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13

TASIA TAMBLYN

Finding Robb Brindle alive brought Tasia the greatest joy she could have imagined. She just wished it wasn't in a place like this--trapped in a prison bubble beneath the clouds of a gas giant, surrounded by inhuman enemies. The bowels of Hell would have been an apt description.

Still . . . Robb was alive!

Tears streamed down her grimy face. For just a moment, her joy pushed back the waves of anger, fear, and confusion. One thing at a time. She embraced the young man who had been her fellow soldier, her lover, and her friend. They hugged without words, their muscles trembling, breaths hitching. Finally Tasia wrinkled her nose. "Shizz, you stink."

Robb's grin was awkward, as if he hadn't had much chance to practice it in a long time. "You know how long it's been since I've had a shower? This isn't exactly a Relleker resort. I saw images of Relleker once, but I never actually went there . . ." His voice trailed off. Tasia couldn't imagine how he had retained any hold on sanity, just sitting here with no conceivable hope of escaping. Talk about being under pressure, she thought. Looking at his disheveled form, she knew Robb had fared much better than she would have.

He indicated the chamber and his six equally ragged companions. "How long has it been, anyway? With all the Klikiss robots lumbering around out there, you'd think at least one of them would have a clock or calendar display!"

Tasia mentally calculated, shocked at how long it had been since she'd last seen him. "Almost two years."

Hearing this, several of the prisoners groaned. Robb swallowed hard and lifted his chin with forced optimism. "Well, it did seem like forever. No wonder we all look like shit."

Tasia ran her fingers through her regulation-short hair. "Looks like I'll have plenty of time to get used to it."

When she and her loyal Listener compy EA were taken from the hijacked rammers, sealed in a small prison bubble, and dropped into the colored gases of Qronha 3, she was certain she would be killed. Only after Tasia had seen the hydrogue citysphere--a fever-dream conglomeration of odd geometric shapes--had she begun to grasp the extent of the alien civilization. How many such cities lurked within the Spiral Arm's gas giants? How many had the Hansa incinerated with their Klikiss Torches, whether intentionally or by accident? No wonder the drogues were foaming at their liquid-metal mouths.

Klikiss robots had accompanied Tasia and her compy through oddly permeable walls into the hydrogue city. "Where are they taking us, EA?"

"I do not know, Tasia Tamblyn. But if we are making new memories to fill my datacore, then this is an experience I will never forget."

"Was that an attempt at humor? That sounds like my old EA."

Next, they'd been brought into this strange zoo chamber to join seven other hostages. Apparently, the hydrogues--or the Klikiss robots--had been taking "experimental subjects" for some time now.

Recognizing Robb despite his tattered clothes and long tangled hair, Tasia remembered the day he'd gone into the hydrogue-infested depths. His last transmission had been, "It's beautiful, beautiful--" He must have seen a hydrogue citysphere.

Now she asked, "Why did they take us prisoner, Brindle? What do they mean to do with us?"

"Kill us all," said one of the most miserable captives, whose name was Smith Keffa. "Damned Klikiss robots! Damned drogues!"

All the humans were gaunt, their eyes sunken. They had lived here without proper care, without hope. Everybody had a story, and she was disheartened to hear their hair-raising tales. Her fellow captives had nothing better to do than talk about themselves, and it seemed Tasia's arrival was a welcome break in their endless terrifying monotony. Crestfallen, she learned that none of the other dunsel commanders from the rammers had been taken hostage. As far as she knew, she was the only one still alive. Maybe EA had had something to do with the robots sparing Tasia's life. . . .

"They keep bringing