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Chapter One

"The ground-crawlers aren't happy." The young woman piloting the Leaper shuttle raised one eyebrow at a line of text crawling across the small screen to the right of her controls.

Watcher, the Leap ship's brain, transcribed all the communication between Chorillan's spaceport facilities and the Leaper ship, Estal'es'cai, so the captain and her passenger wouldn't have to hear the cacophony.

"Not happy at all." Her passenger sat forward against the safety straps to read some of the dialogue on the screen. The two young women grinned, dark eyes sparkling.

"They'd better get used to it. You're not coming back here for shore leave, Captain Fieran."

"A very astute observation, Captain K'veer." Kay'li sighed and rubbed her temples with her thumbs. Then she stared at the thin white line of scar on one thumb. "If it weren't for Da and our dreams, I'd have told Cousin Bain to stuff a rocket up his backside and fly out here to solve the problem himself. This is the last place I ever wanted to come back to."

"Liar," Alexa said softly. She reached across the space between pilot seat and passenger and wrapped her hand around her cousin's thumb. "You promised."

"I made a lot of promises." Kay'li reached over and drew her fingertip across the control pad, blanking the screen showing the communication between Port and Leaper ship. "Think they've told Uncle Nobi we're coming in?"

"Are you kidding? They're still trying to get me to land in Port instead of at Emers. There is no way they can convince me their decontamination procedures are any better than ours. Leapers stay on top of the technology."

"That's part of the problem I have to unravel." Kay'li grabbed the armrests as her cousin tipped the shuttle, giving them a stunning view of the forests of Chorillan, closer with each second that passed. "Technology imports are still three generations behind, and most of Chorillan doesn't know it."

"Doesn't matter what they think or believe. We have clearance to land anywhere on the planet without going through all that bafrak at Port." Alexa nodded decisively. "And we're gonna do it."

"We're just bad little girls, aren't we?"

"Not half as bad as we will be when we find out who's been killing Azuli and helping the Gen'gineers."

"Not one tenth as bad," she whispered, nodding.

The morning mists still clung to the landing field beyond Emers Outpost when the Leaper shuttle came in. Kay'li sat as far forward as the straps would allow her, hungry to the point of being ill for a glimpse of her childhood home.

The trees showed a faint, pale green glimmer of leaves ready to burst from their nodules. Snow still lay in lumpy piles around the edges of the landing field. A few lights glowed in the long building that was a combination dining hall and boarding house. Kay'li couldn't make out many other lights. Either most inhabitants of Emers weren't early risers, or the population of the outpost had decreased even more drastically than her latest information from Scout HQ had indicated.

She had been born here in the days when Emers thrived, the threshold to the untamed wilderness of Chorillan. Since then, Emers had shrunk and older outposts had been abandoned altogether. This wasn't the disease that ate at the core of her home world, but only a symptom.

Lifter jets kicked in, whispering when other craft would have roared and awakened the entire outpost. Kay'li stood before the landing struts extended. She had to move, or start crying from anger, regrets, and a sense of helplessness that made her want to burst out of the shuttle with weapons blazing.

She swallowed hard, fighting the ache in her throat that threatened tears. She smoothed the wrinkles from her black trousers and tugged straight the loose, vivid green Scout-issue jacket. She wasn't in uniform, but pieces of Scout uniform were a necessary part of her wardrobe, to subconsciously remind people of the power that lay waiting for her command.

Kay'li would miss the Leaper ship. Not just because Alexa was her closest living relative, not counting Nobi Cole and Commander General Kern. Since receiving her assignment from Kern, she had hidden among the protection and comfort of the Leapers, her distant kin. She had filled her mind with all the data sent by the Scouts who had infiltrated Chorillan society. She knew what needed doing. She knew what the trends pointed toward. It was time to act. Yet a little voice deep inside kept crying, why me?

The shuttle sighed as the jets shut down and the engines went into standby. Alexa stood and rested a hand on her cousin's shoulder as they stepped to the hatch and the panel slid out, then up.

Kay'li smelled that particular 'green' smell she had always identified as Chorillan and missed with a deep pang. Mud and growing things, the too-sweet fragrance of vrilly blossoms and the fruity aroma of crushed silverleaf.

"Home," Alexa whispered. They started down the angled steps that extruded from the shuttle's side. "My offer stands. I could still use a good Second."

"I'll think about it." Kay'li tugged her jacket tighter around her as they stepped out into the cool morning air. She took a deep breath, absorbing the smell and taste of Chorillan. "I forgot how early in the year it is. I'll have to get used to the calendar again. Years in Chorillan measure, not Standard."

"You think that's bad? Mum raised me with three calendars. Standard, Leaper home universe time, and the universe Grandmother came from."

"Better than four-dimensional math?"

"Much better." Alexa laughed.

For a moment, they were adolescents again, faced with the challenge of getting the Estal'es'cai back to the Commonwealth's universe after Captain Jaklyn had been injured. Alexa had never piloted the ship solo before. With Kay'li's support, they merged with the ship's system to jump dimensions and bring ship and crew home. The fright they had felt then was nothing compared with the heavy responsibility resting on Kay'li's shoulders.

