“The ship didn’t answer. We were listening.”

A deep sigh shook Oakes.

Without turning to face him or the viewscreen, Legata called out, “How many people did we lose there?”

“Ship knows!” Lewis threw back his head, laughing.

Oakes hit the key to shut him off,

Legata clenched her fists. “How could he laugh that way at . . .” She shook her head.

“Nervous,” Oakes said. “Hysteria.”

“He was not hysterical! He was enjoying it!”

“Calm yourself, Legata. You should get some rest. We have much to do and I’ll need your help. We’ve saved the Redoubt. We have most of the food that was at Colony and far fewer people to eat it. Be thankful that you’re among the living.”

That worry in his tone, in his eyes.

It was almost possible to believe he felt genuine love for her.

“Legata . . .” He put out a hand to touch her arm.

She pulled away. “Colony’s gone. The hylighters and kelp are next. Then what? Me?”

She knew it was her own voice speaking, but she had no control over it.

“Really, Legata! If you can’t handle alcohol, you should not drink it.”

His gaze went to the broken glass on the floor.

“Especially this early in the dayside.”

She whirled away from him and heard him press the console key and summon a clone worker to clean up the broken glass. As he spoke, Legata felt the last of her hope shatter in the morning air, lost on the wild glinting of the waves she could see out there.

What can I do against him?

Chapter 49

Chapter 49

Human, do you know how interesting it is, this thing you describe? Avata does not have a god. How is it that you have a god? Avata has Self, has this universe. But you have a god. Where did you find this god?

—Kerro Panille, Translations from the Avata

FOR THOMAS and Waela, the return of the hylighters had appeared another concerted attack. Thomas tried to close the gondola’s hatch and found it jammed. Waela was shouting up at him to hurry, and asking if he saw Kerro.

Both suns were up now. And the light on the sea was dazzling.

Waela’s head was still spinning from the gondola’s gyrations.

“What’ll they do with him?” she called.

“Ship knows!” He jerked at the hatch cover, but it would not move. Something had hit the mechanism while the gondola was twisted and tilted in the first attacks.

Thomas peered at the tacking hylighters. One of them had its tendrils tucked up tightly. It could be holding Panille in there. He saw that the gondola had been pushed out of the dead kelp into a patch of living green. The sea all around was subdued by a carpet of gently pulsing leaves.

“They’re coming back!” Waela shouted.

Thomas abandoned his attempts on the hatch, slid back into the gondola.