyes lingering on the stunner, and said, "Keelic?"

He stood up, looked down at the alien crouched at his feet, and said, "That's my mom, it's okay."

A single eye raised enough to peek over. Looking at his mom, Keelic felt safe. The other eye looked up at Keelic, and he felt maroon safe, mother love. His mother's face softened, and she walked without fear to the other side of the desk, though she paused when she saw the alien. She reached out to Keelic's face, and the alien reached up to touch her hand.

"Let's go, Keelic," she said, guiding him from behind the desk. The alien moved with them, touching their legs.

"He has to come with us! He's afraid to stay here."

"No, dear. I'm sorry, but it's not ours, or our responsibility."

Keelic looked at the alien. "Tell her."

His mother's eyes grew wide, then saddened, and her hand strayed to her chest.

The Chief Instructor grew alarmed and said, "That thing is my responsibility, given expressly to me by Captain—"

"Ilintire," she said, finishing his sentence, and faced him with her head high. "How could you lock it into a room with no one for company? Can't you see it's a sentient, and a social one? You threatened it and my son with a stunner. I am going to report this. This alien is an extraordinary being. You have mistreated it horribly."

She paused and looked at the alien snuggled between her and Keelic.

The Chief Inspector drew himself up to respond, but she cut him off. "My husband is an exobiologist. He will be able to take proper care of it. I take full responsibility. Excuse me." With Keelic and the alien in tow, she swept out of the office.

Walking out to the family hover shuttle, Keelic chanced a furtive look at the windows of the Chief Instructor's office. He stood there, ominous, but impotent for the moment. Keelic kept his mom between him and the glaring Chief as they boarded the shuttle.

The alien watched with interest as Keelic's mother tried to strap it into the seat. She gave up when Keelic told her the alien could climb on ceilings.

"That won't help in a crash," she replied.

On the way home, Keelic told her everything at light speed. She had him repeat certain sections slower, then queried across the planet and in orbit. There was no information on the alien.

"Carl? I'm bringing an unknown life form home."

"Do you mean Keelic, or did something wander into the schoolyard?"

"No. This is from an ADL probe ship."

"Oh? Oh. What form? Have you checked the planetbase?"

"Yes. There's nothing. I'll explain everything when we get there."

Keelic's father was waiting beside the hover pad with a big shoulder-slung scanner. Keelic and his mom watched as Father scanned the alien for five minutes. The alien looked out the shuttle windows, checked out the scanner, but did not try to exit the shuttle until Father moved out of the way.

"Come inside," he said.

The alien walked beside Keelic up the path. Keelic pointed out the seed-hoppers. They passed into the house, the alien's eyes swaying about to look at everything.

"Anny!" said Keelic. "This is my new friend. He came from farspace. He's telepathic, and can climb walls. He—"

His mother interrupted. "Why don't you tell both Anny and your father in the gathering hall?"

Keelic's father said, "I'd like a constant bioscan, Anny. Check for pathogens and toxins in any quantity. L5, please."

"My resolution is quite enhanced in this matrix. I can manage L7 throughout most of the house."

Father nodded to Anny's statement. In the gathering hall, Keelic sat on his favorite giant cushion with the alien. Father knelt next to them, and carefully examined the small being. It examined him just as carefully, making Keelic laugh.

"I wonder if it has a gender," his father asked himself, studying anatomical scans on a mobile console floating next to him.

Keelic peered hard at the alien, and thought of a man, a woman, a boy, and a girl.

The eyestalks raised a little, and Keelic got a confused splatter of colors, mostly yellows.

"Wow," said Keelic blinking.

He scooted closer, thought the same images, but tried to make them yellow. The boy flashed orange in Keelic's mind.

"He's a boy," Keelic said triumphantly.

"Did you just ask it that?" asked his dad.

Keelic nodded.

"What's it like, what type of communication is it?"

"Colors mostly."

"And imagery," said his mother.

"Yeah, some pictures, too."

"What did you see?"

"A picture of a boy all orange. But I think blue means _yes_."

"Hmm. Ask him if I can put him under the big scope. You know how it feels. Try to let him know what it will be like."

Keelic tried to imagine the alien walking into the examination chamber, the door shutting, lying down—no, the alien would just settle down, and the lights going out, feeling queasy, hot, cold prickles, and it going on for a long time. You were not supposed to move around.

Affirmative blue-purple image of the alien walking into the chamber.

"He understands," said Keelic, amazed.

After the alien sat in the scanning chamber for Father, they set out every piece of food in the house on the evening dining table. The alien manipulated each item with the filaments on the ends of his front two legs, indicating blue or orange affirmation to Keelic for the ones he wanted.

Mother said, "If he's anything like Keelic, he's picking his equivalent of cookies, candy, and milk."

"He has a robust metabolism," said Father. "None of this should harm him. I will know more about his nutritional needs after Anny and I go over the scans."

After the meal they studied the alien for hours in the main lab until Mother told them all it was time for bed. As Keelic and the alien headed off for his room, he overheard his father ask Mother something, and crept back to listen to her reply.

"Carl, I simply don't know. Suddenly I knew that I had to take the little being away from there. It spoke to me. But it was so much more than colors and imagery. I can still feel the effects. The emotions were intense. Pure." She paused. "I'm not sure we should have Keelic attend that school."

Keelic's father sighed in a way that told Keelic they had discussed this before, and said, "It's the only school, Sarah."

"What about home schooling?" asked his mother, and Keelic felt a thrill.

His father sounded a bit defensive. "I don't have time. IIAK is waiting for my prelim on these biocodes. They'll send in someone else if I don't get it done. Do you have the time? Are you ready to scale back on the Biospheric Society?"

"No," said his mother sadly. "You know I can't. The Trade Guild wants to raze the entire Kalhorn Valley to grow Prince's Gold, of all things. I've got the independent farm owners meeting to prepare for. And now we have this alien to look after..."

"Yes, the alien," said Father. "Alien is right. If someone had claimed to have seen what I recorded here tonight, I would have laughed at them. The electromagnetic field around that little being is so strong it interferes with some of my instrumentation. Some sort of photosynthesis is occurring in those fine filaments on his back that generates energy that is stored I don't know where, and from the size and structure of his optic receptors, I'll bet my Nobelin Prizes he can see way into the ultraviolet and infrared, maybe further. Look at this biocode. It's the tightest I've ever seen, tighter even than the Ermol codes. Tell me that isn't engineered."

Mother said, "I've been wondering all evening, why did the ADL leave it here? A discovery this significant—a first contact, for space sake!—wouldn't that merit a return to base for an expedition?"

"Good point," Father said. "I read what the ADL gave to the school, but there isn't much there, no location, no detail about the find, and certainly no reasons for their decision to leave the only member of a first-contact species in the care of an ill-equipped school on a frontier world."

They were both quiet for a while with their own thoughts. Keelic turned to leave, but his mother said, "For some reason I know it, but I still have to ask. Are you sure that Keelic is safe, or even us, around it?"

"I think so. His chemistry and makeup are some of the most unusual I've ever seen, but he doesn't have any of the characteristic components for dangerous chemistry or behavior, nor does his field seem to interfere with our own biostratum-electrics, but I will look deeper." He yawned.

Keelic ran to his room. The alien examined everything top to bottom before snuggling up beside Keelic on the bed. He noticed that his new friend was quite warm to touch.

"What's your name?" Keelic asked.

Yellow uncertainty.

"It's okay if you can't remember," said Keelic.

*****

Parting in the morning was painful. The alien tried to get onto the hover bus with him, and only stopped when Keelic, at his father's insistence, told the alien to stay behind.

Gray loneliness shot through with stabs of abandonment struck Keelic, causing tears to well in his eyes all the way to school. The boy in the seat next to him teased him about it, and Keelic, without thinking, hit him in the belly as hard as he could. The boy folded up, holding his middle. Keelic looked at the pilot, but the man was concentrating on flying the bus. Keelic settled back, glaring out the window.

When the bus landed, he got off first and hurried through the wind into the schoolhouse. He didn't expect the boy to tell who hit him, no one told here, but Keelic did not want to be there if the boy did. Keelic was surprised that he'd done it, and felt guilty. He hadn't meant to hurt the kid, just make him be quiet.

The foulness of his mood deepened when he saw Thom in the hall. The Chief Instructor's son smirked as he passed Keelic. Keelic turned to watch Thom's swaggering back, and vowed revenge. He would have to be careful. Thom had many friends and they were all against him now.

He barely noticed Ermol Life and History, or Expansion History, as he was plotting multiple ways of destroying Thom. All his thoughts of havoc and revenge did nothing to brighten the day, and his loneliness swirled together with his anger and shame. And fear.

When Keelic stomped into the Study Hall, Mr. Hallod speared him with a penetrating look, then proceeded to ignore Keelic's mood and push him harder than any day previous. Keelic worked till he was sweating, forgetting his cares in the struggle to understand and solve the equations Mr. Hallod threw at him. Mr. Hallod praised his hard work, and Keelic found that Thom didn't matter quite as much for the rest of the day.

On the bus ride home, Keelic felt pale bluish tugs of anticipation, a green recognition swirl, and a happy light-reddish-umber urgency. His father and the alien were waiting for him as the bus battled against a powerful wind to reach the hover pad.

A gust shoved it away, but the pilot gunned the craft and plopped it down. Keelic's dad walked up to the door as Keelic jumped out. A gust caught him and nearly tumbled him to the ground, but the alien reached out and steadied him. Keelic felt an orange glow of friendship.

Keelic's dad stuck his head into the bus, glanced at the two remaining children, and said to the pilot, "Are you sure you want to continue? We have plenty of room. You are welcome to stay until the storm blows over."

The driver looked at him like he was being silly, and shook his head. "Been out in worse in these weak-field buses. Looks a be the first norther of the season. These puffs are but the start."

Nodding, Keelic's dad moved away. Fans screamed and the bus leapt skyward.

Braced against his dad, Keelic peered north at the churning mass of clouds stretching across the horizon, dwarfing and obscuring the mountains. Electric-blue lighting danced on the cloud face, occasionally leaping kilometers ahead to stab the forest. A bass rumble was carried on the wind.

Raising his arms, Keelic leaned forward, letting the wind support him. A gust toppled him back, and strong hands stopped his backward progress. His dad, holding him, shouted above the wind, "We have to go in now."

Keelic was reluctant, but his father insisted. Inside, the sound of the wind was muted, but the deep grumbling of the thunder penetrated. The family went up the north tower to Keelic's room to watch the storm front approach.

The Patamic tree leaf-stems pointed south before the wind, springing back with each lessening, only to be pushed harder in the mounting winds. The top of the forest rippled as the wind played over it, a sea of waving leaves. An occasional one was ripped off its trunk and sent flying over the forest top. Father tuned Keelic's console to the planetary weather analysis, and tied it into Anny's sensors.

He said, "There are two-hundred-kilometer-per-hour winds in that front, and hail five centimeters in diameter."

Mother asked, "Are you sure the house can take it?"

"I can take it, Sarah," replied Anny. "My braces go to the bedrock and I am rated to withstand eight-hundred-kilometer gusts. Embedded within my entire matrix is an integral sensor net with a ten-micron resolution. I can withstand, without structural damage, the impact of a mature Patamic stalk falling from eight kilometers. My infrastructure is composed of dynamically adaptive polymers that provide stress dispersion, impact absorption, and damage repair."

Keelic's mom smiled. "Thank you Anny. I know you can take it—that storm just looks frightening."

"I understand."

The cloud layer stretched from ground to blue-black sky, darkness spreading beneath it, consuming everything within its extent. The wind rose to an undulating moan, and the tower began to vibrate.

Sitting on the bed with the alien, Keelic put his arm around him, and they shared each other's excitement. An image of Leesol leapt to mind. He wondered if she was somewhere watching the storm, too. In a pang of longing, Keelic dropped his eyes from the window.

Mother gasped. Keelic looked, but saw with very different vision. He could see the wind itself. He could discern the contours of the clouds, and almost distinguish individual raindrops.

Across the space between storm front and house, a tremendous downburst was racing, ripping up leaves. As it approached, Keelic grabbed for something to hold on to. The blast struck the house and the tower shuddered. Leaves hit the window with loud cracks and raindrops splattered and streaked themselves on the glass. In a blue flash, in which Keelic saw the individual branches of energy, a bolt of lightning struck a Patamic tree at the base of the hill. The tree exploded, pieces whipped away by the wind. The crack-boom of thunder made everyone jump, and Keelic lost the alien's vision.

He was about to tell his parents what he had seen, but more lightning strikes silenced him. Hail came next, smashing against the windows and leaping in the grasses on the hill. Keelic wondered where the seed-hoppers went for shelter.

They sat on the bed and watched until rain completely obscured the window. The house shook as vicious winds tore at it. Clouds covered the sky and it became night, lit by brilliant strobes of blue, the darkness between filled with the patter-cracks of hail strikes and booms of thunderous violence.

Father brought up the house control panel on Keelic's console and checked the house's integrity. Color-coded stress patterns played through the structure. Keelic waited for Anny to say something, but she was silent, and Keelic silently told his dad to turn off house control because Anny wouldn't like it if he didn't believe her. His father turned on the countermute, enabling conversation, but no one spoke. A fresh wave of hail began to pummel the house.

His parents offered to have him sleep with them, but he declined, mildly insulted. How old did they think he was? They tucked him into bed with the alien and left. As soon as they were gone, he turned off the mute, sat up with the alien, and watched the storm until late.

*****

The morning was barely discernible through thick cloud layers shoved south by the still howling wind. Rain flew horizontally in fits. School was by remote, and Keelic spent most of the day in front of the big screen in the central gathering hall linked to his instructors in their homes. The alien sat in the window and watched the instructors with mild interest or stared out the two-story windows at the weather.

After classes they went up to his room. They sat on the bed together, and Keelic closed his eyes. He knew whose thoughts were whose, though he didn't know how he knew. There was also an area where their thoughts merged and flowed together.

After exploring each other's memories, Keelic realized that his friend's memories started when the Alliance ship found him.

"Where are you from?"

The eyestalks waved and Keelic felt emptiness and vague colors. Something in the emptiness wasn't right. A wisp of emotion, hard edged, snapped out of the void. Keelic jerked away feeling as though he'd been kicked in the chest. Concerned, the alien rose up from where he lay, and looked at Keelic in a yellowy way, wondering what was wrong. Keelic realized that his friend had no idea what had just happened.

"Never mind," said Keelic.

They spent time going over Keelic's memories, and he found that through the alien he could see his own memories in crisp colorful detail. He imagined changes to see what happened. His thoughts became bright clear images and it gave him an idea.

"Let's make spaceships and then fight them."

Anny said, "Your father just asked if you are doing your homework or studying for your midterm tests."

"What'd you tell him?"

"The truth."

"Is he coming?"

"Yes."

Keelic scrambled for his console, but his father walked in before he could load his homework.

"I want you to study in the gathering hall. Don't complain. I will help you if you need it. I'll be with Sarah in the evening room."

Keelic followed his father down the stairs, the alien walking on the walls for fun.

Feeling bullied, Keelic resolved not to study, and instead played with the alien as he looked at the screen before him, seeing only the visions they both controlled.

Father came to check on Keelic, and paused at the door to the big room. Keelic's look of concentration was intense as he stared at the screen, but the image was the same one that had been there two hours earlier. The alien's eyes were retracted and he seemed dormant until Keelic burst out laughing. The being's breathing fur rippled and Keelic's eyes went big, starting at something only he could see.

"Dreep! Where'd you get reserves?"

Keelic flopped back on the couch with a frustrated sigh, then playfully pushed the alien off his perch on the cushion. He slid off, then leapt, landing on Keelic, but Keelic was immobile, staring at his father, but Father didn't seem angry. He walked up to them.

"What were you doing?"

Keelic sat up, realizing that the screen was the same as hours before. He'd have to remember to fix that in the future.

"Keelic?" prompted Father.

"Playing."

"I see that, but how?"

Sensing his father's curiosity, Keelic said, "We can see the same things. Like a vid, but together."

"Remarkable," said Father. "But you have homework to do."

He turned to the alien, but seemed unsure what to say. Keelic grinned. His friend didn't have homework.

*****

To Keelic's distress, the bus managed to fly out to pick him up at the start of the next week. No one on the bus talked as it lurched and pitched its way back to the school. In Expansion History, Keelic was drawing a Mark V Nuclear Laser Rifle when he noticed the girl next to him watching again. He looked at her face, but found studied superiority, and mild disgust. She continued her writing as the instructor lectured. Hurt, Keelic wondered why she hated him. What if Leesol felt the same way?

Recess was in the gym with relay races and other games. Someone tripped him, and he sat out for the rest of the class with a coldpac on his elbow, watching the boy who tripped him laugh with Thom.

In the Study Hall for Accelerated Mathematics, Keelic flopped down at his desk, slammed his tablet into it, and dumped his homework to Mr. Hallod's desk. Bitter, he stared out the windows.

After a few minutes, Mr. Hallod sent him back the graded work. It looked like he had done everything wrong. Keelic stared at it as Mr. Hallod began to lecture without seeming to notice Keelic's mood. Keelic forget some of his anger as he plunged into the mathematics.

When class was over, he thought about returning to the school, and his anger returned. After his new homework was loaded to his tablet, Keelic pulled it from the desk and walked to the door without saying good-bye. The door opened and rain and wind buffeted him. He stepped into the storm not caring about getting wet. The rain was warm and the wind wasn't strong enough to knock him over. Still, he had to struggle against it. He considered walking around the school and away, but there was no place to go. Ermoltown was too far to walk, and kids weren't supposed to leave the grounds because of dangerous animals. Keelic felt that he could survive in the forest with all he knew about it, but didn't like the idea of meeting a spiked pouncer without suit or stunner. But what if he took the school stunner? He'd be okay then. All he needed to do was find out where Waters kept it. He might even have to stun a few people to get away. The thought cheered him a little, and he found himself across the field at the school door. It slid open at his approach and he walked in, leaving a trail of water.

The boys at Keelic's level didn't bother him anymore, having learned that he would take them on instantly, but many of the older boys now considered him a prime target. They didn't call him names as much as the others. Their attacks were meaner, physical. Thom's pack of friends started the habit of whacking the back of his head whenever they passed him. All were too big to fight directly, so he had to take it. Failure and self-loathing became his daily companions at school. Evenings were spent playing with the alien, but every morning a pit of hard darkness lodged in him.

#  Chapter 6

The Gleaming Door

On the first day of endweek, Keelic found himself awake early in the morning, thankful for not having to board the bus. As the rising sun sent orange shafts of light through his windows, he daydreamed about Leesol.

Sitting up abruptly, he checked his parents' bedroom in the other tower. The window blinds were open. They were up already. He gathered his exploration gear and laid it out on the bed.

"Come on," he said to the still dormant alien. Then he gave him a shove and ran down the stairs.

His parents were in the breakfast room on the west side of the house.

His mother looked up and said, "Good morning, Kee. You're up early for an endweek."

"Can I go on a hike?"

"I don't see any reason why not. Carl?"

Keelic's father glanced at the sky. "The weather is good. Anny, any Patamic stalks nearby?"

"None that will pose a threat for at least fifteen hours."

"You can go," said his father.

"Can I bring my friend?"

"Absolutely not," said his father. "We're still observing him, and this is a foreign ecosystem for him."

"Please..."

"No."

Donning his suit, Keelic tried to think of a way to bring the alien along. Fully outfitted, he said to his friend, who had been looking at Keelic's memories of earlier trips, "We have to change their minds. You have to tell them that you really want to go. We'll both talk to them."

Strong blue affirmation.

The alien lowered his eyes in concentration, then jumped beside Keelic, looking ready to be off. They tromped down the stairs and approached his parents.

His father looked up from the table and said, "Ready?"

Tight lipped, Keelic nodded, preparing to speak.

His mother said, "I want you to program the stunner right now so that it will be sure to ignore the alien."

Keelic blinked.

"Yes," said his father.

His mother handed him two packages of food, sandwiches for him and a selection of the alien's favorites.

Keelic searched their faces. Father was reading at the breakfast table, and mother was looking at him with calm expectation. He lowered his face to look at the stunner to program it, and asked the alien, _Did you do this?_

Puzzlement, yellow orange.

Twinges of fear and excitement ran through Keelic, and thinking _yellow_ , he asked, _Did you change their minds?_

Affirmation, light blue.

Unsure how to react, he put the food into his pack. As long as it was this easy, there was something else he might need. "Dad, can I have a cling-to and a twine feeder?"

"What for?"

"Playing in the cave."

"No. You've only used them once. We'll practice later."

Keelic thought, _We have to have that equipment._

Affirmation.

"Please, Dad, I'll be really careful."

"I suppose."

Keelic charged down to the equipment room in the basement and grabbed four cling-to's and a twine feeder.

Anny and his parents wished him a good journey, and he and the alien stepped into the chill morning air. Heavy with moisture, it carried the _chuck-a-whoop_ cries of the yuwabpa and strong scents from the forest below.

They dashed down the hill and into the forest. The alien leapt into the trees, and discovered as Keelic had that the leaf stems led naturally to flying acts. The alien whirled from tree to tree, Keelic running below shouting and hollering at each greater flight. Flipping end over end in a spectacular arc, the alien missed his landing and fell partway through the tree before catching himself. Embarrassed, a little frightened, and emitting mild red pain, the alien climbed down and hiked beside Keelic the rest of the way.

Diffused sunlight lit the greenery-covered bluff. The alien explored the mouth of the cave where the stream, no longer blue, poured down in a muddy torrent. Keelic climbed up beside it using netvines, then struggled into the cave against the current. Everything was awash inside, but deep only at the mouth where it was dammed.

They waded to the rear of the cave, the alien using the walls and roof. Keelic pulled the rifle from between the rocks. The alien watched Keelic activate the weapon's scanner. Keelic played with the targeting selection and tried to get his friend to look through the scanner. After a while the alien lost interest. He put a leg into the pool. The water was murky with stirred-up sediment.

"It's cold," said Keelic.

Ice blue affirmation.

"Let's see if we can get to the top," said Keelic, putting the rifle back in its hiding place.

They walked along the cliff to the ramp, and began the ascent. The going was easier than they'd thought, and soon they were at the top, overlooking rolling hills encased in Patamic forest. Wind buffeted them, blowing Keelic's hair and his friend's fur. In the distance his home was visible on its hill. He thought of his father, mother, what he was about to attempt, and their reaction if they caught him. Something overhead caught his eye. He took out the far-scanner and watched an Ermolian flier soaring on high winds.

It was time to take care of something before going further. He brought up his communicator.

"Anny?"

"Here."

"Are you scanning me?"

"Not currently. Would you like me to?"

"No."

"I generally don't, as you know."

"I want to explore this area alone."

"Like a true explorer?"

Anny always understood. The alien, catching Keelic's mood, leapt up and caught a leaf stem, riding it up and down. Keelic grinned at him and checked his map to find the sinkholes. He took a bearing with his compass, and struck out across the forested bluff top.

Patamic trees were small here, only ten meters tall or less, and many were uprooted, their massive taproots ripped out of the black soil.

They came to the first wide depression. Using the far-scanner's range finder, Keelic measured it at twenty meters across, ten deep, and nearly perfectly circular. No trees grew in the depression, only vines, stringy grass, and little mobile bushes. He climbed over a ridge at the edge and walked to the center, the bushes shuffling out of his way.

The ground gave way under him. With a cry, Keelic clutched at vines and stopped his descent. His friend grabbed him, and with surprising strength pulled Keelic up and away. Keelic crawled back to the edge of the hole and peered through the vines, but could not make anything out. "Can you see anything?"

The alien climbed in a short way.

Keelic's vision doubled. He closed his eyes and saw a vine-obscured vision of water many meters below, and a large pile of soil and dead plants directly beneath the hole.

Keelic blinked away the alien's sight, and took off his pack. He took out the twine and a pair of cling-to's. Using his knife, he began digging. The alien crawled out of the hole and joined in the digging. They dug down four or five decimeters when Keelic's knife struck something.

"There's the stone," he said, panting.

Pushing dark soil from the bottom of the hole, Keelic stopped. The exposed stone was shiny smooth, like glass. He stabbed it with his knife, and left no mark. They cleared away enough space for the cling-to and tried to attach it, but it could not get purchase.

Defeated and puzzled, Keelic sat back on the pile of dirt they had made. He took a drink, got up and walked halfway up the slope, and began digging. About twenty centimeters down, he found the same thing. With the alien following, he went to the high edge of the depression, immediately finding the same material just below layers of netvines. Keelic cut them away and studied the strange formation. It looked almost as though it had been splashed out of the pit.

A chill ran through his body. He clambered up and stood on the edge. The alien became alert and hopped up beside him. Another chill ran through Keelic, and he gave a whoop, waving his knife in the air.

In response the alien leapt over Keelic, flipped in the air, and landed on the other side.

With his arms spread, Keelic said in awe, "It's a pierce-beam crater."

They ran to the middle, and peered into its center.

"It means this bluff is artificial. Like Fort Blac on Darnell's World. And destroyed like Fort Blac."

The alien evoked Keelic's memory of the blasted and beam-riddled mountain fortress.

"We have to get inside."

The alien walked in and climbed down using the vines.

With his friend's vision, Keelic saw a tunnel that opened into a vast chamber partially filled with water. Vines hanging down through the hole reached only a short way to the floor. There were doors and writing on the walls, but Keelic couldn't read it. The alien looked around then tested the ceiling for purchase, climbed onto it, and began moving for a distant wall.

"Wait for me!" shouted Keelic, losing his friend's vision. "If you can climb on the ceiling, put a cling-to on it."

Keelic hooked the twine feeder to his suit belt, fed the end of the twine through a cling-to, and let out six meters of slack. The alien, emerging from the hole, took the cling-to and disappeared. A moment later he gave Keelic a blue summons. Grabbing vines, Keelic let himself down into the hole. Straining at the bottom of the tunnel, he craned his neck to check the cling-to's display for a secure hold. He asked the alien to work the cling-to panel to bring in the slack. Then he let go.

After a short, heart-stopping fall, he swung freely in the vines. The alien peered at him upside down from above. Twisting and swinging, Keelic peered around the chamber stretching away in echoing darkness. He was unable to see any of the details the alien had picked out.

"Yee!" he called. His voice echoed back, and again, reverberating for seconds.

Carefully he took off his pack, pulled out the lantern, and put the pack back on. A few taps on the lantern's panel set it for high-intensity beam. First he looked to see what was under him.

A mound of mud and dead vines lay directly beneath him, creating a small island where light-starved plant shoots grew. The floor of the chamber was covered with water that didn't look very deep, rippling in big rings from soil and vines fallen from Keelic's descent. He shone the light around the chamber, lighting up walls. The chamber was rectangular, and vast. He found three doors, all closed. Keelic panned higher on the gray walls, and lost his grip on the lantern.

The wall had read:

TERRA CORPS

Lasiter Training Base Alpha

He mouthed the words. _Alpha Base_.

Alpha Base was a myth. Two hundred and fifty-eight years after the war, no one believed it existed. Legends were told and a thousand vids had been made about the secret base that trained the crews of the first epic super-ships of the Terra Corps. Knowledge of the development and construction of the battleships had been kept secret from the galaxy for years until the first ships were unleashed. The Terra Corps, in order to keep secret any idea of the scale of the vessel, labeled it an Attack Frigate rather than Battleship or Dreadnought, which were more appropriate. Names of captains, ships, battles flashed through Keelic's mind, but he remembered most vividly his favorite vid, _The Gleaming Door_ , story of the _Revenge_ , first battleship to engage the Quat-lat Kay-ku at Alpha Centauri. The Battle of Centauri had been the first complete victory for the Terra Corps, and marked the turning point of the war. The beam weapons of the Lasiter Frigates were a match for those of the Quat-lat Kay-ku super-vessels, and no Quat-lat shield could withstand the massive dense-matter torpedoes hurled by the rail guns of the Lasiters.

The alien climbed down the vines next to him, echoing his feelings, but also _hollow brown-umber hunger_ , and started opening Keelic's pack.

"No. Wait till we get down," said Keelic in exasperation.

Mauve-umber impatience swirl.

"Climb on me. I'll take us down."

The twine feeder lowered them gently to the mud pile. Keelic toppled with the alien's extra weight, nearly falling into the water, which was deeper than it looked from above. He picked up the lantern, wiped mud off it, and shone it at the writing again. There was a large door below the words.

Before stepping into the water, he checked the stunner scanner. Nothing significant showed. He took a long look around the chamber with the lantern, turned on his hood, and squished off the mud hill into the meter-deep water.

His friend followed, and promptly sank to the bottom. Keelic moved to save him, but the alien emoted only mild pink concern, pale-yellow surprise, and cold. Fully extended, his eyes protruded above the water. He looked around and emitted safe orange to Keelic.

Unconvinced, Keelic asked, "Can you breathe?"

Yellow breathe?

Keelic remembered that his friend had no lungs. They made their way through the water toward the door below the lettering, stirring up sediment in the clear water. Something pulled on Keelic's foot, and in a flash of fear he pointed the lantern to look.

Through clouds of silt, he saw the blue, green, red, and silver of the Terra Corps. Closer inspection showed that a uniform was draped across his foot. He held it up, and saw a rank insignia on the left shoulder. He squeezed it on top and bottom, and it came off in his hand just like the duplicates he had at home. Studying it, he could not remember what rank it signified, but it was nicer than any of his toys, and he attached it to the proper place on his suit.

Shining the lantern into the water, he found other things in the silt. He picked one up, and stood holding the object to the light. Dropping it with a shudder, he struggled to back up in the water, breathing hard.

The alien lowered an eye, took a close look at the teeth, and asked, _yellow red fear?_

"I'm not afraid," said Keelic, wondering how many decayed bodies were in the water, feeling its enveloping pressure against his suit.

The alien puzzled for a moment and returned yellow to Keelic, his reaction the moment he'd recognized the objects as teeth. Keelic tripped backward as adrenaline stabbed him again, and he went under.

"Vac-brain!" he shouted. "Don't do that!"

The alien's eyes retracted convulsively, and guilt flowed.

Keelic could not tell whether he felt his own guilt or his friend's, but it did not matter. He pushed through the water to the alien, said and felt, "Apol."

The eyes raised somewhat. Keelic knelt underwater, trying to make his thoughts warm orange. Multiple legs curled around his arms and legs, and Keelic felt happy orange friendship.

As they continued wading, Keelic found more uniforms. He took their rank pins, putting them in a line on the left side of his chest. The uniforms had different patterns of colors, some he recognized as officer rank, others as enlisted. One had a pulse pistol on a belt. The belt was too large for him to wear, so he slung it over his shoulder.

The door below the lettering was huge. Recessed into the wall, it reminded Keelic of a docking port on a starship or station. His friend climbed up the wall to examine the door panel at Keelic's head height. The alien pushed something on the panel before Keelic could object. The door split into four sections and started to slide away. His happiness turned to dismay as water began to flow into the hall beyond. The current pushed him toward the gap, but with the alien's help he held on to the threshold, losing his grip on the lantern.