"Lots of things are going to take some getting used to." Kay'li sighed and took a step away from the shuttle and almost stopped when Alexa's hand left her shoulder.

They had agreed on this. Kay'li had an errand to run before checking in with Nobi, and Alexa would wait in the shuttle. Kay'li needed to plant her feet firmly on Chorillan before she got to work, and she had to do it in solitude.

Mud lay everywhere at this time of year. Moss faded from dormant gray to green. Razor grass glistened silver. The perfume of fruit tree blossoms whispered through the pungent aroma of mud and water and wet rock. Kay'li felt physically ill with mixed longing and reluctance, but she had a promise to keep.

She took a pouch from her deep jacket pocket and held it close to her body as she walked up the muddy, gravel-strewn trail to the small residential section. Her goal lay past the houses, up a shallow slope heading for the river. She stopped, though, when she saw the houses.

There were so few left. Some streets were nothing but muddy trails, with only footers remaining where homes had been dismantled. Overgrown bushes and trees filled in the spots where houses had been removed like bad teeth. Kay'li looked around the half-desolate outpost and shivered in the spring cool.

Chorillan was still a frontier world. Explosive growth was expected. Emers Outpost should bustle at this time of the morning, full of noisy families. It should be a minor city by now, not a half-deserted ghost town, little more than a supply drop for settlers.

Most settlers this far out from Port were Wildlings. Non-Wildlings were scarce, except in administrative jobs. They clustered like frightened chicks around the central hub of civilization. The Scouts waiting to report to her were still too new to the culture to understand all the undercurrents. Commander General Kern had made her the mission commander because she was a native and had that instinctive understanding, no matter how long she had been away from home. And because of her emotional bond to the colony.

The outpost office, boarding house and dining hall, two dormitories for Emers' workers and the Peace Forcer unit, two houses for their officers and families, three houses shared by trappers and explorers who worked survey for the government, and the warehouse were all that remained of an outpost that once boasted a clinic, ten residential streets and three boarding houses for the numerous transients passing through.

This was all wrong. Every shred of Kay'li's being shouted it. Her father had trained her never to let a question sit unanswered. Scouts saw mysteries as potential dangers.

"Wish you hadn't trained me so good, Da," she whispered. She took a deep breath, savoring the clean, sweet air and stepped out of the shadows of the trees.

The abandoned houses and neglected streets vanished behind her as she walked around the perimeter of the outpost, along the shallow sloping path. She soon reached a parcel of ground that had once been neatly fenced, forming a large square claimed from the forest. The fence was nonexistent but for a few fallen, rotten posts. That shook her, yet not as badly as the fear the chapel had vanished. Kay'li searched the shadows of the overgrown trees and bushes until she found it.

The roof had caved in and the plastic light panes in the walls were weathered and scratched to opacity. Kay'li paused at the single post that remained of the cemetery gate, remembering. It had been a tidy, restful place once. The sad state of the cemetery was another sign of the sickness on Chorillan.

Her mother's grave was easy to find. The creeper vines were just budding. Stones ringed the grave, sunk into the ground around the pink and gold slab that covered half the grave. No mud from rain splash marred the glossy surface, no debris cluttered the moss surrounding the grave. Kay'li saw few other graves that had regular care.

Kneeling, she took the pouch from the crook of her elbow and brought out the inner bag with the Scout emblem on front and back. The wet ground soaked through her knees. Kay'li didn't mind; it suited her mood. She dug with her fingers at the base of the slab until she had a deep, narrow hole. She pressed the magnetic seal on the pouch, paused to fight a tightness in her throat, then let her father's ashes trickle in. There was no breeze, nothing to disturb the slow sifting into the hole. A few birds twittered far away, barely loud enough to mask the whispering hiss of the falling ashes.

After the last bit of ash had sifted out, Kay'li covered the hole with mud and torn moss and sat back on her heels, waiting for tears.

Her face stayed dry, though the ache returned, pressing on her chest, making it hard to breathe. She tipped her head back, gazing up at the bit of sun visible through a narrow hole in the tangled canopy of branches and buds overhead, feeling her throat contract in a sob that wouldn't emerge. She waited until her back and legs protested, but still no tears.

Gradually, the sensation that she wasn't alone tickled her spine. Kay'li held still, her breathing unchanged. The birds continued singing, the insects clicking and chirping. She heard no footsteps. Nothing to disturb the calm of this place. Was it an animal, watching her from the cover of the trees?

"Kay'li?"

The man's voice startled her, coming from close behind her. She leaped to her feet, pivoting on one heel, ready to dodge and kick, one hand reaching for the knife hidden in the illusion sheath on the outside of her trousers.

He just stood there, empty hands hanging at his sides, head slightly tilted to the left. No threat. Nothing but that crooked smile that made her think he was sure he was wrong.

