Oscar bit back any immediate comment and told the smartcore to take them back through the hole Liatris had created in the dome above. “We could make one flyover,” he said.

“They could have teleported him to any compartment on the Spike by now,” Beckia said sadly. “Or even into a starship. He could already be FTL.”

“No, he’s not,” Oscar said, reviewing the sensor records as they passed through the minihurricane surrounding the hole and emerged back into space. “Nothing’s gone FTL in the last ten minutes.”

“Oscar, drop it,” Tomansio said. “He’s gone, and hopefully he took a whole bunch of the Chikoya bastards with him. When we get back to Far Away, you’re welcome to attend the ceremony of renewal. We’ll grow him a new body and download his secure memory store into it. He’ll spend the whole evening teasing you about worrying.”

Oscar wanted to hit something. “All right.” But I know something is wrong. He concentrated on the starship’s sensors. The Mellanie’s Redemption had left its landing pad at the same time as the Elvin’s Payback. Now it was holding station five thousand kilometers on the Spike’s dark side. He told the smartcore to rendezvous with it.

“Troblum, we’re safe now.”

“Good,” the armored figure said.

“You can take your helmet off.”

There was a long pause while the big figure did nothing. Then horizontal lines of malmetal on the helmet flowed apart, leaving three segments on each side. They swung open.

Oscar tried to be neutral. Troblum’s face was fat and heavy, his skin an unhealthy pallor and dribbling with sweat. Patchy stubble coated his cheeks and chins. “Hello,” he said sheepishly to his audience. He couldn’t meet anyone’s gaze.

“Thank you for offering your help,” Inigo said. “We appreciate it.”

Troblum gave a rough nod but didn’t say anything.

Oscar didn’t like the idea of relying on him one bit; there didn’t seem to be any empathy. Troblum was not a likable person, and he’d decided that from just the half dozen sentences the man had spoken. Not that there was anything they could do about it. I’m committed. Again. Let’s hope I don’t have to die this time.

“So how did the Chikoya find you?” Liatris asked Inigo.

“Plenty of people in Octoron would know where Ozzie lives,” Aaron said. “I’m surprised it took them this long, actually.”

“I’m just glad you arrived before they did,” Corrie-Lyn said. She was still trembling, even though she’d gotten a chair to extend and was sitting all hunched up. “We wouldn’t have stood a chance otherwise.”

“Don’t be so sure,” Beckia said. “Whatever that Myraian had was more than they could deal with.”

“Is she a Silfen?” Tomansio asked.

“No,” Araminta-two said. “I would have known that. She was human.”

“I think ‘was’ is right,” Oscar said. “She’s not postphysical, but she’s certainly more than Higher.”

“Speaking of not being physical,” Aaron said. “Ozzie?”

“Lady alone knows,” Inigo said. “My physics is centuries out of date, but whatever he did was seriously advanced.”

“He transmuted his quantum state,” Troblum said. “Somehow he went outside spacetime.”

“Personal FTL?” Corrie-Lyn asked incredulously.

“Probably not. You have to time-phase to do that.”

“So is he postphysical?” Oscar asked.

“I’d say not in the classical sense, but I don’t have any empirical evidence,” Inigo said. “Normally, postphysicals don’t hang around afterward. And he was dedicated to helping the human race in many ways. I know; we discussed it at length.”

“Certainly did,” Aaron murmured.

The Elvin’s Payback drew alongside Mellanie’s Redemption. The two starships maneuvered for a few seconds before their airlocks touched and sealed. Troblum was the first through, moving surprisingly quickly. The others let him go without comment, though Oscar knew they were all a little perplexed by the enigmatic Higher.

He followed Troblum through the airlocks, emerging into a cabin that was almost the same size as the one he’d just left. A very attractive girl was waiting there, dressed in old-fashioned clothes; her hands pressed anxiously against the chest of Troblum’s armor as she asked if he was all right. Oscar frowned at the sight; there’d been no mention of a companion. And with the best will in the universe, he couldn’t imagine a girl like that partnered with Troblum. Perhaps she was his daughter. But there’d been no reference to a family in his file.

The others were crowding into the cabin; they all shared an identical mildly surprised expression as they saw the girl. Gaiamote emissions were hurriedly reduced.

“This is Catriona,” Troblum mumbled.

“Hello.” She smiled shyly.

Oscar saw Tomansio staring at an electronic device on the cabin’s lone extended table. It looked vaguely familiar. Secondary routines ran a comparison search through his storage lacunae. “Oh,” he said softly. His retinas switched to infrared, which confirmed it. Catriona was a solido projection.

Then a trolleybot glided in carrying a medical chamber, and everyone was suddenly busy making room. The next trolleybot appeared, and Oscar started to think some of them were going to have to go into suspension before they reached the Void. And given that I’m just about redundant now …

Troblum opened a low hatch into a companionway. “We can stack some of the medical chambers here.”

“Is this all the space there is?” Inigo asked dubiously.

“Once the planetary FTL has launched, we can use the forward cargo hold. Until then, we’ll just have to squeeze in.”

The medical chambers kept coming. Two were fitted into the narrow companionway. Troblum got the cabin bulkhead to extrude thin shelves. There was just enough height for the big dark sarcophagi to be stacked three high. That left everyone else with standing room only and pressed uncomfortably close.

“I’ll join you later,” Catriona said, and faded away. Troblum pretended not to notice. His armor suit opened up, and he stowed it in a broad luggage cylinder that telescoped up out of the decking. The toga suit he wore was about the shabbiest Oscar had ever seen.

“Are there any sleep cubicles?” Beckia asked.

“Three,” Troblum told her.

“One for me,” she said quickly. Corrie-Lyn claimed the second. Somehow no one asked to use Troblum’s personal cubicle.

It was still cramped in the cabin as the last medical capsule was secured and the airlock flowed shut.

“So how does this work?” Tomansio asked.

“We need an uninhabited star system,” Troblum explained. “Also, the radiation from a nova can sterilize neighboring star systems. So we really need a star that’s fifteen light-years away from any H-congruous planet to be safe. There are three candidates within fifty light-years, an hour’s flight time.”

“Closest one, then,” Inigo said.

“That’s the one farthest from the Void.”

“Oh. Well, how far to-” He stopped in surprise.

Oscar was suddenly aware of a personal gaiafield emission. The emotional content alone was enough for him to identify Cheriton. A sensation of panicky urgency made his heart flutter in sympathy. The emission strengthened into a gifting.

“Hello,” Cheriton’s thoughts said softly. The need for reassurance was overwhelming.

Inigo and Araminta-two exchanged a meaningful look. “We’re here,” their minds chorused.

“No!” Aaron yelled. He raised his fists in silent exasperation and glared at the two Dreamers.

The gifting had no sight or sound or scent, just Cheriton’s small befuddled thoughts. He was alone, unable to sense anything from his body. Only training and excellent self-control were keeping the fear at bay.

“Ah,” another mind spoke with unnerving serenity. “I hadn’t thought of a gaiafield connection. I see you have an unusual number of gaiamotes, with some interesting little tweaks to their structure.”