Basil grumbled. "I knew we should have sent a green priest along for instant communications, but we didn't have any to spare."

Nahton sat unruffled, paying no attention to the implied criticism.

Military advisers and colony specialists went over the updates, projecting a complex mosaic of civilization. Currently, there were sixty-nine signatories to the Hansa Charter and a handful of satellite colonies and uncataloged camps. After the strategists had discussed known changes in ship deployment, technicians modified the images to reflect the best-guess situation in the Spiral Arm.

Peter studied the details, attempting to draw his own conclusions.

Nahton curled his fingers around the treeling's thin trunk and connected his mind to the worldforest. From around the Spiral Arm, scattered green priest observers disseminated their reports, which he now accessed. The priest's brow wrinkled, and dark tattoo lines compressed together on his face. When he finished, Nahton's face showed agitation and concern. "I've received reports from six different green priests, four on colony worlds, two aboard diplomatic ships."

Basil sat up, seeing the green priest's concern. "What is it?"

"Several hydrogue warglobes were spotted traveling through inhabited systems. They've made no contact, but they have approached various planets, apparently scanning them."

Peter pointed to the starmap. "Highlight the locations where the warglobes were seen. Maybe we can see some sort of pattern."

"Only six of my counterparts sighted the hydrogues." The green priest called out the names of obscure systems, and glowing red dots appeared on the mosaic. "Usk. Cotopaxi. Boone's Crossing. Palisade. Hijonda. Paris Three."

OX took a step forward, though his optical sensors had high-enough resolution that he could scan details from a distance. "That does not appear to be a simple defensive posture. Given the sparse distribution of green priests across the colony worlds, many other hydrogues could easily have been missed."

Basil frowned. "Search through all mail drone files, see if they've picked up any other drogue images."

"According to my reports," Nahton said, "the warglobes made no overt aggressive move. They seem to be scouts traveling from system to system."

"Hydrogues never come out just to snoop around," Admiral Stromo said. He had been in command of the Grid 0 escort fleet that had been devastated at Jupiter. "Until now, they've emerged only to attack."

King Peter's mind was fully engaged. He scanned the seemingly random distribution of red dots where warglobes had been sighted. "Until now."

11

RLINDA KETT

If she'd been a different sort of person, Rlinda Kett might have complained about how her fortunes had fallen. But she wasn't a woman to bother with such nonsense. Instead, she crossed her meaty arms over her ample chest and reassessed what to do. Exuberant optimism might annoy more realistic people, but she felt that it often helped.

She paced the deck of her ship and took inventory of her cargo stockpile. It didn't look all that bad, considering. At least theVoracious Curiosity was still hers-though on the rah-rah orders of King Frederick five years ago, she'd been forced to "donate" her other four merchant ships to the EDF for war-related purposes.