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'For starters, yes.'

Robb cleared his throat. 'We just wanted to let you know we're heading to Osquivel. Denn Peroni is going to take us back to the shipyards. Thank you for trusting us with this responsibility. We won't let you down.'

'A ruler's job is to make the right choices,' Estarra said, 'and you two are certainly a good choice.'

'The best,' Tasia answered with a smile, recapturing her good humour. 'Before you know it, we'll be sending well-armed and well-armoured ships back here to protect Theroc from the Big Goose.'

'I wish I could offer you more time,' Peter said, 'but I'm afraid we don't have that luxury.'

'Don't worry.' Robb's tone held a note of irony. 'We can handle the pressure.'

'Good luck,' OX said, surprising them.

Twenty-nine

Margaret Colicos

Always an outsider, Margaret leaned against one of the freshly erected towers. The resin cement still held an unnatural spit-and-rancid-oil odour that would eventually fade as it cured in the dry air and sunlight.

Margaret could come and go as she liked from the walled-in colony settlement, but no one else seemed to have the nerve. The rest of the colonists remained inside, intimidated by the insect creatures toiling around the stockade. Margaret had never been able to decide if the Klikiss ignored her out of respect because they feared her 'special music', or if they simply dismissed her.

Judging from what she had learned among the Klikiss, Margaret knew that the breedex was currently obsessed with destroying the black robots wherever it might find them. This morning the first massive assault force had marched through the transportal to Wollamor. Once the robots posed no further threat, all the breedexes from the new subhives would battle to exterminate each other.

As preoccupied as they were with taking vengeance, she knew the Klikiss would turn on the colonists sooner or later.

DD turned his optical sensors in the direction of her gaze. 'What are you observing, Margaret?'

'I'm watching those poor colonists. They don't understand.'

'I would be happy to explain any matter to them, if you tell me the subject.'

'No. You can't. I've got to figure out a way to help, or at least warn them.'

Unexpectedly, she saw a dark-skinned man leave the stockade through one of the openings in the wall and walk away, carefully evading the Klikiss, Margaret was not particularly surprised to see that they paid him no heed. From the top of the thick wall, several colonists including Orli Covitz stared after him in amazement as he cautiously approached the hive city.

The man picked his way toward her, and Margaret hurried to intercept him before he inadvertently stepped in the wrong direction. 'Davlin Lotze, what are you doing?'

'Testing just how much leeway the bugs give us.' His sharp eyes darted from side to side as two warriors lumbered past without challenging him. In constant rustle of pointed legs and exoskeletons, the Klikiss continued to move about, making their endless chirping and clicking noises. 'And I was coming to see you. Let's get out of this traffic'

'You've got nerves of steel, Davlin. Not many other colonists would have risked doing what you just did.'

'That's why I had to do it. Now that I've satisfied myself as to the possibility, it gives me a host of options.'

When Margaret led him into the lee of an ancient, weathered tower, he hauled out a small datapad from his shirt. 'I've slipped out three times now on brief recon missions. Also, from an observation point on the wall, I've managed to compile full image sets of the various sub-breeds around us. I need your help to identify them.' He began showing her images. 'Can you tell me what each type of bug does?'

She had done much the same in her early days among them, trying to classify and categorize the Klikiss. But Davlin's interest did not seem scientific, as hers had been. 'Do you intend to submit a technical paper when we get back to the Hansa?'

He regarded her without any readable expression.