Martin gestured to Eye on Sky and they left the noach chamber to find a private place to talk. Martin asked Paola to join them.

"We we are told by Stonemaker, high likelihood Hans chose Rex to become loose cord, outsider," Eye on Sky said. "Stone-maker and others, we they do not conceive to be experts on human behavior."

"The Brothers don't think they're experts on human behavior," Paola interpreted.

"Got that," Martin said.

"But there is a deviosity, a curliness—" Eye on Sky continued.

"Perversity," Paola suggested.

Don't make it worse, Martin did not say, cringing inwardly.

"There is character that makes humans avoid the obvious, and take the twisty tunnel to a goal, rather than the straight tunnel."

Martin nodded, reserving comment until Eye on Sky had had his say.

"Hans achieves something by making Rex an outside cord, for Rex is punished by Hans, Hans does not take blame for Rex's actions, Rex feels strong kin for Hans, Hans keeps a secret braid-cord—"

"Wait a minute," Martin said, turning to Paola. She, too, had difficulty with the lengthy statement. "I think he's saying, Rex was deliberately alienated by Hans, to make him appear to be an outsider, not in favor with Hans."

"That is so," Eye on Sky said. "This is difficult for we us to track, must follow we our own curled tunnel to know. Humans afraid of their own kind. Of female Rosa. She was maker of large fictions, which make you dream."

Paola started to interpret, but Martin raised his hand; This much was clear.

"Hans wanted female Rosa dead," Eye on Sky said.

Paola wrinkled her face and looked away.

"Rex is weapon for Hans," Eye on Sky concluded.

Martin couldn't fault the logic. What Hans said: necessities.

"We're our own enemies," Paola said. "Like the Red Tree Runners."

"Brothers don't have anything like this in their society?" Martin asked.

"Oh yes, larger we do."

"What?" Martin asked.

"Wars between cords," Eye on Sky said. "Times when braids unwind, and cords kill each other. Not control these times, or know when. We we must shun the curled path and those who take it, for we they bring on own unwinding, own cord wars."

"You think we're going to break down, as a society," Paola said.

"Not known," Eye on Sky said. "But if larger we stays with you, fear of catching, fear of influence."

"You think we'll… make you ill?" Paola asked.

"Break us down."

Martin's stomach contracted. He tightened his fingers on the ladder field.

"We have to work together," he said. "Whatever the risks. We still have the same goals."

"This not yet decided. Separate ships, working together—that is decided, for now. Working apart may be decided later."

Division of the crews had not yet taken place-on Trojan Horse.

Eye on Sky, Martin, the mom, and the snake mother curled in the dark and watched the methodic replay of information from Sleep. Martin's eyelids drooped with weariness, overloaded again with the wonders of what these artificial beings had made, or inherited, or both.

Hans had not spoken with Martin for seven hours. Stonemaker and Eye on Sky had conferred several times. Martin hoped this meant Hans was seriously reviewing the data.

Ariel and Erin entered the cabin and positioned themselves on each side of Martin, who reached out and squeezed their hands, then resumed watching.

In groups or alone in their cabins, Brothers and humans studied the information. "It's staggering," Erin said. The life-cycles of two related species passed before them; eggs carefully deposited in the deep waters of Sleep, hatchlings rising to the surface like jellyfish to be harvested by fisher parents, who injected capsules of their genetic material; the injected hatchlings forming eggs again, being deposited in green and purple forests on the third planet, hatching again to become lake- and stream-dwellers, finally joining in villages, and the villages themselves maturing, changing social structure, until they were ready to be "harvested" and trained into adult societies…

There was much more information on the staircase gods within Sleep. This appeared to be incomplete, however; where and how they obtained their energy was not clear.

"Jennifer thinks they could shift neutronium to quark matter at the core," Ariel said. "We were just in her cabin. She's going to make herself sick if she doesn't get some rest."

The Double Seedstill adapted as the ships' minds updated each other hour by hour. The mom and snake mother kept Martin and Eye on Sky informed as major changes were made, but explanations were kept simple. Logistics, not theory, were paramount now. Jennifer could not stand ignorance; she engaged in momerath continuously.

"They're pleading with us to understand them, appreciate them," Ariel said, pulling herself out of the maze of Leviathan's fecundity.

"They're desperately afraid," Erin said. She had changed in the past few days; intense green eyes duller, hair matted, face more slack. It takes life out of all of us. "But they're so enormously powerful…" she added.

Ariel cocked an eyebrow. "A few savages invade your house. There might be thousands of them outside, in the dark. They're smart, and they've seen what your technology is like… They're making new weapons. Would you be afraid?" she asked.

"They could squash us like bugs," Erin said, curling her lip.

"Then why bother convincing us? Why not squash us now?"

"Maybe they value us. Maybe they've renounced their past so totally—"

"They had nothing to do with the past!"

Martin closed his eyes. "Please, that's enough," he said. He turned to the mom. "We have to resolve some things. We need advice from you."

"Advice about what?"

"What to do," Martin said, simply enough. "I'm snowed. I can't see anything clearly now. Can you?"

"I ask again, what sort of advice are you seeking?"

"Are all these creatures innocent, or guilty?" Martin asked.

"They say they were created by the Killers. We can't confirm or deny this," the mom answered. Martin's stomach contracted again; he had not eaten since speaking with Hans.

"You wonder if the Killers are still here," the mom said, "and whether there is a way to seek them out, and punish only them."

"Right."

"We have no more information than you," the mom said.

Eye on Sky listened quietly, and when the conversation halted, interjected, "Snake mother and ships' minds agree. The evidence for presence of Killers is lacking."

"They could have changed themselves… even destroyed their memories, their histories, to escape punishment," Martin said.

"That is possible," the mom agreed.

"Do you think it's probable?"

"I can't answer that."

"But if we make the wrong decision, and kill… them, all of them, or some of them, we're criminal, aren't we? Won't we violate the Law?"

"The Law is simple," the mom said. "Interpretation is not so simple."

" 'Destruction of all intelligences responsible for or associated with the manufacture of self-replicating and destructive devices,' " Martin quoted.

"That is the Law," the mom said. It floated in the dark cabin, projected data glittering in reflection on its coppery surface.