The spikes ripped gashes in the soft mushroom, and when she finally hit the support stake she had pounded in, it tore free and she plunged through the roof. The soft tissue dumped more spores around her, and she dropped through fleshy walls down into another unopened chamber of the fresh growth.

“Help!” she shouted, then sneezed again and tried to catch her breath. The air was close around her, but at least she wasn’t falling anymore.

Wide-eyed, Celli scrambled to the gaping hole through which Estarra had broken. The little girl balanced carefully, leaning forward to look at her older sister. Then, seeing that Estarra was not hurt, she began to giggle. “I said you were too big.”

Later, with an embarrassing crowd of her family and other spectators gathered to watch, it took several other children with ropes and pulleys to haul Estarra out. Beneto stood on a high branch to direct the rescue, calm and self-assured. The girl emerged, slick with smelly moisture from deep within the reef fungus. Her twisted braids had become tangled and loose, and her cheeks and arms were covered with grime. But all in all, the only thing injured was Estarra’s pride.

When Beneto came to see her, Estarra was afraid he would be disappointed in how she had clumsily gotten herself into trouble doing a foolish thing for him. Instead, he hugged her. “Thank you, Estarra. If your heart wasn’t so big, maybe you wouldn’t have fallen through the roof of the city.”

No matter what anyone else might say, she knew that he understood what she had been trying to do. Emotions crowded in a lump in her throat, but Estarra could only look at him with relief sparkling through her tears. After that, everything was all right.

She held that moment close in her thoughts throughout the long, loud banquet and farewell celebrations. The memory did not help to mitigate her sadness the following morning when she stood on the high treetops and watched Beneto’s shuttle depart, taking him away to a distant world forever.

73: RLINDA KETT

73RLINDA KETT

In the asteroid field between Mars and Jupiter, the EDF began the largest military construction project in human history. Space scavengers corralled metal-rich asteroids, diverted their orbits, and brought resources together into chaotic three-dimensional rubble piles.

Hundreds of thousands of sophisticated engineers moved out to the gigantic site, along with numerous shifts of workaday orbital construction jockeys. A second wave came: support personnel, resources, temporary habitation canisters, food, water, fuel. Construction never stopped for a moment.

The Terran Hanseatic League had authorized the funding and labor necessary to complete the mobilization project in the fastest possible time. King Frederick had given speeches, warning his people that they would be required to make sacrifices for the good of mankind. All of humanity must unite against the mysterious and destructive enemy.