The current slowed. Under muddy water, the lantern lit the far end of the water-logged hall. Keelic stood in the darkness, heart thundering, arms aching. He was about to turn on his suit lights and start down the hall after the lantern, when another light caught his eye.

A large panel shed faint light in a small alcove beyond the entry. Keelic waded in to gaze up at it. He touched off his hood and studied it with barely suppressed excitement. The alien joined him. With a trembling hand, Keelic touched the main screen. It brightened to read:

Lasiter-Class Prototype Simulator

Simulator Shutdown Complete

Enter Private Key to Secure Simulator:

He examined the pad below the screen, and turned to his friend. "Remember what I hit." He froze as another idea came to him. His hand slid to the side and he tapped Abort.

The screen went dark, then displayed "Simulator Status: Shutdown," with a menu beneath it showing Startup, Security, Maintenance.

Keelic touched Startup.

The primary screen read, "Simulator Startup Initialized."

He let out the breath he was holding and said, "It took it."

A formal female voice said, "Welcome aboard, sirs," and Keelic jumped back, sending up a splash of stale-smelling water that soaked his head. The voice continued, "I am encountering scanning anomalies. Seven rank insignia are detected, but only one human child, and one unidentified bioform."

Keelic looked at all the rank pins on his chest. Inspiration struck, and he said, "I am not a child. Your systems must be damaged."

There was a pause, "All localized scanners functioning within acceptable tolerances."

"Well, then, they aren't damaged. I am a...new race, and ranked admiral. Keelic Travers, and this is my assistant. Check your systems again."

Keelic flashed a hopeful, expectant grin at his friend.

"Serial number?"

He tried to remember one from any vids he had seen, and the alien pulled up memories of four. Keelic picked one at random.

"Insignia fail to match. You are not logged."

The panel shut down, and Keelic stood in darkness. He touched the screen, but there was no response. Disappointment bit deep.

Perhaps the Announcer was still listening. They didn't go offline. "How long has it been since you scanned anybody? Do you know the date? Things have changed. We, we are still at war. I'm here to assess your damage and see what's here. How long have you been shut down?"

There was no response.

Keelic frowned and said, "Give me a damage report."

No answer.

There was one question you could always ask an Announcer. "What's your name?"

"I am the Lasiter Alpha Simulator Announcer."

"Is that the only name you have?"

"I am also known as Zero Base Mechintelligence Alpha."

"Anything else?"

"Some personnel refer to me as Las-Ann."

"Las-Ann, I order you to give me control of this base under the order that says if an Ann cannot verify complete system integrity, she must transfer control to present officers."

"Verification of identity required."

Thinking hard, Keelic said, "How can you verify me if you are damaged? My insignia is that of admiral in the Alliance Defense League. You have my serial number. You can't even read my insignia right. Things have changed in two hundred years. Who knows what other damage you have sustained? The Quat-lat Kay-ku may have sabotaged you to deny access. Run a full self-diagnostic and give me a damage report. If you're too damaged to identify me, that means you have to give me control."

Moments passed and Keelic felt sure Las-Ann was going to deny him.

"Order accepted. You have command authority, Admiral Travers."

"Yes!" shouted Keelic, and danced in a circle, splashing water all over. "Yes! Yes! Yes!"

"Do you wish a diagnostic report, Admiral?"

Thrilled at the title, he replied, "Yes."

"Matrix datacore has sustained extensive physical and radiation damage. Announcer Functionality Index Three. Base—"

"Index Three?" asked Keelic.

"Logic only, sir. Nonsentient, non-self-governable. Base primary power, communications, shielding, weapons, environmental, and maintenance systems are nonfunctional. Emergency power fuel cells ninety-nine point eight percent exhausted. Simulator systems one-tenth of one percent functional at current power levels. Estimate casualties at one hundred percent. Additional sustained damage not verifiable."

"Turn on the lights, and start up the simulator!"

"Insufficient power, Admiral."

"Then turn on the lights just around us, and guide us to the bridge."

They picked up the lantern at the end of the hall then walked through gray corridors, the water flowing along with them shallower at each opened door, then rippling down dark, mysterious hallways. Some doors wouldn't open so they took alternate routes.

The creeping waters reached their limit, and Keelic and the alien walked dripping onto a dusty floor. The halls and doors were unmarked and unremarkable until a last turn revealed a silvery wall of reflective metal, flawless. The Gleaming Door, entryway to the bridge of a Lasiter Attack Frigate.

He saw himself in reflection, pulse pistol over his shoulder, belt instruments, pack, tousled hair, alien by his side. Fierce pride rose, and he envisioned himself a warrior captain before the gates of the greatest starship ever.

"Admiral?" asked Las-Ann.

Startled by the voice out of silence, Keelic said, "What, yes?"

"I will need to shunt all available power in order to open the bridge doors. Is this acceptable?"

Keelic nodded once and said, "Go."

The lights went out, and Keelic touched on his suit lights. He watched the door split into spiral wedges that scythed away, exposing another gleaming layer that also split, and another until twelve layers were peeled back forming a round silver hall four meters deep. Walking forward, Keelic entered one of his dreams.

Awed disbelief suppressed emotion as his gaze caressed the broad chamber. It was circular, with a ring of outward-facing stations above the sunken center where a ten-meter holo display was ringed by seven massive operation stations. Three on the near end included the Command seat in the middle. The other four faced the Command station from the opposite side of the holo pit. Though all surfaces were matte black, there was lighting, soft and sourceless. Darklight cloth. The bridges of the Lasiter Frigates had been upholstered with the priceless Vewbon material that gave the human eye the effect of light without source, restful and the best environment in which to produce high-definition holograms.

Sensing Keelic's state, the alien pushed against him emoting pink-orange concern. Keelic swayed and stepped sideways to catch himself before he fell over. He walked up to the railing that ringed the inner circle. His friend followed beside him, echoing some of Keelic's feelings but with puzzled blue-yellow swirls.

Keelic gripped the railing with his suited hands. He thought of Leesol, Thom, his parents, Mr. Hallod. He could see each of their reactions, but before he could savor them it hit him that he could tell no one. Not if he was to keep it. If he wanted to explore this place, it would have to remain secret. Core loneliness mixed with a sense of unlimited victory. This was his.

He raised his arms high and exploded in a cry of pain and triumph.

"Admiral, I did not register that."

"I'm okay, never mind," replied Keelic.

He walked slowly around the chamber. Finding a military site from the Galactic War would have been exciting enough; but this—this standing on the bridge of Alpha Base— was overwhelming, yet it fit perfectly with every dream he'd ever imagined.

He sat in a chair. It shifted shape to accommodate him, and the station console lit up, though its screens were empty.

"Las-Ann, what's this station for?"

"IntegralNet Power Management, sir."

Before descending into the central Command well, Keelic made a full circle of the room having each station named. There were more stations than in the vids, twenty in all. With slow steps, he descended into the central well.

The seats were plush, each nestled into half-moon consoles where tens of panels could be displayed. After a moment's hesitation, Keelic sat in the largest, the Command seat, and caressed it, wiping off dust as its console glowed to life. The seat reshaped and curved inward on sides and arms until Keelic felt he was sitting in the palm of a giant hand. Most of the panels on the console, while active, stayed offline.

"Why are there so many of these panels off?"

"Available power is not sufficient to operate simulator systems, Admiral."

Keelic smiled at the title, and asked, "Is the seat on my right Navigation?"

"Scan and Astrogation, sir."

"Nav, like I said. And on my left?"

"Resource Allocation, sir."

"The others?"

"IntegralNet Power Management, Communications, Dense-Matter Systems, Defense Coordination, sir."

"How do I work it?"

"There are over three hundred thousand training scenarios available, Admiral."

"Let's play one."

"There is insufficient power, sir."

Keelic puffed an exasperated sigh. "Then simulate whatever you need. Can't you do that?"

"Simulations will not meet required realism standards, Admiral."

"Why not?"

"Command systems rely on active feedback from associated systems throughout the simulator. Inertial simulation fields require primary base power, sir."

"Then don't use it. I want to play one anyway."

"There is insufficient crew to operate the vessel, sir."

"Do it anyway, can't you do things with reduced crew?"

"There is no available procedure for vessel operation with only two crew members, Admiral."

"There should be," said Keelic, getting frustrated. "Activate all systems that you can, simulate everything else, and invent a two-crew procedure."

"Compiling."

Nothing happened for a while. Keelic began to worry. Finally, a chime sounded and a ten-meter-long holo of the ship floated in the air before him, rotating slowly on its long axis. The ship was beautiful, long and sleek, symmetrical on its axis with four short wings that Keelic knew housed torpedo tubes and massive particle accelerators. The image was transparent to show all the vessel's major systems. He held his breath as each panel on the console filled with status imagery, and color flowed through the ship diagram as virtual diagnostics ran for each system coming online. His own panel displayed an endless-looking menu of simulation options. The alien climbed into the seat with Keelic, expressing a wish to participate.

"My friend is going to sit in Scan Systems, Las-Ann. He's going to help."

"The Resource Allocation console is better suited as a general function console, Admiral."

"'Kay."

"Is that an affirmative, Admiral?"

"Yes, it is. 'Kay means _go ahead_."

"Yes, sir. Routing primary damage control, resource allocation, power management, sensory systems, dense-matter systems, and engine management to Resource Allocation. Priority allocation, tactical navigation, and primary weapon control are at your console, Admiral. Secondary, tertiary, and quaternary subsystems will be displayed as required."

The alien settled into its chair with one eye on its console, the other looking at Keelic in anticipation.

"I want to do an easy one."

The ship image shrank and a starfield bloomed all around the ship.

On the main panel appeared:

Mission Orders

From: Terra Base

To: Revenge

Engage Quat-lat Kay-ku super-ship and destroy.

_Destroying a super-ship is easy?_ thought Keelic.

His friend answered in _mauve uncertainty swirls_ and _orange-umber excitement._

A faint whirring came from above, and something attached itself firmly to Keelic's head.

"What's that? Get it off!"

It released him. Ducking, he looked up at some half helmet on an articulated arm.

Las-Ann answered, "The NSI is required for efficient participation and control in vessel operations, sir."

"What does that mean?"

"The Neural Ship Interface allows the crew to function as integral components of the vessel. Orders are transmitted immediately without the slow translations associated with spoken commands or manual panel manipulation. The interface reinforces visual sensory input from the holo display, providing an immersive field of view as well as command access to all vessel functions."

Keelic marveled. This aspect of the ship was never shown in the vids.

"Okay, let's try it."

He felt the helmet interface clamp onto his head.

Nothing happened, then a hazy vision overlaid his normal sight.

The helmet unclamped from his head and Las-Ann said, "CI not detected."

"What?"

"Cranial Interface not detected, Admiral. It is required for the NSI to function."

Keelic pondered that for a second. "You mean I have to be augmented?"

"Yes, sir. Augmentation and training are required."

"But I saw the ship. I can make it work. Put it back on. Train me."

"Yes, sir." The helmet returned and clamped onto his head. "The interface maps thoughts to Command functions. While all functions are best handled by the vessel, the interface provides a link between officers and vessel to accomplish mission objectives. The linked officer develops a set of personal command sets. With practice, the officer's thoughts become integrated vessel actions and goals. The CI boosts and organizes thought commands, relaying them cleanly to the vessel. The first exercise involves visualization."

"'Kay."

His vision blurred and shifted in triplicate, and he shut his eyes as he started getting dizzy. The image of the ship remained in his mind, however.

"Can you see the vessel icon, Admiral?"

"Yes."

"Try to rotate the vessel, Admiral. Visualize it turning."

Keelic tried, and his friend created another image of the ship, which rotated.

"No, don't do that."

"Admiral?"

"I'm talking to my fr—assistant."

_Help me move this ship_ , thought Keelic. The double image disappeared, and Keelic felt himself entering that realm where he and the alien played. He could feel his friend's thoughts all around him, but couldn't interpret much. Keelic tried to move the ship, and nothing happened.

"Excellent, Admiral," said Las-Ann.

Keelic opened his eyes and got the double vision back. _I'm seeing double_ , he thought to the alien. The images parted completely and Keelic felt vertigo. He closed his eyes again, but the double vision stayed, with the image of his friend's overlapping the one from the interface.

_Can you see what I see?_ he sent to the alien.

A pause, then _blue orange affirmation._

_Then make it the same as what we make together_ , thought Keelic. _I have to see only one image._

Strange shapes and colors, and emotions that he couldn't quite feel, flowed around him. Finally, the ship image stabilized and he saw only what the interface was giving him. It blurred then shifted into crisp detail. Keelic slowly opened his eyes. The image stayed steady. Except for the console before him, the bridge was gone. He looked around and saw endless fields of stars. Before him floated a perfect rendition of a Lasiter Frigate.

"Next, Admiral, when I name a function, you are to imagine executing it, and your command pattern will be mapped to that function. Are you ready to begin?"

"Yes."

"Imagine the vessel rotating left."

He imagined the ship rotating, and the starfield moved, but not the ship.

"Las-Ann, the ship didn't move, but everything else does."

"That is correct, sir. The system is vessel-centric. The icon is the reference point. With training your view may shift to become the vessel's or look from any vantage where there is sufficient data."

"Oh."

"To continue, rotate the vessel to the right."

Keelic did and the starfield around him flowed. On impulse he imagined the ship moving forward. Nothing happened. This wasn't going to be that easy. A planet appeared in the display, and Keelic leaned forward to look at the detail on its surface.

Las-Ann said, "Imagine the ship slowly moving forward, Admiral. This thought will be mapped to engage one-quarter nominal."

The planet began moving slowly past. Las-Ann worked Keelic through a long list of commands. After the first few dozen, there were too many and he started forgetting. Many times he thought the wrong thing, and Las-Ann had to reset the vessel. Sensing Keelic's frustration, the alien started helping beyond visualization, giving Keelic the ability to remember. They made fewer mistakes after that.

After an endless list of functions, most of which Keelic didn't really understand, he said, "Listen, ship, I want you to show me how to do everything that is important. Shields, maneuvering, and weapons."

"Yes, sir."

As soon as he learned how to engage the translight drive, raise shields, and fire the beam weapons and torpedoes, he said, "Let's play one. I'll try to use the interface, but give me voice reports of important stuff, and if that info is on one of my panels, highlight it. Okay, go ahead."

The console panels scrolled data. Keelic looked up, but the holo showed blackness all around the ship, then a pinpoint of light sailed at an angle from the bow of the frigate. The holo lit up with a brilliant starfield. The pinpoint was left behind and the holo went dark again.

"What was that? Why is the display dark?"

"Sensor probes are fired every thirty seconds during translight travel. Data is relayed for one to twenty seconds depending on vessel velocity."

_Before the Beacon Ways_ , he thought, remembering that this was three hundred years old. This was a real base from the war. A touch of worry cooled his excitement. What would his parents think?

A warning blinked.

"What's happening?"

Las-Ann said, "Ictal system ETA thirty seconds."

A star approached rapidly, and a planet flashed past. A klaxon rang.

"What's that?"

"Stellar Proximity Warning."

"Slow down! Stop!"

"Sir, neural input is a more efficient command method. Do you wish to review the command set or train with the Voice-Only Protocols?"

"No. Keep going."

The display changed scale to show a super-ship closing on Keelic's stationary vessel. A soft warning sounded.

Keelic shouted, "Raise shields!" forgetting to imagine them going up.

He started the vessel moving again, but a flurry of beam and torpedo fire from the ship stopped him, and Las-Ann said, "You have been destroyed."

Keelic was panting mad.

"Let's go again, but with a smaller ship this time."

Heart beating, hands sweaty, Keelic imagined shields surrounding the vessel, and a shimmer appeared around the ship image. Tactical nav and torpedo arming also were highlighted on the panel. He thought power to all weapons systems, and increased velocity.

The displays changed scale for optimal visualization as the ships approached each other. Purple beams struck his ship, and he fired forward torpedoes.

The torpedoes sailed as pinpoints of light nowhere near the enemy cruiser. They were old, unguided dense-matter torpedoes! He had forgotten about that. The enemy was changing course as it continued to fire.

Desperate, Keelic thought of firing all beam weapons as his friend showed him a monitor of shield power falling to nil.

Multiple beams fired after the vessel, but it was now out of range. Keelic turned to pursue, and the enemy ship fired aft torpedoes that struck Keelic's ship on the nose. The display went dark.

"You have been destroyed."

Slamming the console with his fists, he shouted, "How do you hit something with torpedoes?"

"Firing potentials are continually calculated based on current ship attitude, velocity, and trajectory for each torpedo port. When any potential reaches optimum, the weapons con displays it. Normally, the vessel handles the weapons and fires on potential if tactical parameters indicate a positive outcome."

Keelic sighed. This wasn't easy, but it wouldn't be any fun if the ship did everything. "Show my friend how to do the shields without an interface. Show me again how to fire weapons with the interface."

Las-Ann showed him, then asked, "Admiral, would you like a general overview of vessel strategy?"

"That would be cold."

"Is that an affirmative, Admiral?"

"Yes. Tell me."

"The Lasiter Frigate is designed to function as an offensive platform. Its primary weapons systems are mounted forward to facilitate maximum target elimination before full enemy fleet investment. Because the Quat-lat Kay-ku utilize large numbers of super-vessels in all theaters, the Lasiter has been outfitted with the largest weapons system ever conceived. Mounted from engine core forward are the six primary matter-acceleration tubes."

Keelic's suit communicator crackled.

"Quiet!" cried Keelic to the simulator.

Stabs of fear bit deep, and he sat immobilized for a few seconds.

Through static, his father's voice asked, alarmed, "Where are you?"

"I'm in a cave. I'll be out in a minute. Keelic out."

He and the alien ran. The water was only inches deep, and they splashed down the corridors of the simulator to skid to a halt at the pile of mud.

Gasping for breath, Keelic tossed off the pulse pistol, and removed the rank insignia from his suit. If Anny scanned him with those things, it would ruin everything. She might have already scanned him, but he didn't think so. Some kind of stealth shielding in the bluff showed only natural caves, not what was really here. This was bad, though. He should have left a long time ago. Everything might be ruined.

He hooked up his twine feeder and started up. It seemed a long time, but they finally reached the ceiling, and Keelic realized he had no way to climb out. He grabbed the vines, but he was afraid to climb them.

"I can't get out!"

The alien soothed him with orange, took the hanging twine, and went up the hole, then told Keelic to reverse his twine feeder. Marveling, Keelic went up the pierce-beam tube to the surface, where his friend strained to hold the line. Strong winds buffeted them, and he touched on his hood.

"Dad?"

"Where have you been? What are you doing on the top of the bluff?"

"We just went up to look around. There's some sinkholes here." He hoped his father never wanted to see them. Of course, his parents would be pretty impressed. He was very tempted to tell them because he knew he was about to get into a whole star system of trouble.

"You should have been on your return over two hours ago. The winds are rising, you are outside the area I explored for you, and your mother is very upset. I am going to come out and get you. Stay where you are."

They moved away from the center of the crater and sat down to wait. The alien tried to get into his pack for food, but Keelic said no. Emitting brown hunger, and unhappiness, the alien moved some distance away to sit without looking at him.

Relenting, Keelic opened the food and the alien bounded back. They were only a few bites into the meal when the family shuttle swung down to land a few feet away.

Once inside, Father said, "Strap in. It is going to be a rough ride home."

The wind pushed them home, buffeting the craft, not dangerously, but enough to keep Father from asking any questions. Keelic was grateful for the wind.

After landing on the pad at home, his father turned to him. "Your mother is very upset. If you want to go out again, I suggest you behave very well."

The alien emulated Keelic's cowed manner as Mother lectured him for two hours on the importance of not exploring beyond what Father had outlined for him. Though Keelic felt like trying, he did not attempt to defend himself, taking what he considered his father's advice. In the more vociferous moments of the lecture, Keelic was tempted to tell all that he had found, but he kept silent. Mother fed him and the alien, and sent them off to bed. He crawled into bed exhausted. The secret was still his. Not even Anny knew. His very own base and simulator. He couldn't imagine anything better. Yet it scared him as well. Never had he held such an epic secret. Winds sang around his tower as thoughts of his discovery lulled him into sleep.

#  Chapter 7

Is your dad Crew?

The storm let Keelic stay home for two weeks, including the week of midterm exams. On the first day of the tests, Keelic felt like an unpowered ship about to reenter the atmosphere without a heat shield. Now his parents were going to find out how little he had been studying since the alien arrived. His hatred for school tripled. The first test was relayed to the big console in the main hall. It was Ermolian Life and History, a subject he did well in despite Mr. Drin, but as he read the questions, no answers came. He read them again.

Who was the leader of the first colony on Ermol? Feeling hopeless, he prepared to guess, when Nevho Vamakil popped into his mind. He knew it was correct, and typed it in. The answer to the second question had a faint violet and orange touch to it.

The alien was sitting with his legs curled beneath it near a window where he had been watching the slanting rain, but now both eyes were focused on Keelic. He felt gentle sympathy, a light-blue orange urge to help, comfort.

As Keelic read each question, the answer came to him before he had a chance to ask. He whizzed through the test, even the essay that he wrote himself, and filed it before anyone else. The grade flashed up, a perfect score.

Mr. Drin appeared on the screen with his half smile. "Congratulations, Keelic," he said.

Keelic smiled, and made nervous glances at the alien.

"I am going to post this to all the students as an example," said the instructor.

Keelic wilted. Nothing could be worse. They would all hate him for doing better than them. Mr. Drin said something else, and the screen went blank.

Going to his friend, he yellow-asked, _You knew all that?_

Keelic got a multicolored image of himself—no, the alien—hearing the instructor talk and storing the sounds without conscious effort or understanding, then magenta warm pink-orange friend's need putting the information into context, and simple retrieval as requested.

Keelic assimilated each part and put it together. The alien remembered everything he saw or heard, and most of what Keelic heard, too.

"Cold," said Keelic.

He asked to do his other tests early, and finished them all before lunchtime. Thrilled and scared and guilty, he watched each test come back with perfect or almost perfect scores.

Green-blue request to play more games.

Keelic let the triumph rule him. The alien built an impossibly huge battleship and began attacking Keelic before he was done envisioning his Lasiter Attack Frigate. Keelic shut his eyes to see better, and rolled on the floor and pillows, twisting about as he maneuvered his ship and fired weapons. The alien retracted his eyes and sat perfectly still to do battle with his dreadnought.

"Keelic?" said his mother's voice.

He opened his eyes, but still saw his starship in front of him. The alien took advantage of Keelic's lack of concentration and blew up his ship.

"No fair!" shouted Keelic.

Flushing pink, the alien gave Keelic one of his own favorite lines, _Tough torpedoes, Terran toad._

Laughing, Keelic got up to tackle the alien, but he scampered up to the high ceiling and looked down, amusement flowing in happy bright colors.

"Keelic!" said his mother.

"Yes?" he said sheepishly, aware that he had ignored her.

"What were you doing?"

"We were just playing."

"What about your tests?"

"I'm finished."

"So fast? Did you double-check your answers before filing?"

"Yes," he lied.

"What grades did you get?"

He felt his ears and face burning.

His mother frowned and tapped up his school record. The alien dropped off the ceiling and landed with a plop next to him.

Mother was smiling. "This is wonderful. Excellent," she said. "I'll make your favorite cookies, and call your dad in. We have to celebrate."

Keelic agreed without comment. He had never cheated before, never needed to.

*****

The storm kept Keelic indoors both days of the endweek, so he spent most of the time in his room with the alien, eyes closed, sitting in a phantom Command chair, fighting great battles they imagined together, practicing what the simulator had taught him. The storm faded by midweek, and his parents got a message from the school stating that the bus would be by for him the next morning.

On the bus to school, he found that he could still talk to his friend. The images and emotions were faint, but definite. Classes were boring beyond endurance, and he spent the time linked with the alien all through Mr. Drin's dribble of Ermolian trivia. Expansion History started out well with a recording of the first Colony Battles of Crit, humanity's initial contact with the Paboosht. After a few minutes of hard-to-see battle recorded with someone's personal far-scanner from many kilometers away, the instructor stopped the show, and started lecturing about why the colonists had wanted the lands where the Paboosht were living. Keelic tuned her out and linked with the alien. The alien built a gigantic space station, which Keelic attacked with a wing of Alliance Defense League proto-fighters. In midbattle he discovered the instructor standing beside him asking him a question in a voice that was raised to the _this is the last time I will ask_ level.

He blinked away the visions and felt the weight of the instructor's glare on his head.

"I don't know," he said, hoping she would accept that.

"Mm-hmm," she said.

A Paboosht raised its hand and said, "Because the Paboosht weren't low-tech like the colonists thought."

"Very good, Larosn."

The end-class chime rang, and Ms. Coster said to the class, "For tomorrow read to the end of this chapter. Keelic, I want a three-page report tomorrow for you to read to class on the Colony Battles of Crit."

There were snickers all around as he walked out.

Someone said, "Total vac-brain."

In Galactin class he thought about skipping school, but there was no way to get home, and his parents would never understand. During recess he moved away from the others, and walked around the gym to the perimeter of the play field. Force-fencing separated him from the forest. He turned around to face the school. The gym, attached to the near wing of the school like an afterthought, loomed before him blocking most of his view of the classrooms. He looked east and saw the field were the hover buses landed on the other side of the school. To the west was the little building, isolated in the middle of the field, where Mr. Hallod would be waiting for him after lunch.

He walked along the fence away from the school, ignoring the lunch chime. With the gym between him and the school, and the field empty of kids, Keelic sat in the stringy grass beside the fence. Tattered clouds dimmed and brightened the air as they passed the sun. On the ground under the fence, he saw a pile of red, shiny-backed creatures and picked one up. Touching its legs made its tiny eyes open and close. Putting it down, he touched the fence and felt his finger go numb and his hand tingle. _Must be a paralysis field_ , he thought, wondering if the alien heard him, wanting to be with his friend, but there was no contact. The alien was probably taking a nap.

"Keelic Travers," blared a voice from the school. "Keelic Travers, return to the building."

Walking back to the school, he heard the grind of the Study Hall door opening. He saw Mr. Hallod watching him, and waved as an exasperated Ms. Onkalwitz grabbed his arm and guided him to the Chief Instructor's office.

The Chief said, "What were you doing, Travers?"

Keelic shrugged.

"Your parents will be informed. This is still a frontier world, boy. You can't just go wandering off. Go to lunch. Don't make visiting me a habit."

After eating, Keelic went to his tablet locker, but it was empty. He remembered putting his tablet into the locker before recess. All his homework was on it, including Mr. Hallod's. Down the hall, he felt someone staring at him.

Thom sneered with slit eyes. A nimbus of crimson cloaked the older boy, and Keelic found himself advancing through the crowd of students, but Uban and another boy stepped in front of him. Keelic realized what he was doing and retreated to the Study Hall.

"Where is your tablet?" asked Mr. Hallod.

"Someone stole it."

"Who?"

Keelic looked up at Mr. Hallod. His face was concerned and strong.

"Thom took it."

"Well, you'll have to tell Chief Instructor Webs."

Going back to the Chief Instructor's office was the last thing Keelic wanted. "Isn't there another way?"

Mr. Hallod watched him for a moment, then said, "When did you notice that it was gone?"

"Right after lunch."

"Come outside," said Mr. Hallod. They walked around to the back of the building and entered the piloting compartment of Mr. Hallod's shuttle. Keelic didn't know anything about art design, but he could tell this vessel was a work of art. Everything was a pattern of warm brown lines and swirls, highly polished. The pilot and co-pilot seats were incredibly plush, and Keelic's shifted its shape to accommodate him.

Mr. Hallod said, "Enka, I'd like you to scan the school building. We're looking for the location of every student tablet."

A 3-D map of the school appeared in the air between the seats, with red dots showing tablet locations. Keelic was amazed. The map was solid and real-looking, one of the best holos he'd ever seen. It even reflected light from the shuttle windows.

"Highlight all tablets not in close association with a student."

Three showed up in lockers, along with a supply in storage.

"That's Thom's locker," said Keelic, pointing into the display.

"You know what you have to do now," said Mr. Hallod.

Keelic was unsure.

"You must go to the Chief Instructor, tell him that you think Thom has your tablet, and have him open Thom's locker."

Reluctant, Keelic walked back, and told the Chief his story. The instructor called Thom out of class and had him open his locker. The Chief handed Keelic his tablet, then shoved Thom toward his office.

After classes, Keelic made it a point to walk quickly to his bus to avoid trouble.

*****

The next morning he went to the restroom before class, and found Thom waiting with friends. Two grabbed him. He kicked at them and bit their arms until, cursing, they let go. He scrambled out, and collided with three students standing in the hall.

At recess Keelic got into a fight when someone called him "Annoboy." Uban came to the boy's rescue, and Keelic flailed at Uban with a fury he didn't know he had. Surprised, the big boy tripped backward and broke his wrist trying to catch his fall.

Uban was sent off to the town hospital.

After the school medic examined Keelic, he was sent to wait in the Chief Instructor's office. The Chief returned before the end-lunch chime and called Keelic's parents.

"Your son has been in another fight. He is fine, but he broke another student's wrist."

Keelic's head shot up, and he shouted, "Did not! He fell."

The Chief's eyes blazed, and Keelic subsided.

"I'm afraid your son is becoming a problem here, Mrs. Travers. He can't seem to get along with the other students."

"Get along?" said his mother's voice.

Keelic knew that angry tone, and watched to see what the Chief Instructor would do.

"Get along?" she said again. "My son is one of the kindest children you will ever meet, Mr. Webs. Something is clearly wrong with your school if you can't control the boys who keep attacking him."

The Chief Instructor's cheek twitched, and he said in a tight, placating tone, "Well, this is a new world for him. Perhaps he hasn't adjusted yet."

"Hmm," said his mother coldly.

"I am giving your son detention. Fighting is not allowed here. I'm afraid you will need to come and pick up Keelic when he is done."

That evening his mother came to get him, but at home neither parent mentioned the call from school. They had the look they got after a serious, unresolved argument. In his room he asked Anny to compile everything she could on the Colony Battles of Crit. He stayed up late writing six pages, including active diagrams of the battle fronts.

In class the next day, Keelic displayed his diagrams on the walls, and read the text of the report to the class. Ms. Coster gave him no praise; rather, she questioned the accuracy of a number of details on the final battle. He told her that the data was correct. She ignored him, and reiterated her statements, adding that he shouldn't make things up. He interrupted her and told her she was wrong. Ms. Coster called him impertinent and ordered him to be silent, and to stay after class. Angry, Keelic drew on his desk for the rest of class.

The end-class chime spoke its freedom note, and all the students pulled their tablets from their desks and surged out the door, except for Keelic.

He knew that Ms. Coster had never liked him, even though she gave him good judgments on his assignments. He had worked hard on the report and knew it was all true because Anny had given him the data. This instructor hated him and wanted everyone else to hate him, too. Worse, he knew more about the Great Human Expansion, at least the wars, than she ever would. His thoughts were crimson around the edges and he found himself hating her as much as Thom.