Kay'li knew him. Not consciously, his name and where she had seen him before. But something deep inside her recognized him. His eyes woke chords of memory. Dark eyes, deep, serious. Those eyes had never lied to her. His thick, black hair hung in long curls nearly to his shoulders, half-masking the wide, glossy scar marring his left cheek from temple to chin. His wide shoulders and the muscles evident under his loose, sturdy clothes proclaimed him a man who lived outdoors and could handle any kind of physical labor.

"Took you long enough," he said, breaking through the swirling of Kay'li's thoughts as she struggled to remember. "I knew you'd keep your promise."

"Promise." She swallowed hard and blinked against a momentary dizzy sensation. She had made a promise just before she left Chorillan. To a friend. Her best friend.

He held out his hand, thumb sticking up. Her gaze fastened on his thumb and the thin white scar down the tip. A scar that matched the scar on her own thumb. A scar from a cut that had been too long and deep for the need; a blood vow made by two childhood friends facing years of separation.

"Lucas." Kay'li laughed and lunged forward to fling her arms tight around him.

The past shredded the moment she felt his muscles harden under her touch. This wasn't her childhood friend, the boy she had left behind. He was a grown man, a Wildling, and Wildlings didn't like to be touched. She stumbled as she released him and jerked backwards, away from him, wondering why she felt so afraid. No matter what had happened to him in the intervening years, he was still Lucas.

Wasn't he?

"Guess you're glad to see me." Lucas grinned shakily. He cleared his throat, shrugged, then gestured at the grave behind her. "You're visiting Mistress Miranda. Are you and the Captain--sorry, he was promoted to colonel, wasn't he?"

"Yes, Da was promoted to colonel. Several missions ago." Kay'li laughed silently at herself when she realized she had been half-expecting to see Lucas unchanged from the boy she had left behind. She would need time to get used to this strong man, a head taller than her. A Wildling. Scarred by his time during Phase and whatever happened to him when he was dragged back to civilization. It was hard to see Lucas as a victim.

"So you two are finally back here to settle?"

"Not quite." She swallowed the sudden lump in her throat. It surprised her how hard it was to tell him. "I'm here on rest leave from the Corps. Da died on our last mission. I just buried his ashes with Mama," she finished in a breathless rush.

"I'm sorry," Lucas whispered. "So you brought him back."

"Just about his only regret, dying so far away." She shook her head, refusing to let her thoughts go any further in that direction. "Is it safe in the chapel?"

Lucas shrugged and stepped aside so she could go ahead. He followed her to the dilapidated building.

Inside, the vandalized remnants of benches lay scattered about. The painted walls were damaged by weather and scorching. Gaping holes in the roof had let in leaves and other rubbish over the years. A few spots on the ceiling still displayed the clouds and stars someone had painted with loving care.

"You would think people would still come here, even when everything else is abandoned," she whispered.

"Nobody comes here. Nobody prays. Hardly anybody around here even talks about Fi'in, except as someone to blame." Lucas wore a half-smile as he spoke.

"Except Wildlings?" she said, guessing his unspoken words.

"Wildlings know Fi'in exists. We don't need a building to prove it."

"In the Scout Corps, there's something wrong with you if you don't believe in Fi'in."

"Well, there aren't any Scouts here, and everybody knows everything is wrong with Wildlings."

"Don't joke about something like that." Kay'li wanted to blurt that Scouts had infiltrated the planet, poised to help Wildlings. But she couldn't tell anyone until she knew the entire situation, who to trust, who not to trust. "The chapel is a sign of a lot wrong here." She gestured around the shadowed building. "If people have nothing to believe in but themselves, how are they going to get anywhere?"

"Maybe nobody wants to get anywhere."

"But a colony should grow. Doesn't the Council care?"

"Maybe they like things the way they are now." Lucas stepped back to the gaping ruin of a door. "This isn't the way to talk your first day home."

"No, I suppose not." She let him lead her outside again. She wanted to tell him that kind of talk was the reason for her return to Chorillan.

"Does Nobi know you're home?"

"Not yet. I needed to take care of Da first, alone." She shrugged, feeling chilled as they walked down the path, back toward the magistrate's office. "Then, I'm going into Port. I have to check in with Grandmother and Uncle Kallin."

"Think they'll send Peacers after you if you don't report in?" Lucas's voice went thin. His smile had an edge that enforced her sense that he was nothing like the boy she had known.

"I've grown up and the years change everybody. They're all the family I have left, and we should at least try to get along. If I stay on Chorillan." She forced a sigh and a smile. "Nothing is certain. I'm going to relax and enjoy my rest leave and not worry about the future until I have to."

"That doesn't sound like Scout thinking."

"It's not. I don't know what I am anymore." She stopped when they reached the end of the path. "Where are you going? Where do you live now?"

"Here. When are you coming back to Emers?"

"Tomorrow, I hope."

"Good. Then I'll see you around." He nodded to her and turned down the path, moving away from the landing field, through the deserted rows of empty lots and abandoned houses.

Kay'li watched him, struggling against the certainty that if she didn't watch him, he would vanish into thin air and she would never see him again.

