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‘Unless we poke a pointed stick in their eyes,' Tasia said.

‘Let's try not to do that,' Nikko said quickly.

She peered over a low mound covered with dry thistleweeds to get her bearings. In the nearby insect city, armies of multi-legged workers excavated the dry dirt, built more towers, and dug tunnels to house their suddenly increased numbers. She saw more of them than she had ever imagined. ‘Sooner or later, they're going to overrun the whole damned planet.'

‘The breedex may just abandon Llaro and launch out to conquer other subhives,' Davlin said. ‘We can always hope.'

‘Then I wish the bugs would hurry up about it and leave.'

The three of them moved through gullies, around clumps of upthrust rock, and through patches of dry grain stalks until Davlin called a halt just beyond the perimeter the insect creatures patrolled. He sent a tight-channel signal to Robb almost below the horizon far behind them, and they all coordinated their movements. ‘Time to split up. Good luck.'

‘Follow your Guiding Star,' Tasia said to Davlin.

‘We certainly plan to,' Nikko added.

Without further discussion, Davlin darted off! Tasia quickly lost sight of him as he picked his way toward the scar of the former colony settlement and the giant frame of the large new transportal standing just outside the main towers. Despite his stealthy moves, she couldn't imagine how Davlin intended to slip in among the alien structures with his heavy backpack, but that was his problem. She and Nikko had memorized the detailed topographical projections DD had made.

‘If the fuel is where Davlin says it is, I'll need about ten minutes to find it,' she said. ‘Starting now.'

‘And another fifteen for us to uncover it.'

They found the cleverly made pile of rocks and the camouflaged marker. The pair nodded to each other, and began lifting the boulders, rolling them away, and digging into the loose dirt. Tasia's fingernails were torn and her palms raw, but she ignored the pain. She and Nikko continued to dig, keeping a lookout for Klikiss scouts and monitoring the ever-ticking chronometer, until they finally uncovered the tops of the sealed polymer barrels. ‘Well, well, looks like we found us some buried treasure.' Enough standard fuel to take them far from here - if the Roamer engineers could make the Osquivel space-worthy again.

Only thirty seconds behind schedule. Davlin should be finishing his task, planting the last of his explosives, setting the timers.

‘I'll clear it. You attach the anti-grav lifters.' Nikko threw himself into the work, wobbling the barrels back and forth in the dirt to loosen them. He wiped perspiration from his forehead with a grimy hand. ‘Sure glad we don't have to carry these things.'

‘Shizz, I'd roll them across the ground for kilometres if it was the only way to get them back to the ship.' She and Nikko wrenched the first fuel barrel free from the rocks and dirt, heaved it up out of the hole, then stood it on the clear ground. Without catching her breath, Tasia gestured toward the second buried container. ‘Come on. Not much time.'

The darkness was getting thicker by the moment. Robb's voice came over the fine-channel comm. ‘On my way. ETA twelve minutes - and on schedule, ladies and gentlemen.‘ Tasia had never heard anything so wonderful in her life.

Nikko looked up into the sky, searching. ‘That's good news.'

‘Only if Davlin does his part. Otherwise we're screwed.'

In the distance Tasia could see the tiny black shapes of scuttling aliens continuing their work even in the gathering dark. She checked the chronometer again. ‘What's taking Davlin so damned long? How hard can it be?' They should hear the Remora's engines in another few seconds, and the bugs would surely notice them.

Suddenly, like the cadence of a drum corps, a succession of explosions rocked the Klikiss city. Small bombs went off with bursts of orange light and white smoke. ‘There's the fireworks,' Nikko said.

‘But where's Davlin?' Tasia fidgeted, wondering how fast the man could run. If he didn't get