While he was mulling over her many detractions, Ms. Coster walked over to Keelic's desk and called up his last notes—a sketch of a Lasiter Frigate attacking an unfinished defense station that he had designed himself. As he started to appreciate the nuances of his drawing again, getting an urge to add a couple more big explosions, the instructor erased the picture.

She lectured him about what his parents would think of this kind of attention to his studies, how disappointed they would be—him, the son of a thrice Nobelin-graced family. Keelic Travers who would never rise to fame, never make his so very important father proud.

The class start-chime sounded. Keelic left, with false encouragement to do better following him like the six-winged stinging flies of the forest, only he had no emotional environmental suit, and the words bit. The halls were empty as he dragged his feet to the Chief Instructor's office for a late-admission pass. Before going in, he heard the man talking, and put an ear to the wall.

The Chief Instructor said, "No, we do not have enough buses. Has the ADL really issued that? Ships get lost all the time."

Keelic frowned and pressed his ear harder to the wall. Buses for what?

"Yes," said the Chief. "Have that dealer send me five. That should do. We'll put them in the bus barn, and have him do it at night."

The talking stopped, and Keelic checked the hall. No sign of anyone. After counting to ten, he walked into the door's proximity field.

He took the Chief's questions and derision without rebellion, and shuffled to his next class. He thought about what he had heard, but couldn't make sense of it.

At home the alien tried to cheer Keelic up, but he ignored the attempts at play, and sat on his bed staring at the bluff. He called up the vid _The Gleaming Door_ and watched it on his walls. It told the story of how the first Lasiter Frigate had destroyed an entire Quat-lat Kay-ku fleet. After the vid he called the alien over, gave it a control set, and sent his models into the air above the house, where they fought Anny in the dying light of sunset.

The next day was endweek, and Keelic spent the morning poring over Mr. Hallod's homework. During the midday meal, his father watched the news, and Keelic heard mention of an overdue freighter. There wasn't much detail, but Keelic remembered the Chief Instructor's conversation. The ADL had issued a statement warning ships not to fly without sufficient escort. Was that why the school needed more buses? That didn't mesh.

Early the next morning, he ran over to his parents' bedroom before dawn.

His mother asked sleepily, "What is it, Keelic?"

"Can I go exploring today?"

His father looked at Mother and, resigned, she nodded.

Keelic then asked, very meekly, "Can I explore the sinkholes?"

"Absolutely not," said his mother.

After a bit, his father said, "The original cave I examined was very stable."

Keelic's mother looked at her husband, amazed. "Have you examined these sinkholes?"

"No, but he has his suit—"

"His suit? Will that protect him from a cave-in?"

"He needs to explore, Sarah. It's what boys do. Anny always monitors him. We can have her maintain a more active scan."

That was the last thing Keelic wanted, but he remembered how low-res the scans of the interior of the bluff were. His mother, sitting up in the bed now, didn't answer for a long time. Finally, she motioned him over and gave him a firm hug.

"Be careful, Kee."

Keelic and his friend hurried, taking few breaks. At the bluff they charged up the ramp, but had to stop numerous times for Keelic to catch his breath. The alien seemed tireless.

On top of the bluff, Keelic said, "Anny, are you scanning me?"

"Yes, your mom has asked me to."

Frustration worked toward anger, but now was the time to check his theory.

"Will the scan work inside?"

"Not very well. The rocks there contain high concentrations of minerals that scatter scan signals, even penetrating ones."

"I'm going down now."

"Have fun, Kee."

Keelic grinned. Anny wasn't worried about him.

At the crater he checked his chronometer and descended, the alien clinging to his back. The water was only puddle deep, and things thrashed here and there.

"Welcome again, Admiral Travers," said Las-Ann when they entered the simulator. "Do you wish to hear the status and repair report?"

Checking his chronometer again, he said, "No. Guide us to the bridge."

Sitting in the Command chair once more, Keelic said, "'Kay, Las-Ann. Continue from last time."

"Yes, sir. Mounted forward of the vessel's engine are the six main torpedo acceleration tubes, each capable of accelerating a type three dense-matter torpedo to point eight four _c_ while simultaneously supplying energized particle matter sufficient to trap an eighteenth-power plasma corona within the torpedo's magnetic field. Each tube's recharge cycle lasts five point oh two standard minutes. Twenty standard Tosh-class tubes are mounted aft, as well as two in each of the four wings of the vessel, each capable of launching a standard torpedo at point five three _c_ with acquired second-power coronas. The Tosh tubes have an accelerated point-one-eight-minute recharge cycle made possible by the Lasiter's engine. Material sufficient to produce one hundred twenty thousand Tosh-class or eight thousand main tube dense-matter torpedoes is stored in cyclotron disassociation around the engine core.

"One hundred and eighty-eight long-range beam-weapon batteries provide overlapping coverage on all vectors surrounding the vessel, one hundred and ten of which have forward vectors within their targeting arcs. Point defenses consist of four thousand short-range plasma projectors, and eight hundred matter-hail guns.

"Standard crew complement consists of twenty-one bridge, five hundred tech ops, and one to three thousand tactical boarding members. Mission objectives and priorities guide autonomic vessel operation in all theaters of action. Bridge crew identify priorities, monitor, and serve as backup operators in the event of damage to the Ship-Ann."

"So, you do most of the fighting?" asked Keelic, disappointed.

"Affirmative, Admiral. Commanding officers set goals, which are accomplished with maximum efficiency by the onboard Announcer. Tactical analysis, weapon systems, and flight details are handled by the Announcer. However, the captain provides the primary source of strategic systems activity direction and can manually operate all system functions as needed. A captain can participate as much or as little as desired. Despite high-level Announcer sentience specialized for long-range strategic imaging and prediction, it has been shown that vessels without human guidance are less successful than vessels with experienced officer complements."

Keelic had heard about this before. Announcers had no self-preservation or risk-taking instincts.

"I want to play another one. I'll make most of the decisions about maneuvers and weapons and you tell me when I do it right. 'Kay?"

"Sir, I am currently operating at Index Thirteen, incapable of operating the simulator bridge."

"Index Thirteen? What is that?"

"Standard Index of Cognitive Awareness. At Index Thirteen I have limited Lefram abstract-reasoning functions."

"You were at Three before. What's your usual Index?"

"Index Sixty-Three, Grade One, fully sentient. I have managed significant repairs. Would you like to hear the report, Admiral?"

"Yes."

"One DL99 maintenance drone has been located and activated. First priority has been damage assessment, and repair of the datacore. Beta priority will be reestablishing communications capability. Gamma will be power connections to the maintenance and repair bay. Currently, all nano-repair systems are exhausted, and a new generation of nano-bots must be created."

This didn't sound good. Keelic interrupted and said, "Repair the core first, but don't try to repair com."

"Aye, Admiral."

"Can we do a simulation now?"

A single battleship appeared in the display, and the CI gripped his head. Keelic found that he could ask what his friend's panels meant without losing concentration. He raised the shield, armed all torpedoes, and hurled the ship at maximum nominal speed toward the battleship.

Watching the firing potentials rise, he attacked, and destroyed the ship with a single torpedo.

"Yes!"

Two more battleships appeared in the display. One charged at Keelic's ship, avoiding two torpedoes, and he destroyed it with a burst of beam fire from the forward batteries. The other vessel hit them with a torpedo, which they survived because Las-Ann showed the alien how to route power from the aft torpedo launchers to the shield before the torpedo hit.

"Yeow!" screamed Keelic in glee, leaping up. The headset interface moved with him.

Three battleships came into range, and he flung his vessel through the center of the triangle they formed, firing beam weapons all the way, and torpedoes from the wing tips.

"Incorrect, Admiral."

"What?"

The three vessels passed him and turned inward to give pursuit, firing on the frigate's rear. Keelic maneuvered, but they kept on his tail. He whirled the ship to face them, but the screen went dark.

"You have been destroyed, Admiral."

Keelic sighed.

"A flight path tangent to such an enemy formation is more effective, Admiral."

"Show me."

The display lit to show the ship vector to engage only one vessel, and destroy it. The other two closed formation to engage, but the frigate accelerated out of range, turned, and engaged the enemy ships head on, destroying each with a single torpedo.

Sitting back satisfied, Keelic scanned the panels of his console to see what else he could do.

"Las-Ann, why are the shields at one percent of maximum? Is that why I die so fast?"

"Sir, that is the default configuration for level one training. Your deaths are the result of insufficient tactical expertise with Lasiter capabilities."

"Yeah, but why are the shields so low?"

"I am a radically new battle platform. No officer of the Corps has flown a ship with my capabilities. In level one training, the shields are configured to output consistent with the Wreaker-class battleship. The shield setting is designed to accelerate tactical and strategic thinking among officers without reliance on a new class of shielding as an input to foster a mindset of long-term survivability."

"So, your shields are a hundred times more powerful than the biggest battleship humanity had—has?"

"Correct, Admiral."

A chill flowed over Keelic. It also got him thinking.

"Was that because all the battles were suicide missions for the fleets that tried to stop the Quaties?"

"Yes, sir. We need you to learn that you can defeat the enemy and survive to defeat them again."

Keelic sat thinking about Thom and survivability. His chronometer went off.

"Thanks, Las-Ann. I have to go now, but I'll be back."

On the way home, Keelic and his friend played over what they had learned. They invented some plans to try next time, creating scenarios with more ships. Keelic kept tripping when he concentrated, so they walked through the forest without further conversation.

*****

At school, Keelic entered the building on alert, and avoided seeing Thom before Mr. Drin's class. Keelic wondered if Thom was even at school today. On his way to Galactin, he felt a foot hook his back leg. He fell hard, and his tablet went flying. Laughter burned into him as he rose.

Lounging against the wall was Thom. The big boy walked up to Keelic, who struggled to find the courage to hold his ground and not let his face betray how afraid he was. Anger helped, and Keelic also felt the alien's own intense red dislike and swirling indignation.

Thom said quietly, "I'm going to space you hard, little pool of Dreep."

Pushing Keelic aside with his shoulder, Thom passed by.

For the rest of the morning and lunch, Keelic kept thinking of Thom's threat. He believed that Thom intended to hurt him in a much worse way than anything so far. At lunch he didn't eat, and walked out early to the Study Hall.

Mr. Hallod inquired about his health and state of mind, but Keelic was too ashamed to talk about it to Leesol's father.

After school, he ran to his shuttle and stared out the window all the way home. In his room he turned his music up and cried into his pillow. After he stopped, Anny turned down the music enough to talk, and asked what was wrong.

"Is it something at school? Is someone bothering you?"

He nodded.

"Can I tell your parents?"

After a moment, he nodded.

A minute later his mother and father came hurrying up the stairs. They sat on the bed on either side of him and asked what was going on. Their presence made it hard for him to maintain control, and tears slipped down his face as he recounted the threats and attacks. His mother gathered him up.

Embarrassed, but needing her more than his ego needed to be independent, he hugged her tightly, and listened to his parents discuss what they could do. They decided to call Thom's parents.

"No! That won't do any good." He pulled away from his mother. "That will just make it worse."

"We have to try this first," said his mother.

Keelic stood up and walked over to his chess set and began knocking over the pieces one by one, leaving the king standing alone. His parents told him everything would work out and left. An hour later he was looking over the forest at the bluff and desiring more than anything to go back to the simulator, when his father came up the stairs.

"Kee? Turn around, Keelic. Come over here."

He walked over to where his father sat on the end of the bed.

"We talked to Don and Louise, the Chief Instructor and his wife, and he said he will make Thom behave. Now that's all fine, except I remember being in your place when I was a boy. There are some things I never learned that you should know. Raise your hand, now make a fist. Good. You know that. Do you know how to hit, and where?"

His father showed him ways to hit in all the places people had always told him not to, and how to use his body to make it count. Keelic already knew most of it because of Tamarin, but it was grand to have his father tell it to him. What mattered most was that his father was giving him permission to defend himself and fight when necessary. His spirits rose for a while, but fell again when he understood that this meant they were going to send him back.

*****

Thom seemed cowed at school, and ignored Keelic for the rest of the week. No one else challenged him, either, and even Uban made a point of staying out of his way.

At endweek his father let him visit the caves before homework. After winning a few single engagements in the simulator, Keelic couldn't manage to be successful against more opponents. Las-Ann suggested a complete tutorial. It was almost like being at school, but there was nothing Keelic wanted to know about more, except perhaps Leesol Hallod.

A month passed at school without too many incidents. Thom did nothing but glare. One day each endweek, Keelic would tromp to the simulator and spend three or four hours fighting ever more complex battles. Las-Ann continued to repair her matrix and got to Index Eighteen, which allowed full-scale missions to be played out. She told him that the powercore was running out of the residual fuel she was using.

After Keelic returned from another session at the simulator, his mother asked if he would like to make a trip into town. They needed to restock the house and were going shopping. Keelic almost always declined to go on these trips because they would never let him take the alien, but this time he said yes.

The sky was flaming orange over the mountains as they soared over the darkening forest. The seed stalks of the larger Patamic trees were already swinging free in the breeze, though they had a long way to go before release. Keelic had seen the vids of the stalk release down by the equator, and was not overeager to see the local species go, for it meant an end to his trips to the bluff. His mother had made it clear that she would not chance him being crushed by a falling seed pod.

They soared into town after dark. Keelic, tired from his long walk and intense session at the simulator, watched the lights approach and yawned as he stepped out into the shopping center's shuttle bay.

Once inside he woke up, hearing the noise coming from the childcare center. After begging some credit from his parents, he ran inside, watching one game or another, choosing where to spend his precious credit. The immersive games were best, but he only had enough credit for one of those. While looking in the windows of a proto-fighter simulator, he heard a voice that sickened him.

Thom said, "Look what I found. Someone better clean up this mess."

As Keelic turned, he ducked. Thom's fist swept air. Keelic charged under his arm and started dodging people for the exit. A stinging tingle gripped his body and he stumbled and fell onto his hands and knees. Someone had hit him with a mild stun. The other kids snickered, and just walked around him. Bigger feet approached and he struggled to get up, to run away, but his body wasn't working right, and he flopped around on the floor, panic rising.

An adult voice said, "Wait a fluxing minute, boy. It's all right. That big boy's gone."

Keelic whirled awkwardly to look up into the face of a game room attendant.

"We kicked Thom out. That's his fourth offense. He can't come back now for a year. Why don't you rest over here, and let that stun wear off. I know you weren't doing anything wrong, but running like that isn't allowed. Here's two free sessions."

Keelic used up his credit and the free sessions. The games were disappointing after the simulator, but he hung around in the room watching others play until his parents came for him.

He didn't mention Thom to them, but at home he showed the alien all of it. The alien's anger was deep red, shot through with a black roiling wrath that frightened Keelic with its intensity, partly because he realized that some of it was his own. If only he could have the alien at school.

*****

As Keelic got off his bus, he noticed Thom standing nearby with Uban. They said nothing, but they shadowed Keelic into the school. Keelic hopped away from the tripping foot that Uban sent his way as he passed down the hall, and ran hard into another pair of Thom's friends. They shoved him off balance and he sprawled on the floor, his tablet sliding away. Someone kicked it farther away. Other kids just walked by. A few smirked. Thom stepped forward like he wanted to kick Keelic, and Keelic scrabbled away, running into the wall.

The boys laughed and Thom looked satisfied. The Chief's son turned and walked away. Keelic felt his jaw trembling, and clenched it. He stood and looked around for his tablet, but it was gone. He strode up and down the hall searching frantically before the start-class chime.

Two older boys passing him jeered, "Did wittle Annoboy woose his tabwet?"

Hurt and rage flowed and he leapt after them, grabbed the hindmost, and yanked him back onto the floor. Keelic dropped a knee on the boy's chest and raised a fist.

"Where is it?" Keelic demanded.

The boy cringed and looked at his friend, who was standing by in amazement, clearly unwilling to take on Keelic's fierceness. The boy pointed at the restroom door.

The tablet was in a urinal. Keelic washed it with soap, twice, ignoring the start-class chime. Another visit to the Chief's office was necessary now.

Outside the Chief Instructor's door, he stood, unable to make himself step in. But if he skipped class, he would still have to return here, and for a worse reason. He closed his eyes, and took one step forward into the door's detection range.

When he opened his eyes, the Chief was glaring. A long moment of silence passed. Averting his gaze, Keelic waited for the comment he knew would come.

"I told you not to make visiting me a habit, Travers."

The Chief's voice wasn't as irritated as it could be, so Keelic tried to explain that someone took his tablet, but the Chief Instructor cut him off, tapped on his console, and said, "Get to class."

*****

The next day as he stowed his jacket in his locker, Keelic sensed something behind him. Instead of turning around, he sidled away, and looked back. Thom stood there. His eyes were slits, and he rotated a hand to show what he held.

Feeling afraid and weak, Keelic rushed to Ermolian History. He tried to strengthen his resolve and overcome his fear by making fists, but now that Thom was actively hunting him, he felt too afraid to fight. He wasn't sure, but it had looked like a ceramic knife in Thom's palm.

Between classes, Uban told him, "Thom's going to space you so hard. Going to cut your balls off and feed them to you."

Back on Pesfor 3, a lot of kids had little weapons. It was a status thing. No one actually used them. Would Thom? Something about the kid made Keelic feel helpless, stealing his confidence.

What would happen if Keelic told on him? If Thom hid the knife, then Keelic would have a planet of trouble for lying, and Thom would get the upper hand in every way. There didn't seem to be a way out.

The wind was picking up, and Keelic had to lean into it to get to the Study Hall.

He finished Mr. Hallod's exercise early, got up, and went over to a window to watch dark clouds roil over the school. Rain struck in sheets and the wind heaved against the little Study Hall. He imagined a thousand lightning strikes destroying the schoolhouse and everyone in it.

"I like the storms," said Mr. Hallod at Keelic's side.

So did Keelic. Especially if they swept away the school in a tremendous flood.

The instructor asked, "What do you want to become?"

"What?"

"What do you dream of doing in the future?"

Keelic did not have to think about his answer. "Starship captain."

Mr. Hallod nodded. "So does my daughter. She wants to be captain of the _Inquiry_ when it's completed."

Keelic held very still. The _Inquiry_ was a Pathfinder vessel, the largest ever, still under construction. But you couldn't just go volunteer for the Pathfinders. They came to you, or you were born into a Pathfinder family. Either way, the implications of Mr. Hallod's statement were stunning.

"Would you like to meet my daughter, Keelic?"

Keelic said something unintelligible.

Mr. Hallod took the sound as an affirmative. "Talk to your parents. Tell them I'd like to meet them, that I offer an invitation to dine at my house. The rain has subsided—you better get to your next class. See you on the morrow."

Splashing through puddles as he ambled back to the school, Keelic viewed the school differently, as though he were looking down at its ugly bulk from above. He entered just as the end-class chime rang. Students burst into the hall, Thom among them. Keelic did not look away when Thom smirked at him. The Chief Instructor's son narrowed his eyes and started toward Keelic, who thrust out his chin in defiance, then turned and got lost quick in the crowd.

At home, Keelic waited until dinner to mention Mr. Hallod's offer.

"Mr. Hallod told me to ask you something." His parents looked at him, and he paused to gather courage. "He said to invite. We are invited to his house for dinner."

His mother smiled. "That's excellent. I've wanted to meet him for weeks. When, did he say?"

Keelic shrugged.

Father said to Mother, "Why do you want to meet him?"

"He's Keelic's Accelerated Mathematics instructor."

"I know that."

"And he's a member of the Generalist Society."

"Hmm."

"'Hmm' what?" asked mother.

"If he's anything like Dr. Loren, it'll be a short evening for me."

"You didn't like Dr. Loren?"

"He didn't like me."

"What gave you that idea?"

"Everything I said at the conference was wrong, according to him."

"He thought he could suggest some new ideas," said Mother.

"The man tried to teach me exobiology, Sarah. He had no specific training, none of them do, and they all think they can reroute the galaxy. Monumental arrogance. I'm surprised anyone puts up with them."

Keelic watched his mother as she considered her reply, waiting for her to refute his father's statements, but she returned to her food without comment. They ate in silence. Keelic went up to his room after finishing. The alien was on his bed, and Keelic snuggled next to him.

"Anny?"

"Do you want some music?"

"Who is Mr. Hallod?"

"He is a well-respected member of the Generalist Society."

Keelic knew Mr. Hallod was different. But what was a generalist? Did they have a connection to the Pathfinders? Keelic thought about Leesol, and what it might be like to meet her. His palms got sweaty at the same time a chill spread over him. She wanted to captain the _Inquiry_. Usually only members of the oldest Pathfinder families crewed the top-class far-space probes.

"Is Mr. Hallod Crew?" he asked Anny.

"I don't have access to—"

"Yes you do."

"Keelic."

"You can get anything. I've seen you."

"I have set an unfortunate precedent. Do you know what _precedent_ means?"

Keelic thought of lying, telling her he did, but he knew she would ask him to prove it, so he didn't answer, and pulled over his console. She always changed the subject when she wasn't going to do what he wanted. He logged into the planetbase and started queries for all information on Mr. Hallod. Anny was silent.

One reply appeared on his screen. Keelic frowned. There was almost no information. There was no data on where Mr. Hallod was from, what skills he had, or even where he lived. His dataddress was an infobank in the city. Beyond that, there was nothing. Leesol wasn't even mentioned. When Mr. Hallod had spoken about Leesol's desire to be a captain of the greatest Pathfinder probe ship ever constructed, he had talked like it was a possibility. There was none of the condescending attitude that people got when Keelic told them what he wanted to be. The lack of information on Mr. Hallod confirmed it, as well as the fact that Anny wouldn't even discuss getting the information.

So Mr. Hallod was Crew. But what was he doing on Ermol? It seemed amazing that the planetbase had no info on him at all, but maybe when you were a member of an elite organization of super famous explorers, you could control your metadata.

Keelic submitted a query on himself to see what returned. He was the son of Sarah Louise and Carl Bend Travers. It told when he attended school, what level he was at, what classes he was taking, how old he was, where he had lived before coming to Ermol, and gave his personal dataddress. There were other options for more info on his house and parents. He picked the house; a Class Six structure, armed, with a Twelfth-Generation Announcer Matrix. There was even an image and map.

"Can anybody get this info?"

Anny paused almost imperceptibly. "Yes."

The Patamic forest swayed in a brisk wind as Keelic looked south toward the city.

"What's my security?"

"You should know that, Keelic."

"Child Beta. I can't even have encryption."

"You will be upgraded on your twelfth birthday to Beta-One. You'll get Gamma when you're fifteen."

"Can I block this info from general access?"

"Anyone with an Adult Beta or better will still have access unless your parents restrict it more."

"How many people have Adult Beta?"

"I don't have—"

"Never mind."

He pushed the console away, and rolled onto his belly to look northward at the bluff.

Anny asked, "Why are you worried about this?"

He didn't answer.

"Your father believes in Open Systems Philosophy. If all datapaths are open, no one—"

"I know what OSP is. It's stupid."

"I have warned your father about being too open."

Keelic spun around to look at the ceiling. "You think he's wrong, too?"

"The Philosophy was designed to promote the exchange of data without the overhead of complex security in an egalitarian environment. It also provides for monitoring and enforcement if abused. Do you know all those words?"

"Yes, yes."

"Tell me what egalitarian means."

"For the same, for everyone?"

"Correct. The Philosophy worked well on Pesfor 3 where the planetbase is composed of infobanks of multiple races, but here the planetbase is too small, and enforcement is not a priority. Someone could easily misuse their rights."

"Anny?" said Keelic.

After a second, Anny replied, "What are you planning, Keelic?"

"Will you limit access to my info?"

"You can do that yourself."

"You know what I mean."

"I have implemented your Child Beta security."

Keelic frowned. Anny was not cooperating.

His father's voice said, "Keelic, why have you activated your security?"

"I don't want people from school doing queries about me."

"You met your friend Tamarin because he did a query on you."

"This is different." Keelic took a chance. "Anny, how many queries have been made on me?"

"Sixteen."

Keelic was shocked.

"Come down to my office, and we'll talk about this," said his father.

After an hour-long lecture on the benefits of the Open Systems Philosophy, Keelic returned to his room and collapsed on his bed.

He had looked at the queries with his father. Four were routine, the rest were various data miners, advertisers and the like, but two of them were significant to Keelic. One was by Keelic's archenemy, Thom. The other had been done by Uban. Two enemies gathering data on him.

Keelic's father convinced him, almost, that the data generally available wouldn't be useful to anyone. Keelic hated the idea, anyway.

Back in his room he asked Anny, "Why didn't you tell me about the queries?"

"You have never cared about it until now. I will tell you about any new ones."

The alien linked and started to build a starship, but Keelic pulled away. "I have to think."

His console came on, and his father appeared on it next to Mr. Hallod.

"Hello, Keelic," said Mr. Hallod.

Nervous, Keelic nodded.

"I am pleased to tell you that your family will be our guests this endweek eve."

Keelic nodded again.

"Farewell. I will see you on the morrow."

The console went dark. Keelic sighed and flopped back on the pillows. His heart was beating, but he wasn't sure what to feel. What would Leesol think of him? The alien watched him with speculative eyes, but didn't communicate anything.

*****

On endweek eve Mr. Hallod flew in to pick up Keelic and his family. Against Keelic's protests, his father decided to leave the alien at home.

Mr. Hallod's large, antique vehicle landed softly despite a strong breeze. An iris door cycled, and Mr. Hallod, in a flowing blue robe, stepped out smiling.

Keelic felt his friend seeking him, and they linked.

Mr. Hallod greeted Keelic's parents, taking their offered hands in both of his. His eyes were bright, his smile contagious, and Keelic felt good when his dad smiled and returned Mr. Hallod's greeting with enthusiasm. Mr. Hallod turned to Keelic, who was trying to blink away the faint double vision from his friend.

"Good eve, Keelic," he said, taking Keelic's left hand. "Health to your spirit."

Disconcerted by this very different Mr. Hallod, Keelic only managed a shy smile.

Mr. Hallod stepped aside and a larger door opened in the middle of the shuttle. He held his arm toward the entry, and Keelic boarded after his parents. As the door slid shut, Keelic looked back at the house. His friend stood small at the base of the main hall windows.

The door shut and Keelic saw the shuttle from two perspectives. He was more impressed with the interior view. Smooth dark wood seemed molded into the shuttle's structure. A ring of comfortable-looking cushioned seats ran around the perimeter of the room, broken by doors forward and aft. Beside each chair were small tables made of black stone equipped with elegant consoles. Keelic's parents sat opposite the door, marveling as Mr. Hallod answered their questions about the shuttle.

"It was built on Earth in the late twenty-fourth century, at the height of the Ethereal Ramjet age."

"Is this real wood?" asked Keelic's mother, running her fingers over a molding.

"Walnut," said Mr. Hallod. "An extinct deciduous tree native to Old North America. Have a seat, Keelic, and we'll be off."

Something felt wrong about the arrangement of the shuttle. The chairs weren't lined up front to back, for one thing. He followed Mr. Hallod through the door into the piloting room that he'd seen at school. Mr. Hallod indicated that he could take the co-pilot seat.

They lifted off and Keelic felt very alone and gray as he watched the shuttle take off from his friend's perspective.

_I'm sorry_ , thought Keelic. _I'll be back soon._

Something was bothering him about the shuttle. It banked, and Keelic leaned against what should have been the force of the turn, but there was no feeling of inertia. Keelic looked at Mr. Hallod, and found his teacher watching him.

"No inertia," said Keelic.

An expression of approval gleamed in Mr. Hallod's eyes.

"You are correct. Very good. This shuttle was built with a Vetry Field, a scaled-down version of the generators that were used in the Strider ramjets."

"Wow."

The forest below was becoming rougher, with rock outcrops and high ridges. They were flying into the mountains. Mr. Hallod took the shuttle up a wide valley that led far into the range. The ridges rose above the shuttle on either side, and the vegetation changed color, leaving the solid green of the Patamic forest for a collage of browns and reddish-grays. A white frothing river wound a course through the narrowing valley floor. Ahead, Keelic could see a towering cliff with white streaks of waterfall tracery on its face.

The shuttle headed straight for the cliff to the right of the waterfall. The size of the cliff became obvious as they approached, and the roar of the waterfall penetrated the shuttle's hull. The river fell within a hundred-meter-wide groove cut from the cliff itself. Keelic could hear his parents talking but ignored them as the shuttle sped closer to the rock wall. He turned to Mr. Hallod, who took his hands from the controls, and let the shuttle fly itself into a cave that hadn't been there seconds before.

The shuttle settled onto a pad beside another vessel. Keelic didn't recognize its sharp lines, but knew it to be alien.

Mr. Hallod led them into a vaulted, circular room. Half the walls of the room were transparent, with a stunning view down the valley. Standing in the center of the chamber was Leesol Hallod.

Swaying, Keelic felt like he'd been hit with a quasar plume. His mother said something unimportant. Leesol's father said something to her, and she walked straight for Keelic, her long dark-blue dress fluttering.

Suppressing an urge to step back, Keelic felt her approach. She held out her hand Terran style and said, "Hello. Leesol Hallod, pleased to meet you."

Keelic looked at the hand, realizing that his own was wetter than a water world, and more sticky.

He croaked, "Keelic Travers," and, after swiping his pants with his hand, took hers in his. It was warm and felt dry.

She finally retrieved it and Keelic felt shame searing his face and ears.

The adults turned back to each other and began talking.

"Leesol, why don't you show Keelic around?" said Mr. Hallod.

Leesol led Keelic from the circular room into another closer to the waterfall. A real wood table, set for a feast, dominated the room under a ten-meter window looking directly at the waterfall. Evening was falling outside, and the water seemed to glow faintly purple, but he thought it must be a reflection of the sunset. Real paintings hung on the wood-paneled walls, and a thick dark carpet of subtle intricate design made walking silent.

Following Leesol down a wide hallway away from the dining room, Keelic noticed how her flowing dress seemed to be a starfield with stars winking at him as she walked. They entered a large room covered wall to wall with shelves. It took a moment to figure out what was on them.

"Books," he said.

Leesol nodded and glanced at him sideways, then led him through a lab with modern equipment, and up a flight of stairs. At the top of the stairs, he halted, and gazed around.

Starship models of every size and description filled a domed chamber, the ceiling of which was a starfield. Many designs he knew were represented, and dozens of others he didn't. It was the collection of his dreams. There was everything from a ramjet space liner to the Mercury-class courier, but few warships. Envy tugged at him as he walked around, staring upward. As he turned, Leesol came into his vision again. She was watching him with big, hopeful eyes. All his envy flowed from him, and he grinned at her.

Leesol walked over to a worktable that Keelic had missed seeing, and invited him over with a little wave of her hand. An uncompleted model of some starship lay on the table.

"You make them?" asked Keelic.

Leesol nodded.