She had come back to Chorillan for the sake of all the children who had gone through Phase and become Wildlings. The problem was that whenever she thought of Wildlings, she saw Lucas. In the last few weeks, as she prepared for her mission, she had dreamed of him, watching her, unreadable questions in his eyes.

Wrapping her arms around herself, she walked across the outpost. She had work to do, contacts to make, information to gather. She was a Scout captain with an important assignment. Kay'li concentrated on that. She would deal with Lucas later.

Alexa waited for her, perched on the railing across the porch of the magistrate's house. She said nothing, just slowly swung one leg and watched Kay'li approach. Then the door swung open and Nobi Cole stepped out.

He hadn't changed in the years since he had left the Scouts to return to Chorillan. His shoulders were just as broad, his hair just as thick and pure white, his eyes as big and sparkling with laughter. He wore an out-of-date Scout jumpsuit, brown, with the patches torn off the shoulders and pockets. He stood there three seconds and stared at her. Then his arms opened wide. Kay'li ran to him. It was almost like being held by her father, enfolded in his arms and lifted off her feet and spun around once before she was set down again.

"Girl, look at you!" Nobi hooted and tugged on her braid, hanging past her waist. "Where did you get that hair?"

"That's a long story."

"You're beautiful, you know that?" He swung her around so they both faced Alexa. "Why didn't you tell me she was beautiful?"

Alexa shrugged. Suspicions percolated in Kay'li's mind.

"Just what have you been up to?" she demanded.

"Captain K'Veer was charged with all of Bain Kern's orders and updates," Nobi said, sobering. "I don't know what this universe is coming to when my two favorite little girls are all grown up and charged with saving an entire planet."

"Uncle Nobi...You didn't know about all this until now?"

"Someone kept Uncle Ian's reports about the Wildling situation from leaving the planet. It was safe to assume they had the ability and motivation to intercept any messages Scout Command sent to a retired Scout," Alexa said. "I was entrusted with all the data disks and some verbal messages."

"Oh." Kay'li settled down on the railing with Nobi's arm still tight around her.

"You done taking care of your father?" Nobi asked. He nodded in the general direction of the cemetery. "I was looking forward to straightening out this mess with him, taking care of problems we should have settled the first time around. It's only right that you be given the job to finish for him."

"It scares me."

"Yeah, well, only a fool goes into something this important without being afraid. We've done a lot of the groundwork and every single Scout they've shipped in during the last few years is committed to this mission. I have this feeling a good number of them will settle here. That's how much they love this world."

"That's good for us all," she murmured.

"They're a tight unit, just waiting for the commander to move in and start things rolling."

"They're waiting for Da."

"True." Nobi nodded. The sparkle returned to his eyes and he winked at Alexa. "But you're Ian's girl, and what common sense and training doesn't do to back up your authority, well...hormones just might."

"Uncle Nobi!" Kay'li was shocked for three heartbeats. Then she laughed.

He let go of her and stepped to the door. "I can guess what that schemer cousin of ours did to make you agree to this, gal. It isn't right, even if it's the only answer." He opened the door and beckoned for her and Alexa to come inside.

"Chorillan is my home. My friends are affected." Lucas' face filled her thoughts for a moment.

"A good Scout cares, but there are limits to how much they should depend on your emotions." He closed the door and stepped ahead, leading them through the office, cluttered with four desks, file bins stacked to the ceiling and old-style computer terminals and drives on each desk. The next door opened into the living quarters, a main room with a massive fireplace filling one wall at the narrow end of the room, couches on either side wall, thick fiber matting on the floor and shelves full of games and reading disks. It was a man's type of room, comfortably shabby and made for relaxing.

Kay'li stopped short in the doorway as a wave of mouth-watering, spicy, meaty, yeasty aromas assaulted her. She pressed her free hand to her stomach when it rumbled painfully.

"Thought you'd be starving. Nothing like real food to get you feeling like you're really home." He pushed open the swinging door on the other side of the main room and more odors of hot, fresh cooking gushed out to meet them.

He settled them at the table, set for three with heavy utilitarian plates and utensils and massive cups. Kay'li snatched the thermos pot from the middle of the scarred, stained wooden table and twisted the stopper. The creamy, sweet aroma of spyce met her nose and she sighed in satisfaction. She would take spyce over coffee any day.

They glossed over the bare details of their next step while Nobi filled plates and brought them to the table. Kay'li outlined her cover story of a Scout on emotional rest leave.

"The truth, but hidden in plain sight," she said, as Nobi nodded and muttered approval. "The next part is going to be hard. Making nice with Grandmother and Uncle Kallin."

"Just think of the information you can wheedle out of them if they think you're playing along," Nobi said.

"That's the only reason for visiting either of them."

"That and the influence that comes with belonging to the Riallons," Alexa offered.

"Not so sure what kind that would be." Nobi set overflowing plates in front of them and stepped back to the counter to get his own. "Mistress Riallon has a reputation...well, not exactly as an enemy of Wildlings, but not a friend, either. She's particularly rough on the Rovers. If there wasn't such a sharp line between the civilized Wildlings and the Rovers, she and her friends could have them all taken into custody."

