“This is a tremendous burden you’ve taken on yourself,” Loo told Ryo softly. “You’re going against the considered opinion of all your superiors.”

“They’re not my superiors.”

“Your elders then,” Bonnie said. She looked away from him, a gesture he’d learned indicated general uncertainty of approximately the third degree. “It may be, Ryo, that they are correct. I realize I’m hurting our own cause by saying that, but this is not the time for prevarication. Throughout human history, we’ve often questioned our own motives for fighting among ourselves. Many times we cannot come up with satisfactory explanations for what we do. It may be that, as your psychtechs insist, we are inherently homicidal.”

“Then this alliance will be of more benefit to you than you can imagine,” Ryo told her. “We Thranx are not very excitable. We are very good at reasoning things through and seeing to the heart of misunderstandings. Perhaps what you’ve always needed are friends who will not fight with you, but who are ever available to explain and to soothe.”

“Perhaps.” She looked back at him. “I do know one thing. Regardless of what our governments decide to do, we three have consummated our own little alliance.” She reached out a hand to touch one of Ryo’s truhands.

He grasped it firmly, having learned the significance of the gesture many days ago. There was considerably more power in her fingers than in his, though with a foothand he could have matched her grip. She was careful not to bruise the more delicate upper digits.

“Our ship,” Loo whispered, “is still functioning. It’s in a synchronous orbit above us right now.”

“How do you know that?” Ryo asked, a little startled.

“Because while Bonnie and I were free, they ferried some of our friends to it to answer questions about design and function. Certain queries were answered. Others were not There was no coercion.”

“Naturally not.” Ryo was upset at the very thought.

“Our people are different,” Loo murmured. “Anyway, our shipmates report no dismantling of components. Not yet, anyway. We’d nearly completed repair of the damage the AAnn had done to the drive when your own exploration ship stumbled into us. Our engineers are confident they can finish the few repairs remaining in sufficiently short time to make an escape feasible.”

“How are we to reach your ship? I’m an agricultural expert. I know nothing of astrophysical matters.”

“But that’s not a problem!” Bonnie told him excitedly. “They wanted to study our mechanics and design with advanced diagnostic equipment, so they induced Alexis and Elvira,” she pointed to two of the wailing monsters, “to bring one of our shuttles down. It’s right here, in the base.”

“Separate hangar,” Ryo muttered, “to conceal it from the general personnel.”