"I always knew you were a good administrator," Hoffman said. "Garry, I have to sleep. I haven't had a good sleep since we left the station. But. . . I brought something with me."

She put the box on the table and undid the metal clasps. Raising the top, she dumped the packets of seeds across the tabletop. Some slid over to the Russian table. Mirsky and Vielgorsky seemed stunned by the display. Mirsky picked up a packet of marigold seeds.

"Please, keep what you want," Hoffman told them. She looked up at Lanier. "They're for all of us now."

Kirchner took her by the elbow and led her away.

Lanier returned to the table and sat, feeling magnitudes better. Belozersky, standing behind Vielgorsky and Mirsky, looked down on the pile of seeds with unconcealed suspicion.

"My chief political officer wants to know if you have received instructions from any surviving governmental organization," Mirsky said. Jaeger translated for Gerhardt.

"No," Lanier said. "We're still operating on our own."

"We recognize the woman you spoke to," Vielgorsky said smoothly. "She is an agent of your government and the perpetrator of your policies on this asteroid."

"Yes, she is," Lanier said. "and when she's feeling better, she'll join our negotiations. But she was. . .” he searched for the word, "removed from her position before the Death."

He wondered at how easily that word came, designating past, not future.

"When did she arrive?" Mirsky asked.

"I don't know. Not too long ago."

"We insist," Belozersky said, "that any Warsaw Pact survivors be welcomed on this asteroid as well. Military and civilian."

"Of course," Lanier said. Gerhardt agreed with a nod.

"And now," Lanier said, "for perhaps the most important issues. Disarmament and territorial rights. . .”

"We will work out a rough draft of these agreements and ratify a formal document later," Mirsky said.

"We insist on sovereignty of all Warsaw Pact peoples on this asteroid," Belozersky said. Vielgorsky pursed his lips. Mirsky backed his chair away from the table sharply and led Belozersky to a corner. There, they engaged in a quiet but heated exchange, with Belozersky casting furious glances at Lanier and Gerhardt.

Mirsky returned alone. "I am in command of Soviet soldiers and citizens," he said. "I am the principal negotiator."

Lanier's office and bunkroom had been ransacked but not seriously damaged during the occupation. He slept for five hours and then took a rationed breakfast from the food vendor in the cafeteria.

Kirchner met him at the front entrance of the women's barracks. "I'm going back to the bore hole," he said. "There's still an unholy mess up there. We're bringing down bodies now—ours and theirs. Is there a service scheduled?"

"I've suggested a single service sometime in the next twenty-four hours. More than just mourning for the dead here. . .”

Kirchner pursed his lips. "It's not going to be easy standing around those bastards."

"Has to start somewhere. How's Hoffman? Has she slept?"