"Rovers?" Alexa frowned, questions clear in her eyes.

"Rover Wildlings are the ones who blame the universe for their difficulties. They only work when it's easier than stealing. They don't bother to keep clean or find shelter. They drink to numb their senses and their morals are non-existent." Nobi sighed. "It wasn't so bad when Kay'li was little. The civilized Wildlings were more visible. But they're retreating from Port and cutting off as much contact with officials and regulations as they can, for the sake of survival. It leaves the dregs more visible, which makes the prospect of children becoming Wildlings more repulsive than ever." He punctuated his words with the thump of his plate on the table and the scrape of his chair on the wooden floor.

"We have to let the civilized Wildlings know what we have to offer," Kay'li said.

"Eat first. Plan strategy later." He gestured down at his plate. Alexa laughed and nodded agreement.

Kay'li inhaled the aroma of hopper sausage and tuber hash, eggs and orangeberry sweet rolls. It had been too long since she had eaten fresh food. She bowed her head, pressed the fingertips of her left hand to her forehead and closed her eyes.

"Fi'in, my thanks," she whispered. Opening her eyes, she found Nobi watching her with a bemused smile.

"Scout all the way. Left hand for prayers," he explained, gesturing with his fork. "Most people pray with their right hands."

"Fi'in doesn't listen to people who let down their guard." She grinned. "The right hand is for resting on your gun."

Between mouthfuls, they outlined their plan of action. Alexa and the Estal'es'cai would establish orbit beyond the planet's satellites, to monitor planetary communications, siphon off data from the security satellites, and wait to assist Kay'li and the Scouts. Kay'li would borrow a sled to go to Port, visit her grandmother overnight and return to Emers in the morning.

"Overnight?" Nobi said. "I don't know how smart that is, letting Mistress Riallon keep you in her home even one night."

"I'm to meet with the leader of the Port Underground movement." Kay'li reached to pour her second cup of spyce.

"What movement?" He blinked and paused with his fork halfway to his plate.

"Someone with the right connections has been sneaking messages out to the Commonwealth Upper University, hidden among eco-system reports. It took years to put everything together. Cousin Bain sent a response back the same way, asking for a meeting. When we came into orbit, Alexa sent the agreed-on signal, using the code the Underground created. They'll contact me tonight and take me to meet their leader. We'll decide what to do once we've talked."

"Folks supporting Wildlings," Nobi muttered. He filled his mouth with egg and chewed slowly, shaking his head. "It's about time, that's all I can say."

---

Chapter Two

To travel to Port, Kay'li changed into her second-best uniform, charcoal gray with red piping and green emblems, one step below her glossy dress blacks. At the edge of the spaceport at the Immigration Authority office, she registered her presence and took a public transport cart to Government House. Four other people rode in the cart and they studied her, making whispered comments behind their hands. Kay'li ignored them. The more people who talked about a Scout appearing in Port, the easier her job would be.

She hoped her grandmother and uncle would be pleased to see her in uniform. Scouts were figures of mystery and awe. The Riallons had been delighted to have Scout Captain Ian Fieran in the family, until they learned he intended to stay on Chorillan indefinitely. What had they feared he would discover?

Kay'li left the cart at the lowest terrace of fountains below the main entrance of Government House. She eyed the long flights of stairs and terraces with their decorative fountains and flowering trees, took a deep breath and started climbing. She silently rehearsed her lines of greeting and contingencies for the different reactions she could get from her grandmother or uncle, whomever she saw first. She stopped short and nearly laughed aloud, when it occurred to her that neither one might be in their offices today. Kay'li shook her head, offered a bemused smile to the people she passed on the stairs, and kept going.

Government House was a five-story tall building with multiple wings for government functions both social and legislative, housing visiting dignitaries, medical facilities, science labs, a museum of the colony's history and archives. It spread out across Port, taking up almost as much room as the spaceport. Kay'li stepped through the doors and crossed the reception hall, tiled on floor and two-story high walls with glossy, preserved wood in shades ranging from crimson to white-gold. On the far side, directly opposite the doors, rows of desks and clerks waited to serve the dozens of people milling around the hall.

Kay'li crossed directly to the desk with the triple-moon emblem of the Council emblazoned across the front. She bit her lip against a grin of mischief, when the thickening crowd parted before her as if she wore a repulsor field. It was the uniform. She might just enjoy some perks that came with being a Scout.

"Yes, Mistress--er, Captain. How may I help you?" a white-blond, elderly man asked when she reached the desk. He had bounced to his feet and watched her approach from five meters away. His eyes sparkled and Kay'li suspected she had made his day golden by coming specifically to him.

"I'm Kalinda Fieran. Mistress Kalinda Riallon is my grandmother, and Master Kallin Riallon is my uncle. Could you check if either one is free to receive me, please?" She gave him her most friendly smile and rested her hands on the waist-high countertop.

"Oh, yes, Captain. Mistress Riallon received notice from the Immigration Authority and left word that you were to be admitted immediately. If you'll come this way?"