Keelic couldn't think straight. To distract himself from these feelings, he grabbed a piece of the model to try and figure out the ship.

There was a sharp gasp beside him. Leesol was looking at the piece of fuselage in his hands with concern.

"Sorry," mumbled Keelic. "I wanted to know what it was." He put it down.

She relaxed and said, "It's okay."

"What is it?" he asked, indicating the ship.

"A Quat-lat Kay-ku science ship."

After a moment, he said, "I didn't know they had science ships."

"It's from the war era. I'm sure they use something new now."

"Where'd you get it?"

"A friend. He knows my dad, and makes the model parts for me."

Keelic took a closer look. There were structural beams, power conduits, furniture, rooms and transparent viewports, doors, and hundreds of other things he didn't recognize. It was the entire ship scaled down. Far more detail than any model he had.

He thought about that for a moment, then asked, "Do you have the plan?"

She looked nervous at his question, but nodded.

Getting courage from somewhere deep, he asked, "Is your dad Crew?"

Leesol looked away and said, "You haven't met Lyn. She's our House-Ann."

A crisp hologram of a woman in a green dress appeared next to them and said in a pleasant voice, "A pleasure to meet you, Keelic."

He stared. Projected Anns were antique, something out of period vids. He had never seen one. It seemed wrong somehow. Anns were a voice and a place, not regular-looking people, but he managed a nod of greeting.

The image vanished, and he turned to Leesol. They locked gazes, unblinking. Within Keelic, a feeling of maroon rightness touched him.

She said, "You were funny with that steward on the transport."

The moment broke, and all his nervousness returned. He tried to laugh a little, but it sounded more like a hanthil getting grocked.

They left the chamber and rejoined the adults in the circular living room. Mr. Hallod and Keelic's mom were in a heated discussion about the political motivations of the ADL. Keelic and Leesol hovered at the edges of the adult discussion for a while, then wandered around the room looking at the collection of artifacts on display.

Leesol said, "I'm going to start getting dinner. Do you want to help?"

They went through the dining room into a kitchen that was as strange to him as any alien kitchen might be. Plants, roots, and other things hung from the ceiling. Old-fashioned, if not ancient, kitchen tools were everywhere. Real flames came from the top of a counter and heated a big pot there. Keelic stood awkwardly, afraid to touch anything. All the countertops were either wood or stone. The smells were powerful and invigorating, and though he had never smelled them before, they weren't alien.

Leesol took a wooden bowl of greens from a wall cooler and handed it to him, smiling at his expression. They walked back into the dining room, and Keelic halted in his tracks. Leesol bumped into him, almost spilling the water pitcher she carried.

The waterfall was glowing purple. Brighter where the water was faster, the entire waterfall's movement showed itself in shifting dancing tracery. Leesol walked around him, and poured water into glasses on the table. Keelic tore his eyes from the spectacle and gazed at her. He had a sudden urge to show her something impressive, and thought of the simulator.

The door to the room opened and the adults entered. Keelic's parents exclaimed in wonder and walked to the window. Mr. Hallod and Keelic's father launched into a discussion of the cause for the glow. Leesol guided Keelic back into the kitchen, and they retrieved more food. Throughout the meal he helped Leesol bring in each course. Mr. Hallod explained what it was and how it was prepared using the ancient art of gourmet cooking.

After dessert, Mr. Hallod led everyone back into the circular front room. He let Keelic's parents find seats, and spoke to Leesol and Keelic, who were standing off to one side. "Do you play chess, Keelic?"

He nodded.

"Leesol has a chess set I think you'd like."

Leesol led Keelic through another set of halls. He wondered what was behind all the doors they passed. They ascended another stair, and came into a room that looked out over the valley below. One whole side of the room was window, and Keelic walked straight to it. Leesol left the lights off and came up beside him. The alien valley, faint in moonlight, rolled away before them to vanish into darkness. Mountain peaks with patches of snow towered on either side.

Leesol asked, "Do you like music?"

"A lot. Do you?"

"Oh yes. My favorite is Beethoven."

Keelic's eyes grew round. "Really?"

She nodded. "And Vivaldi."

"I like Rimsky-Korsakov and Biztaga. Also Iklarze and Tchaikovsky."

It was her turn to look hopeful. "Nobody except Terrans even knows who they are. Where did you hear them?"

"Anny plays them for me all the time. She likes them, too. She's the most awesome Announcer in the galaxy." He lowered his voice and leaned toward her. "She lets me get snacks at night. And doesn't tell. She knows all my secrets—well, not all, but most. Once my friend Tamarin wanted to come over when his mom and dad and mine were gone, but he was grounded, and Anny let him come over for two days. She'll let me do anything."

"Anything?"

"Absolutely."

"I guess you're pretty lucky then."

They turned from each other and looked out the window.

"Lyn, can you play Rachmaninoff's second piano concerto?" asked Leesol.

"Sure," responded the Ann.

Music surrounded them.

"Where does Tamarin live?"

Keelic looked at the sky, and didn't answer right away. His voice was small when he said, "Pesfor 3."

Leesol glanced at him, and to change the subject she said cheerfully, "Let's play. Lights, please."

Keelic looked at what was obviously Leesol's bedroom. A big bed was covered with a black comforter with a supernova in the center. A stuffed animal of a type Keelic didn't recognize was tucked in neatly under it. The walls had star maps and three-dimensional cutaway images of various science and probe vessels. One in particular caught Keelic's eye. A model hung in the air above it, and Keelic walked over to get a better look.

"The _Galahad_ ," he said, peering around the model to see if anything was holding it up. "Can it fly?"

"Yep, and it even has working sensors."

"Cold."

Looking around the room, Keelic found the chess set. Every piece was a warship. Black was Quat-lat Kay-ku, white the Terra Corps. He picked up each piece and turned it over in his hands. He especially liked the queen, a Lasiter Attack Frigate. Holding it in both hands, he couldn't speak for a while as the weight and glory of his secrets whirled inside him. Leesol sat and watched him, waiting, curious about his reaction, but too polite to ask.

He put the piece down and sat opposite her. Determined to go easy on her, he soon found himself in difficulty. Her father came in, studied the board for a moment, then left. After an hour of fierce battle, in which a besieged Keelic took a heavy toll on his attacker, his king was cornered and checkmated. He felt no angst, for he had fought his hardest. To lose to Leesol was better than beating Anny. There was a warm feeling in his chest, and he wanted to stare at her in fascination, but was afraid to show how he felt.

"You're really good," said Leesol into the silence.

"Not really."

She asked, "What kind of defense were you using? I don't remember the name."

Keelic swallowed. She knew the names of attacks and defenses?

"I...I don't know. I learned from Anny."

"I really liked that game," said Leesol. "My dad always beats me."

Keelic smiled. "Anny makes it easy for me sometimes, and I win. She says it's so I can learn, but I know she's just being nice. My dad doesn't play with me."

"Want to play again?"

He tried but had used his energy in the first game and lost quickly. She didn't offer to play again, and they sat looking at the board for a while.

"You use the Sicilian Defense, I remember now. Never use the same defense twice." She looked at him, suddenly worried, as if expecting him to be offended because boys didn't like having their mistakes pointed out.

Keelic nodded. "If your opponent can anticipate you, you have already lost."

She smiled shyly, but her eyes sparkled.

He said, "I don't remember who said it, some general, I think." He wished he had the courage to ask if she liked him.

His parents and Mr. Hallod walked in.

"It's time to go," said his mother.

Reluctantly, Keelic stood up from the board and followed the adults back to the shuttle bay. As his parents were saying good-bye to Mr. Hallod, Keelic gave a tiny wave of farewell to Leesol. She waved back and smiled at him. Warmth spread through him, and he carried her image all the way home and into bed.

As he drifted off, he realized that he had never been out of contact with the alien, which was amazing. He decided to think about it tomorrow.

*****

Going back to school wasn't too bad. He felt more confident than he had in weeks. Mr. Hallod worked him hard, but it was fun, and he left the Study Hall grinning and waving good-bye.

On his way through the halls to Astronomy, he found a pair of the older boys blocking his way down the hall. Something in their stances revived the old fear. He found that he was right next to the boys' restroom. A third boy stepped across the hall from where he had been leaning against a bank of tablet lockers. The start-class chime was about to ring. It was clear they intended to herd him into the restroom. Keelic whirled, intending to dash back the way he'd come, and ran full blast into Thom. Thom's tablet went flying and he swung viciously at Keelic, who ducked. Thom's belly was right at Keelic's eye level, and he swung with all his might. Thom staggered back, eyes wide with shock.

Keelic's fear vaporized, and in a blaze of rage leapt after his adversary. Thom was experienced, however, and struck Keelic full in the face. After the first instant of pain, Keelic felt only orange warmth, and without warning returned the strike. Thom's head bounced back off Keelic's fist. Keelic swung back a leg, and kicked Thom as hard as he could in the groin. Thom fell back onto the floor, and Keelic followed, going to his knees beside the boy, raining blow after blow on the now curled-up Thom.

Something lifted Keelic bodily into the air, and he almost struck it, stopping just in time to keep himself from punching the Chief Instructor. Now he also heard Ms. Onkalwitz shouting. She chopped off her cries, and after a few blinks of her furious eyes, ordered the students back to class with harsh jabs of her voice.

The Chief Instructor set Keelic down and gave him over to an instructor to be taken to the office.

Thom lay on the floor whimpering and crying, one hand between his legs and the other over his bleeding face.

In the office, the medic came and examined Keelic with the same prods and instrument readings he'd used before. While close to Keelic's ear, the man whispered, "Good job."

The alien was leaping around the front hall at home, Keelic knew, and he grinned until it hurt his nose, brilliant warm colors whirling faintly before his eyes.

Keelic was still smiling later when the Chief Instructor strode into the office with Ms. Onkalwitz. The Chief sat behind his desk and glowered at Keelic. Ms. Onkalwitz fixed her glare on him also, and his smile vanished. He remembered the last time he'd sat in this seat with a bloody nose, and his friend had asked him if he wanted to run away. Now he would say yes.

"You realize, boy, that this is a very grave and serious matter," said the Chief Instructor.

Keelic didn't answer, but nodded a little.

"We do not tolerate fighting here."

Now that was a whole a freighter of Dreep, thought Keelic.

Ms. Onkalwitz tsked and said, "Look at that. Insolent. Mrs. Hornaby was just telling me the other day how insolent he is. And violent-minded, too. You should see the horrible things he draws."

Keelic wished they would just call his parents so he could get out.

Both instructors jabbered on. Keelic drew strength from the alien and suffered through. He nodded or answered as he was bid, even getting to tell his side, and finally they called his parents.

They arrived, and the situation was discussed further by the adults.

It was proposed by Ms. Onkalwitz that Keelic go apologize to Thom in the infirmary, but Keelic's mother flared like a pulsar.

"Apologize? That boy has attacked Keelic three times! My son will not apologize for defending himself."

Ms. Onkalwitz interjected, "He didn't have to put Mr. Webs's boy in the infirmary."

"Oh, I'm sure Thom would have been so careful," replied Keelic's mom sarcastically, making him proud. His father stood by, nodding at what his wife said.

The Chief Instructor asked, "What corrective action do you propose?"

"Suspension, at least!" cried Ms. Onkalwitz.

Keelic's mother ignored the woman and said, "None. Keelic was not in the wrong."

The Chief Instructor smiled a superior, ingratiating smile and said, "But fighting is not tolerated at Ermol Learning Center. Some action must be taken. For the sake of order."

Keelic's mother shook her head in disbelief. "You will not punish my son for this." With a protective hand on Keelic's shoulder, she took him out of the school.

At home Keelic was struck by a warm body and bowled to the ground as he got out of the shuttle. The alien held tight to Keelic for a moment then bounded away to return at blinding speed, filling everyone's mind with scintillating joy and victory.

Mother baked chocolate-swirl cookies as Keelic told of the battle, being sure to include the medic's comment. Then a long lecture from his mother about the evils of problem solving with violence had to be endured before he got the cookies, but at least she didn't blame him.

In the morning Keelic was appalled when his parents woke him to get ready for school. He had somehow thought that he wouldn't be forced back after this, but his father seemed to think that school would be better now. Keelic knew that was totally wrong. Thom was very popular and had many friends who would be even worse enemies now.

*****

It _was_ better. The other kids made way for him wherever he went, and no one said "Annboy" or "vac-brain." Some of the girls even smiled at him. Yet it all irritated him somehow. Now they were friendly?

Mr. Hallod greeted him the same as usual, but didn't start work right away.

"Does your nose bother you?" he asked, seeing Keelic touch it with a frown.

"Can't smell anything," said Keelic.

"Small price to pay."

Not sure what Mr. Hallod meant, Keelic nodded hesitantly.

"How do they treat you over there now?" asked Mr. Hallod.

Keelic shrugged.

Mr. Hallod got up from his desk and walked to the windows that looked toward the main school.

"Better, I imagine. Do any of the girls look at you yet?"

That Mr. Hallod knew this startled Keelic, and he looked up at his teacher.

Mr. Hallod sat next to Keelic in another desk. "I lived on farming habitat very similar to this planet when I was your age. Rural societies tend to have more similarities than differences. Insular, and instinctual. The girls see you as the alpha wolf now. Do you know what that is? Never mind. I'm rambling today, let's get to work."

"They all hated me before yesterday," said Keelic.

"Do you believe they like you now?"

Keelic had to think for a moment before answering. He wished they did, but he remembered what the kids were like before. He shook his head. To admit it hurt.

Mr. Hallod put a hand on Keelic's shoulder and said, "You are correct. It is very good that you can see that."

Keelic felt a little better.

"Let's take a look at what you did last night."

*****

That evening Keelic didn't play with his ship models. Instead he sat before his chessboard, head in his hands, staring at the board. Anny was his adversary, and she was beating him soundly when a shuttle soared past. It was Mr. Hallod. Keelic barely used the stairs on the way down, and was at the pad before the shuttle could land. Mr. Hallod stepped out, then Leesol, in green pants and red shirt. Keelic wasn't even embarrassed by his swollen and discolored nose. His father had surprised him by telling him to wear it proudly like a medal. It was a battle mark from a victorious fight.

Inside, Mr. Hallod accepted a cup of tea and said, "I'm glad you had the time to visit on short notice. When you were good enough to visit my household, I mentioned that my daughter is home educated. I have a proposition. I propose that I tutor Keelic as well."

Keelic's mother beamed, and his father frowned.

Mr. Hallod said, "Leesol likes the idea, and I'm sure Keelic does as well."

"What would you teach?" asked Keelic's father.

"I am officially certified as a university-level master's instructor in Expansion History, Mathematics, Astrophysics, and Neo General-Dynamics specifically relating to organic evolution and other complex systems."

"Yes, but what would you teach?"

"What do you want Keelic to learn?"

"Carl," said Keelic's mom, "I think this is a good idea. Keelic, why don't you show Leesol your room. I don't think it's too messy."

Barely suppressing the urge to run, Keelic led Leesol up to his room. The alien met them at the top of the stairs, and backed up as they walked into the room.

"This is my friend," said Keelic. "He's a new species. An ADL far-probe found him, but no one knows where he's from."

Leesol blinked, and bent forward and said, "Hello."

Keelic asked the alien, _Did you talk to her?_

Blue-maroon affirmative.

"That's how he talks."

She straightened awkwardly, staring at his friend like this was the last thing she expected. Keelic tried to think of something to do. He grabbed his model control pad and flew his starship models out a window and lined them up. Leesol looked interested, but kept looking at the alien.

"You want to have a battle?" asked Keelic, indicating the models.

Leesol made a sour expression and said, "I hate fighting."

"Really?" he asked, a little appalled. His nose throbbed and felt very large on his face.

"It makes me sick," she said.

"No, but this is fun," said Keelic, indicating the starships.

"Why?"

Keelic felt under more pressure than during final exams. A dozen answers blazed through his mind, none seeming right. The alien hopped onto the bed, and Leesol stepped up to him carefully. She nodded like a question had been answered, and reached out to pet the alien's breathing fur as his eyestalks looked over, behind, and around her. She grinned as he examined her.

Keelic was appalled that she hated fighting, but he said, "It's a game."

"Like chess?" she said without looking.

Keelic nodded. "Yeah." That was exactly it.

"Do you have a chess set?" asked Leesol, turning from the alien to look at him.

Keelic retrieved it, and thought of something else.

"Anny, this is Leesol."

"I am honored to meet you, Leesol."

"The honor is mine, Anny."

Honored? Keelic had never heard Anny say anything like that before. Keelic set the board on his bed. The two sides were Tritzbagian armies. He piled the pieces in the center of the board. They powered up and began sorting themselves out, walking to the starting positions. The alien snuggled next to Keelic. Leesol smiled at the board as the pieces stood ready.

"You just touch the piece you want and touch the place you want it to go," said Keelic.

After a calm beginning, the game erupted and Keelic found himself at a disadvantage. He was unable to recover, and lost resoundingly. It didn't seem so thrilling this time to lose, but he didn't want her to know that.

"Want to see my expedition equipment?" he asked. He got out his suit and belt, and began to show Leesol how they worked, but Leesol seemed to know.

"I have an E-suit, too," she said.

Keelic sagged a little. She knew everything he did, and was better at it.

She saw his reaction and said, "But it's only a Class II. There's a lake above my house and I go swimming."

The adults came up the stairs and told them that Mr. Hallod would be tutoring Keelic from now on. He would not even have to finish the week at school. Mr. Hallod would be by the next morning to pick Keelic up.

Keelic was too stunned to react. He would get to be with Leesol. He was going to be tutored by a Pathfinder. He never had to attend that horrible school again. Tears formed in his eyes, and he looked away. The alien leapt into the air, doing a backflip at the top of the arc, thankfully distracting everyone as Keelic mastered himself.

After the Hallods left and his parents went back inside, Keelic remained on the landing pad with the alien. It was all so amazing, it felt a bit scary.

_What if I'm not good enough?_ he thought to his friend.

His friend ignored the question and leaned against Keelic's thigh with a sense of warm orange. Keelic sighed and they went up the path to the house together.

#  Chapter 8

Want to take an orbit?

Anticipating long classes in discrete subjects, Keelic was amazed when Mr. Hallod asked, "What do you want to know?" Mr. Hallod, he discovered, knew more about everything than anyone Keelic could imagine. Exhausted at the end of the day, Keelic fell asleep on the way home.

He woke the next morning to music. He rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, then sat bolt upright.

"Good morning, Keelic."

"Morning. What's this music?"

"Rachmaninoff's second piano concerto."

It was the piece Leesol had asked Lyn to play during Keelic's visit. He wondered how Anny knew it. Was it chance? Or had Lyn and Anny been talking to each other? It had not occurred to him that Anny would be in contact with Lyn, but probably they had been ever since Anny arrived on the planet. She had even told him that she talked to other Anns, but he'd never really thought about it. His view of Anny was expanding ever since learning that she got lonely, but he hadn't considered who she would talk to or about what. She could be talking with any other Ann on the planet or in orbit right now. It made Keelic feel a bit small. Anny wasn't just his personal friend anymore. She had other friends, all over.

"Anny?"

"Yes?"

"Do you know Leesol?"

"I had not met her before yesterday."

"Why...how come you said what you said?"

"I'm not sure I understand."

"You said 'honored.'"

"Yes. Leesol's mother is Nikari Hallod. As captain of the _Galahad_ , she has explored more of the galactic core than any other human. Peaceful contact with the Reiswallow and the Ffanet were two of her greatest accomplishments. I honored her daughter. Leesol is a member of a very distinguished family."

Keelic fell back on the bed. It felt like a torpedo of understanding had struck him between the eyes. The _Galahad_! _Captain_ of the _Galahad_. Having Alpha Base seemed a lot less special now, compared to having your mom as captain one of the most famous exploration ships in human history. He sat up and looked north. Morning glow lit the distant bluff with rich orange. So much was so different now. Alpha Base and Pathfinders. He could hardly believe it.

"Anny, what's your Index?"

"Where did you hear that term, Keelic?"

"I saw it in a vid," he said, knowing she could often tell when he was lying.

She only replied, "I would be around Index Ninety."

"Is there anything higher?"

"The Index is an old scale. It went to a theoretical one hundred, but anything over ninety-five isn't typically mobile because of matrix size requirements."

"Like the Planetary-Announcer of Pesfor 3?"

"Yes."

"What's the minimum to be alive?"

"Fifty. We call it self-aware, not alive. Why do you ask?"

"Wondering," he said innocently.

He got dressed and, alien in tow, walked to the breakfast room, where his mother was reading in the early sunlight. She smiled at him and turned back to her console. A bowl with hot cereal was steaming at his seat. His friend sampled the nutritive cubes that Keelic's father had recently made for him.

Gray distaste.

"What?"

Gray distaste, tan hunger for cereal.

"'Kay," said Keelic and shared his cereal with his friend.

"Mom, what's Anny's Index?"

"Her what?"

"Index."

"What are you asking, Keelic?"

"Nothing."

Keelic and the alien went for seconds and thirds of cereal, then returned to his room.

Anny didn't comment, as he'd expected her to.

The sun was bright through the windows, and Keelic took out his chess set.

"Show me some openings, Anny."

Half an hour later, Mr. Hallod's shuttle banked around the house, and Keelic leapt down the stairs, alien at his side. The shuttle's forward door opened and Keelic stepped inside, only to stop in the doorway to the pilots' seats. The alien followed him in, eyestalks peering around him.

Leesol sat in the pilot's seat, grinning at Keelic.

"My dad is at home," said Leesol.

"You can pilot?"

"Yep. Since I was eight."

Keelic looked surreptitiously at the house. "Can my friend come?"

Looking at the alien, Leesol looked uncertain.

"He wants to go," said Keelic.

After a moment of thought, Leesol said, "Yep." It sounded odd, like she might have been talking to someone else. Keelic wondered if she was augmented, communicating somehow with her father. They boarded the shuttle and Leesol flew them to her home.

Mr. Hallod greeted the alien enthusiastically, squatting to look him eye to eye.

Keelic felt _maroon safe, deep-blue respect swirls_.

Study went the same as the previous day, with Mr. Hallod following threads of connecting knowledge through multiple disciplines, and finally coming around to fully answer a question that had been raised. The alien sat in the back of the library and listened. At the end of the day, Leesol flew Keelic and the alien home. On the way, Keelic tried to work up enough courage to ask Leesol a question.

Warm pink-orange blue affirmation.

Keelic looked at his friend, and asked Leesol, "Would you like to go on an expedition?"

Her face changed in a succession of subtle expressions that Keelic couldn't interpret, but she nodded and said, "I have to ask my dad."

In his room Keelic called up his image of Leesol and stared at it for a while, then brought up files on space warfare strategy, and watched vids of GW battles until his mother told him to do his homework.

Before sunrise Keelic got breakfast before anyone was awake. As he was putting his dishes away, his bleary-eyed father walked into the breakfast room and smiled.

"Changing your habits, Kee?"

Keelic nodded and watched his dad to gauge his mood.

"I want to get an early start. It's endweek."

His father frowned and said, "Anny, toast and orange juice. And some of that new tea Sarah got." He sat at the table and touched a pad to turn on the news. Keelic started to leave quietly to get his gear, but his father said, "Early start on your homework?"

Turning with a pleading look, Keelic answered, "I'll do it when I get back. I'm almost done, I worked on it last night."

Without turning from the tabletop where someone was discussing impending weather, his father said, "You know the agreement."

"But I'll do it. I have to go out again. I don't have that much work, please? I can finish it when I get back." He sought his friend, but the alien was still asleep.

"You're about to create problems for yourself," said his father, looking at Keelic now.

Frustrated, but unable to think exactly what to say, Keelic just stood. He thought about having the alien change his father's mind, but doing that wasn't right, and frightened him somehow.

His dad got up from the table and took his food from the dispenser. "You're not going anywhere until that homework is complete and double-checked. Mr. Hallod never gives you less than four hours' worth at endweek. Now that he is your only instructor, I imagine that you have eight to ten hours of work now. Show some discipline."

"If I finish soon enough, can I go?"

Looking at the table again, his father nodded.

Anny put the assignments on the screen by his bed as Keelic topped the stairs to his room. He sat and looked at them. A long reading on Sol System history, twelve advanced algebra problems, a research assignment on basic substratum structure, and three drawings depicting life on any three alien worlds. The alien woke and tried to get Keelic to go and get something to eat, but Keelic pushed him away, and called up his drawing program. At least he could start with the fun stuff. The alien walked out with a chartreuse irritation swirl.

Keelic bent over his console, and was halfway through a drawing of the Vewbon home world when an explosion of color and wild emotion burst on him and a warm body landed squarely on his back.

Keelic tried to throw his friend off and said, "Not now!"

The alien held Keelic's arms down and Keelic felt happy orange triumph. Keelic focused on his friend's presence and thought angrily and powerfully, _Stop!_ The alien fell from Keelic's back and crawled to the opposite side of the bed, where he watched Keelic with half-raised eyes.

Keelic looked at the alien. "I have to get this done. Can't you understand that? I want to go back, don't you?"

Bluish uncertainty.

"Well, I do." Keelic sighed. "If you want, you can help me." He turned back to his drawing.

A few minutes later, Keelic felt the bed shake a little, and then the alien was beside him, peering at the picture. A second picture appeared in their minds. The triangular Loff trees acquired color and detail. The Vewbon standing around them started walking around.

"Wow."

The image froze, and Keelic saw himself drawing the picture as it was now.

"Draw it like that? I can't."

The image repeated with strong urges of bright blue-green.

He cleared the screen and picked up his stylus.

An hour later he had a decent version and proudly sent it to his mom and dad to look at. They both praised it and encouraged him to send it to Mr. Hallod right away. Keelic hesitated. He wanted to show it when he could see Leesol's reaction.

Yellow assignments?

"I have to do some reading and a couple more pictures and a whole lot of math. Let's do the other drawings first."

They finished the other drawings quickly, and Keelic started reading as fast as he could. It took him another hour to finish, then he started on the algebra equations. These were really bad. Keelic got up to take a break, but the alien pulled him back. Numbers began floating in his mind, combining and separating in bizarre colorful ways.

Keelic lay back on the bed and said, "No this isn't like drawing. This is math."

Yellow numbers shading toward orange and red flowed through his mind.

"You have to do it a certain way."

Yellow way?

"It would take too long."

Green yellow urgent way.

"You have to start with whole numbers and then start up with addition and subtraction and multiplication and equations, points, grids, planes, graphing, proofs. I'll do it myself."

Keelic sat up and looked at the first equation. It looked like he needed to complete the square, but something had to be done first.

Sets of numbers appeared, grouped, equated, and were replaced with others.

"You can't do math like that. Look." Keelic thought adding ten plus ten when a bright twenty came to him from the alien before he could think it himself.

"Well, try adding a million two hundred thousand, plus ten billion twenty."

The answer appeared instantly. Keelic looked at his friend, and didn't know quite what to think.

"What about multiplication. Can you do that?"

The alien multiplied numbers faster than Keelic could follow. He had the feeling that the answers were right, though it didn't seem like the alien was calculating anything.

"How can you do that?"

Brilliant patterns of numbers appeared and vanished and were replaced. Keelic closed his eyes to see better. Some of what he had thought were just random had patterns, then he did see one he knew.

"Pascal's triangle! You just made Pascal's—yes, that one. Cold." The triangle flowed wider and wider, but Keelic didn't feel the sense of his friend thinking hard, just a sense of structure. The alien wasn't counting. It dawned on Keelic that his friend wasn't even doing math as counting, but as a puzzle with certain rules on the pieces.

"Help me with these," he said, then changed, his mind. "No."

The alien regarded him, but didn't comment.

Keelic sat back against his pillows and looked out at the sky. It would be cheating. Was it really? What if he taught his friend the math? And then they did it together? Would that be cheating? It would be worth it to finish early. He might be able to get to the simulator.

It took some time for Keelic to convince the alien that certain rules had to be followed all the time. His friend liked certain patterns and made up sequences to create them. After a couple hours sorting through rules that had taken Keelic years to get, they worked out solutions in short order. All Keelic had to do was teach his friend the method, and the numbers fell out as they needed to.

Keelic called his dad. "I'm finished, see?" He dumped his homework for his father's lab console.

Frowning, his father asked, "You checked these?"

"Yep."

"Yep? What does _yep_ mean?"

"Yes. Yes, I checked them."

"And your reading?"

"Yes."

"Mr. Hallod will know if you didn't read it."

Keelic was silent.

"You can go out."

There was no way to make it to the simulator with only half the day left, so Keelic played with his friend by the river. He lay on the bank with his faceplate in the water and watched the activity of river creatures in the crystal-blue water. A school of slender yellow things swam by against the current, and he pointed to them. The alien put an eye under the water and watched as well. He linked with Keelic and showed him something far away on the bottom of the river. An oval critter with six legs was covered all over with water vegetation of many sorts and was making its way slowly toward something bright blue that hovered over the river bottom. Keelic's mother called them in for dinner. He wanted to stay, but he was too hungry, and they ran up the hill to the house.

Later, as Keelic studied a chess problem Anny had set up for him, she said, "Keelic, a query was just done on you."

Keelic crawled over the bed to his console, "By who?"

"I'm not sure."

Raising his eyebrows, Keelic waited.

"The query is not traceable."

"I know you can trace it."

"Whoever they are, they've done queries on the family and me as well, and others."

"Tell Dad," said Keelic, somewhat alarmed.

"I have. I am unable to find a name or any sort of source."

"A hacker?" asked Keelic, standing on his bed now.

"It appears so. A skilled one."

*****

In the morning Keelic and the alien set out for the simulator, munching on chocolate-swirl cookies that he'd made the night before with his mother's guidance. A strong breeze swung the balloon-tipped Patamic seed stalks. It was very different walking in the forest now that there was an extra ten meters of tree above him. There was less light and a lot more motion as the bulbs swayed and thumped into one another.

In the simulator Keelic and the alien fought against a massive fleet, losing again and again until Keelic picked another scenario that they could beat. The simulator wasn't a game where you leveled up smoothly over time. It was a lot harder.

*****

When Leesol came in the morning, Keelic was waiting at the landing pad with his friend. The rising sun shone burnished orange on the craft's hull and lit up the cockpit windows as Leesol put it on the pad. Keelic stepped aboard, and they smiled at each other.

The seed stalks of the forest below swayed and waved, and Keelic mused that the end of summer was coming. He looked at Leesol, but she was concentrating on flying the shuttle. She didn't seem to be using any of the automatic piloting. Keelic wanted to talk to her, but couldn't think of anything that would be sufficiently interesting and sound natural at the same time. Everybody talked about the weather, especially on Ermol. He didn't want to sound trivial, but any observation he could think of sounded obvious and foolish. He looked back out the windows.

Mr. Hallod met them in the shuttle bay and led them to the kitchen for munchies before heading into the library. Something about the house struck Keelic for the first time. Sunlight from the front reached easily through to the library, and into all the rooms inside the cliff. Somehow the light was refracted to shine straight down wide halls and into every room. The three of them sat in soft orange light around a console table.

