Soon, they would consider Nira recovered enough to be reassigned to a work crew, to toughen her. Once her fertility had reached its peak again, the guards would drag her back into the breeding barracks, and the forced-impregnation cycle would begin all over again. Four times already...

Now, as Dobro's orange sun lowered toward murky clouds on the horizon, she left her fresh, trimmed bushes in the small garden and went to look for other flowers and shrubs. Worker teams returned from the hills and filed into the camp. After generations of imprisonment, the captive humans had no dreams, only a resigned endurance, day after day. They didn't even seem miserable.

This was the great dirty secret of the Ildiran Empire, an answer to what had happened to the only lost human generation ship. These prisoners were descendants of theBurton, living here, hidden from the rest of the human race, for almost two centuries.

And five years ago, Nira Khali had joined them. The Dobro prisoners had never seen a green priest before, never heard of Theroc. Nira was a stranger, an emerald-skinned outsider.

At night, or in muted conversations on work crews, she quietly talked about her world, and the sentient trees, even the Terran Hanseatic League, hoping that someone might believe her. Many of the breeder captives suspected she was mad. Others, though, listened with disbelieving curiosity. But they did listen, and Nira continued to hold out hope.

She had borne unwanted children, one fathered by the Dobro Designate himself, one by Adar Kori'nh, two from other Ildiran kiths. And though she had nurtured each of those children for months, she cared the most for young Osira'h. Nira clutched the fence wires, feeling the cold hollow in her chest. She longed for her daughter, her Princess. The other human prisoners didn't understand her misery. Half-breed children belonged to the Ildirans, and they were always taken away. They had never thought anything of it.

Nira often sent messages into the Ildiran city adjacent to the sprawling camp, asking to see Osira'h. The Dobro Designate denied her request each time, refusing to answer Nira's questions. Not out of particular cruelty, but because Nira was no longer relevant to Osira'h's upbringing. The green priest woman had other breeding work to do.

Still, the Designate did understand the half-breed girl's potential. Just the thought of it brought a faint smile to Nira's face. Her Princess was more than just an interesting mixed-kith experiment.She is something special.

6

ADAR KORI'NH

The seven beautifully anodized Solar Navy ships arrived in response to the Dobro Designate's summons. Adar Kori'nh stood in the command nucleus as the septa of ornate vessels entered a standard orbital configuration and retracted their elaborate reflective sails.

Back at the Prism Palace, he had received his orders directly from Mage-Imperator Cyroc'h-instructed to come personally, not to delegate the assignment to a lesser officer. Still, Kori'nh had frowned. "I have always been uneasy about the activities at Dobro, Liege. It is not... suitable for inclusion in theSaga of Seven Suns. "