"I am not biologically alive. I am part of this vessel, which will in turn soon become part of a much larger vessel. You are here to prepare your companions for me, that I may instruct them and carry out my own instructions."

"Are you a robot?" Clara asked.

"I am a symbol, designed to be acceptable without conveying wrong impressions. In a manner of speaking, I am a machine, but I am not a servile laborer. Do you understand me?"

The object's voice was deep, authoritative, yet not masculine.

"Yes," Arthur said.

"Some among your group might panic if exposed to me without preparation. Yet it is essential that they come to know and trust me, and come to trust the information and instructions I give them. Is this understood?"

"Yes." They answered in unison.

"The future of your people, and of all the information we have retrieved from your planet, depends on how your kind and my kind interact. Your kind must become disciplined, and I must educate you about larger realities than most of you have been used to facing."

Arthur nodded, his mouth dry "We're inside one of the arks?"

"You are. These vessels will join together once we are all in space. There are now thirty-one of these vessels, and aboard twenty-one of them, five hundred humans apiece. The vessels also contain large numbers of botanical, zoological, and other specimens—not in most cases whole, but in recoverable form. Is this clear?"

"Yes," Arthur said. Clara nodded.

"Most of my early communications with you will not be through speech, but through what you might call telepathy, as you have already been directed by the network. Later, when there is more time, this intrusive method will be largely abandoned. For now, when you go among your companions, I will speak through you, but you will have the discretion of phrasing and timing. We have very little time."

"Has it begun?" Clara asked. "It has begun," the object said. "And we're leaving soon?"

"The last passengers and specimens for this vessel are being loaded now."

Arthur received impressions of crates of chromium spiders being loaded from small boats through the surface entrance of the ark. The spiders contained the fruits of weeks of searching and sampling: genetic material from thousands of plants and animals along the West Coast.

"What can we call you?" Arthur asked.

"You will make up your own names for me. Now you must return to your group and introduce them to their quarters, which are spaced along this hallway. You must also ask for at least four volunteers to witness the crime that is now being committed."

"We're to witness the destruction of the Earth?" Clara asked.

"Yes. It is the Law. If you will excuse me, I have other introductions to make."

They backed out of the shadowy room and watched as the hatchway slid shut.

"Very efficient," Arthur said.