"We haven't heard from Earth in twenty years!" Justin said, instantly ashamed of the mockery that had crept into his voice.

"Not a thing," Carlos agreed soberly. "And that means something different to every one of us. But back during the Grendel Wars, all that mattered was that we couldn't go home, and we couldn't win. We were all going to die, and there would be no one to bury our bones. We wanted to die here, to be a part of the soil-" He laughed coarsely. "But not as grendel shit. Anyway-at the meeting tonight, please understand why we are the way we are. If we are too protective of you, it's because you are all we have."

Justin nodded. "All right, amigo-but just remember-you can't keep making our decisions for us. And the more afraid you are, the more you had better let us grow up."

"I do remember being your age, Justin. So cocky. So... invulnerable. That was before Bobbie died, and there was nothing I could do to save her." He tilted his head to stare at the floor. "And you know? There was a moment there where I tasted my own death so clearly, when it was so... real, that I would have given up anything." He paused. "Even Bobbie. For another few moments of life."

Carlos took another drink. Justin caught the odor of fermentation from the thermos. "You never see yourself the same way again, amigo. You never quite get it back."

He grinned crookedly, mocking the pain in his own voice. "You're all we have left, Justin," he murmured. "And just maybe all that there is." As if aware that he had almost crossed some invisible line, he stood. "Back to work," he said brusquely.

Justin hiked a thumb at the globe. "Looking good," he tossed over his shoulder on his way to the door. He let it slam behind him.

The first comm shack had been a frail thing, tin and wood, but that was before the Grendel Wars. Now the colony's communications and computers were housed in a fortress, stone and concrete walls, massive doors, small windows. Above each door was a small room filled with boulders and rubble poised to fall on any potential invader.

The Merry Pranksters had once filled one of those chambers with wet cotton. They'd watched through videocameras as Joe and Edgar Sikes walked into the trap. The momentary shock and horror, then the laughter, man and boy waist deep in wet cotton, throwing gobs of it at each other... but Zack and the other Earth Born hadn't been amused. The repercussions hadn't died out for months, and now entrance to Comm Control was monitored by TV cameras and recorded by Cassandra, and you couldn't get in unless the duty watch people let you.

The communications building controlled all contact with the Orion spacecraft Geographic still in orbit above, the branch settlements around the island, and the automated mining apparatus on the mainland. The main communications board was also the colony's defense center, manned constantly as a human backup for the main computer defense systems. None of that had been needed for twenty years.

Rules, Justin thought as he buzzed the interior. They set up their rules. Fine for them, but now we have to take turns standing watch with the First. It wasn't hard duty, and privately Justin appreciated the enforced reading and study time that Comm Watch provided, but it was another point of contention between Star Born and Earth Born.

Edgar Sikes opened the door.

"Ho. Edgar, I need a favor. I have to talk to my dad."

Edgar didn't seem surprised. "No can do. Cadmann's down south, and that's as much of an address as he left us."

Edgar was eighteen, pudgy, and brighter than hell. A childhood back injury had kept him from early participation in sports, and he had the reputation of being more interested in computers than people, someone worth knowing if you needed information, but never the first to be invited to parties. He was slightly younger than Justin. They had never been particularly close, but now Edgar's father Joe was married to Justin's stepsister Linda. Justin wasn't sure what relationship that created between him and Edgar. Close enough that he could ask Edgar for a favor. "Let's talk about it."

Edgar shrugged and stood aside.

"Greetings, Justin-san."

It wasn't surprising to find Toshiro Tanaka in the Comm Center. Toshiro didn't sleep, at least not until nearly dawn and then not for long. He took advantage of that: other Star Born could get Toshiro to cover their shift at the center. Toshiro was going to sit alone and read or play computer games all night anyway, and by taking someone's shift he built up obligations. Like Carlos, Toshiro never wanted for coffee or tea.

"Greetings, Toshiro-san." Justin suppressed a grin. He wasn't completely sure how to take this new kick Toshiro was on. Toshiro was always polite, always smiled, but Justin had read about the manners of the Tokagawa culture Toshiro seemed to be fascinated with. They always smiled, even when they were about to chop your liver out. "You've told them about the eel, then? Joe, he told you?"

"A little," Joe said. "You saw it too. Tell us."

Joe was sprawled in a massive sculpture, a chair and footstool Carlos had carved from the hard, dense, twisted grain of a horsemane root system. Carlos had installed it for his own watch. Butts and boots and elbows had polished and scarred it, but Justin believed it would last as long as Avalon.

Joe Sikes was graying, slope-shouldered and a little paunchy despite his best intentions. He was one of the three heroes of the Grendel Wars, holding a place just below Carlos and not far below Cadmann Weyland himself. Justin's generation believed as an article of faith that all First had ice on their minds, but it wasn't easy to see what disability that gave Joe Sikes. The self-doubts characteristic of the First bothered him less than anyone except Cadmann. Sikes always seemed to be working on something. He was strong on industrial development, which included maintaining and establishing the mines on the mainland, and Justin had always found him easy to talk to.

That changed, sort of, when it became clear that Sikes and Linda were much more than casually involved. Justin had never been able to justify his feeling of resentment, other than feeling that Joe was too damn old for her. And he was First, the damaged generation.

"Five meters of fun," Justin said. "Zack just about had kittens. ‘Kill it! Kill it! You have your orders, you know the rules, kill it!' "

"Glad you didn't," Edgar said. He tapped computer keys, and the image of Big Mama Eel rippled across the computer screen. "Looks harmless enough. Maybe we'll learn something."

Joe Sikes grunted agreement. "Yeah, but we still got problems from the mainland. Give Zack too much to think about, we'll overload the system."

"No possible relationship," Edgar said. He jerked a thumb at the screen where the eel swam steadily around and around in the tank. "No way that's going to explode."

Say what? Justin said, "Explode?"

"Well, I agree again," Joe said. "But Zack may not. Justin, you're gonna love this."

"Yes," Toshiro said. "Most serious. Baffling."

"What in the world are you talking about?" Justin asked.

"Linda's working the new stuff up in the waldo room, let her tell you," Joe Sikes said. "We've had little problems at the mining site before. This is a big one, but maybe it's just more of the same."

"Which will do well enough," Toshiro said.

"You sound worried."

Toshiro shrugged. "Concerned. A setback."

"Hell, you're not going to live long enough to go back to Japan no matter what happens," Justin said. "So you can stop worrying."

Toshiro smiled politely.

"Well, it's true," Justin said. "Coming back with me?"

"Thank you, I am on duty here," Toshiro said.

Justin nodded and crossed the large central control room toward the green door at its far end.