Before Titus reached the door to the observatory, H’lim cried out and backed away from Inea, the blanketing pall of his Influence fragmenting. Titus fetched up against the doorjamb and H’lim sank to the floor, doubled over.

Inea stood over him brandishing the silver cross, her lower lip caught between her teeth. Seeing Titus, she flung herself into his arms, sobbing. He whispered, “I have to Mark you. Inea, I have to!”

“Do it!” She huddled against his chest, trembling.

He raised his finger to her forehead and set his Mark, marveling at the tremendous wave of relief that washed through him with that act of possession. And in the next moment, he was ashamed of the feeling. To cover that, he demanded, “H’lim, what are you doing here?”

Gulping air, the luren rose and straightened his disposable suit. “You have taken the one I’ve chosen.” There was no hint of defiance in him, just confusion.

“There’s a complicated story behind that,” answered Titus. “You shouldn’t be here. If they catch you-”

“Could it possibly go worse for me?”

Inea stepped away to face H’lim. “You could have just asked me politely and I’d have shown you anything here.”

“I did not wish her to report to you,” he said locking gazes with Titus. “I Influenced only those you and Abbot used. Why is this one not held in abeyance, as Abbot does?”

“Abbot’s a goddamned Tourist, that’s why!”

Inea put a hand on Titus’s wrist. “Don’t swear. H’lim didn’t mean any harm.” She stood on tiptoe to reach his ear and, in a choked whisper, added, “Titus, he’s starving.”

Titus swallowed his incipient tirade and whispered back, “You may speak freely in front of H’lim, but only H’lim.”

H’lim blinked at Inea, astonished. Titus said, “Tell me what you wanted from Inea. I’ll dump the data into your personal files.”

“I want to see the stellar map you’ve constructed.”

“You know more of astrogation than you’ve let on.”

“No.” His gaze fastened on Inea, his hunger blunted but clear. “Why was she not Marked? Why isn’t she controlled?”

“I’m not controlled,” said Inea, “because Titus isn’t afraid of me. Abbot’s terrified of humans; Titus understands humans. Abbot knows only his own purposes; Titus knows others have the right to choose their own purposes too.”

“Inea’s not controlled,” said Titus, “because Inea keeps her word. You declined Abbot’s stringer, but now I find you at the woman who has, in fact, been supporting you and me. And you won’t even explain what you’re doing here.”

H’lim sagged, leaning on a console. He scrubbed at his face, and Titus could see the ends of his fingers quivering. “I thought this place would be deserted. I only wanted to see if you were really doing what you claimed, if you really were what you said you were. A vidcom image is not data. I had to verify what you gave me. Can’t you see that? Before I made them a message, I had to be sure!”

“Why would you doubt us?” asked Titus.

“They said they’d make me a spacesuit so I could go see the ship. They never did. It would be so easy to fake those pictures of Kylyd. The fragments didn’t even have the name on them, after all. You might be holding all of us prisoner. You might be anyone, or allies to anyone, using me or my stock. Or the humans might. I don’t know your species; I don’t know who you are; I don’t know where I am!”

“Titus, you’ve got to take him out to the wreck. You said yourself the cameras can’t pick up the name.” And she explained why the cameras couldn’t see the luren paint job.

Titus asked, “If you saw the wreck, and the star maps, if you were convinced it’s all true, what would you do?”

“Make the message they asked me to make.”

“I’m not so sure that would be to our advantage.”

“It would be to mine.”

“Would the luren take this world from us?”

With genuine surprise, H’lim said, “No! It would-it would not be legal to do that.”

“You’re hungry. You’d have taken Inea. Who’s to say some luren wouldn’t come to prefer humans to orl?”

“It would not be legal. I’m glad you stopped me. I’m glad she stopped me. I’d face a dire penalty otherwise.”

“Who out there cares about humans?”

“There are dire penalties for saying the wrong things to primitive peoples, too.”

“Titus,” said Inea, “not everybody as hungry as he is would worry about which food is legal.”

“I know.” To H’lim, he said, “If taking humans isn’t legal for luren, then where does that leave Earth’s luren?”

“I’m no lawyer.” H’lim sketched a shrug. It looked awkward, like something Mirelle had taught him.

“Titus, we should take him to your apartment and feed him. It’s hard to trust people who starve you.”

Titus was wondering how a “sheltered” stockman could suspect humans and Earth-luren of creating the infirmary room to trick him. And what did he imagine they would want to trick him into? What was going on in the galaxy to raise such a suspicion? Industrial intrigue? War?

“He’s not so sure he wants my trust,” said H’lim.

“No, it’s not that,” answered Inea. “There isn’t much blood ”eft, and there’s no telling when there’ll be more.“

“Mihelich will have his first batch ready soon,” said Titus.

“But H’lim needs ectoplasm, and for that humans are as good as orl.” H’lim looked aside and remained silent. Titus added, “I did father you, H’lim, and I’ll honor that commitment. But there’s too much you don’t know yet about life among humans. You’ve got to go back to your room and keep anyone from knowing you’ve been out.”

“First I must go to Kylyd. There are things I need. If they’ve survived.” Titus felt a wild surge of Influence that cut off abruptly. “I haven’t been able to sleep since you woke me. Your people may have changed, but I can’t-”

“Oh, shit!” Titus interrupted. “Listen, it’s been night since you woke. Abbot and I have been wakeful, too, but now the sun’s coming up, so we feel ghastly, too. It’s the magnetic-” H’lim had Titus’s vocabulary, but few concepts to go with the words. “We use a generator to relieve the discomfort and sleep. Abbot was making one for you. Didn’t he mention it?”

H’lim shook his head. “On the ship, I have-”

“It’s probably destroyed, or we’d have found it. Abbot’s clever with machines. Work with him; he’ll get the settings right for you. Now I’ve got to take you back-”

The outer door of the lab crashed open and armed Brink’s guards in spacesuits poured through, dartguns at the ready.

“Okay, H’lim, freeze!” shouted the leader, taking aim.

Moving very slowly, Titus raised his hands and stepped in front of H’lim, muttering, “God alone knows what those darts might do to you! They don’t hurt me.” Aloud, he called, “Hold it, gentlemen. He was only trying to verify what we’ve told him of ourselves. You won’t need the guns.”

Behind the guards came a cordon of Biomed technicians in isolation gear carrying an isolation bubble. “I’m sorry, Dr. Shiddehara, but we’ve got to detain you and the ladyj too.”

Titus’s heart pounded into his throat. He wouldn’t be able to eat, or to bring H’lim nourishment. But then Colby, in uniform only, pushed through, shouting for attention.

“Listen! H’lim has been through the outer observation dome, the spacesuit lockers, the arcade, the gym, and several refectories. No dome is untouched. Further quarantine is a farce.

Worse yet, he can make people see things-or not see them. That’s how he got out of Biomed. He could walk out that door and we wouldn’t know it until tomorrow when we tried to figure out why we’d been here dressed like this!“

“Dr. Colby,” said Titus, edging forward, “H’lim was scared we weren’t leveling with him-especially when we didn’t deliver the spacesuit we promised. He had to check in person on what we’d provided through the vidcom. Wouldn’t you have done the same? Has he hurt anyone?”