“What is happening?” I cried.

“Something’s grabbed us,” Aarhus answered. The ship lurched again. “Something damned clumsy.”

“Could it be the Shaddill?” I asked.

“Don’t know,” Aarhus said. “My X-ray vision isn’t working today. If either of you can see through the hull, go ahead and have a peek.”

I recognized this as sarcasm. However, it reminded me that Festina said this ship had no windows—only exterior cameras which would not be working now. As a result, no one on board could know what had seized us…which made me feel better, since I was not the only one waiting in ignorance to see what transpired next.

“It’s likely the Shaddill,” Lajoolie said, full of fear.

“Or our navy,” Aarhus answered. “Captain Kapoor thought we got away from New Earth without being noticed…but if anyone spotted us, the Admiralty might have sent a ship chasing close on our tail.”

“It’s not the Shaddill or your navy. Lucky us.”

These words came from Nimbus. With a sudden whoosh, he expanded from hard-rock form to his usual manlike mist, holding the small Starbiter steady as the ship continued to rock. “To be accurate,” he continued, “our rescuers don’t look like Shaddill or the Outward Fleet on long-range scans.”

“How could you do a long-range scan?” Aarhus asked.

“I didn’t. My daughter did.”

Of course, we demanded to know how Nimbus had tapped into Starbiter’s powers; but the cloud man was reluctant to explain. He seemed worried we might think he had taken undue liberties, for he kept saying things like, “I’m completely trained to deal with any medical situation,” and, “It’s my most basic function, testing a female Zarett to make sure her systems are working”—all of which made him sound most guilty, as if he had done something improper to the child. When he finally revealed the truth, however, he had not done anything wicked to Starbiter…

He had merely tickled her.

Earlier, when we discussed using the little girl to send a distress signal, Nimbus had recognized the worth of our plan, even if he was not so keen about the suggestion to incinerate the baby until she cried, “Wahh!” Instead, he wrapped around her in a protective shell, then carefully eased microscopic bits of himself inside his daughter’s body. The process was similar to the way he moved through Mama Starbiter’s tissues, but on a very tiny scale. A few of Nimbus’s cells worked their way through the child, found the small knot of glands that permitted FTL broadcasting, and stimulated those glands.

The result was no more than an itch…like a scratch in your throat that makes you go, “Ahem!” over and over. Little Starbiter responded to the itch with a sort of irritable clucking—a cranky collection of trans-light noises which could never be mistaken for words but which were apt to attract attention from anyone close enough to hear.

And that is exactly what happened. Somebody had heard the signals and came to investigate. Nimbus watched the newcomers’ approach by linking some of his cells to young Starbiter’s long-range scan abilities: hiding inside the baby’s eyes to see what her scanners could see. This was the activity that had caused him shame. According to a whispered comment from Lajoolie, male Zaretts were highly averse to using the capabilities of females in any way—Nimbus and the rest of his sex attended to their women’s health needs, but scrupulously avoided any action which might be construed as Taking Over The Driver’s Seat.

What an excellent quality that is! They should preach this philosophy to males everywhere.

“It wasn’t wrong tickling the girl to send a Mayday,” the cloud man muttered. “Uclod clearly wanted that, and he’s her owner. So I was just carrying out the owner’s wishes, right? But actually linking myself to her, and seeing through her scanners…well, I had to keep watch, didn’t I? Uclod would want that too, even if he didn’t say so explicitly. He’d want to know if the Shaddill were coming, or the human navy…”

“So who is it?” Aarhus interrupted.