He scurried out from behind the desk and beckoned for her to follow him through a set of double doors made of white-gold wood. They swung open at his approach. Kay'li guessed he wore a security beacon somewhere in his uniform of brown singleton and green vest. That would have to be circumvented if her Scouts needed to get inside the Council offices without notice or resistance.

The hallway ran twenty meters into the heart of the building, then opened out into a circular reception area nearly as wide as the main hall. Pale gold couches and chairs arranged in conversation groupings filled most of the floor of pale brown carpeting, and murals of Chorillan scenery decorated the walls. Doors opened off this room, leading to the office suites of the Council members.

"Kalinda?" Mistress Riallon swept through her office door, dark blue robes brushing the floor, her regal bearing warming to joyous welcome. Kay'li barely managed to hide her surprise when the woman embraced her. "Oh, my dear, just look at you." She held Kay'li off at arm's length and looked her over from head to foot. Approval for her uniform and trim appearance was evident.

Somewhere in the greeting, the clerk vanished. Kay'li hoped he had seen enough to spread rumors of how her grandmother had welcomed her. An appearance of being on good terms with her powerful relatives was integral to her mission.

Mistress Riallon had not changed. Still golden-rose beautiful; ivory complexion untouched by wrinkles or age spots, eyes still icy blue despite her smile; hair untouched by gray or white. Kay'li wondered if her grandmother dyed her hair, or simply refused to let the strawberry blond mass show any signs of her years.

"Your mother would be so proud of you," Mistress Riallon sighed. She kept hold of Kay'li's hands and turned her, no doubt to show her off to the people watching them. "A captain at your age. You look so grand in uniform. Are you here to stay, perhaps? Your report at Immigration was so vague."

"I haven't made any definite plans. You could try to persuade me to stay. Chorillan is my home, after all." She fought the temptation to play coy. She had never felt admiration or affection for her grandmother, but Kay'li knew better than to play her for a fool.

"Persuade you, we shall. I know several young men of very good families, First Ship families, who would give up their seats in the Under Council to dance with a young lady like you." Mistress Riallon nearly purred. "I've arranged for a dinner party to welcome you home, dear. You don't mind, do you?"

"I'd hoped it could be just the two of us, and Uncle Kallin if he's free, but if this would make you happy, Grandmother...." Kay'li smiled and thought a prayer of thanks. A large gathering of people was just what she had hoped for.

She needed to make it as easy as possible for the envoy from the Underground to find her. A crowded party at her grandmother's home would do nicely.

Mistress Riallon beamed, delighted. Kay'li wondered if the woman would have been easier to get along with if she had played sweet and adoring when she was little. She mentally rejected that idea. Subterfuge and outright lies were nearly impossible when she was little. They left a bad taste in her mouth, now.

* * *

Buffet suppers and dancing were the current popular social event in Chorillan's upper class. Kay'li was relieved when her grandmother didn't insist on putting her into a frothy formal gown. She was grateful she had brought her dress uniform, and considered it armor of the best sort. Let her relatives dream of using her rank for their profit. They would fail.

The welcoming party took place in her grandmother's wood-paneled ballroom with the vaulted ceiling, which Kay'li had never been permitted to enter as a child. Food tables lined one long wall, beverages lined the other, and several hundred tiny, scented oil lamps hung from the ceiling to cast a golden, flickering glow on the proceedings. Kay'li stood by the door and sipped a fruit concoction lightly laced with chikey wine while she listened to her grandmother introduce yet another patriarch of a First Ship family and his tall, handsome son and nephews. Why did only the men show any interest in meeting her? Were the women frightened of her Scout uniform? Or did they simply consider her a waste of time because she hadn't brought any male officers to marry them? She nearly giggled at that thought, and caught herself before she got juice up her nose.

"Thank you," she said, when the son held out a hand and asked for a dance. "A short one, please. It's been a long day of traveling." It was her standard response to every request. No one seemed to mind.

Eben, her partner, was just tall enough to see over her head, his hair black and his eyes an odd, washed-out silvery blue. Up close, as he took both her hands for the first steps of the dance, his skin was a winter-white, pitted surface that spoke of bad eating or some pocking illness in childhood. Kay'li almost felt sorry for him, until he stepped on her foot. He said nothing and she said yet another silent prayer of thanks for sturdy Scout-made boots.

"I'm into biology," he said when they had glided far enough out onto the floor for private conversation. "I've always wondered what it would be like as a scientist in a Scout team."

"Just as dangerous as regular Scouts, and more equipment to lug around on ground missions." Kay'li decided he was an idiot when he laughed aloud at her response. She tried not to tense when his hand slid above her elbow. Current social rules labeled the move as rude and too intimate. Kay'li's Scout training labeled it a threat, an attempt to get leverage on her.

"Do you need scientists on your team?" He guided her into the line for the step-twist-glide-turn parade down the middle of the room.

"I don't have a team yet. When I finish my rest leave, then I'll be assigned."

