Trina didn’t reply. She was watching the recording with unwavering concentration.

‘One of the bears saw the bot,’ Raia was saying, ‘and they calmly packed their catch into baskets woven from grass and put on cloaks—’

‘Bearskin cloaks,’ Seven said. ‘With the hind paws dangling from the hems.’

‘The female gathered up her cub and they sauntered off into the forest,’ Raia said. ‘I sent the bot after them, but one had climbed a tree, and knocked the bot out of the air with a stone flung from a slingshot. By the time Seven and I reached the spot they were long gone. Or so we thought.’

‘We made camp, and I sang a song at sunset. My variation of a traditional song, to let them know who and what I was,’ Seven said.

‘They didn’t respond,’ Raia said. ‘We tried to track them, but they’d left the forest and headed back up into the mountains, and we lost their track when it crossed a scree slope. My bots couldn’t find them, either, so at last we returned here.’

‘And I’m ashamed to say that I failed to see that they had followed us,’ Seven said.

‘They attacked in the night,’ Raia said. ‘I’d set out noisemakers to scare off feral bears and spotted cats, and they triggered one. It gave us just enough warning. They came at us from two sides, but we drove them off with flares and flashbangs. I may have winged one with a tranquilliser dart. And poor Seven here was wounded by a spear.’

‘Hardly anything,’ Seven said, pushing back his cloak to reveal a bulky bandage taped above his hip. ‘A flesh wound.’

‘They retreated to the valley rim, and sang,’ Raia said.

‘Very crude, boastful songs they were,’ Seven said.

‘Seven sang back,’ Raia said. ‘We tried to make them understand we meant no harm, but they fell silent at dawn. We went up to where they’d been, and found a pole with a dead crow and a small piece of honeycomb wrapped in a leaf hanging from it.’

‘The meaning is obvious,’ Seven said. ‘The crow is a warning that this is their territory, and the honey is a peace offering.’

‘I’d like to think you’re right, but I’m not so certain,’ Raia said.

‘But you have agreed to come with me anyway.’

‘Seven wants to find them,’ Raia said. ‘And I can’t let him go alone.’

‘Although they attacked us, I do not believe that they have reverted, as some of my brothers and sisters did,’ the bear said. ‘And now that we have shown our teeth and claws and proven to be their equals, I hope that our next encounter will be more friendly.’

‘Two of my bots are tracking them,’ Raia said. ‘They are already thirty kilometres away, heading more or less due north. We’re going to follow as best we can.’