She called the green priest’s name but heard no response. Setting her shoulders, Margaret sighed. This wasn’t the first time Arcas was not to be found when she’d needed his capabilities.

She didn’t begrudge the man his own interests. He liked to wander off into the canyons, collecting fossils and geological samples. Still, his primary purpose was to serve as a communication link to their sponsors.

“Arcas!” she called again, raising her voice so that it could be heard across the desert. Gripping the information plaque, she wondered if she should just leave her report until later, but she made up her mind to find him.

Louis and Arcas got along well enough. They often played card games with DD in the evening while Margaret studied the day’s discoveries. Knowing the access Arcas had to all the information stored in the vast worldforest, Margaret felt a twinge of resentment at how the priest did not seem interested in learning new things. Where was his drive?

She trudged away from the camp toward a rocky rise where Arcas often went to contemplate sunsets. She climbed the slope, picking her way over boulders, recalling that all the Klikiss worlds she and Louis had analyzed were sunny and dry. The empty cities on Llaro and Pym had been erected on great grass-filled plains, their structures standing tall like termite mounds in the middle of nowhere, far from any accessible running water. Instead of building their mounds close to streams, the insectoid aliens had chosen their construction sites for some other reason, based on either a geometrical coordinate system or some other criteria.

Corribus, their most recent archaeological dig, where Margaret and Louis had discovered the Klikiss Torch, was also a barren world, but far more damaged. The ruins there were blackened and vitrified, as if Corribus had been the site of a titanic battle many centuries ago. But the xenoarchaeologists had found no explanations or clues to the cause of that destructive conflict.

Margaret reached the top of the rise, suddenly startled to find the huge black forms of the Klikiss robots waiting there. Sirix, Ilkot, and Dekyk sat motionless, staring at the sky and basking in the sunlight. The three machines looked almost identical. She stopped quickly upon seeing them.

One—Sirix, she thought—instantly activated his systems, ebony carapace flapping open like beetle wings. A large reflective sail spread outward, flying up in an intimidating move. The other two robots also split open their shells and extended large sails so that they appeared three times their already ominous size. Multiple red optical sensors glowed as if ready to go nova.

Margaret backed off, raising her hands. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were here.”