"But I thought teams were formed in training and kept together as long as possible." He goggled at her, his mouth hanging open in juvenile surprise.

"My training was unorthodox. I was raised in and by the team my father commanded. I've seen enough active duty and passed enough tests to qualify for my rank. Beyond my visit to Chorillan, well, who knows?" Kay'li assayed a smile and twisted her arm out a little, forcing his hand to slide off her elbow.

"Would you consider taking a biologist back with you? I'd like to be on your team, Captain Fieran." He inclined his head too close to hers as they made another turn.

Kay'li laughed, she couldn't help it, though she managed to stop herself after the first burst. A few glances showed either no one noticed or they were too stuffy to visibly react.

"Well, at least you're up front about it," she said. Maybe he wasn't as bad as her first impressions insisted.

Then on the next turn, he slid his arm around her waist and drew her up close against him. Kay'li could almost feel the sudden change in air pressure as every dowager in the room drew in shocked gasps. There was only one thing to do.

Planting her hard heel into his instep, she turned and caught hold of the offending arm with both hands. Another twist, bent at the waist, putting her whole body into the move, she flung Eben over her shoulder. He slid, legs splayed and arms waving wildly, across the floor, slowing to a stop just a meter from the central beverage table.

Turning, Kay'li caught discrete smiles on several dozen female faces, shock turning to admiration or touches of outright fear on many male faces. She tugged on the bottom of her uniform jacket and stiff-marched across the floor to where Mistress Riallon and her Uncle Kallin stood watching.

"I'm sorry, Grandmother. My only excuse for over-reacting like that is fatigue. Would it be all right with you if I went to my room now?"

"My dear, no apology is necessary." Mistress Riallon put an arm around Kay'li's shoulders for a half-hug and brushed one powdered and perfumed cheek against hers. "You get a good night's sleep, and we'll have a nice talk over breakfast, shall we?"

"That sounds wonderful."

"In spite of that clod, I hope we can talk you into staying and following the family path into politics," Kallin said, warmth and mischief in his blue eyes. "The military has been a springboard for quite a few stellar careers in planetary government. Think how proud your mother would be," he added, and nodded his blonde head for emphasis.

"I'll think about it." Kay'li nodded and tried not to run as she headed for the door.

True, many politicians had started out in the military, but Miranda Riallon-Fieran had loathed politics, and no Scout had ever gone into politics. Kay'li knew the first Bain Kern would rise from the dead if a descendant of his followed that path. The Scout Corps had been born to cut through the red tape and political dithering that led to the little people being hurt.

Like Wildlings were being hurt now.

Kay'li made her farewells to the ladies and older men she passed on her way to the door. Behind her, Eben finished getting to his feet. Buzzing whispers and flickers of laughter raced around the perimeter of the room. She almost felt sorry for him. His moment of boldness would get him ostracized by Port society for a week, at the very least.

Safe in her room, she peeled out of her uniform and found a tightly folded paper packet tucked between her belt and jacket, with a bit of stickum on both sides to keep it secure. Kay'li grinned in admiration as she unfolded the paper.

Clever. No one would ever suspect that impetuous, rude young man of being a messenger. He would be safe if the enemies of the Wildlings ever learned about her mission before she was prepared to act.

The paper had the words "midnight" and "lower fountains" scribbled across it. Nothing more. She had to read it four times before the words made sense. Another attempt to foil enemies who might have intercepted the message?

Kay'li changed into dark, sturdy clothes for her night rambles. She mulled the ramifications of how widespread the Underground was, that they could use a social butterfly like Eben to get the message to her. She had identified herself when she sent her coded message, and they knew enough about her to find her at her grandmother's house. Kay'li was relieved the Underground had contacted her so quickly. She didn't want to stay near her grandmother and uncle any longer than she had to.

* * *

The spring night was chilly but her wariness and excitement kept her warm. Kay'li settled onto a bench in the shadows of the bushes surrounding the lower fountain terrace outside Government House, and waited. She cast a glance upwards into the sky, bright with stars, only hints of clouds on the eastern horizon. Somewhere amid all that black and glitter, the Estal'es'cai watched for anything suspicious, ready for her call.

She had no warning of her contact's arrival until a tall, lean, dark-dressed form moved between her and the glimmers of light on the fountain waters. Kay'li waited, assessing the young man. He moved with a steely grace at odds with the gawkiness he had displayed at the party, his steps silent, not a single movement wasting energy. As he rounded the fountain, he turned and surveyed every direction, revealing smears of some dark pigment across his pale skin.

Eben found her before she moved. Kay'li approved of him even more.

"I didn't hurt you, did I?" she said as he crossed the pavement to the bench where she sat.

"No. I have to thank you for splitting that jacket. Always hated it." He held out his gloved hand to shake. His grip was firm. Kay'li suspected his hands didn't sweat anymore, either.

"Where do we go from here?"

"Agro Authority." He gestured down the last flight of steps to the path through a decorative maze of trees.