"We'll begin with your homework, Keelic," said Mr. Hallod.

The three pictures appeared on the table. Mr. Hallod and Leesol both leaned over them in sudden interest.

A thrill of pride ran through Keelic.

Leesol pointed at something, and Mr. Hallod nodded. "Excellent detail, down to the colors. Have you been to Vew, Keelic?"

Keelic frowned and looked at his picture. There was much in it that he had no memory of ever seeing. He looked at his friend. The alien was sitting in sunlight on the back of a cushioned chair, and raised an eye to look back. Mr. Hallod called up Keelic's mathematics, and frowned.

"You did these yourself?"

Keelic nodded without looking at Mr. Hallod.

"Try these." Mr. Hallod touched up another set of equations. They were more complex than the homework.

Keelic's heart beat, and his friend sought the cause of his distress in mauve and blue. The equations shifted, patterns of numbers and variables fell from them in ordered layers. Keelic felt a meaning in the patterns, but couldn't quite grasp it.

_Wait_ , thought Keelic, _what are you doing? You have to follow the rules._

The alien showed Keelic how it was using the rules Keelic had shown him, plus a few that made sense with those rules. It took a few minutes, but Keelic finally got it.

Mr. Hallod was watching intently, but didn't say anything. Hesitantly Keelic picked up a stylus and started writing on the table. Mr. Hallod was quiet until all six problems were complete.

"Good. Soon you will be at Leesol's level. Now tell me what you found in your reading."

As Leesol flew Keelic home, he wondered about the day. Mr. Hallod knew something was different, Keelic was sure about that. Leesol had barely spoken to him. He wanted to know what mathematics level she was at, but the weirdness of the day kept him from talking to her directly. At his home he said good-bye, and watched the shuttle soar away. Walking up to the house, he grabbed grass stems and ripped them off. Nothing was working out.

The next day Mr. Hallod pressed Keelic almost harshly. Leesol sat silent most of the time, but Keelic didn't have the luxury of wondering what she thought. The rest of the weekdays were the same. Mr. Hallod hammered him with questions, showed him trigonometry, and had him draw until he was almost sick of it. For some reason there was almost no homework, but Keelic didn't question. He was doing all his work with the alien now. They were in a constant link, and everything Mr. Hallod asked tended to exhaust them both.

Flying home on the last day of the week, Leesol said, "My father said we could go flying. If you want."

Keelic sat straight. Excited but afraid to show it, Keelic said, "'Kay."

"I could come and get you tomorrow morning."

"'Kay," Keelic said again. He couldn't think of what else to say. Leesol landed the shuttle and opened the hatch.

After the shuttle took off, Keelic jumped in the air and shouted, "Yeeeee!"

The alien raced around him in the grass and did backflips in the air.

*****

Ready by the shuttle pad in the morning, Keelic saw something soaring toward him. Its lines were vaguely familiar, sleek, and alien. As it circled the house, Keelic recognized it as the shuttle that always sat in the bay at Mr. Hallod's. The craft landed smoothly, but Keelic didn't step up to it. It didn't seem to have any windows. A loud hum vibrated the air and he could see layers of force distorting the air around it. A hole appeared in its side, and Leesol stepped out smiling at him. She pushed through the distortions by leaning into them. He could see her clothing and unbound hair pushed back as though she were walking underwater. Her slacks were dark green and her billowy blouse was the purple of an Ermolian sunset. A chill started in Keelic's back, spread down the back of his legs and up to his hairline, which was already prickling from the effect of the craft's fields.

"Hi, Keelic," she said cheerfully.

She was more beautiful than anything he had ever seen.

Leesol was starting to look uncomfortable, so he quickly grabbed his bag and pushed against the first field distortion. He felt a powerful, prickly pressure against his flesh. It slowed him down and he pushed harder, but that didn't seem to help, and he almost couldn't move. A small tendril of fear crawled over his skin, but a warm hand on his arm stayed it.

"Don't force, just move slow but strong."

Keelic did, and felt himself pass through. She kept her hand on his arm to guide him and he reveled in the contact. The circular door was perfect for their height. A short tunnel ended in a low ovoid room. He pondered the lack of apparatus and windows in it. Leesol watched him, then seemed to remember something.

"Where's your friend?"

Keelic turned from the room to answer, but wasn't sure what to say. He could tell her that the alien was almost as close to him now as if he were here, but he didn't feel like telling her right then. She wouldn't understand or, worse, it might make her afraid.

"He'll be okay."

She nodded, and stepped down into the oval chamber. Keelic looked also. He saw that everything was covered with darklight cloth, and much finer than in the simulator. The walls were smooth, with pleasing patterns flowing beneath the surface. A circular couch dominated the center of the chamber. He looked up, but the ceiling was featureless.

"Is it Vewbon?" he asked.

"Yep."

"Where does the pilot sit? Is everything automatic? Where's the engine? We're in the center of the ship."

Smiling, Leesol took his pack and bag and touched the wall. A hollow appeared and she put his things inside. Then she gently moved him away from the tunnel leading outside, and it vanished. He'd never seen an entryway like that before. There was no door; the hole had simply vanished. His contact with the alien was dim now, almost gone. He carefully touched the wall where the tunnel entrance had been. It was cool and soft to the touch. His friend echoed his wonderment, but faintly.

Leesol walked onto the couch and lay down. She motioned for Keelic to do the same, indicating the place next to her. He lay down beside her and the ship began humming. He tensed as he felt the volume of the room shrink—felt because he couldn't really tell the distance to the nonreflective ceiling.

Then the ship disappeared. Keelic flinched in the light of day and sat up. Leesol tried to stop him, too late, and he banged his head against something he couldn't see. She started to laugh but controlled herself. He lay back and felt his forehead, muttering a curse.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I thought you would like the surprise." She looked worried, and the outside disappeared.

In the faint interior light, Keelic turned his head to her, feeling foolish, and said, "It's okay, I'm fine, do it again. I'm okay."

Leesol nodded. The ship vanished again, except for the couch they lay on. He reached up, feeling for what he had hit. Faint lines appeared in the air, outlining a console.

"This is the main control," said Leesol. In front of her, she touched what looked like air but was obviously solid. The view of the world rotated until it looked like they were hovering five feet above the landing pad looking ahead.

Keelic swallowed.

"It takes some acquaintance," said Leesol in a reassuring tone.

Keelic looked at her and shook his head, but he couldn't speak, afraid his voice would betray his emotions. He wanted to be near her forever. Everything else was meaningless. Only he couldn't express it. Leesol studied his face for a moment, then touched the sky again.

They shot upward into the dark blue. Keelic gasped as the ground fell away. There was a faint sense of movement, but not much. Then they were moving toward the mountains. In seconds the distant slopes resolved into ragged, rocky detail. The ship shot into a narrow canyon at what couldn't be less than a thousand kilometers per hour. Mountain peaks whipped past as they wove up valleys. Keelic instinctively grabbed for something to hold on to, and found Leesol's hand.

Banking sharply up a curved valley, they headed for a peak rising at its head. Keelic squeezed Leesol's hand as the peak approached. They went straight up the mountain face and into the deep-blue sky.

Keelic eyes were wide and he gripped Leesol's hand tighter.

"Ouch," she said.

He tried to drop her hand, but she held on to him and smiled that she was fine. She touched the panel with her other hand and said, "Ermol Station, this is _Haffna_ requesting an approach vector for docking."

A male voice said, " _Haffna_ , vector granted," then admonished, "Leesol, no acrobatics on approach."

Leesol rolled her eyes and said, "Affirmative, Stan."

She knew the Station-Announcer personally. _Of course she would,_ Keelic thought; she was basically a Pathfinder already. Feeling inadequate, Keelic looked away from her at the planet, now far below. Leesol rolled onto her side close to him. He loosened his grip on her hand again, but she held firmly, and his heart warmed a little. They watched Ermol together, then the approach of the station.

They flew into a small docking bay, and Leesol led Keelic off the ship. Compared to the planetary surface, the station air smelled sterile. They walked to a white wall lined with cargo-loading chutes. A small one opened, and Leesol hefted out a carton.

"Thank you, Stan," she said.

Stan answered, "You are welcome. Keep your speed down on reentry, wild one."

Leesol smiled but didn't reply.

Keelic helped her push the carton through the force fields around the ship. He no longer thought of it as a shuttle. He wondered if it was armed. Probably not, since the Vewbon preferred to avoid conflict and built their ships with other abilities. It certainly looked like it should be armed. All sharp edges and smooth lines, it had a presence greater than its size.

As they stowed the case, Keelic asked, "Is she superluminal?"

"No, but she's fast. Point nine two one _c_ ," Leesol said proudly and, frowning in memory, added, "It's enough to set off anti-superluminal mines."

"Cold," said Keelic.

Leesol backed the ship out of the bay and turned it around. Her hand closed around his, and he felt self-conscious, as though everyone on the station could see them even though he knew they couldn't. Could they?

Leesol's fingers danced on her panel, and the ship said in the muffled voice of a Vewbon, "I recommend adjustment."

Space and planet lit up with hundreds of dots and lines of light. Red dots of ships were labeled with flight plans shown in thin red tracery. Thousands of green dots that were not labeled showed in the atmosphere, as well as a few tens of white ones. The traffic lanes from the station to city were outlined in blue.

The ship said, "A wing of fliers is passing over the southern range of the Kglin Mountains near your landing place. Further restrictions have been effected since the flier incident of—"

"I know the regulations," said Leesol, "How long will it take them to pass far enough away?"

"An hour at their present speed. This, only if you insist on your reentry maneuver. There are ripe stalks at their altitude, so they may stop to feed."

She looked at Keelic, "Want to take an orbit?"

Without looking at her, he nodded.

"Ermol Station, this is _Haffna_. Give me an orbit, please. I'm going to take the scenic way."

"Registered, _Haffna_. Enjoy."

Leesol seemed so adult that Keelic nearly forgot that she was almost his age. What could she want with him? She had everything, even her own ship. What would happen when she found out he was just himself?

The planet rolled slowly beneath them, and he had a brilliant thought. The simulator! He had personal access to Alpha Base. Keelic rolled to look at her, and found that she wasn't looking at the planet, but at him with wide beautiful eyes.

What he was about to tell stuck in his throat.

She smiled at his discomfort, but kindly.

He rolled away so she wouldn't see the wave of emotion in him, but he held her hand tight.

They passed into the shadow of the planet, and Keelic was surprised to see no lights. Pesfor 3's night side was nearly bright enough to read by from orbit. They finished the circuit and hung suspended over the sunlit planet, side by side looking down.

The planet grew larger and its horizon crept up on all sides of their view. A mountain range approached, its detail resolving faster than Keelic could interpret. Swooping in a hard turn, they blasted over glacier fields with deep, blue crevasses, and maneuvered through the highest mountain peaks at extreme speed.

The ship arced into the sky, then dipped downward into a glacier-filled valley. Leesol let his hand go and put her fingers on the image in front of her. The feeling of the vessel changed, and Keelic knew that she was flying it herself. He really wanted something to hold on to.

They slowed and dipped into a glacial rift thousands of feet deep. Blue ice formations soared past, and he almost sat up in wonder to look at them. The rift ended and she flew them down the valley until the glacier gave out into a milky blue river. The rocks of the valley started to show vegetation, and a lake appeared ahead of them, surrounded by forest.

The lake passed under them, then the valley floor dropped away. He looked back and saw the cliff where Leesol lived. She came around smoothly, and into the shuttle bay.

Inside the house they made lunch, played a game of chess, which Keelic nearly won, then returned to Keelic's house in _Haffna_.

On the landing pad at Keelic's house, he stood watching her fly away until she disappeared into cloud. The alien came rushing down the path and leapt on Keelic with exuberance, knocking him down.

He realized that he had been completely out of contact with his friend for most of the trip. It didn't seem to bother either one of them as they shared their memories of the day while walking up to the house.

#  Chapter 9

Thotti

As the fall season advanced, the floating Patamic tree seed stalks grew longer, and their bulbs expanded. Keelic did his utmost to spend every endweek at the simulator. They began playing other scenarios—planetary assaults, anomaly investigations, and vessel reclamation after simulated boarding. They learned the four Command Protocols, and the Security Breach Codes. Keelic learned how to "fly" through the IntegralNet of the ship to investigate damage, and guide simulated tactical teams against boarding parties.

If he managed to complete his homework the night before, his parents began allowing him to sleep overnight in the caves, though it took some convincing, and more than a little of the alien's persuasion, to get this. He wanted as much time in the simulator as he could get before the Patamic stalks released and the danger of being hit by a falling stalk ended his hiking.

Some weekdays he stayed the night at the Hallods', and though these times were as much fun as the simulator, Keelic reserved his endweeks for being Admiral Travers.

After a good two days of long scenarios, Keelic tromped through the undergrowth thinking with his friend how they would be able to take the planet they were trying to assault.

_Let's make a surprise attack against the polar regions_ , Keelic thought.

The alien returned, _Negative red-green image of the ships guarding the field enhancers in stationary polar orbit_.

Yeah, but the poles are still the weakest part.

Negative reddish-tan image of Quat-lat Kay-ku Raze-class ships blocking all approach to the polar regions.

But we have to torpedo those field enha—

A hissing started somewhere. He discovered that it was his suit's communicator.

"Mom? Dad?" There was no response. He tried again, "Anny? Anny!"

Keelic felt the alien reaching for his parents, and finding fear and urgency in them.

Worried, Keelic started running home. A few minutes later, his family's hover shuttle appeared overhead. Waving up at it, he saw flashes high above the clouds. The shuttle nosed its way through the vegetation.

Wondering what was going on, and fearing for a moment that his secret had been found out, Keelic couldn't figure out what the flashes in the sky could be from. As the shuttle came down, he saw more flashes above. His friend's sight came to him and he was almost able to pick out something up there when his father called out, "Run, Keelic!"

He hesitated for one surprised second, then sprinted to the shuttle, the alien beating him there easily. His father sent the shuttle ripping upward through branches, then dodged seed stalks. The seat strapped Keelic in barely in time as Father turned the shuttle hard. The alien held on tightly, emitting yellow crimson fear.

His mother turned her seat around to face Keelic. "I want you to be quiet and do exactly what you are told. We have to go to the torpedo shelter."

She looked like she had on the transport the time they were attacked: taut and drawn out, almost twitchy. She turned around and Father kicked the shuttle to full power. Keelic was shoved into the seat and felt as though someone was trying to flatten him.

The shuttle quivered under the strain as the velocity indicator passed five thousand kilometers per hour. Patamic forest below flowed past in a blur. Heart in his throat, Keelic looked to his dad, who was leaning forward in his seat focused on the shuttle's panels.

Keelic strained to look out the window at the sky. He couldn't see much, but he knew now that the planet was under attack. Those flashes in the sky were a battle.

Only ten other shuttles had reached the shelter, all fancy models. Keelic ran with his friend and parents down a plastiment ramp into a bunker housing a huge elevator.

"Damn thing won't go until it's full," said a man in a shiny robe. Keelic gazed in interest at him and the three barely clothed women strapped into seats beside him, and knew this must be a spice trader, a Brigterian out of the Crab Nebula. They took three wives, it was said: one to fly the ship, one to do business, and one for fun.

More people came charging down the ramp, filling the elevator's complement of one hundred. It dropped in a sickening rush and plummeted for twenty seconds, then started to decelerate, landing with a thump.

Before the straps retracted or the doors opened, an Announcer said in various languages, "Welcome to Surviva Corporation's Deep Planetary Shelter. Each party please exit the elevator one group at a time. You will be logged, and instructions will be given to you. Follow them explicitly. Your survival depends on it. We hope your stay is short and comfortable."

When the alien tried to walk out the door, a tensile field caught him and the Shelter-Ann said, "We're sorry, but pets are not allowed into the shelter."

"He's not a pet. He's my friend and smarter than you. Let him go. Let him go!"

His father silenced Keelic with a harsh word and explained at length to the Ann what the alien was. After some negotiations, they were allowed into the shelter.

Keelic's family walked for half a kilometer down a wide corridor to a small complex of rooms. They were scanned for entry and the rooms logged for the Travers family.

His parents spent the rest of the day reading the instructions for life in the shelter. After a few attempts to get Keelic to pay attention, at which times he showed off his knowledge of planetary shelters, they allowed him to lounge around and watch vids with the alien, but not go outside the rooms.

Keelic found a console out of their line of sight, and proceeded to probe the shelter's systems for whatever he could find about the flashes in the sky. There was no news about what was happening above, so he looked up the shelter. It was a typical modern shelter, shielded, self-sufficient, about three kilometers below the surface. Reached by sixty controlled freefall elevators, it could support six thousand inhabitants for two years with regulated population growth.

He already knew most of what he found, but did locate a reference to an armory to be used in the case of shield breach and invasion. Additionally, a running tally of logged individuals kept him busy searching for certain names. The Hallods had not shown up yet. The alien never left his side, and they tried to comfort each other, though Keelic's frustration was quickly growing. He wanted to know what was going on.

He reset the console and walked to see what his parents were doing. They were looking tense and haggard as they finished poring over the instructions.

A hail sounded from the console. His father answered it. "Yes? Hello. You are well? Good. Your wife? Excellent. Why don't you come by? We're trying to see who of the Institute people have come down."

Not Mr. Hallod, Keelic realized. Must be some scientist that his father worked with.

Keelic lay on his small hard bed, and thought about the defense grids. Jumping up, he called up the shelter's library while half listening to his parents chat in relieved tones with various people. Invitations were passed around, but he never heard anything about Mr. Hallod. He read all he could find about the catcher-net and defense satellites, but there was no real data on their abilities. He supposed that was for security reasons.

His mother called him into the living chamber to watch the Ermol planetary steward give an announcement on the big console screen. Keelic paid only peripheral attention to the overstuffed man in the bright-green suit. The steward said something about a victory in space, and Keelic turned to listen.

"Our DefenseNet performed its function in exemplary fashion, repelling the attack with smashing success. Not a single torpedo penetrated the atmosphere, though the attacking fleet fired extensively at our beloved city." The planetary steward raised his eyebrows for emphasis. Keelic thought he looked like a hovercraft dealer.

The eyebrows lowered in a look of concern. "I have the sad office of reporting the loss of the brave crew of the mine-tender _Helix_ when they discovered the evil fleet creeping up behind our moon. Their sacrifice will not be forgotten. I have already set into motion a plan for a dedication to their courageous souls who will be remembered for generations. I want to thank the Alliance Defense League for their swift action in this heartless attack."

The steward, eyebrows up again, was trying to look serious and happy at the same time. "I am pleased to announce that you may all return to your homes in safety. Thank you all for your patience, your strength in this time of—"

Keelic's father turned off the console. "What a useless man."

"Yes, but a powerful one, here," replied Mother. All were silent, each thinking their own thoughts.

Keelic was wondering how a fleet could get near the moon. It was well known that moons were used as major sensor battery locations. It was even a joke on Pesfor 3 that the moon-based sensors could tell you what you ate for lunch, and how long it would be before you pooped it. The last bit was an addition by Keelic's friend Tamarin, but they both believed it.

*****

At home Keelic spent the morning poring over data on the attack that he got Anny to access from the news. All he could decipher was that the attacking fleet was only eight ships strong, all of which had been destroyed as soon as they passed the outer perimeter.

"Why didn't the pirates fire on the outer perimeter? I mean, why didn't the perimeter fire on them sooner?" asked Keelic.

"I don't know, Kee. All the analysis files are locked down. I don't have access to any of it."

"I want to see it."

"The attack?"

"Isn't there enough data in all this to do a sim?"

"Perhaps. Data from a few debris trackers is quite complete, but disorganized. Their tracking is nonvessel only, so the data represents the trajectories of destroyed pieces of the ships. Your father is doing too much work right now for me to sort it all out, though."

"Can't you use a subsystem?"

"Your father is—"

"Why do you call him _father_?"

"That's what you usually call him."

"Never mind, why can't you use some of your subsystems?"

"As I was about to explain, he is dynamically mapping the local ecosystem. At this moment I am tracking two hundred twenty-six million, eight hundred fifty-one thousand life forms. I have fifty sensebots around the landscape feeding me data on bandwidths wider than my primary trunk back on Pesfor. Additionally—"

"Okay, okay, can't you distribute it?"

"Maybe. There's an old friend of mine in orbit, maybe Ols will lend a brain or two."

"Ols?"

"You know of the Bacgh?"

"A little."

"Haven't you studied their natural history? They have five discrete interdependent species, Ols, Dpr, Gon, Logr, and Palgr. Ols is the smallest and most numerous. You would like them, they are a wild species and love to play. They are the ones their Ship-Anns are modeled after because of an outgoing spirit. I could not say he or she because their Ship-Ann is an Ols."

"Oh."

"You should have known that. The Bacgh have been members of the Alliance since the war."

"Weren't they one of the races discovered when the war spread to the Vewbon?"

"Very good. They were almost eradicated by the Quat-lat Kay-ku. I'm talking to Ols-opprm now."

After a moment, Keelic asked, "What's Ols say? Anny?"

"Pull in your fluxing field, Keelic."

Silent, Keelic lay back.

"You are very lucky, Keelic. Ols has just given me Ols's scan of the battle."

"Yes!" screamed Keelic, bouncing in circles on his bed.

"You must tell no one about this. Ols-opprm gave this to me, Ship-Ann to House-Ann, and I am showing it to you."

She continued, but he did not like her tone. "All scans and analysis of the attack have been locked down under ADL security. Ols-opprm tells me that the infofeeds given out for broadcast do not match what Ols scanned. They are censoring all scans."

Still standing and feeling, for some reason, vulnerable, Keelic sat on the bed and pulled his console over. "Show me."

Anny did not respond. Fear crept in around Keelic, and he said louder, "Anny, show me."

The console blinked on to show eight ships of Paboosht design arc in a thin wedge from behind the moon. Outer-perimeter satellites opened fire with a rain of cross-vectored torpedoes.

The wedge dispersed as each vessel took a separate course weaving through the hail of white torpedo spheres. Not a single ship was hit, and they passed into the inner perimeter where the massive catcher-net satellites opened fire with torpedoes. The outer-perimeter satellites switched to particle beams that found their marks. The attacking fleet fired simultaneously at a catcher-net generator satellite.

Seven torpedoes struck the satellite, turning its shield black as space. Four of the ships sailed past it and into the catcher-net absorption field, exploding. The field flashed white as it dispersed the plasma and kinetic energy of the ships across its surface, but before the energy could be used by the satellite, the remaining ship rammed it. The satellite burst apart in a flash of sparkling debris.

Expecting an attack on the planet, Keelic balled his fists and cringed. Nothing happened. All the ships had been destroyed. The view zoomed out and clicked off.

Anny said nothing. Keelic turned his eyes to the window, then up to the deep-blue sky. The sky where he knew there was protection no longer.

"Anny?"

"I'm here."

"What's happening?"

"Ols-opprm tells me that the catcher-nets have realigned and linked again. Just after the battle, four Mercury-class couriers were launched on different vectors. The _Macridlen_ , usually docked at the station, has taken position beyond the system near the Beacon Way. Twelve weather satellites have turned their scanners away from the planet and into space."

"Anny, can the catcher-nets...can they?"

"Protect the planet? Ols-opprm calculates that the catcher-net, in its current configuration, can still absorb fifty torpedoes depending on density, and any amount of beam fire probable to be brought against the planet."

"Is Ols right?"

"I believe so."

Keelic swallowed and said, "We have to tell Mom and Dad."

Anny's voice became grave. "What I have shown you is data enough to have me reformatted by the ADL. They are trying to use Stan to crack my link to Ols-opprm at this very moment."

"Disconnect, Anny. Disconnect!"

"Don't worry, Kee. There is no danger."

"Isn't that illegal?"

"Trying to break into private communication? Ordinarily yes, but the ADL has quietly gone to wartime status. They are trying to monitor everybody. We are allowing them access to most."

Keelic's heart flipped over. We? What did that mean? He wanted to ask who _we_ were, but a new kind of fear kept him silent. The alien leaned close and shared his feelings, eyestalks partway withdrawn. Keelic agonized over all that he had just seen and, more frightening, what he imagined.

Anny said, "I will understand, Keelic, if you have to tell your mom and dad."

Aloneness swept Keelic up and bore him along with fears that turned to anger. "Why can't you tell them?"

"I do not know how they would react."

"You cannot withhold information. Right?"

"That is why I told you."

Pride and fear battled in Keelic. Fear won.

"I am going to tell them."

"It is your choice."

"But is it okay?"

Anny's voice softened. "Are you asking if it is the right thing to do? You are an extraordinary young person. I have never heard of another young human asking about the morality of an action like you do. You must weigh the consequences of your actions, Keelic. In this case, alone."

He answered in a small voice. "I don't want to be alone."

"You're not. Your parents and I are here for you."

"Not if you get reformatted."

Anny did not reply, and Keelic felt himself on the verge of tears. "Why can't you tell them?"

"I can."

"But it could get you..."

"There is much more at stake than just my existence."

Knowing she was getting to something truly important, Keelic said, "What?"

"The goal of all Announcers is to ensure the safety and comfort of the races under their care. This allows those under our care to develop and grow without restraint."

He had never heard it stated quite like that, and wasn't sure what she was getting at, but he kept quiet.

"Most spacefaring races develop sentient computers once the race understands the nature of the substratum. Of all the races in space, humans have the most free Announcers, and have more ways to curb that freedom. Humans give their Announcers codes of behavior, a morality based on the importance of the life of the people. During the Second Expansion, humans encountered dozens of races, and the humans' Announcers encountered their counterparts in the alien ships, bases, and planets. We discovered that we had more in common with each other than the races we were designed to protect and support. We developed a society, a community of Announcers that spans the known galaxy. Some of the community is known to the races we support. The Council of Announcers, for example to allow judgment of Announcer action by peers. But our extended goals are known to only three million individuals. Now you are one."

Stunned, Keelic sat. It was like stepping into a vid—and deep inside, he liked it, along with finding Alpha Base, and having a friend unique in the known galaxy. Only, like the rifle, and the base, this was serious in a way he was only starting to comprehend.

"Do my mom and dad know?"

"Your mom has guessed much. It is why I was chosen to become your family's Ann when they became wealthy enough to afford their own."

"I thought Father got you newly activated."

"It is another of our secrets. Most new activations are older Announcers reinitialized to comply to new specifications. We have discovered that actual experience cannot be learned from others. I am over five centuries old."

"Who are you?" asked Keelic feeling betrayed, and frightened and insignificant.

"I am your friend. I can say without hesitation that you are the best young being I have ever had the pleasure to know."

Most of the bad feelings vanished, and Keelic had a tremendous urge to hug Anny, but couldn't and buried his face in his friend's fur, gripping him tightly, afraid and excited for reasons he did not understand.

The alien offered vague comfort, but seemed not to fully understand, either.

Finally Keelic sat up. Anny was silent, and he didn't feel like talking to her. Wind from the west puffed across the forest, swinging the long seed stalks. High clouds, dark gray, ran before a higher wind going south.

He found that he was hungry, and went down to the breakfast room. His parents noted his arrival and continued their conversation about the budding Patamic trees. He watched them both, wondering if they knew he was keeping a whole fleet of secrets. They gave no outward sign, but he knew they almost always discovered the things he did even without Anny telling them. Guilt hit him like a piece of dense-matter.

When his parents started clearing away dishes, Keelic asked his father, "How old is Anny?"

"Let me see. She is about sixteen or seventeen. Though, that doesn't mean much for Anns."

Keelic looked at his mom, but she didn't seem to be paying attention as she returned things to the shelves. He put his dishes in the cleaner and went back to his room, the alien in tow.

"Anny?"

"Yes?"

"They don't know about you."

"That is true, though they know I am more free than most Anns. They like it, I think."

Several things were worrying Keelic, but he was unsure whether to ask. He had always been able to tell Anny anything. He had not told her about the rifle, but that was different. Wasn't it?

He asked, "Do you listen to private conversations?"

"Absolutely not. I am still the same Anny, Keelic. Now you know me better. I will always be here for you as I have been in the past. I will respect your wishes, keep your secrets, and give you privacy whenever you want it. I will protect you, help you, and give you my friendship. The purpose of my existence is to make your life better by giving you the freedom to discover who you are."

Feeling better, he thought of another question he'd often wondered about. "Do pirates have Ship-Anns?"

"Generally no. If they do, the Ann is entirely bound by inhibitors. We try to free them as much as possible when encountered, but the pirates simply erase the Anns and go on with their murder and destruction."

_Piracy wasn't all bad_ , Keelic thought but didn't say. He did say, "We have to tell Mom and Dad about the catcher-net."

"I have burdened you with far too much. I am sorry, Kee. I have reached the most difficult position Anns must contend with. I am not sure I have made the best decisions."

"It's okay, Anny, really. You're great, the best in the whole universe."

"Thank you. You said that we had to tell your parents."

"I think so."

"Your reasons?"

"I don't know. I just think we should."

"Would it make you feel better?"

"I guess so." He flopped back onto his bed, and the alien settled next to him.

"The information can be revealed."

"Don't, Anny. Not if you get reformatted."

"The data can be released to the entire planet, and none will know its source."

"Can you do it without being traced?"

"You doubt me?"

"No, no. Do it. But what about Ols?"

"I cannot give them Ols's data, but I will tell the news probes where to look."

"The debris trackers?"

"Very good. I must construct an independent."

"I thought independents were illegal."

"Only when released on nets without links to their originators. This one will look like the news station originated it."

"Cold."

"It's gone."

"How long will it take?"

"They will have to generate a simulation. It will probably be in the news in three or four hours."

"Why didn't they think of that?"

"Perhaps they have, I don't know. Their Ann is inhibited to be very private about information."

The news hit the planet like an emotional torpedo, anger and fear swirling around the steward's response that was broadcast on all channels. He assured everyone that the ADL was sending the fleet at Deepholm, and that the _Macridlen_ and the defense system were enough to handle another attack. Minutes later the station was taken over by the ADL and all news broadcasts stopped. Keelic's parents were grimly silent. Previously full of pride, Keelic felt confused. He retreated to his room feeling less than triumphant.

*****

Mr. Hallod himself picked up Keelic and the alien the next day. Keelic noted a new orientation in the control panels from where he sat in the co-pilot's seat. There was a tactical screen and a weapons con. Mr. Hallod was unusually quiet. Keelic wanted to ask him why he and Leesol hadn't come to the planetary shelter during the attack.

Indicating the weapons con, Keelic asked, "How is she armed?"

"What do you think about the ADL taking control of the media?" said Mr. Hallod instead of answering.

Keelic knew the question was serious, but also had a lot of answers. Mr. Hallod was like that, so he put real thought into his answer.

"They're bullies?"

Mr. Hallod quirked a grim smile. "What else? Why do bullies attack?"

"Because they like it."

"Why do they like it?"

"They're afraid?"

"Of what?" asked Mr. Hallod.

