He knew it as surely as if he’d seen her, despite the darkness, despite the dead silence. He eased Tennal back and stepped forward. He felt possessed, if that was the word. Just like humans recognized other humans, the ghostly impression in his and Tennal’s head recognized the traces of its own kind. And Surit, maybe because he was the child of Marit Yeni or maybe because he was himself, would use whatever weapons he had to chase the rot to its source.

Surit, Tennal said. Then, more urgently, Surit, what are you—He grabbed Surit’s shoulder. Guidance Lights, will you stop trying to do things alone!

Surit had already pushed open the door. A thin shaft of light followed him in from the corridor.

In the dark, Oma looked up from the desk in the center of the room.

Her eyes were luminescent. A thin sheen of white glinted over them and disappeared, like a cat caught in a flashlight, though there was no light source on her face. Only her tall, angular form behind the desk and a case in front of her that held a pile of stonelike fragments. The remains of aliens.

The remnants were here, then, in front of Oma. Tennal’s scheme to deactivate them wouldn’t have worked. This close, Surit could almost see thousands of pale lines creeping from the remnants to Oma, from the case, from a cabinet next to her. He and Tennal were an abomination to the ghost inside their head, split into two, but how much more so was this patchwork Oma had made of herself. He took a breath and—

And Tennal waved his wristband and turned on the lights.

Harsh light flooded the room. No more than a second had passed. And now it was suddenly a human scene again.

Governor Oma—now Legislator Oma—commanded the room in a crisp neutral suit, not a civilian or military pattern. But her collar was askew, a cuff button undone. Her bare head still gleamed pristinely under the lights. She surveyed them coolly. “Problem after problem,” she said. There was an exhausted undertone to her voice. “Halkana and Yeni, hm? I really did think you were dead.”

“We just keep getting back up,” Tennal said agreeably, as if this were a briefing back on Archer Link Station and Tennal were admitting to a minor fault. Under it, in their shared mind, Surit saw him replay the memory of Oma with her burn gun aimed at his aunt. “Why did you wreck my family shrine?”

Surit watched Oma like a fencer waiting for the first rush. The presence in his head recognized a more powerful opponent. It knew how to duel in a way totally alien from anything Surit did. It knew the first strike was coming.