After the massacre of EDF soldiers, which had taught the Llaro colonists to keep their distance, Margaret offered cold but necessary advice to the leaders of the settlement. It was hard for her to explain what she had learned, and the words often locked in her throat. After fleeing through the transportal, leaving dear Louis behind on Rheindic Co to be killed by the black robots, she had found herself in a horrible place: a burgeoning hive of reawakening Klikiss on the far side of the galaxy. Only through her knowledge of Klikiss writing, which she and Louis had deciphered in the ruins, had she been able to communicate, at all, at first. And then there was Anton's music box…

It was clear that most people on Llaro didn't want to hear the hard truth, though one man - Davlin Lotze - was as intent on understanding the Klikiss as she herself had been during her early days among them. The creatures had expanded the old ruins, built their own new structures, and torn down some of the colony buildings that were in the way. Storage facilities, locked sheds, the large EDF hangar, and a makeshift repair bay were located farther away from the main complex, so far, at least, the Klikiss had paid no attention to them.

Tiger-striped domates strolled among the structures like dragons sniffing for victims. Some of the original colonists who worked outlying farmsteads had packed up and just left, fleeing with their belongings into the wilderness. For the time being, the invading creatures paid no attention to the surreptitious evacuation, but if the Klikiss ever decided to search the terrain thoroughly, Margaret was sure the fugitive colonists would be hunted down.

She would do her best to stave that off for as long as she could.

'What are they building down there?' Orli asked her. The girl seemed to think Margaret knew everything. 'They look like flying cargo containers.'

'I postulate that they are Klikiss spacecraft,' DD said. The three of them watched the insect workers and scientists scuttling about like windup toys, fully focused on their tasks. In an open field near the new alien structures, one of the interlocking independent ships tested its engines, blasting dust and exhaust flames as it lifted into the sky, then descended to the construction area again. 'Do you think that's correct, Margaret Colicos?'

Margaret did know some of the plans the new breedex was making. 'Yes, they're spacecraft, components of a swarmship.'

'What do they need spacecraft for? They've got the transportals.'

'The transportal network goes to many worlds, but certain coordinate tiles were damaged. So the Klikiss have to travel by more conventional means, as well. They're going to hunt down other subhives - and the robots.'

On almost all transportals found on abandoned worlds, certain coordinate tiles had intentionally been destroyed as the Klikiss fled. In the ruins on Rheindic Co, she and Louis had found an intact trapezoidal wall. Trying to escape from the black robots, Louis had chosen a symbolic coordinate at random and sent Margaret through, meaning to follow. Sadly, Sirix and the other two robots had fallen upon him - leaving Margaret alone in hell…