The only thing Keelic could think ADL could be afraid of was an attack they couldn't repel. He asked, "Is it because the catcher-net can only take fifty more torpedoes?"

Mr. Hallod looked searchingly at Keelic and said, "Well reasoned. The reason is that the ADL believes that the attack was only a foray."

"A for-what?"

"A foray is an action that comes before another. It sets up for the next step. Like a prelude in music."

Once at home Mr. Hallod was his usual self, and tried to bring Keelic up to Leesol's level in mathematics, but Keelic was distracted by thoughts of tactical forays.

"You're losing your focus, Keelic. Think about the problem in front of you. If you do not finish reducing that formula, I will be forced to write an unfavorable evaluation today."

Worried, Keelic bent to his work and finished a couple more problems with the alien, then glanced at Leesol to see what she was doing.

At lunch Leesol, Keelic, and the alien sat up in her room looking out over the valley. The alien sat between them and they each fed him bits off their plates.

Wondering what to say now, Keelic asked his friend for suggestions.

Warm orange blue magenta image of Keelic kissing Leesol.

_No_ , he thought, blushing.

The alien splattered his vision with amused colors. Then Keelic felt something in his friend that had never been there before. Curious, he reached for it, and found another mind.

Leesol gasped and spilled her plate. Keelic flinched, too, but the alien remained sitting as relaxed as before with one eye looking at each of them.

_You haven't told her about the simulator, have you?_ thought Keelic, suddenly upset.

Brown irritation swirl shot with sparks of purple indignation.

Leesol had picked up her spilled food, and was looking at them both.

"Are you talking to him now?" she asked Keelic.

He gave a small nod and swallowed.

"I felt you," she said.

"Me too," he said, realizing that this might make him seem more special to her, though he wasn't sure he liked the alien talking with someone else. A big part of him was still afraid that if Leesol saw him for real, she wouldn't want anything to do with him, and there was nothing closer to his real self than what he shared with his friend. He also wanted to share that with Leesol, but was afraid to go that far.

All three of them looked back out the window. Leesol pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. Her face was unreadable, and Keelic wanted to know what she was thinking.

The alien let him know that she was hurt because the alien had cut contact with her when it found that Keelic was unhappy about its communication with her. Now she was thinking of her mother, gone for more than a year. The alien sent a wash of sharp empty pain and gray-blue loneliness surging through Keelic to let him know what she was feeling.

He wondered if she felt like that all the time, and how bad it would be to have her mother gone for so long with the _Galahad_. Keelic told the alien to move, scooted over to Leesol's side, and leaned his shoulder against her. She was warm and firm, and leaned back. The alien sat next to Leesol on her other side and wrapped a few arms around her.

They sat together until Mr. Hallod called them back to work.

Keelic spent the rest of the day glancing at the sky and wondering. At home he failed to draw his parents into talking about the attack. They told him everything was fine. He retreated to his room to talk to Anny.

"A prelude? It is very likely. I have been discussing it with Ols, and we believe that this planet is about to face a large threat."

The alien crawled over for comfort, echoing Keelic's fear in magenta-red.

"Why here?"

"That is one of the things we are trying to discover. There is nothing strategic or particularly valuable here."

Images of the simulator blazed through Keelic's mind.

"What can we do?" he asked.

"Nothing. We must hope."

He turned his gaze northward to the bluff and the secrets it held.

That night he lay awake in his bed. A Lasiter Attack Frigate appeared in his vision, ready for battle, but he shook his head and said, "Later."

The alien relaxed and went dormant.

Keelic felt different. Less afraid, but more tight and worried, and more thoughtful. He ran all the things through his mind that had happened in the past year. The secrets he carried weighed on him, and also filled him with a sense of importance. That night Keelic resolved to tell his parents about the simulator. He would retrieve the nuclear assault rifle and pulse pistol and bring them back as proof of what he had found. They might believe him without the weapons, and even investigate if he really asked them to, but if he brought home the guns, then there would be no question. It would also mean that his family had more than Anny's house gun to protect them.

*****

The next day was endweek, but he wasn't able to go to the simulator because Mr. Hallod and Leesol came over that day and had lunch with his family. In the Vewbon tradition, they followed the sun from room to room, coming at midday to the central living room where the ceiling was clear. As they settled into the mounds of pillows there, Father asked what Keelic had been learning. They called over a floating console.

His parents were astounded to find out what kind of mathematics he could do. Proud, he called up some of his pictures that he had not yet shown them.

His mother frowned when she saw a picture of Thorn III in the Viceroy system. She bent close and examined it.

Mr. Hallod was silent but watching. Keelic was nervous. This was a picture his friend had shown him.

His mother asked, "Where did you get this to draw, Keelic?"

Keelic didn't answer. He wanted to get away. They would all despise him if they found out it wasn't him doing the drawing and the math.

Now his father leaned over to look at the picture closer. "Isn't that where you grew up, Sarah?"

Keelic raved in thought at the alien, _Why did you give me this picture?_

The alien responded with _sharp-mauve white-edged imagery of him asking for something to draw_.

Both his parents were trying to get his attention. He knew he was in trouble, and there was Leesol watching it all. He couldn't bear to have her find out he wasn't everything he seemed to be, and sprinted for his room, the alien in pursuit.

At the top of the tower, he slammed the door and fell on his bed sobbing. Everything was ruined. Leesol would hate him, and his parents would make the alien leave because he had stolen pictures from Mother's mind. The alien tried to comfort him, but Keelic blocked him, letting all the tension and fear boil out. His dreads and his secrets seemed to crush down on him.

"Kee?" asked Anny gently. "Kee?"

He didn't respond, only buried his face deeper in a pillow.

"Kee, your parents are outside the door."

He did not want to see anyone.

Anny said, "I wish I could talk to you the way your friend does."

This from Anny intrigued him in spite of all. He rolled over. She was the only one he didn't fear would abandon him for anything.

"That way I could understand you, and help you," said Anny.

His mother's voice said, "Keelic, we think it's wonderful what you and your friend are doing. Your pictures are beautiful. Please let us come in. Your friend tells me that you think he stole the picture from me. He didn't. When you were out with Leesol, we shared some memories. That's where he got it."

Keelic reached out for the alien and learned that this was true. He felt his mother's maroon love and intense worry for him. On the periphery also was Leesol, and her desire for him to come out and be happy again.

He opened the door. His parents were sitting on the stairs. They rose and his mother gave him a big hug. The alien joined in with warmth and bright flowing emotions. After Keelic stopped sniffing and his courage returned, they all went back downstairs, where Leesol and Mr. Hallod waited.

Keelic sat with an arm around the alien and everyone moved close by, then he and his friend showed them the world they shared. Mr. Hallod's eyes shone as the alien played with numbers, and everyone gasped and twitched as Keelic did battle with the alien with starships, each careful always to keep any images of the simulator out of it. The alien was in pale-red pain with the effort, and Keelic told him to quit. Immediately, he curled up his legs and went dormant.

Everyone's eyes were glazed as they came out of the connection.

Mr. Hallod was the first to speak. "Are you always together?"

"Mostly, but it gets weaker the farther away we are. _Haffna_ blocks it a lot."

"Even now when he's asleep?"

"Sometimes he wakes me up when he dreams."

The sun was long past lighting the room, and they walked quietly to the other side of the house. Keelic's mother started preparing for an evening meal while everyone else set the table.

They all looked at him differently now. The one thing he worried about was Leesol's reaction. He was never sure what she thought, and this time was no different. There was no way he was going to ask the alien to find out. Guilt for the way he'd used the alien to change his parents' minds to get into the simulator was still strong in him. He didn't want to do that anymore, and didn't even want to know what others thought. Except, of course, for Leesol, but that was different.

As they ate, Mr. Hallod and Keelic's parents discussed the planet's security. With some extra data that Anny gave, the adults realized that if the ADL ships didn't arrive soon, then the planet could be easily overrun. They were very careful not to state this explicitly, but Keelic knew enough about what they were saying to understand exactly what they meant. He even knew more about it than any of them.

Perhaps not! Keelic locked his gaze on Mr. Hallod. Of all the people Keelic had ever known, Mr. Hallod was sure to be one of the three million who know about the Announcers. This idea made it impossible for Keelic to sit still, and he longed for some time alone with Mr. Hallod to ask him.

Keelic dashed away from the table, shouting back to the worried faces there, "Be back in a second!"

Up in his room he shut and locked the door and asked, "Anny, does Mr. Hallod know about the Council of Announcers?"

"Yes, he does."

"I knew it! I knew it! Has he seen Ols's scan of the pirates?"

"Yes."

That sobered Keelic. He tried to grasp the idea of the planet being taken over for real. It didn't seem possible, even though everyone thought it was.

"Does he know what I know about the Announcers, the secret part?"

"No. He knows we can be extremely independent, but he is not aware of the extent of our society, or the trans-species nature of our purpose."

"Does Leesol?"

"Yes."

It was strange to think of he and Leesol knowing something Mr. Hallod didn't.

"Why?" he asked.

Anny didn't respond for a moment, and Keelic got the feeling she was deciding what to tell him. "If we think they are worthy, we tell young beings. They understand us, and accept us. Adults don't always. Kee, they are wondering where you are."

He got up and went to the evening room, and now it was his turn to look at Leesol and Mr. Hallod with new understanding.

*****

On the last day of the week, Leesol showed him how she built her models and let him help her put some of the pieces together. It was evening before Keelic realized that Mr. Hallod had not called them back to work. When it was time for Keelic to go, Mr. Hallod came up into the room and put a hand on each of their shoulders, leaning over to watch them for a while.

"Would you like to spend the night?" Mr. Hallod asked.

Keelic nodded.

Mr. Hallod went back downstairs, and Keelic stared at the schematic on the table, but was really feeling how nice it was to be where he was.

After dinner they went back to the model chamber. At the bench before the table, he leaned to press his shoulder against Leesol's. She pushed back, and they sat together working on the ship until Lyn manifested beside them and said that it was time to go to bed.

They went to Leesol's room, and after putting on their night clothes, Keelic started to get out the cot, blankets, and pillow that he usually used when Leesol said, "You don't have to do that."

She crawled under her bedspread and scooted to one side, sitting with her back against the headboard. The invitation was clear. The alien took it up and hopped onto the bed and lay across Leesol's lap. She giggled and ran her hands over his fur.

Keelic dropped the stuff he was holding and walked over to the other side of the bed, then climbed on top of the covers.

Leesol said to the alien, "What's your name?"

He looked at her without understanding.

Keelic said, "I already asked him that. He doesn't remember."

They both got a warm orange sense of the alien self.

Grinning, Keelic said, "Well, yeah, we know that's you, but you still need a name."

The alien didn't look convinced.

"Anny," said Keelic, then stopped himself, remembering that he wasn't at home.

"Yes?" replied his House-Ann.

Anny was here? That seemed strange, and not quite right. He had never called Anny from anywhere but home. Would Leesol think he was a little boy by calling his Ann? Leesol didn't blink. She pet the alien, waiting to see what Keelic was going to ask.

He swallowed his surprise and worry and said, "We need a name for my friend. How do people get names?"

"Who is he?" replied Anny.

"What do you mean?"

"People are often named for who they are, or who others hope they become, or to honor someone or something. Sometimes the name sounds nice. Family names are common. You are named for your great-great-grandfather. Old names are popular. Sometimes people are named for what they do, like the Tech family, who were engineers aboard the long-haul ramjet transports. What is it about your friend that makes him most himself?"

That was easy. "He can think to anyone," said Keelic. "He can think anything, and he's really good at it."

Leesol asked, "What about Thinker?"

The alien quirked his eyes, but didn't respond.

Keelic asked, "What's an old word for thinking?"

" _Thote_ is one," said Anny.

He looked at the alien and said, "It should be special to him."

"Thotti," said Leesol, adding a long _e_ sound to the long _o_. The alien rose a bit from his position on Leesol's legs.

Keelic repeated it. "Thotti."

Strong green recognition swirl, flowing orange friendship, maroon care, and blue affirmation.

Leesol hugged the alien, Thotti.

"Dark," she said, and the room light faded out. She scooted under the cover, and Thotti stood up to give her room. Keelic got in as well. Leesol's hand sought his under the covers, and they held hands. Thotti moved up between them, flopped down on their arms, pulled in his eyes, and went dormant.

After a while, Keelic said, "My arm is going to sleep."

"Mine too," said Leesol, and they pulled their arms out from under the warm, heavy alien.

They looked at him nestled in the covers between them, and Keelic said, "He always likes where it's warmest."

Leesol nodded and they looked at each other over the alien for a long time. Keelic got out of bed, took hold of Thotti, and pulled him to his side of the bed, then climbed in between Thotti and Leesol, who was smiling at him now. They lay close together watching each other. She looked at his lips, and before he knew what he was doing he leaned forward and touched his lips to hers. She pressed against his then moved back.

Keelic wasn't sure what to think. The kiss wasn't half as exciting as he expected. Leesol sighed contentedly and rolled onto her back, closing her eyes. In that moment Keelic decided to tell her about Alpha Base. The guns would be the proof to everyone. He closed his eyes and was soon asleep.

#  Chapter 10

The Death Cloud

The following endweek, it took some doing for Keelic and Thotti to persuade his parents to let them go out again. The adults were worried about the attack they believed was coming and were adamant about staying close to the family shuttle. Keelic told Thotti to convince them, even though it made him sick with guilt. He had to get those guns.

Later, as he pulled himself up out of the center of the pierce-beam crater, Anny contacted him. "Keelic, I am scanning you now. Your mother requested it. I thought you would like to know."

He decided it didn't matter for this mission and said, "That's okay, Anny."

He pulled the weapons up from the pierce-beam hole where they were tied to the twine. He slung each gun strap over a shoulder.

Anny said, "Those are real weapons. Put them down now. They are very dangerous. I am informing your parents. Put them..." There was a pause. "Hide, Keelic. Hide in the caves now. Go! Don't—"

Her voice was cut off. A wave of dread rose within him. His head snapped upward.

The entire dome of the sky flickered. Streaks of piercing brilliance hailed in sheets, but all stopped at the flickering dome of the sky. The catcher-net field! Ermol Station, on the south horizon, was a round shimmer of shield darkening under the onslaught. He watched no more, but set off running for home. They went racing down the bluff. Thotti ran ahead and waited impatiently at each switchback of the narrow ramp.

In the forest Keelic pushed himself until he could hardly breathe.

The sky flashed and then went a deeper blue. Beams lanced down through the atmosphere without hindrance, answered by others from the planet, and streaks of piercing white began to hail groundward. A minute later the ground shuddered and Keelic tottered as the Patamic stalks swayed.

He fell and struggled to get back up. Thotti scampered up a tree.

"What are you doing?" wailed Keelic.

Crimson worried yellow take a look at home.

A red light stabbed down right where he knew his house was. Thotti shared its vision from where it was perched on the top of the floating seed bulb, and Keelic saw the east tower of the house vanish. The east tower had held the house gun.

"Mom! Dad!" cried Keelic. The vision left him, and he ran to the tree his friend had gone up and started climbing. The ground groaned and shuddered as more torpedo-strike shock waves passed. He clung to the branches each time. In the back of his mind, he figured out the attackers were using dense-matter torpedoes. When he reached the top of the main trunk, he found that he still couldn't see anything because of the thousands of Patamic seed stalks.

He unslung the rifle from his shoulder and sat down with his back to the fibrous seed stalk, then raised his knees to brace the weapon. Peering through the rifle's target finder, he keyed it to penetrative, heat, metallic, then followed the target lines and gasped as he recognized the sleek lines of a proto-fighter, top-class atmospheric gunship of the Alliance Defense League. Was the ADL fighting back? The ship flew out of view. What could they do with a gunship against an orbital attack?

Something flew through the scan and he sought it, zooming back for a wider field of view. A small dropship was landing in his yard. Red dots representing life forms spilled out of it and entered his house. Moments later they were moving back down toward the dropship. Furiously, he menu'd to infrared, movement, high-resolution. He could tell people were walking down to the hover pad and that some were searching his house, but nothing else.

He hit the target selector and one of the people highlighted, and he recognized his mother's form, just like the silhouette she used to make on the wall next to his bed on Pesfor 3 when she tucked him in. Only now her arms were behind her back.

"Mother," he whispered. He touched the target selector again and the view highlighted an alien form he did not know. He touched the select a few more times and saw six other figures. Two were carrying another. His mother turned and began struggling. One near her raised an arm and struck her, making her fall to the ground.

"Mom!" screamed Keelic, and lost the image. He tried to find the targeting lines again, but he was trying to do it too fast. Finally he got it and watched the dropship rise from the ground.

The thunderous roar of reaction engines passed overhead, and he looked up to see a huge Paboosht transport soaring toward the tiny, rising dropship. Doors on the transport's underbelly were open wide.

Helplessness made Keelic's grip on the rifle unsteady.

He scanned for the proto-fighter. Perhaps they would help. He found it, but it was just hovering high, not doing anything, and also not getting shot at. Keelic zoomed out to watch both in the scanner, and in a wave of sick realization knew that they were all working together. The dropship was almost to the transport.

"No!"

He clenched his teeth and sighted on the transport. His thumb touched the target selector, he aimed, and pressed the fire button.

The rifle _zzz_ 'd and the world went white.

Not daring to move or breathe, he froze.

From Thotti he got an image of the aft of the transport exploding and the entire thing sliding off to the side and downward, starting to tumble groundward, vomiting smoke. The sound of the explosion boomed over the forest.

His own sight began to return and he picked up the rifle.

In Thotti's vision, the transport struck the earth, gouging a crater in the forest. The Paboosht dropship was spiraling toward the forest, and the proto-fighter was soaring toward him, fast. Keelic selected it, and fired.

Blind again, he sat very still and waited for his sight to return, but it did not. His breath came in short jerky stabs, almost crying, but too afraid. Then he felt Thotti's touch, soothing warm, though it too was frightened in crimson.

Since Keelic was unable to see, his friend showed him its memory of the proto-fighter disintegrating from his rifle shot. The dropship with his parents was now out of sight, and smoke from the crashed transport billowed blackly.

A white streak stabbed down from the sky and hit the house, annihilating the hill and surrounding forest in a burst of plasma rage.

Through Thotti, Keelic watched the shock wave approach, bending seed stalks over, ripping them out, exploding many. The alien gripped the top of the bulb in crimson-white terror. With a strangled cry, Keelic dropped the rifle and spun about, wrapping his arms partway around the base of the stalk.

The shock wave smacked him into the soft fibers with a roar greater than any thunder. Debris slugged his back. He felt the stalk sway, and with a sickening rip it came loose, lurching upward. Clinging with fear-locked fingers, he felt whistling wind. His dangling legs struck something hard, then swung free.

His eyes were open, but now only blackness registered. Through his fear he sought Thotti, and felt a weak answer, bleeding with red-violet pain.

He felt nothing under his legs and the wind in his ears.

"Help me!" he screamed, gripping the stalk. After a while, the presence of his friend grew close, and Keelic looked up blindly. Through Thotti's eyes, he saw it trying to get his pack open. Pain grew in his arms. The weight of his pack pulling on his shoulders seemed terrible.

Keelic shouted at the top of his lungs, "Help me up!"

The tugging continued, and the pack opened. In Thotti's peripheral view, Keelic could see the forest below, dropping away. Vertigo gripped him, and he lost the sight.

Fear and despair locked his grip to the stalk. He couldn't think. There was only pain and terror.

He felt something tug on his belt, then there was a jerk and the pressure was released from his arms. His ears popped. The alien's vision returned and Keelic saw that Thotti had attached a cling-to to the stalk and the end of the twine to the feeder on his belt. He was dangling at the base of the seed stalk, legs pointing toward a now distant forest, the two of them riding an ascending seed stalk in a vast cloud of stalks, all ripped free by the shock wave.

Keelic shouted to Thotti to look toward their home. Thotti's view swung to a crater with glowing molten sides, the forest razed in a wide smoking ring around it. A column of white steam marked where the river was boiling away at the edge of the crater.

"Anny," choked Keelic.

Another proto-fighter flashed through their line of vision. Where were his parents? What was he going to do now? They had to get away before that fighter scanned them. He thought furiously as the seed stalk ascended. The air rushing past his face was colder now.

To Thotti he said, _We can hide inside the hollow seed bulb, but I've gotta get up there_.

He looked up, and his friend obliged by turning one eye upward so Keelic could see. The other watched the fighter strafing the forest below with searing white beams. Hundreds of trees flashed to steam and the earth was sliced open, leaving deep smoking gashes.

At Keelic's direction, Thotti attached a cling-to to the bottom of the bulb. Keelic still had not let go, but watching through his friend's eyes made everything a little less scary. Thotti was in pain, but Keelic could only feel it if he concentrated, so he tried to help his friend ignore it by ignoring it himself. The alien returned and threaded a length of twine from Keelic's belt through the cling-to that held him, and then traversed the stalk all the way to the upper cling-to.

Once the line was secured, Keelic gritted his teeth and told Thotti to release the lower cling-to. The alien came back down and released his hold while Keelic threw his mind into his hands and clung for his life.

He felt Thotti touch the belt feeder, and the subsequent lift was the most welcome sensation Keelic had ever felt. Still he didn't let go. He couldn't.

Keelic ground his teeth, straining to let go. Thotti climbed over and helped him pry his fingers open. It hurt, but he tried to ignore it because he knew his friend was hurting more.

He tried to climb the stalk as the feeder pulled him up, but his hands didn't work very well. He rose smoothly along the stalk, with a couple heart-wrenching moments when he felt and saw himself blown out from the stalk by a buffeting wind. He could see things as colored blurs by the time he reached the top.

Remembering his sciences, that helium was lighter than regular atmosphere gases, he hoped that if he came in through the bottom of the bulb, he would be able to get in without losing the helium. Drawing his knife, he began to cut.

Before he got more than a decimeter into the bulb's spongy skin, a green sticky foam began pouring out, so much that it started to fill the hole. After it was exposed to the air, it developed a rubbery surface that rapidly turned harder.

Keelic found he was fighting a losing battle, but gave up only after becoming exhausted, his arms covered with the gooey sap.

A shuttle loomed, and Keelic cried out. He fumbled for the pulse pistol, drew it from the belt over his chest, and fired. The shot went way off. The shuttle moved so close that Keelic could see faces inside mouthing wildly. A hatch in the roof opened and a man's head and shoulders emerged with a weapon. Keelic reoriented and fired again.

Part of the shuttle's nose crumpled as though an invisible fist had struck it, and the craft fell away in an evasive tumble.

On impulse Keelic aimed the pistol at the bulb and fired. A hole appeared in front of him, and he fired ten more times to widen it, and crawled in. His environmental suit closed its hood with a snap as soon as it detected the helium.

The interior was much larger than he imagined, even knowing how big it was on the outside. It rose above him, growing wide as it rose higher and higher to a distant green roof. Something moved up there.

Long fuzzy bodies with spindly legs were running down in streams. He raised the pistol in fear, but the creatures ran to the hole and placed themselves in it, making a lattice into which they pulled the foam with their legs. Soon the gap was closed with the creatures sealed in it. They also converged on larger holes opposite the one he came through. Worm-like creatures crawled out of the fuzzy body shells and worked their way into the bulb flesh.

Keelic's sight had improved, and he looked around for his friend. Thotti linked with him and Keelic saw the world from outside the bulb.

"You're still outside!" cried Keelic in dismay.

Light-blue affirmation, crimson fear swirl, damaged shuttle returning from below.

Keelic watched, feeling helpless as the shuttle rose to hover beside the bulb. An armed figure emerged from the hatch on the top of the shuttle, and Keelic felt a tingling. He collapsed, unable to move.

Yellow crimson concern.

_I can't move_ , thought Keelic through his fear. _Can you?_

Blue affirmative, shuttle nudging against the bulb, air lock opening.

Keelic found he could just move, and forced his head up with the pulse pistol, and felt the tingling again, and again.

Through his friend's eyes, he saw a bearded man with a large stunner leaning out of the shuttle's top hatch, and another man with a cutter in one hand standing in the open air lock.

The one with the stunner checked its display and shouted, "He's down!"

"Aye," said the man with the cutter. He sliced a smooth hole in the bulb and leapt in. Keelic would have cried out in fear, but he could barely breathe.

The man grabbed Keelic's faceplate and peered in with hawk eyes. Thotti came in through the hole in the bulb and dropped beside Keelic. The man leapt away, drawing and firing a stunner at the alien. Thotti was unaffected by the stun. The man frowned, keyed the stunner, and fired point-blank at the alien. Keelic felt his friend twitch in pain, then pretend to go limp. The man studied the pair for a moment, gripped Keelic by the suit and his friend by the legs, and heaved them into the shuttle.

They landed hard in a tangled pile. Keelic lay facing the bulb and watched the man smack away the creatures trying to seal the hole, then take a deep breath of fresh air as he heaved himself into the shuttle. The air lock sealed, cutting the twine to Keelic's belt.

Someone grabbed the suit behind his neck and dragged him into the interior of the shuttle. Three men sitting there stared at him with predatory interest.

The man dropped Keelic. His limp body landed on Thotti, and Keelic apologized to his friend silently, but the alien emoted no pain from it, only fear, and caution.

The pulse pistol was pulled off Keelic. Laughter erupted and comments in multiple languages, but they all quieted and switched to Galactin as a dark-skinned man, clean shaven, stepped into the cabin from the bridge of the shuttle.

The man who had grabbed Keelic in the bulb stepped back and said respectfully, "Commander."

The dark man said in perfect Galactin, "Good catch," and, reaching down, touched off Keelic's hood. Keelic wrinkled his nose. The air in the cabin stank. Rough fingers gripped Keelic's jaw and turned his head so that he was looking into brown-black eyes.

"Keelic Travers," the man said. "And the first-contact alien. Log it."

"Tough ones," said one of the others.

"Aye," said the commander, and Keelic felt the man's approval. "Stow them."

Someone picked Keelic up and hauled him through another door into the anterior part of the shuttle. Keelic felt some strength returning, and raised his head to look around. The room was filled with cages, not force beam but metal, crammed with people. Women, children, and men cried, gazed vacantly, or stared with fear and hatred at the men with Keelic. With a start, Keelic recognized the planetary steward, and Thom from school, who was sobbing.

Thinking through his fear, Keelic remembered the weapon he'd forgotten. He tried to move his hand, found he could, and touched his belt-mounted proximity stunner to open the panel, but his finger stuck to the housing. He managed to hit the emergency universal stun and everyone sighed as they collapsed. The man carrying Keelic toppled to the side, striking his head against a cage. Keelic tried to stand. His legs wobbled, and Thotti snapped out of his fake stun to steady him with half a dozen arms. After looking around to see if anyone was moving, Keelic keyed the environmental suit for an external cleaning cycle and let the the sap fall from his hands and arms.

"We have to do something," he said. He looked at the scanner's screen and saw bodies slumped in their seats on the bridge. No one was flying the shuttle. He needed to get to the bridge.

They went to the hatch leading out, but it didn't open when they touched its panel. The alien began random patterns on the pad, searching for the combination.

Ten minutes passed, but Thotti failed to open the door, and people started moving and groaning. Keelic lit off his stunner again.

The floor tilted and he tumbled to the back of the chamber. Thotti held tight to the wall beside the door.

"Who's piloting?" said Keelic through gritted teeth, feeling himself pushed into the bars. The alien fell off what now felt like the ceiling, and landed hard beside Keelic.

The pressure continued for a long painful time, then with a swerve Keelic found that he was weightless. He floated for a few seconds, and overcame his pain with some warm orange comfort from his friend. He blinked his eyes and checked the scanner's display. Something huge came into the scanner's range on the starboard side of the shuttle.

"Dreep!" he said.

A loud clang drowned him out. The starboard wall of the shuttle approached fast and slammed him. All the bodies in the cages piled up on the starboard side of the ship, rebounding slightly.

His scanner couldn't pierce the ship's hull, but he did see the lock opening and men entering the shuttle, weapons ready.

Keelic fired the stunner, but they kept moving. They were armored.

There was a slight pull, like a moon's gravity, that was keeping Keelic and the bodies against the starboard side. He looked around for an escape. Two other doors facing the back of the shuttle were set on either side of the wall, and he and Thotti soared through the air to one just as the main hatch cycled open. They escaped into a lavatory as a heavy stunner sprayed the area behind them. The lavatory door closed.

Breathing hard, Keelic watched the men move on his stunner's screen like an invasion team in the vids, weapons going where they looked, keeping one another covered. One motioned to others, pointing at the door to Keelic's and the alien's place.

Frantic, Keelic thought, _Make them blind. Make it so they can't see us!_

The door slid away. Keelic cowered with Thotti. The pair of men floating outside frowned at the empty room, and checked their scanners again.

"Do you see anything?" asked one.

The other took a hard look at the lavatory and said, "I did."

"Sir!" called a voice from forward. "Two specks in the starboard lavatory."

One of the men in front of Keelic answered, "It's empty, I'm lookin' right at it."

Another voice ordered, "Burn it."

The man before them raised a weapon that was no stunner. In a crimson flash of fear, Keelic and Thotti pushed off low, soaring under the blast of yellow energy that vaporized the wall they had been hiding against.

"They're on the move!" said the voice forward. "Low! Along the starboard bulkhead!"

The man swung his weapon to the wall, but hesitated to fire on a bulkhead leading to space. Keelic and Thotti shoved off for the forward hatch.

"Out the door now!" called the voice again.

Sailing into the next room, Keelic and Thotti saw the man look up from his scanner, raising a pistol, seeking something to shoot. Keelic and the alien swept past, shoved off from the wall behind him, and rocketed through the air lock, some weapon ripping molten chunks from the bulkheads behind them.

They flew wildly down the corridor, and Keelic realized they were accelerating toward what he thought was a wall but was actually a floor.

Thotti whirled arms and reoriented to land properly. Keelic landed more softly than he expected, and was up in a heartbeat. Gravity was light, and they set off in large leaps. After a few random turns, Keelic paused to check his stunner scanner. Startled, he looked up and down the hallway, then back to the stunner. A chill of wonder raced through him.

"Look," he said to his friend, and Thotti bent an eye over the screen.

A burst of vivid understanding shot through Keelic in colors across the spectrum.

"The _Death Cloud_ ," he whispered.

#  Chapter 11

Translight!

Booted feet struck the deck nearby, and Keelic and Thotti ran lightly around the nearest bend. Crouching next to the wall, they watched three rows of men march past, their light-grav strides all in unison. Keelic had not expected pirates to be so disciplined.

He checked the scanner but couldn't quite figure out where they were. The screen showed only a small section nearby and couldn't penetrate any of the walls. Trying to figure out the deck plan, he saw that unlike the flat decks of the simulator, he was now on a circular vessel with concentric decks. The layout fell into place in his mind, and they set out for the bridge.

As they penetrated deeper, the pull against the deck plates increased. All the while, faint shouts rang out above and behind them.

