Just a small problem. He had taken care of Tuva when she discovered his secret, and he could clean up this mess, too. The cluster needed to grow, and now, thanks to the girl, the answer presented itself. Mother had asked him to be clever, and so he had snatched the code blue idea from the biologist, a sneaky scheme, but this was more direct. Even if it brought human engines of war to them, it was worth it. Any opportunity to expand the network, to add more children, was worth the risk.

And Piero agreed. He scrolled quickly through the available emergency commands at the piloting console. HQ, Piero considered, would see that their ship had gone green again but that might only make them suspicious. A cry for help would be better. Wiser to look the wounded lamb than the hidden wolf.

“You’re so clever, my heart,” Mother told him. “I knew you would find the answer.”

“Emergency broadcast parameters met. Fire damage detected. Foreign matter present in crew-critical quadrants . . .”

Shit. That was the best they could do. No follow-up to assure HQ that they were docile, just trapped. The nav systems went haywire. Anything. Anything. Lies. But Piero’s damned credentials were blocked. There was no way to get a specific message out, and the screen flashing ENTER VALID EMPLOYEE IDENTIFICATION blinked and blinked, taunting them.

They still needed the bitch’s credentials. A minor problem. Piero was free now, part of Mother, inconvenient human reactions to force and violence no longer a prohibiting factor. Being human had never felt the way he did now—utterly submerged in the acceptance of another being. And there was the promise of more acceptance from more beings. As their family grew, that love and warmth would only increase, multiplying with every mind Mother added to their cluster.

But it itched, this human skin that locked him and Mother inside. Piero lifted his right hand and scratched at his cheek, at the gash healed over and through with connective webbing. Picking and picking, the raw edges of human skin around the opening caught on the fingernail and Piero dug in. Mesmerizing, the repetitive motion of the nail and the finger, the human skin resistant and then pliable, peeling away like the rind of a soft cheese, revealing the scintillating web of turquoise blue below. Better, that. Better the fine blue lightning over the muscle tissue. Better and better the more the skin came away. The body shivered but the mind delighted.

“You look so beautiful,” Mother said. “My beautiful heart.”

Soothed, he almost forgot the blinking irritation of the screen.

ENTER VALID EMPLOYEE IDENTIFICATION