The Utopians reached into their coats and drew out tablets, a strange design, bulky and sharp-cornered. All but the speaker, who stayed still as the others each approached one Hive leader and handed over the tablets with a simultaneity which must have been intentional.

“Each of you is receiving a list of resources officially gifted from our Hive to yours as of…”—a pause, a held breath, something through the vizor—“… now. These are henceforth yours, without condition or any hidden reservation, bond, or geas. Many are patents or copyrights, and for these, as for all treasures whose market value is challenging to assess, you will find three independent esti—”

“Your Space Elevators!” Every leader had gone slack-jawed reading through the lists, but Kosala cried aloud. “Why would you give…?”

“We’re keeping the Maldive Ridge Elevator. You get Ecuador, Gabon, and Borneo.”

“Twenty-one billion… twenty-seven…” Ancelet muttered.

“Why are you doing this?” Spain asked, light. “Why help us all?”

I knew this Utopian, didn’t I? The speaker in a coat of smoky storm. This was the Delian who guarded me in the Sensayers’ Conclave, and carried me from Hobbestown Hall on the gentle lion’s back. The lion’s partner. “You will receive emergency signals from your Hive governments shortly. Please give me your attention, since I am explaining what is happening more efficiently than they can. The second item on each of your tablets is a list of properties owned by your Hive Members or governments which contain facilities or materials which, by our estimates, are harbingers, or capable of producing harbingers within six to twelve months”—digital brows tensed—“harbingers being technologies capable of hatching uncontrollably destructive weapons, nuclear or worse. Weapons whose very existence threatens to break the First and Second Laws. As of when we handed you your tablets, these facilities have been destroyed.”

Gasps rose, and I saw fingers twitch and lenses glimmer with arriving reports.

“There has been no loss of human life,” the Delian continued. “Our peacebonding forces evacuated everyone, including intelligent animals, from the properties.”

“You blew up Geraldton Station!” Kosala cried. “Kolkata University Hospital!”

Ancelet now, “The Olenek Virus Lab! Half of Utarutu Campus!”

“The properties gifted to you are of equivalent value to what has been destroyed, plus an additional sum to cover the criminal fine for one Hive’s Member destroying another Hive’s Member’s property—we calculated appropriate fines using the average result of comparable property destruction trials, though obviously there has been nothing on this scale before.”

It was Ancelet from whom the names kept flowing: “Lægerneset, the Liland Energy Institute, Iğdır Tissue Archive, the Archdale Array, three buildings in Chislehurst, a bash’house in Bogotá, a Compressions Lab in Riga, complexes in Copenhagen, Manchester, Caxias do Sul, Montreal, Strasbourg, Tongcheng, the Pierce-Long Crater, the Great Wellington Microwave…”

Dominic released a long, soft whistle. “Even museum pieces.”