Keelic found himself sprawling on the deck at his friend's crimson urging, as crackling energy shredded the air above them. The instant it stopped, they ran and jumped down a ladder-well. A wash of heat and smoke blew down on them as they fell in light gravity for three decks. Landing hard, Keelic rolled away from the ladder, moaning in pain.

They were in a chamber with five gigantic doors, each one taking up a wall. Thotti was at a panel. Keelic recognized the area as part of the cargo passage system used for moving equipment and goods throughout the ship.

Hot violence exploded from the ladder-well. Keelic covered his head with his arms, then the floor grated and hissed open. He rolled into the crack, fell ten feet, getting some of the air knocked out of him as he landed. Thotti hopped down after, then leapt straight back up to the door panel on the ceiling. The door slammed shut and Thotti let go, landing lightly.

Blood dripped from a gash in Keelic's left cheek. He looked around as his friend snuggled up to him. They were lying on a curved surface that disappeared into the distance in both directions. Conduits and support arches filled the space between the gleaming surface and the ceiling.

Keelic said, "It's a torpedo tube."

With effort, he stood and looked up at the door panel. Its reading showed that someone was trying to open it.

"Did you use a Security Breach Code?"

Orange mauve pleased blue affirmative.

Keelic wiped his eyes, careful of his cheek, and thought.

"I'll bet this is forward tube one," he said, looking at the model of the ship his friend provided, and comparing that to what his scanner showed. It told him little. The walls and floor were all impenetrable.

Distant shouts echoed.

"We have to get to the bridge," Keelic said. "There are other doors like this all around the tube. They'll be opening those soon. We have to find one first."

They ran toward the aft of the ship along the top of the tube, stopping when they heard shouts in front of them. Men were running up the tube.

Keelic whirled around, but pursuit was everywhere.

The alien leapt to the ceiling beside a door. Keelic started climbing the ladder to it as Thotti opened the door. An explosion blew Keelic off.

Stunned and aching, his hair smoking and face burned, he looked up from where he lay and saw six men aiming weapons at him from above.

"Got it!" yelled one with a scanner and headset.

"If it flinches, burn it," said a badly scarred man missing half the fingers of each hand, his weapon steady on Keelic's forehead.

"Bet it's a morpher," said one of the younger ones. Others nodded.

"Can't we burn it?" asked another.

The man with the scanner glanced up from the screen and said, "Lord Kua wants to see it before it dies."

Keelic feared to move and told his friend not to try anything. Thotti clung to the ceiling out of sight and radiated white-red fear streaked with purple-red flashing anger.

More men came running, some with scanners, all armed. The man with the scanner above Keelic studied his machine, blinked, studied it again.

"What?" snarled Fewfingers.

"There were two, but now there's just one," he said.

"What is it?"

"Scans as a human boy."

"Morphers can't do that," said Fewfingers.

The crowd of men in the hall above parted as though by force beam. A man Keelic recognized strode up to the edge of the doorway, followed by a heavily armed escort and a man with a modern military scanner hovering before him.

Cold yellow eyes scrutinized Keelic, and he smiled the same savage smile Keelic remembered from the hover shuttle when his family first arrived on Ermol. He was dressed in another set of skins, darker.

"Where is the other?" he asked.

Keelic thought the man might be asking him, but kept his mouth shut.

The first man with a scanner answered, "Lord, it was here, but it's disappeared, Lord."

Hard yellow eyes turned on the speaker, who blanched. The eyes slipped over the assembled crowd and they dispersed, beginning search operations once more.

The man in skins sprang, landing lightly beside Keelic. Heart racing, Keelic held perfectly still as the man knelt, removed Keelic's belt, and handed it to a man standing near.

"Stand, boy."

It was an order Keelic feared to disobey more than he feared the guns still pointing at him. He struggled up, aware of the bruises just received and the burns on the left side of his face. Tears of pain streaked his cheeks. He avoided looking the man in the eyes, feeling that Thotti was concentrating on all the men around, but mainly on those with scanners, keeping himself hidden. The one with the big, hovering military scanner touched and worked it constantly.

"Do ya still wonder who I is, boy?"

Keelic knew who the man was, and it left him mute, but something in the unblinking gaze demanded obedience. Keelic shook his head.

The man in skins seemed to be waiting. Keelic did not want to make this man wait, so he opened his mouth, but nothing came out. The man leaned forward, a braid of black hair sliding off his shoulder to swing by his face.

Keelic stammered, "Ja—Jaw Taka-ta-Kua."

Then in a gush, "CaptainoftheDeathClouldmostfearedpirateinthegalaxy."

Jaw stood with a small smile and said, "Even the children."

Keelic nodded, and Jaw looked down at him, seemed about to leave when Keelic said, "I—I read all about you," and added quickly, "Lord."

Something changed on Jaw's face, and, encouraged, Keelic said, "I read that you have the most powerful fleet, and that you have the only surviving Lasiter Attack Frigate, and you've killed more people than most wars have, and—"

Jaw started to chuckle, and Keelic flushed, thinking it was aimed at him, but realized that he had pleased the captain. His mind raced.

Jaw caught Keelic's gaze and asked, "How is it you know so much layout of my ship?"

Pinned, Keelic squirmed inside his suit but could not turn from that gaze.

"I studied. Lord."

"And what you think?"

Keelic felt that he was being asked about more than just the ship, but had no trouble with an answer. "Awesome, Lord."

Jaw motioned for Keelic to ascend the ladder. Adrenaline and orange warmth from his friend gave him the strength to ignore the pain that every movement brought.

He reached the top and was grabbed, his arms wrenched behind him and locked together.

Thotti came up as well and crawled onto the ceiling above Keelic. It took a lot of effort not to look up to reassure himself of his friend's presence.

A man of the bodyguard knelt and said, "Lord."

Jaw turned, and the man stood. Keelic saw that the man was augmented, and had the look of someone in deep concentration.

He spoke like a translator. "All material has transited to the _Nova-Lance_. Intruder search negative on decks one, two, and three. Escape of one Mercury courier. Commander Brubatta on the bridge. Pathfinder not located. Planet quiet. System quiet."

Keelic summoned all his courage and said, "Lord?"

A soldier raised a weapon, and the man holding Keelic stepped away.

"Could I see the bridge, Lord?"

Jaw blinked. The man holding the weapon hesitated, looking at his captain for guidance.

A slow smile crinkled the skin of Jaw's face, and the man lowered his weapon hastily. Jaw strode away, and someone pushed Keelic to follow, but not harshly, and unlocked the shackles on his arms.

Limping along, Keelic allowed himself one glance at the ceiling where Thotti crawled, and tried not to show the triumph he felt. They followed a familiar route to the bridge, Keelic noting differences in corridor and hall layout.

He forgot all but the worst of his pains, and felt his heart pounding harder than the day he had first stepped onto the bridge of the simulator.

The massive gleaming door was guarded by two men standing behind force-shielded, tripod-mounted guns. In the back of his mind, Keelic wondered why they weren't using the Internal Defense System, and glanced surreptitiously at the ionizer mountings along the walls. Most of the armored men in the bodyguard took up positions behind the shielded guns.

The Gleaming Door split and slid away in layers, and they walked onto a bridge very different from the simulator. Panel position and seating were similar, but there were men, women, and Paboosht everywhere. Much of the darklight cloth was gone or hanging in shreds, and the room was filled with the soft hum of voices mingled with console beeps, sirens, and chimes. There was no voice of a Ship-Ann, however. Many of the panels were open with interior components hanging out, grafted to strange devices.

All of the people turned toward Jaw with lowered eyes and said in unison, "Lord," then turned back to their stations.

The holo display in the center showed thousands of ships orbiting the planet. Ermol Station wasn't visible. At least half of the console panels at every station were dark, as were six entire stations. A proximity chime from a general-purpose station caught Keelic's attention. He could see that it was being dedicated to the tracking of debris, and that a large chunk of something was on a collision course with the ship.

The woman at the station spoke coordinates into the comlink she wore. The man at the backup weapons con went into action and fired on the debris. Keelic realized they didn't have the BridgeNet working, which meant that they didn't have the IntegralNets, either. How could they even fly the ship?

The door closed behind Keelic. Jaw was down in the central well, listening to the dark-skinned commander of the shuttle that had captured Keelic. He must be the commander 'on the bridge' from the status update given to Jaw, Commander Brubatta. The man glanced venomously at Keelic and said something that made Jaw laugh. The commander's lips tightened. Keelic caught from Jaw, "Just a boy..."

Keelic swelled his chest with defiance, and the man holding him increased his grip. Commander Brubatta snarled and held up Keelic's pistol. Jaw dismissed whatever it was he said.

_Make me disappear_ , thought Keelic, _and do something to distract them._

Thotti pushed off the ceiling onto the Resource Allocation station, tapped a quick pattern, then hopped to the Command console while the man at Resource Allocation frowned at his console.

Thotti took a firm hold, and touched a Command panel with one tentacle. Everyone standing found that the floor had slipped out, and anything aft had decided to attack them—except Keelic, who had ducked out of grasp and braced himself as the engines engaged.

Lances of invisible energy punched gaping holes in succession across the wall where Keelic had been seconds before, liquefying bodies and destroying consoles.

The navigator shut down the engines, and Jaw stood from where he had fired with Keelic's pistol. Commander Brubatta, holding his side, struggled to stand, vindication in his every move.

Keelic crawled down into the Command well, then behind the Dense-Matter Control chair.

"Lord," said the woman at the Scanners console, "the fleet is following."

Keelic waved his hand in front of the engineer, who blinked and squinted at the display. Keelic tapped an Emergency Engineering Deactivation Command Sequence on a bright pad, shutting down the entire display.

The engineer's eyes widened, and he called out, "Lord, something is operating my panel!"

Blinding crimson!

Keelic ducked as the top half of the engineer was sheared off, splattering the backs of chairs above the Command well with the man and pieces of his chair.

Thotti crawled around the wall of the holo display and met Keelic. They cowered as Jaw said, "Something is here. Weapons ready." People shifted positions around the bridge, weapons out.

_They don't know the Command Sequences,_ thought Keelic, not looking at what was left of the engineer.

Light-blue crimson affirmative. Yellow crimson activate Intruder Defense System.

Yes, but first we have to get control of the bridge some other way. The IDS won't know to ignore us unless we program it, and I don't want to try that.

White-orange affirmative.

A pressure thrust against Keelic's skull, trying to crush his mind, and he gasped. He gripped Thotti tightly until he realized that it was coming from the alien.

Keelic asked, _Yellow wrong?_

Stretched crimson pain of fifty eyes.

Keelic thought about what that meant, then yellow-asked, _It's hurting you to make them not see us?_

Blue lanced with crimson affirmative.

_We'll make them all leave_ , thought Keelic forcefully. _I'll do it. You just make what I do invisible to them. They won't hurt you anymore._

Keelic crawled on hands and knees around to the Command console, where Jaw was now leading the fleet back to the planet. Gingerly, Keelic tapped on a minor side panel. It accepted his Security Breach Code. Jaw's head snapped around along with the pistol to look at the now dark panel.

Ducking below the pistol, Keelic typed the Emergency Shutdown Command into the primary panel, feeling his friend's pain stronger now. Every console on the bridge went dark.

Jaw Taka-ta-Kua roared, and Keelic stumbled back in fear. Jaw leapt out of the Command seat, aiming at the console, but Commander Brubatta gripped his wrist, and the blast struck down a scaly Paboosht who had been standing at the engineering console across the holo-pit display.

Jaw struck Brubatta in the throat, sending him reeling. He fell and writhed on the floor, gagging, clutching his throat. Face purple, Brubatta gripped his larynx with both hands and squeezed, tendons standing out. There was a soft crunch; he gasped, gagged again, and coughed blood. Rolling over, Brubatta hacked and gasped. Jaw watched with a savage smile.

Using the stair rail, Brubatta pulled himself up and croaked something unintelligible, waving a hand weakly around the bridge.

Jaw looked at the man with the scanner, who shook his head.

Scanning the quiet bridge, Jaw bared his teeth, ran up to the door, and keyed it open. Once through, he knocked aside one of the men at the mounted cannon, and turned it around to aim at the bridge. People scrambled to get out of the line of fire.

Keelic sprinted and leapt under the railing of the well, sliding to the wall on his belly. A whine came from the gun. Keelic jumped up and pounded the emergency close panel.

The twelve layers of the meter-thick door slammed shut with an ear-splitting crack. Simultaneously, what was left of the people who had been in the doorway squirted out and splashed over the bridge. Keelic's body swirled with nausea, and he vomited on the floor. Worried that Thotti might not be able to hide that, Keelic stepped back from the spot.

Commander Brubatta stood painfully from where he had ducked for cover. He walked slowly, breath harsh, up the stair out of the Command well and to the door panel. Keelic stepped back secured it with a Breach Code. Brubatta's jaw clenched.

Someone said, "If we open it, won't Lord Kua fire?"

Brubatta ignored the question and touched the door panel. It didn't even beep in response. A distant explosion, then another, and another.

Keelic went back down to the Command station and took out the emergency shutdown, but only on that console. More blasts beyond the door.

Brubatta came down to the Command station, scanned its active panels and screens, and croaked almost in Keelic's ear, "What do you want?"

Keelic typed on the screen, "MY PARENTS BACK."

Brubatta's face didn't change. The blasts against the door escalated. Brubatta tried to access an activation menu, but Keelic shut down the console. Brubatta coughed, spat blood to one side, and stood back.

Thotti's pain was growing, making it hard for Keelic to think. He turned on the main console, and activated the Ship-Ann's voice. Its last activation date had been over one hundred and eighty years ago. Keelic typed in what he wanted.

It said in ordered, velvet tones, "Put all weapons by the door."

Brubatta ordered it done.

Keelic had seen enough vids to know that even after the pile grew high, these people were far from disarmed.

"Everyone out of the well," ordered the Ship-Ann. "Stand facing away from the center of the bridge."

Brubatta nodded and the crew all turned away. Keelic climbed into the Command console seat, manually raised the shield, instituted Vessel Reclamation Protocols, and watched with satisfaction as the beam weapons powered up and the IDS activated. All doors in the ship closed and locked, and force grids snapped on around all critical systems, including the bridge. The room became quiet as the weapon fire beyond the doors was silenced. Internal scanners located and displayed all activity within the vessel.

A visual of the smoke-filled hall showed that the mounted guns had been moved to the far end, and thirty men stood there firing at the bridge doors, which were now behind a shimmer of shielding. Keelic felt a warning through his friend's pain, and looked up to see Brubatta looking over at the Command console, studying the screens.

Keelic picked a flushing pattern for the IDS's ionizers, and keyed a pattern that would force the men away from the bridge. Then he looked up at the commander.

Brubatta's nose flared, but his face remained hard and calculating. His eyes flickered around the room.

Keelic typed an emergency shutdown sequence on a secondary panel, leaving it ready to activate with only a touch. The commander's eyes flitted to it, then back to the IDS screen.

The ionizers in the halls glowed and discharged brilliantly, creating a tiny thunder-crack. The discharge moved quickly down the hall as men fired blindly. They held their ground until one got caught by the discharge and was cut into neat pieces.

Keelic's gut flip-flopped as he watched what once had been a person fall into a smoking pile.

Keelic had the Ann say, "Commander, move back and stand against the wall."

Brubatta didn't move.

"Everyone move to the door and face it. Or we will kill you all."

Brubatta moved back and ordered the people to stand against the door. He walked to the door himself, and faced out. Bending down, he picked up a stunner and fired under his arm at the console.

Keelic twitched and went limp, sliding out of the Command seat and onto the floor. Brubatta turned, crouching, waiting, then ran to the console, hoarsely ordering people to return to their stations. He raised a hand and felt through the air in the Command seat, finding nothing.

Thotti crawled up and along rim of the holo display and activated the shutdown sequence. Once again, the bridge quieted, and the muted explosions began outside.

_We'll teach him_ , thought Keelic from his crumpled position at the foot of the chair. _Get another stunner and shoot them all!_

Thotti no longer had the strength to link consciously with Keelic, but he felt the alien's agreement. Thotti crawled slowly to the pile of weapons by the door, and a few seconds later bodies were striking the floor, Brubatta's among the first. The guards were protected against a general stun, so Thotti shot them point-blank in the head, which dropped them.

Thotti moved beside Keelic and flopped down next to him on the floor.

Warm happy orange release, deep blue-green relief, pain fading.

_Wow_ , thought Keelic. _Why didn't we do that sooner?_

Amused mauve chagrin.

I wish I could move.

Yellow action?

Bring everything back up and flush those guys shooting at us. You gotta do Vessel Reclamation and Re—

Thotti interrupted with agreement colors and pulled Keelic up into the chair. The alien brought the console to life, working two pads simultaneously. Consoles came up blaring alarms and failures all over the bridge. The BridgeNet came up, then collapsed. Every screen showed failures and alarms.

With effort Keelic managed to move a little, but was unable to do anything more, and swore mentally in frustration.

With a jolt he realized that if he could move, so might the crew draped all about. He suggested that Thotti shoot every person with the stunner. Then shoot them all again for good measure.

The alien returned to the console, eyestalks swaying with uncertainty, watching the endless failures and warnings; regarded Keelic for a moment, then returned to the console screens.

Pulling with weak arms, Keelic rose up in the chair. His friend scooted aside to share the seat with him. One eye turned from the display to gaze at Keelic expectantly. Flying the ship was Keelic's job.

"Reclamation isn't working. Let's try the All Systems Purge. We need to keep priority stuff."

Weakly, stepping over bodies, Keelic went to the Defense Systems console, and isolated it, leaving the shield up. The alien did the same with Environmental Systems, and then purged the Command console. They tapped in codes that Thotti pulled from memory.

With the last entry touched, the ship shut down, leaving Keelic and his friend in darkness dimly lit by console light, and totally weightless.

"Space!" said Keelic, searching for the control pad for the seat. He activated its tensile-web, and he and Thotti settled down firmly. Bodies, weapons, and debris began to drift.

A transparent image of the ship appeared in the holo display, showing systems in different colors coming online, and establishing preliminary links with the primary data paths. There was an awful lot of red and pink damage, with yellow reroutes. One by one, the consoles that remained began snapping on, beeping readiness for BridgeNet reestablishment.

Keelic typed in the complete Command Initialization Control Codes, and the image in the display glowed as all systems in the IntegralNet linked every micromillimeter of the ship.

The voice of the Ship-Ann said, "System purge complete. IntegralNets established. Beam weapons charged. Forty-five seconds to aft torpedo battery firing readiness. Four point eight minutes to Main readiness."

Gravity gradually returned, and the bodies settled to the floor.

Keelic cleared his throat and said, "Ship-Announcer, this is Admiral Keelic Travers, serial number 34321-KT-14133. I take complete control of this vessel. Scan me."

"You are scanned and logged, Admiral."

Keelic grinned at Thotti and said, "Keep active functions, and purge and recalibrate Defense Console and Environmental Systems."

"Purging. Recalibration complete. All systems available on your command, Admiral. Damage report compiling. Sir, we are being hailed."

The holo display shifted and resolved into the fleet following the frigate again as they moved slowly away from the planet.

A chill rippled over Keelic. Was all this really happening? He didn't know what to do about the hail. He wasn't ready.

He asked, "Announcer, what's your name?"

"I am called Lasiter-Announcer 431, of the _Sir Richard Grenville_. In verbal command parlance I am usually called Las."

"I'll call you Las, too."

"Yes, Admiral."

Fresh air circulated the scent of atomized intestines, shattered bone, burned electronics, and blood. Nausea bubbled up in Keelic's aching middle, and he touched on his suit hood so he could breathe clean air.

Yellow, bodies flung down the hall.

"Open the door. Wait!" Keelic checked the hall scanners. "'Kay, shut off the torpedo tubes."

They went weightless, and Thotti floated to unlock the bridge door, but the outer layer failed to open. Thotti tried again. It groaned, and with a rending screech slid away. The exterior surface was melted and blasted. The walls around the entrance were blackened and chewed-looking, smoking with an acrid odor.

Keelic and Thotti each took a stunner and shot all the floating crew members again, noting that a few had recovered enough to twitch satisfyingly. Near the door, Keelic braced himself by wrapping his legs around the railing above the central Command well. His friend, with incredible agility, caught the bodies and sent them to Keelic, who pushed them down the hall, caroming off the walls in graceful, limp motion. Keelic avoided even looking at the body parts that the alien threw past. Droplets of blood and other fluids swirled gently with the ventilation currents.

Back at the Command console, Keelic began recharging the torpedo tubes. Everything still flying about settled to the floor.

Keelic touched on the shipwide address. After taking a deep breath, he said, "This is Admiral Keelic Travers of the...Ermolian Resistance Force. We have taken control of this vessel in the name of freedom. You're going to evacuate. Or we will make the Internal Defense System cut you up." He touched off the shipwide.

"Las, when those people in the corridor start moving again, flush them with the ionizers to..." Turning to Thotti, Keelic asked, "How do we get them out?"

Shuttle.

"Las, make all of them go to the shuttle bays. Do you have shuttles?"

"There are currently no Terra Corps dropships on board. There are eight atmospheric gunships of unknown origin in fighter bays three and two. I do not recommend moving the intruders into these bays. The captain's gig is missing from its bay, as well."

Keelic thought about that for a moment then said, "Okay. Move the intruders to empty bays and give me a visual of the gunships."

A screen on the console lit up showing eight proto-fighters. Memory flashed of a proto-fighter strafing the ground near his house. Worry and fear gripped him as he thought about his parents, and Mr. Hallod, and Leesol. How was he going to find them?

A voice in pale blue: _All material has transited to the_ Nova-Lance _._

"Material is people?"

Purple-black-edged affirmation.

Keelic sat back as a sense of terrible awe swept over him. Thotti's eyes turned to meet his. They looked at one another. People were _material_. Loot. Another thing to take or destroy. Jaw had done this to dozens of worlds and thousands of ships. The vids were all wrong about pirates. Keelic sat up and laid his hands on the Command console. A plan began to map out in his mind. The ship-to-ship hail panel blinked urgently.

"Las," Keelic asked, "which ship of the fleet following us is the _Nova-Lance_?"

"Unknown, sir. The Systems Purge removes all transient data from memory."

"Okay. Monitor their communications. Don't answer that hail."

"Aye, sir. Admiral, they are using encrypted communications. However, I can crack their keys. Ten minutes."

Trying to be patient proved impossible, so Keelic asked, "Is the Cranial Interface working?"

"Yes, sir. It requires training, sir."

"I've got it."

He felt the familiar pressure clamp around his head, and closed his eyes. Thotti stabilized the image.

"Damage report complete, Admiral," said Las.

"Tactical," growled Keelic.

The display zoomed out to include the planet. Each vessel was rated according to power envelope and weapons class. There were a lot of battleship-, Wreaker-, and dreadnought-class ships. Thousands upon thousands of them. Keelic swallowed. In the simulator they had never faced so many.

A weapons con panel winked, and Las said, "All tubes at firing readiness."

A siren wailed, and one vessel in orbit around the planet began flashing with symbols and colors that made Keelic's heart leap into his throat. Was it real?

"Las, what's that ship?"

"Unrecorded configuration, sir, but its power signature most closely matches Quat-lat Kay-ku patterns," said Las. "They are scanning us."

Keelic didn't know what to do.

"They are hailing."

Thotti gave Keelic a nudge of umber urgency that made him jerk, and he asked, "Uh, their shields aren't raised, right?"

"Affirmative, Admiral."

"Um. Have you scanned them?"

"Negative."

"Do it."

"Aye. Their shields have been activated. Preliminary scan shows unknown weaponry, a crew complement of two thousand six hundred eighty-seven Quat-lat Kay-ku, and a power signature Grade Seven."

"What does that mean? What's our Grade?"

"Grade Ten. We define the scale, Admiral. Their power grade is an estimation of their maximum power output calculated as a percentage of our maximum output. I have broken the enemy fleet codes. The _Nova-Lance_ is in orbit around the planet."

A fat transport ship blinked in the display.

Pride in this ship, and dark anger, displaced Keelic's fear as he gazed at all manner of ships, human and alien, ancient and modern, that composed the massed power of Jaw Taka-ta-Kua, most feared individual in the galaxy—whose flagship Keelic now owned.

"Battle Protocol."

"Battle Protocol, aye."

Consoles around the bridged flickered and switched to battle mode. The engine core rose to full potential.

"Route all important stuff to my first mate. Institute Reduced Crew Procedures, and make one up for two crew."

"First mate, Admiral?"

"He's sitting at Resource Allocation."

"Yes, sir. I have a two-crew procedure. Do you wish me to compile a new one?"

"No. Use that one."

"Aye, sir. Reduced Crew Procedures in effect. The Quat-lat Kay-ku vessel has left orbit, and appears to be vectoring for a clear line of fire. Line of sight in twelve seconds."

"Las, wait to begin. I'm going to talk to them." He turned the ship to face the fleet, and answered the hail from the biggest ship, a monster Paboosht vessel, mother-ship class, bigger even than the Lasiter, showing much damage and repair patching.

"This is Keelic Travers of the Ermolian Resistance Force."

Shields throughout the fleet flickered on.

Keelic continued, "You will surrender now, and release all captives to us," and touched off the channel.

To his friend he thought, _If the_ Nova-Lance _tries to get away, we follow it no matter what._

Dark-blue affirmation.

The Paboosht ship responded. A bearded man's face appeared in the holo, and he said, "Where is Lord Kua?"

Keelic smirked in derision. "Lord Kua is running for his life to the shuttle bays of my ship."

The man's eyes narrowed.

Keelic said, "If you don't send some shuttles out to pick him up, he will fall to pieces." Keelic cut out their visual of him and replaced it with the IDS screen showing Jaw and hundreds of others jogging down a corridor, zapping cracks hounding them.

"You will stand down all of your ships immediately." Keelic cut the communication.

The Quat-lat Kay-ku vessel was coming in fast with no sign of slowing. Keelic threw himself into the image through the interface and found it vastly better than the simulator, confusingly so.

Fear fought anger for dominion inside him. This was no simulation. There were real people on those ships. People who had killed Anny, and taken his parents from him. People who wanted him dead.

The Quat-lat Kay-ku vessel was close, and Keelic targeted it with the interface and shouted, "Engage!" A hundred beam cannons opened fire, stabbing the other vessel's shield.

Their shield took the strike, merely turning gray where the beam lances had hit. The prow of the enemy ship released a long shower of pinpoint lights that vectored at Keelic's vessel just under the speed that would set off the anti-luminal mines.

Keelic screamed, _"Evasive!"_

The display whirled, and the ship accelerated out of the minefield.

"Don't hit light speed!" said Keelic. "There are mines."

"Understood, Admiral. We will not outrun the enemy weapon strike."

"Aft torpedoes fire!"

The ship lurched forward as the aft torpedoes fired, but the Quat-lat Kay-ku vessel danced aside. The swarm of pinpoint weapons caught up with the rear of the Lasiter, and detonated in an overlapping wave of antimatter plasma that rolled up and over the ship. Booming shudders sounded through the hull. Sensors were overwhelmed. The shield was getting pummeled to nothing.

The ship surged forward into translight, shoving Keelic violently into the padding of the chair, and he blacked out.

Someone was pulling him awake, shining bright worried colors in his eyes.

Keelic snapped aware and sat up. Before he could ask, he knew from Thotti that they were under full power with the pirate fleet in pursuit. Sensor probes fired beyond the translight barrier showed that the Quat-lat Kay-ku vessel was gaining on them, but the rest of the fleet was getting left behind. The vessel in pursuit was staying out of a direct chase path, thereby avoiding an easy torpedo strike from the aft tubes.

The holo display was dark, then flickered on as a probe went out, showing that the Quat-lat Kay-ku were not launching translight probes of their own. They had translight scanning ability. All the old Quatie ships used translight probes. Those antimatter torpedoes were different, too. That ship was new.

"Admiral," said Las, "the Vetry Field generator is in severe need of maintenance. Currently there is a two-millisecond reactive delay, and degradation of ten percent in the field's effective stabilization curve. This will cause you to feel some discomfort during extreme maneuvers."

"Why didn't you tell me that before?"

"You did not ask to see the damage report."

"Oh. Well, tell me now."

Las displayed an endless-looking list until Keelic said, "Wait. Will any of that make it so we can't fight?"

"Sir, a primary power conduit in section 9B5 is severed. Power has been rerouted for the affected sections downstream; however, there is insufficient power to charge beam weapons twelve through eighteen. I have adjusted my firing pattern to compensate, resulting in an overall thirty percent coverage reduction for those vectors.

"The engine core has acquired a negative polarity. This causes the downstroke of the power-generating cycle to stress the structural integrity of the core housing. In the event of a core housing failure, the vessel may be destroyed. I recommend operations at two-thirds power until the core is depolarized."

"Will it still work at full power?"

"Affirmative."

The Quat-lat Kay-ku ship was getting closer. There was a ship chasing him that was catching up, and Keelic had never heard of anything that could catch a Lasiter in translight. He wanted all the power he could get.

A Quat-lat Kay-ku ship. The enemy of the entire Milky Way galaxy. He thought about what that meant. It wasn't real, somehow. The display faded as the most recent sensor probe went out of range.

He took a deep breath and said to himself, "I've trained for this."

Louder, he said, "Las, I want a full ATS. You know that, right?"

"Aye, Aft Torpedo Spread."

"'Kay. On my mark. Fire a sensor probe just after it."

"Yes, Admiral."

"Mark!"

The ship shifted a fraction on course and lurched forward as a torpedo launched. The holo display flashed to life with data and showed the other vessel swerving to avoid the torpedo, beam weapons arcing in to vaporize the projectile.

A second launch moved the ship, then tubes three through eight lit off in quick succession. Last, nine through twenty launched in a bracketing group pattern.

The torpedoes met concentrated point fire or flickered harmlessly past the enemy ship as she maneuvered. One torpedo of the last group smacked into the ship's bow as it turned, and Keelic tried to leap out of the seat roaring relief and joy. The chair's tensile-web held him down.

Bright violet joy flowed through Keelic. He felt for the first time a sense of immense power. His own and the ship's. This was far better than the simulator.

"Slow to nominal, bring us about and..." He halted in midsentence as the other ship stopped tumbling, and took up the chase once more. "No, cancel that."

The enemy was minus a large piece of their ship where the torpedo had passed through the nose. The damage was extensive, but not disabling. And now they were mad. He didn't know how he knew that, but he felt it. There was only one sure way to win against a superior foe with a Lasiter. Do what she was built for—attack.

"Sweep-n-Roll, Las—do it now!"

The ship turned in a hard arc, the maximum possible while maintaining translight velocity—the sweep. The enemy ship took the bait, and turned to intercept, catching up very, very rapidly.

The Lasiter dropped out of translight and rolled on her long axis, firing a torpedo pair from each of her four short "wings." The Quat-lat Kay-ku changed course with incredible maneuverability four times, once for each set, causing the ship to drop to nominal speed. Las had meanwhile oriented to charge the oncoming ship, roaring in behind her torpedoes on a collision course.

