He hit the transmitter, his voice breaking as he squawked, “Rlinda, it’s me! Are you there?” He waited a second — it seemed like a year — then repeated his message. “I found your ship, but where are you?”

Unexpectedly, a warm voice came over the comm speaker. “BeBob, it’s me. Don’t worry.” Before he could respond, Rlinda added, “Well, you can worry a little bit, but I think we’ll be okay. if you don’t wait too damn long. The bugs aren’t interested in us. Not at the moment, anyway.”

He was so shocked and thrilled that he nearly sent the ship into a spin as he fumbled with the comm controls. “I’m coming! Doesn’t look too good down there. Where in the world am I supposed to land? How do I find you?”

“Are you saying you won’t be able to tell me apart from a million giant cockroaches? Thanks a lot.” She spoke to someone else with her, then answered, “We’re inside theCuriosity. but as you can probably see, my ship’s not going anywhere. Land nearby.”

He wondered if this could be some kind of trick, if the Klikiss had managed to imitate Rlinda’s voice, but he doubted such creatures could have mimicked her personality so well. He altered course, descended to the wrecked vessel. “Who’s ‘we?’ You got company?” Maybe she had found Davlin after all!

“Margaret Colicos. She’s coming with us.”

Orli and Steinman had told him that the long-lost xeno-archaeologist was still trapped among the Klikiss. “I’ll try to land without squashing too many bugs.”

“Don’t worry, the breedex has plenty more where they came from, and right now the bugs are preoccupied with their superfissioning, or whatever they call it. But I’d sure appreciate getting the hell out of here.”

As soon as theFaith ’s shadow fell over them, the gathered insects shuffled aside, clearing enough room for him to set the ship down with a hard thump, kicking up dust and powdery stones. Not his best landing, but he doubted Rlinda would scold him for being sloppy.

TheCuriosity ’s hatch glided open, and Rlinda emerged with another woman. They both looked dusty and sweaty, but apparently unharmed. They pushed their way through the monstrous ranks of secreters, diggers, warriors, and scouts, dodging toward theFaith. They were running. Maybe Rlinda wasn’t as confident as she’d sounded.

He opened the hatch and was almost overwhelmed by the smell of all the insects, but he shouted and waved. “Rlinda! Over here!” As if she didn’t know damned well where his ship was.

She pelted up to him and nearly bowled him over with a hug, driving him back into the ship. BeBob had known her for so long that he could see how deeply frightened she was. “Rlinda, what’s really going on? Did you find Davlin? How did you get Margaret free from those things?”

“The breedex is letting us go. No strings attached.” While he tried to process that, she continued in a rush. “The breedex isDavlin — at least in part. Davlin is controlling this hive. the whole damn race, in fact. Or he was.”

Looking agitated as well, Margaret Colicos boarded theBlind Faith just behind Rlinda. “The race is about to complete a massive new fissioning, pooling the genetic songs of all the diverse subhives. There will be One Breedex.” She looked devastated, as if only she understood what she was saying. “Until now, Davlin’s humanity kept a tenuous control over the Llaro subhive, but the domates are even now devouring representatives of all the defeated breedexes. It will be a massive, final fissioning, and after the other Klikiss attributes flood into the hive mind, Davlin is sure to be entirely subsumed.” She sealed the hatch. “We have to depart — now — before that happens.”

BeBob’s mind was already overloaded. “Is any of that supposed to make sense to me? You’ve both got a lot of explaining to do.”

“We’ll fill you in after we’re all flying away at top speed,” Rlinda said. She wasted no time in getting to the cockpit and firing up the engines. TheBlind Faith raced away, unnoticed by the swarming insect creatures.

99

General Conrad Brindle

As frantic emergency calls came from the lunar EDF base, the battleships patrolling Earth orbit rallied, while others launched from the Palace District spaceport.

From the bridge of his new flagship, theGoliath, General Conrad Brindle watched the ships move into position and prepare for a rapid response. “The Moon is under attack by the Ildiran Solar Navy,” he shouted into the comm, as if nothing else needed to be said. “I want our response fleet to launch pronto! Battle stations, emergency checklists — finish all the details en route.The Moon is under attack!”

It defied belief! He was glad to be in the middle of an EDF operation he could support, for a change. He was an EDF soldier to the very core, and alien invaders could not be allowed to strike human territory with impunity. He also recalled six Mantas from the fringes of the solar system, but it would take hours just for the signal to reach them.

After only ten minutes, all of his ships signaled that they were ready to depart, and he immediately gave the order to launch. Now that the black robots had placed so many EDF ships back into service, Conrad had a significant force. Even though every one of those vessels had passed the most thorough inspections, he was glad to be aboard a Juggernaut that had been repaired by humans.

Conrad still hadn’t quite grasped the fact that he was in command of the Earth Defense Forces. He and Natalie had retired, then during the hydrogue war they were both recalled to active duty as training officers, and now he found himself in the big chair. He followed orders, he did his duty. and his duty was to defend Earth — in spite of itself, if necessary.

“Power up weapons. All gunners to your stations. Make no mistake, we are going into battle.” His stomach felt leaden as he formulated his attack plan. He was still running the numbers of how many enemy ships he was due to face. From the initial reports, the Solar Navy had brought more than a thousand warliners. Even his partially restored EDF couldn’t possibly fight against that. Yet he would if he had to. He did not intend to let the Ildirans get away. For the honor of the Earth Defense Forces, he had to stop them.

By the time his ships had powered up, moved out in formation, and traversed the quarter million miles to the Moon, however, the Solar Navy had accomplished its mission. Adar Zan’nh had struck the lunar EDF base, seized all Ildiran captives, and scrambled away. Most of the Solar Navy raiders had already escaped.

As theGoliath and his clustered battleships closed the distance, Conrad watched the ornate warliners race off into space. Too late. He had never seen such a major operation move so quickly!

“Solar Navy, you are ordered to surrender!” Conrad’s words sounded hollow as he spoke them. Adar Zan’nh had no reason to listen to him. He turned to his gunners. “Fire at will. My intent is to disable, not destroy.”