He remembered. It had been a daring vision rejected by therest of Dushaun because so many Dushau would die Incomplete in any attempt to colonize. But he had known that in such a project—the welding of disparate species into a whole, the protecting of the helpless, the riding of the currents of evolution—lay his Completion. He had known that ever since the day he'd first met a living ephemeral.

Through the open linkages the thoughts and emotions of the others became his own. Venlagar and Llistyien at last confronted the possibility that Krinata really was Takora. Trinarvil puzzled over why, if one Dushau had become ephemeral, no others had ever been identified. Zannesu deplored his eagerness to offer his life, knowing it stemmed from the amputation of his mate but finding no surcease in that. And Krinata restrained her impulse to lead them into one more effort, as if she were Center.

Ill am Priest and given to the processes of Aliom. Dar, without benefit of priesthood, has seen what I could not. Paradoxical as it seems, / have no other way to Completion but to give my life to this deflection of the stream of history, as if I were Historian too.// The truth of what he'd just said burst upon him through a dam of resistance he hadn't known was there. He saw his own death and knew he had to surrender to it with no thought of surviving. Is this what Takora went through?

He saw a quizzical smile touch Krinata's lips, but she politely concealed her sharp white teeth. Suddenly she was no longer restraining herself from Center, for she knew he was committed now to the same course that she was.

//I am not Center anymore, zunre,// Jindigar told them. Ill can't lead in this, for I am too Active to see anything but my own point of view.//

Llistyien answered, //It's our point of view too. Very seldom has an Oliat been called to such a task, but it's not unprecedented. Jindigar, the Dushau species will die out if we stagnate on Dushaun.// She gestured at the new worldcircle. //With this the colony has a real chance. But if we can't accept that there is no Completion for us, that we're called to serve our species, then the colony will fail and there will be no Completion for anyone.//

Trinarvil agreed. //I have pursued the Healer's path to Completion: working at the performing and creative arts, learning all the cosmogonies, magicks, and sciences, and even doing the regimens of all the priesthoods, including, most recently, the Ambassadorial. I had no idea it would lead me to the Healing of a nine-species community. But there is one thing I have learned in Healing—it is not something that is done to you but something you do to yourself. I am of this community and of this world—and so I must do what is necessary to Hail.//

Krinata stated, as if she really understood, //It's up to Center to decide what's necessary. The Center's job is to guide the officers along Aliom toward Completion. And, Jindigar, whether you're still qualified or not, you're our Center—and you must decide; not us—not a vote—you. I'll abide by whatever you decide.//

//A promise, Krinata?//

She frowned. //No—a prediction.//

//And how would Takora decide?//

//That's not fair,// she objected.

Ill know.// Takora had once opted to take her Oliat with her to oblivion. Would she do it again?

Finally Krinata met his gaze. //Takora's had no vital objective worth seven lives to achieve. We do.//

She was right—a habit with her. And he had resolved to make the decisions a Center must. //You've all been lulled into a false sense of security by the dangers we have already survived. We're not talking about danger now, we're talking about certain death.//

A somber stillness settled over them all. They were unanimously willing. But it was his decision. He knew what he had! to do, but his worst regret was that by doing this he'd be violating his Priest's vow to Cyrus to return Krinata to him. It would be the first major breach in his integrity since his Inversion. What does it matter? I'm giving up Completion, anyway. But something in him stubbornly refused to believe that. If there's any path out of this, it lies straight ahead.

//We go into the field. On pensone. Trinarvil, will you get the vial?// He adjusted the linkages so Trinarvil wouldn't be bothered with multiawareness and announced, //Meanwhile we'll survey the situation. This Oliat will succeed before we die.// Why did I add that? My promises aren't worth anything anymore.

//Good,// agreed Krinata. Then she offered, //Besides, we have to get the whule back. Lelwatha would never forgive Jindigar if he lost it to someone who couldn't play it.//

Darllanyu asked, //Jindigar, is that why you like humans?//

//One of the important reasons, yes.//

A warmth suffused the linkages and made his Oliat whole, as if they had just met the real Krinata, the Krinata who had dragged him across the galaxy, saving his life time after time, refusing to give up no matter how hopeless it became. Suddenly it became very hard not to hope they would survive.

Refusing to let the feeling grow, he flung their awareness wide, encompassing the entire settlement. The colonists had worked in shifts to construct an assault on the hive's position. Now deep furrows were clearly visible in the ground, leading from the river to the ships—water channels that were almost ready to be flooded.

On the ground just beyond the new trenches an arrangement of large wooden shafts and levers was being raised upright. It was a catapult with a person-sized basket at the top of the throwing arm. A thick cable led from the basket off toward the south—to the power station at the waterfall. A Cassrian was strapped into the basket, both arms wrapped around his head as if the swaying of the basket made him ill. '• ,,

The area where the ships were parked was now encircled by a solid barrier of dirt and rocks compacted into the classic foundation for a hive-dome.

The Oliat could see why the hive had gravitated to the shipyard. By chance the ships had been parked around a central monster of an orbit-to-orbit vessel that had been floated down by tenders so it could be cannibalized for parts. It jutted above the large ships next to it, which in turn dwarfed the smaller ships around them, and the whole array formed a dome-shaped outline.

Not one ship was still spaceworthy, but in every one, the Natives who were not working on the hive-dome or digging the well in the middle of the dome area were building fires and preparing food they had brought with them.

At even intervals around the new dome foundation, clusters of hivebinders faced outward, vigilantly. The hive-mind behind them was shaky but recovered.

Zannesu interpreted his Reception. //They don't know what Terab is up to, but they understand that those trenches are meant to be a threat.//

//She'll have to break their foundation before she can get the water around the bases of the ships,// observed Jindigar, wondering how long the crude generator could electrify the ship's hulls—and how much real damage that might possibly do. They could only plant one cable at a time, and the Cassrian who rode the catapult with that cable would never return.

//Why such an elaborate scheme?// asked Darllanyu.

//It seems,// answered Jindigar., //that our ephemeral allies have finally discovered that attacking in force doesn't work on Phanphihy. They probably think the primitives won't understand what hit them.//

Terab, plastered with half-dried mud, came onto the field leading a party of burly Holot. They carried charges of chemical explosives in all four arms and walked on their hind legs, stepping carefully. A demolition crew.

The hive had not missed their approach. Below the rim of the foundation, warriors, unsure of what sort of attack they faced, crept bravely to the point targeted by Terab's party.