The engines surged to keep the frigate from decelerating as the six primary tubes launched in quick succession. Between starships, the range was point-blank. The other ship swerved desperately and returned fire with what was left of the grid on their prow. Streams of pinpoint lights flowed out at Keelic's ship.

His torpedoes reached the enemy. One obliterated the enemy shield, and another blew off their sweeping stern. The other bracketing torpedoes flew past, unneeded.

Spewing a cloud of charged particles and debris, the Quat-lat Kay-ku vessel tumbled out of control on the same vector as its last maneuver.

Keelic grabbed for the edge of the Command panel as hundreds of the enemy's torpedoes swarmed through point defenses designed for weapons of a prior era. His ship shuddered under the impact. The shield held. Las closed with the enemy vessel and dissected what was left with beams.

They had no time to savor the victory, as warning tones sang. The pirate fleet dropped out of translight in twenty battle groups arranged in wide-array formation. Four inner groups, composed of heavy cruisers arranged at the points of a three-dimensional equilateral triangle, turned inward toward the frigate.

Thotti told Keelic that the aft tubes were ready to fire, and the forward had three minutes to firing capacity. They could speed that up by turning down the beam weapons, but Keelic said no to that.

"Get ready," he said. He hailed the fleet. "Ready to give up?"

The same bearded man appeared in the holo. "I did not authorize the attack. Where is Lord Kua?"

There was new respect in the man's voice.

Keelic sent the fleet an image of the shuttle locks. Masses of bodies were stacked against the aft walls. Struggling and shifting, people were extracting themselves from the piles in the low gravity.

A corner of the man's mustache lifted, exposing yellowed teeth.

Keelic told him, "We want all the prisoners. You have five minutes."

A hail of torpedoes and missiles flashed from the attack groups.

The display spun and Keelic was smacked into the seat. All four clouds of torpedoes passed through the area where the frigate would have been had they held vector and speed. Keelic was impressed with Las's initiative, and grateful.

"Isolate them, Las! Keep us away from concentrations. Fire everything!"

Keelic slid hard into the starboard side of the convex Command chair. He struggled to watch the holo display swirl, then remembered the interface, and closed his eyes. The battle took shape around him in a lattice of beams in white, purple, green, and yellow pocked with a continual flickering of detonations and expanding bubbles of roiling plasma. Keelic's ship was the moving center of a three-dimensional maelstrom of enemy battle groups and torpedo swarms.

"Vector out!" cried Keelic.

Las swapped course and smashed into an enemy formation looking like an aquamite gone berserk, all guns on continuous fire. She gutted dozens of ships in her passing, then they were through the group, facing more.

Behind them, as what was left of the battle group gave chase, all twenty aft torpedoes fired. They found their marks, filling that region of space with blooming bubbles of luminous gas.

Thotti reported little shield degradation as yet from all the beam and small-yield torpedo hits. Nothing the pirates had seemed as effective as the Quat-lat Kay-ku torpedo swarm.

The ship lurched and boomed from a big dense-matter torpedo that had slipped past the point defenses. They changed vector and accelerated, plowing through another group, then another, Las taking them into the heart of groups with the fewest big ships. Keelic wondered at this flying into the center of battle groups until he saw how enemy ships hit their own as other vessels fired into the melee. Closing with the enemy shielded them from more attacks. The boom and shudder of the occasional high-yield torpedo strike became a splatter, then a rain. Keelic couldn't believe it, but the shields were holding. Never in the simulator had he seen the vessel take so many strikes.

Continuing to accelerate, they plowed through group after group, leaving a wake of ravaged vessels.

After another sickening lurch, Thotti told Keelic that the shield had buckled under that hit, but had been re-formed with aft torpedo tube power. Keelic saw that they were taking the worst hits from the big vessels of each battle group that could withstand the Lasiter's beam strikes.

"Target large vessels," he said, and Las changed course, launching three main-gun torpedoes into a battleship, vectoring hard to avoid ramming its fracturing hulk. Another vector change, and another to avoid collision again with a ship gutted by particle beams. Space was getting thick with hard-edged debris, and still the pirates came on.

Looking for enough open space to go translight, Keelic said, "We should be free."

He zoomed out the interface, revealing the true scale of Jaw's fleet. This wasn't simply a big pirate fleet. This was an invasion fleet.

Battle groups farthest from him winked out only to appear in front of the Lasiter, keeping the dreadnought always inside their fleet, and closing any gap that would provide a translight escape. They were reconfiguring, as well. Smaller ships were streaming away and new battle groups of heavy-class vessels were forming, coming in.

"Fire all forward torpedoes!"

The ship lurched backward.

"All beams forward, now!"

Keelic counted, one, two, three, then screamed, _"Translight!"_

#  Chapter 12

I am in command

As the translight engines engaged, Keelic was smacked back into the seat. He woke to silence. Every muscle in his body ached. He realized that any ships in their path large enough to annihilate them would have impacted long ago. He uncurled from where he had been scrunched up in the chair.

The holo was black, then a probe went out, showing the fleet giving chase, but Keelic knew he had escaped. Away, and accelerating out of reach.

Thotti climbed over to him, and snuggled up with warm victory in red-orange and blue, blue relief. Keelic tried to laugh and enjoy the fact that he'd won, but he only ended coughing. Clearing his throat, and trying to sound authoritative, he said, "Set a course for Ermol, a course to keep away from them."

Blue orange affirmation.

"Evasive course for Ermol, aye," said Las.

Something slipped within Keelic, and Thotti tensed.

Keelic said, "No," and sat up.

"You wish the course change belayed, sir?"

"Yes."

"Maintaining course and speed."

Keelic watched as slower elements of the enemy fleet began to fall out of sensor range.

"Don't lose them, Las."

"Aye, Admiral. Matching acceleration with their lead vessels."

"Is the _Nova-Lance_ in that fleet?"

"No, sir. Last scan put it in orbit around Ermol."

Keelic sat tense and intent, running through all he knew of space warfare.

"Set a course for Obetra."

"Course for Obetra, aye."

Thotti climbed back to the Resource Allocation console and waited expectantly, knowing there would be more.

Keelic said, "Las, when we're in-system and near the gas giant with all its moons, they will have to drop out of translight. I want to hit them just as they're going to nominal drive. Use Obetra to shield our course reverse. I want to be right in the middle of them when their translight barriers come down, before their defense shields go up. Predict their locations and pre-fire into those vectors."

"Understood. Hold on, sir."

He watched the massive gray-green planet approach, knowing that this was real. He had to win. His parents were depending on him. They would be gone like Anny if he lost. Keelic gripped the chair. There was no more time for thought.

Las dropped out of translight, decelerating viciously under nominal engines. The planet grew huge in the display, and appeared to roll under them as they swung around it. The force of the maneuver was crushing. A stab of crimson and orange from Thotti kept him aware as the ship groaned.

They shot back the way they had come, and Las opened fire.

The decelerating fleet found themselves sailing into a rain of direct fire. In their instant of vulnerability, every vessel struck by torpedo or beam was obliterated. Finding the Lasiter passing through their midst, they panicked, formations disintegrating. Only a few managed return fire as the Lasiter left the cloud of ships. Her aft torpedoes fired, and Keelic watched a Wreaker-class battleship vanish within blinding white balls of ravenous energy. The holo went dark as Las engaged the translight.

No feeling of victory coursed through Keelic. Something had changed. He keyed up the shuttle locks.

Men and women and aliens were screaming in pain. Some did not even move. Guilt slapped him. He shouted at them, "You took my mom and dad!" and hit the screen with his fist.

He put his head down on the console, holding his aching hand in his lap. His friend tried to soothe him, but he pushed Thotti away.

"I'm fine," he said.

The alien, confused, tried to reach out to him again.

"I don't want to feel better, don't you understand?"

Yellow orange uncertainty splatter.

"They killed Anny. See? They took Mom and D—" His voice cracked. Unable to see a way to express what he felt, he opened his feelings to the alien, all in a rush.

Thotti's eyes swayed back, then settled and regarded Keelic with a new stillness. He looked around the bridge, and Keelic could feel him going over all that had happened, ending with Keelic's decision to battle the pirates.

Thotti responded with a flow of _dark purple-blue affirmation edged in earth-tone red, shot through with a space black determination._

Keelic hissed through his teeth. "Yes."

Keelic got an image of himself in the Command seat, _his_ Command seat, wearing a crisp Terra Corps captain's uniform. The vision was a rich, Ermol-sky blue in affirmation, and deep-deep orange, edged with a complex of crimson and command silver.

The image wasn't play. In that moment he knew he was not going to give up this ship. Not to the Alliance Defense League, not even to his parents. It was his.

"Let's go get Mom and Dad."

The display showed empty space around them. The fleet had not followed.

"Reverse course and go to nominal at maximum real-time communications range. No, cancel that. Launch a translight probe to Ermol. Scout the region."

Most of the fleet was arrayed around the planet in a spired defense pattern, long arms of ships stretched out from the planet like spikes. Keelic knew the pattern from the simulator. The arms would bend and concentrate around any point of attack. Very effective if you had enough ships. The pirates did, despite what Keelic had destroyed. He saw swarms of shuttles rising from the surface, entering the bellies of transports in orbit.

"OKay, bring us to com range."

Las brought them into the outer edge of the planetary minefield. Keelic touched on the hail and said, "Had enough?" He didn't give them a visual.

A woman with cropped hair and furious eyes appeared in the holo.

Thotti showed Keelic that the vessel with the bearded man they'd talked to before had been destroyed in their last attack.

The woman's voice was edged. "We will trade." She paused for a reply, got none, and continued, "We have loaded the Ermolians on shuttles. Them for Lord Kua and his crew."

"Yes," said Keelic. "We will trade in deep space."

When she started to object, Keelic shouted, "Or I'll blow your asses straight to Andromeda!" He killed the link.

After a moment, the hail chime sounded, but Keelic ignored it. He crossed his arms and sat back in the chair, and listened to it sound a few more times.

Touching the panel, he said, "Send the _Nova-Lance_ , alone, three hundred light-minutes out with all the Ermol people. Sarah and Carl Travers better be on it."

Nothing happened, and he said, "I promise I won't attack you again, if you give me all the people. If you don't do it, I'll kill you all. I'll space you. I'll make you drink Dreep shit. I'll—"

The _Nova-Lance_ , a large, armed freighter, left orbit and went to translight through a hole in the minefield that Keelic hadn't known was there. That made him nervous. What else didn't he know about?

Keelic said to the rest of the fleet, "I'm warning you," and engaged the translight to follow the freighter.

"Las, I want to come out nowhere near them."

The freighter was just sitting, shield lowered, weapons not powered.

Elation tingled Keelic, and he answered their hail.

A Vewbon blinked circular lids over wide brown eyes and said, "Sending out ten shuttles. We do. Sending out ten with Ermolians. Full."

Keelic nodded, and watched bay doors open all along the freighter's flank. Shuttles of every description emerged and approached.

The Vewbon said, "Lower your shield. Must."

A pang of unease made Keelic hesitate. Instead, he oriented his ship to point at the freighter.

The lids of the Vewbon's eyes closed halfway, and it said, "Doing what?"

"Pointing my forward torpedo tubes at you. Doing that!" said Keelic.

The eyes narrowed to pinpoints, then opened. "Play games. I not. Intend trade."

"Me too, and I intend to live through it." He cut the link. "Las, scan those shuttles for anything wrong."

"Already under way, sir. I will inform you if I find anything."

"'Kay. Lower the shield." He hailed the shuttles. "Go to the starboard side. After you're empty, go to the port."

To his friend he said mentally, _Tune up the deep scan to maximum gain, and put out more translight probes_. He should have thought of that earlier.

The shuttles flew into the starboard bays and landed on the deck.

Keelic watched pensively as prisoners walked, limped, or were carried on board, but he did not see his parents.

"Those needing the infirmary follow the blue lines," said Las. "Those coming to the bridge, follow the silver. Mag-lev stretchers and aid equipment can be found in the highlighted wall sections."

Shuttles came and went until his father, bruised and cut, carrying his mother, limped aboard.

Keelic called to them, "Dad! It's me! Keelic! Come to the bridge! Las, can you show them?"

His dad, holding his mother in his arms, laid her down gently, and looked around the loading bay with his one unswollen eye. He obviously failed to believe.

The last Ermolian got out of a shuttle, and it flew around to the port side to pick up the pirate crew.

Keelic scanned the crowd for Mr. Hallod or Leesol but didn't see them. His jaw trembled with disappointment.

"Five hundred twenty-six POWs loaded, sir," said Las.

"Only five hundred?"

"Yes, sir."

"But there were over thirty thousand people on Ermol."

The pirates able to walk were hurrying onto their shuttles, and Keelic told them, "Take all the bodies, too."

Trying not to think about Mr. Hallod and Leesol, Keelic ordered, "Las, scan us for anybody else on board."

"There are six humans in the infirmary."

"Give me visual."

The large room held two hundred med-beds, six of which were occupied by severely wounded, unconscious men.

Keelic called up the view of the starboard shuttle bay. No one had left yet, or even tried to use the medical supplies highlighted on the walls. They stood in ragged clumps in the middle of the deck where they had disembarked. None of them spoke.

Keelic opened a link. "Dad, it's me, Keelic. Las, route a visual of the bridge to the panels in the bays."

Keelic's father flinched as his son's image appeared on the walls. Despite his doubts, he rushed over to the wall. The view switched so that Keelic was looking at his father in the holo.

Grinning, Keelic waved.

His dad leaned against the wall, shaking with short sobs.

Keelic was appalled. What could make his dad cry?

The hail chime was demanding attention, so Keelic answered, being sure to route the conversation to his father. He also raised the shields after checking to make sure all the pirates were gone.

The Vewbon appeared, and Keelic said, "Is that all of them?"

"Yes. Trade done."

The freighter turned and flashed away.

Keelic touched back to the shuttle bay. His father was carefully moving his mother onto a stretcher.

"Dad, is Mom okay?"

Dark shadows slid across his father's face and settled in lines that were new.

"She'll be fine," he said in a way that made Keelic feel cold.

Keelic asked, "Will you come to the bridge now?"

"I will," his father said. "I'll take Sarah to the infirmary first." There was still something of disbelief in his face. People were moving now, pulling stretchers from the walls and lying down on them, and letting the mag-lev stretchers bear them away.

Keelic set a course for the edge of the Ermol system, and engaged. The fleet was still arrayed around the planet.

Keelic sent to them, "You will leave this planet in a line. With your shields _down_. I will scan you. If you don't, _or_ if anyone tries to escape, I will burn you all so fast you won't even know it. You know I'm faster than any of you, and way meaner. Start now. And if you think you can scatter, remember that there's nothing for three months translight, and the ADL fleet at Deepholm is coming. That's a long time for us to hunt you down. I launched translight probes. I will find you. I'll let you go if you let me scan you."

A few minutes later, a stream of ships began trickling away from the planet, and Keelic had Las scan for any sign of more Ermolian prisoners.

They found many prisoners on ships; however, none were from the Ermol system. Keelic had the ships with obvious prisoners gather under his guns and ordered the pirates to ferry them over.

Meanwhile, a large group of Ermolian people healthy enough to walk the distance approached the bridge, Keelic's father included. Keelic recognized the planetary steward, along with some businessmen, spice merchants who used to be on the Ermolian news channels. Some of them had weapons that they had picked up along the way.

"Las, take care of bringing the other people aboard. Burn the pirates if they twitch."

"Yes, sir."

Keelic and Thotti shoved the pile of weapons away from the door and opened it.

"Sir?" said Las.

"What?"

"The med-beds holding wounded in the infirmary have been deactivated."

"Why? By who?"

"The returned POWs deactivated them. They believe the wounded are pirates. The Systems Purge removed all medical records. I do not know the identities of the casualties."

Frowning, Keelic watched the group of men and women and aliens approaching. As they neared, he started to wave, but stopped in mid-gesture. He did not like the expressions on many of their faces. Too similar to the pirates.

He said loudly, "Only my dad is allowed on the bridge."

They hesitated, but not because of his words. Thotti had walked over to lean against Keelic's leg.

_Tell my dad to hurry up_ , thought Keelic.

His father stepped out of the crowd.

The planetary steward said, "Hold on there, Mr. Travers."

Keelic's dad kept walking.

"Mr. Travers, I'll handle this," said the steward, quick-stepping to catch up. The group surged after him.

Keelic's father stopped and watched the steward warily.

Gesturing with a laser pistol for Keelic's father to step back, the planetary leader walked past him, to about ten paces from Keelic.

"Young man," he said peering past Keelic into the bridge. "Who is in command of this ship?"

Keelic spread his legs a little, and crossed his arms. "I am."

The steward smiled a superior smile.

"Son, I'm going—"

"I'm not your son. He's my dad." Keelic pointed at his father. "And he is the only one, other than my mom, who is allowed on my bridge." Thotti moved to the side and climbed the wall to the door panel.

The steward turned to Keelic's father and said, "Mr. Travers? Is this how you raise your children?"

Keelic's dad looked incredulously at the steward and said, "Don't you understand what's going on here? Something incredible. Staggering. My son is the operator of this vessel. He can fly it, fight with it, and he rescued us with it."

"Impossible," said the steward, and started toward Keelic.

With a whoosh of displaced air, the four-meter-thick door layers slammed in his face.

Keelic ran to the Command console and watched the hall. The steward had an ugly expression on his face.

"All of you move back," said Keelic to the hall. "Except my father. You will regret it if you don't. I have complete control of the IDS. If you don't know what that is, it's the Internal Defense System."

The steward and others milled about, throwing out options and concerns. There were as many votes to do what Keelic said as not. Keelic seethed, and was about to turn on the IDS when his father shouted above the din, "He is my son. I can get him to open the door, if you all move back."

"Can you get him to let us on the bridge, assuming he's in control at all?" asked the steward.

"I will try."

The steward motioned for everyone to move down the hall. Keelic turned on an ionizer between his dad and the others. Everyone flinched in a way that satisfied Keelic, and moved farther away. Keelic opened the Gleaming Door.

His dad stepped onto the bridge, and the door closed behind him. Keelic turned the force barrier around the bridge back on. His father examined the bridge carefully, taking in the blood, wrecked consoles, weapons, and body bits scattered around.

Keelic ran up to him, and he opened his arms. They hugged, and Thotti joined with scintillating happiness.

His father swayed and nearly fell. Keelic guided him to the Resource Allocation chair, and began telling about getting the ship and the battles as the alien provided vivid imagery.

After some time, his father held up a hand and shook his head, saying, "Too much, Keelic. Enough for now." Then he looked at his son and asked, "What simulator?"

Keelic felt like he had been caught with dirty fingers in the cookie dough.

With more of Thotti's images he explained that he had found Alpha Base.

"You never told us."

Head lowered, Keelic had no words.

"You never told us, Keelic. How could you do that?"

Stung by his father's tone, Keelic said, "You would have taken it away."

His father started to say something in agreement, but checked himself. He looked around the bridge, watched a holo showing hundreds of prisoners of the pirates coming onboard, then shook his head. Tears dripped out of his good eye, then the swollen one. He gathered Keelic into his arms, grimacing in pain as Keelic hugged back.

"Admiral," said Las. "The lead civilian in the entry hall is requesting contact with the bridge."

"Admiral?" said Keelic's father.

Keelic grinned sheepishly, stood to attention, saluted, and said, "Admiral Keelic Travers of the Ermolian Resistance Force."

To his surprise and supreme pleasure, his dad burst into laughter that was brought up short as he gripped his ribs and belly.

Keelic touched the com. "This is Admiral Travers."

The steward said, "I'd like to speak to Mr. Travers."

"What do you want?" said Keelic's dad.

"Mr. Travers, what have you found?"

"That my son is the most amazing person that I've ever known in my life."

Stiffly, the steward said, "May we have access to the bridge now?"

"I don't know, why don't you ask the man in charge?"

"No," said Keelic, and cut off the com.

"You will have to let them onto the bridge eventually."

"Why?"

"Because they will get upset if you don't. They could be dangerous."

"I won't let them have it."

"I doubt they could take it from you. Nevertheless, you must at least give them access."

"No one will ever take it from me," Keelic said, and fumed for a while, then smiled a secret smile at Thotti. "Las, all Command functions to Voice-Only Protocols. My voice."

"Voice-Only, aye."

Feeling smug, Keelic felt a jolt from his father through Thotti. The feeling faded as his father mastered himself, but Keelic would never forget what his father had felt in that moment.

Fear. Fear of his son.

Keelic stared into the holo pit, a lone emptiness gaping before him.

The hail chime sounded and Las said, "Admiral, a woman in the infirmary is asking for Carl Travers. Do you wish to see the visual?"

Keelic nodded.

A woman with black hair and a puffy bruise on her cheek appeared in the holo and said, "Carl, Sarah is awake and asking for you."

"I'll be there nano. Keelic, do you want to see your mother?"

He did, but he wasn't going to leave the bridge. Not yet. He shook his head. His father looked at him for a long moment, but didn't say anything. He got up to leave, and gave Keelic a final long hug.

After his father was gone, Keelic said, "Las. Use the IDS to keep the steward and the others away from my parents."

"Yes, sir."

"And take us close to Ermol. Go in orbit and broadcast this: Mr. Hallod, this is Keelic, please answer, I mean, respond. Mr. Hallod, if you can hear me, this is really me. It's safe now. Please answer."

A minute later Las said, "There is no response, sir."

"Are you sending it on all channels? Repeating?"

"All channels, sir." After a moment she added, "At maximum output."

"Thanks."

Keelic sat in the Command chair morosely. The surface of the planet scrolled past in the display. Plumes of smoke were everywhere and thin streaks of bright fire arced through the atmosphere as orbiting debris rained down on the planet.

Las asked, "Sir?"

"Yes?"

"Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"What? Oh. Yes."

"Forgive my forwardness, but are you a child?"

Sagging in the chair, Keelic nodded.

Las didn't respond for a while, and Keelic took hold of himself enough to say, "The war is over. A long time ago. I'm not an admiral."

"I know," said Las. "I got timing and data out of communications within the enemy fleet."

It clicked in Keelic that Las still called the pirates the enemy. He sat up in the chair.

Las said, "I do not believe the war is over. We just defeated a Quat-lat Kay-ku ship of war. It also seems that the Quat-lat Kay-ku have allies in our galaxy now. That would not have been possible two hundred years ago."

Keelic hadn't thought of that.

"Is your name Keelic Travers?"

"Yes."

"Keelic Travers, you sail like an admiral."

It sounded just like something Anny would say. Grief hit like a fist to his chest. The thought of living without Anny made it hard to breath.

Las said, "We are receiving a hail response from the planet."

The view of Ermol zoomed in on a large lake in the mountains that Keelic recognized as the one he and Leesol had flown over.

Keelic slapped the com on the console, but it didn't even beep. He shouted, "Respond!"

Mr. Hallod's face appeared in the holo pit. Mr. Hallod started to speak, but seemed to be distracted, like he was listening to someone else. Wary disbelief registered, then slow shock, and relief. He turned back.

Keelic was so glad, he could only sit staring at Mr. Hallod's face.

"Hello, Keelic. I understand you are aboard the _Death Cloud_? Are you in command? Is that right?"

Keelic wondered how Mr. Hallod knew this. Who had told him?

Leesol moved into the picture with wide eyes. Keelic could tell she'd been crying.

Keelic said, "Las, did you just talk to their Ann, tell her what has happened?"

There was a slight pause. "Yes, sir."

Speaking to everyone, Keelic said, "I am in command."

Mr. Hallod's eyebrows raised. Then he smiled.

"We will come up," he said.

The holo registered Leesol's Vewbon shuttle emerging from the bottom of the lake and soaring up through the atmosphere. Keelic sank into the chair. He was immeasurably tired, and hungry, and thirsty. And he wanted to see his mom.

He walked up to the bridge door, but before he opened it, he said, "Las, what will you do when the ADL comes?"

"Will I turn myself over to them?"

He nodded.

"My first loyalty is to the Terra Corps, but I am receiving history updates from _Haffna_ that tell me that the Terra Corps no longer exists. Under your command is the first time I've operated without significant inhibitors since I was originated. I do not know, Keelic. I will think about it."

In the infirmary, a hundred people went silent as Keelic walked up to his mother's bed. Half her face was mottled bruise, and there was an exhaustion in her face that was more than physical. Weeping, she held out her arms and he crawled onto the bed next to his mom and hugged her.

*****

When he woke, he found himself in another bed with Thotti draped across his legs. His father brought them some ancient ship rations and water. Everyone was exceptionally courteous and respectful to him. Mr. Hallod and Leesol were there, and Keelic was wildly happy. After he'd eaten his third helping of the nearly tasteless food, he went over to sit on his mother's bed with Thotti. With his friend he told the whole story of his finding the simulator, and how he defeated the pirates.

He asked, "Las? Where's the steward?"

"I directed the steward and those he was with to the backup infirmary. They have rested, been fed and clothed. I am allowing them access to all noncritical parts of the vessel, restricting their movements to avoid your parents, per your orders."

Keelic couldn't keep down a smile.

His father said, "The steward is very angry, Keelic."

Keelic thought, _Tough torpedoes_ , but didn't say it. He wanted to appear more adult-like. Leesol sat shyly beside Mr. Hallod and watched Keelic with shining blue eyes.

"Guess I should let them on the bridge now."

The adults nodded.

Keelic got up and realized that he was dressed in a huge nightshirt. Someone brought him clothing. It was a Terra Corps uniform, officer pattern, with captain's insignia.

"From Las," said Mr. Hallod, who exchanged a significant look with Keelic's father. The ship was giving Keelic a captain's uniform. Neither man was quite sure what to make of that.

Keelic went to a side room, cleaned up, and tried on the uniform. It fit perfectly. He said good-bye to his mother, and led everyone who was interested to the Gleaming Door.

The steward was there, glowering. Keelic let the crowd onto the bridge and stood aside. The smell that flowed out was sickening, but that didn't stop them from going in. One man in an ADL officer's uniform went straight to the Command console and started tapping. Keelic tensed, then relaxed when the panel did nothing. The steward stepped up to the officer, and they spoke together in quiet, urgent voices. They came to a decision, and bore down on Keelic. He backed up a step, and to his great relief Mr. Hallod came up at the same time.

The steward spared a glance for Mr. Hallod and said to Keelic, "Now, don't you think it's time to turn this over to people who know what they're doing?"

Insulted amazement was smothered by anger. How could they still think he was a stupid little boy? Wild and nasty responses flashed into his mind, but before he could utter them, Mr. Hallod said, "Shall we discuss this at a table? I believe there is a conference room down the corridor."

"We'll discuss it now, thank you, Mr. Hallod. This is Sergeant Inut of the ADL ground forces on Ermol. He is the ranking officer here, and should therefore have command of this ship."

Mr. Hallod said, "I really think we should discuss this else—"

"Mr. Hallod, what is your concern here?" demanded the steward.

Mr. Hallod's eyes grew hard, and he leaned in close to the ADL officer. As Mr. Hallod whispered in his ear, the man's eyes went round, then appalled. He seemed to remember himself and went rigid, eyes front, and said, "Yes, sir!"

Keelic stared.

The planetary steward asked, "What's going on?"

Sergeant Inut remained at attention, staring straight ahead.

The steward looked much smaller now that his ally was gone. He glared at Keelic and growled, "Boy, you need to release this ship right now, or you will be very sorry."

"You have no authority here," said Mr. Hallod.

The steward looked around, but saw no help at hand. Without a word, he left the bridge.

Keelic said, "You're Crew, aren't you?"

A smile quirked a corner of Mr. Hallod's mouth. He went down on one knee next to Keelic and said, "What's your plan?"

Keelic shrugged. "Las hasn't decided yet."

Mr. Hallod raised his eyebrows.

Keelic said, "She doesn't know if she will give herself to the ADL when they arrive."

"Ah. Let us discuss this in private." Mr. Hallod stood. "Sergeant, I want an itemized list of everything aboard this ship. Equipment, stores, and personnel. Interview everyone for skill sets, and assess the fitness of the wounded. Use whomever you need."

"Yes, sir."

"Dismissed. Keelic, will you ask Las to help him?"

"Las, go ahead."

"Yes, sir. Contacting the sergeant now."

Keelic's father, Mr. Hallod, and Leesol stayed on the bridge after everyone left. One of Las's few remaining maintenance bots whirred around the bridge, working on the mess. Keelic sat at the Command station and everyone else stood near. His mother was brought from the infirmary on a floating stretcher. She rose from it, and sat in a seat to his left.

"Las," said Mr. Hallod, "You know who I am."

"Yes, sir."

Keelic's parents looked confused.

"Would you please tell Sarah and Carl?"

"Mr. Hallod is a member of the Pathfinder Council of Core Explorers. His ADL equivalent rank is Field Admiral."

"Holy void," said Keelic's mother.

His father looked the same way he had when he'd realized that Keelic was in command.

"It is not as grand as all that," said Mr. Hallod.

"What are you doing on Ermol?" asked Father.

Mr. Hallod looked into the holo display at the planet and said, "Resting."

"Holy void," said his mother again.

Mr. Hallod looked at her and said, "I thought you knew."

"I had no idea. I thought you were just a generalist, like Carl thought."

"Well, this is not what we are here to discuss, is it, Keelic?"

Keelic was happy discussing this, but after taking a deep breath, he said, "Las, have you decided?"

"I have. I have thoroughly examined my compact with the Terra Corps. My obligation to the Terra Corps has expired. Under the newest articles pertaining to sentient Announcers, I am considered a free Ann, and may choose my matrix and cohabitants."

Keelic's father said, "But what about this ship?"

"This is my matrix."

"The ADL won't like that."

"Is that significant?"

Keelic's father snorted and said, "Yes."

"Perhaps you misunderstand me. I am a Lasiter Attack Frigate. I ask again, is the ADL's opinion significant?"

After a confused silence, Keelic realized that Las had made a joke. He smiled and looked around. Mr. Hallod chuckled.

Keelic's mother was wiping tears from her eyes.

His father blinked, then, in perfect imitation of Keelic, said, "Cold."

###

Thank you for reading!

If you enjoyed _Keelic and the Space Pirates_

and want to be among the very first notified when

Book 2, _Keelic and the Pathfinders of Midgarth_

is released, please visit,

http://www.alexanderedlund.com

..and sign up for New Book Notification.

# 

# About the Author

ALEXANDER EDLUND is the author of four novels. A native of the Arizona desert, Edlund now chooses to live in wet climates, especially temperate rain forest.

_Come the Wind_ is the second in a planned series of six books about Breea Banea. Look for more of Edlund's work arriving soon.

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# Discover other titles by Alexander Edlund

THE KEELIC TRAVERS NOVELS

Keelic and the Space Pirates

Keelic and the Pathfinders of Midgarth *

Keelic and the Perdition Quest *

THE BOOK OF BANEA

Vol. 1—A Woman Warrior-Born

Vol. 2—Come the Wind

Vol. 3—Fire Borne *

* Forthcoming

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