That made sense, considering how the messages had first reached the Commonwealth Upper University. Kay'li followed her guide and waited for him to offer information. They were matched shadows, moving soundlessly from one puddle of darkness to the next. It took them twenty minutes at a fast walk to reach the central greenhouse. Warm, humid air surrounded them when Eben tugged the wide delivery entrance door open. The aroma of moist soil, the biting tang of artificial fertilizers and the green-to-bursting smell of ripe plants filled her nose and lungs and made her feel very awake. The smell of Chorillan in the summer. Kay'li found she was impatient for summer, despite the battles and struggles it might bring.

"Sir?" Eben led her down an aisle lined with growing racks, limp vines trailing from blue bottles of nutrient fluid.

"Welcome, Captain." The rough voice was punctuated with a rasping cough. A tall, pale, stoop-shouldered man shuffled into view at the end of the aisle, which opened into a work area full of tables and supply racks.

"Master Aidan?" The words burst from Kay'li's lips before she could control her shock.

The last person she expected to see working for the good of Wildlings was Seth Aidan. He had refused to take his own son home when Lucas was brought back from Phase. He had signed over custody to the Rehab Authority and as far as Nobi Cole knew, father and son hadn't seen each other since the fire that killed Jenni Aidan and released Lucas to the forests of Chorillan.

"I'm glad you remember me after all these years." Seth settled down on a stool in front of his central worktable and tugged his lab coat tighter around his shoulders.

"I remember a lot of things. Especially the day I got Nobi's message, telling me you disowned Lucas." That was the wrong way to start this meeting. Kay'li didn't care. The pain for her childhood friend had festered for years.

"Would it make any difference that my organization was forming even then? That I had to disown Lucas to channel suspicion away from me?" His voice grew stronger and some color returned to his face, but he showed no anger. If anything, he looked ashamed.

"Does Lucas know?"

Silence. Kay'li glanced at Eben. His eyes were wide, his mouth pressed into a thin line. Either the news of what Seth had done to his own son was news, or he was surprised at Kay'li's past relationship with the man.

"No," Seth finally said. "I haven't talked to him in years. I know he settled back at Emers, he has friends, a good job..." He sighed and slumped a little. "Not a day has gone by that I haven't felt some regret, but what we're doing here is more important than the hurt feelings of one boy."

Kay'li bit back a shriek of one boy! Seth was right, much as it galled her to admit it.

"Someone has been interfering with data and security systems across the colony for the past six, seven years. It's worse now than it's ever been." Seth waited for her reaction. He offered a crooked smile when she just nodded. "My people believe someone is fouling data, deleting records, making it harder to find the lost children or even know who is lost, who has been found, who has died. Like when your father first came to Chorillan, I think the Gen'gineers are back and killing children to keep them from telling what they see."

She immediately thought of her Uncle Daral and the Wildlings who chose never to come back to Port. They were out there, fighting the Gen'gineers. If they were still alive. Kay'li needed to resolve that question. She had to find her uncle. He would want to help.

"The satellites don't cover half the land they should. There could be dozens of communities out beyond surveillance. Poachers and illegal settlers. And the mythical Wildling settlements," he added with a more natural smile.

Kay'li nodded, amused that he had echoed her thoughts. "You think this all ties into the growing feeling against Wildlings?"

"People not only don't want their children to become Wildlings, they want Wildlings destroyed. For the last three years, when the first case of Phase hits in the spring, Wildling families are attacked by grieving parents. Or just interested, sympathetic parties," Seth said after pausing for emphasis.

"Artificially generated fear. Common tactic."

"We just have to figure out why," Eben said.

"If my network of watchers didn't report it and record it, no one would know. The general public doesn't know one tenth of what goes on. They only know the sanitized news broadcasts and the figures released by the Rehab people every year. They think the incidence of children going into Phase is dropping. The truth is that fewer children are surviving to reach Phase."

"Surviving?" Kay'li felt something grow cold and hard in the pit of her stomach.

"You remember that treatment I put Lucas and Sam through, that was supposed to protect them from Phase?" Seth closed his eyes. His mouth twisted in pain. "Your father as much as told me I was a fool. I should have listened to him."

"Nobi said Lucas was the only one who survived, of all those who got sick from the treatment. He thinks they're using it to screen children for vulnerability, but most people think their children are dying from illnesses or aneurisms or allergic reactions--"

"Or conveniently staged accidents," Eben offered.

"We can't prove it." Seth thumped the table for punctuation. "All we know is that children who react like Lucas did either die of the treatment, or survive. And if they survive, they become Wildlings. And they're already in custody before the first signs of Phase manifest."

"How many die in custody?" Kay'li asked, her throat tight and her voice breaking.

"Surprisingly few, but they're always weak, physically and sometimes mentally, after that."

"Like they were trying to put down roots into Chorillan to get the nourishment they needed, but their roots were cut off," she offered. Seth and Eben both nodded. "Da said that, a long time ago."

"Your father was a very wise man, Kay'li. If he had stayed here, we might not have this problem now."

"No. Da knew his efforts were being frustrated, but he couldn't get the proof he needed." She stepped up to the table and looked him directly in the eye. "We have the support now, and most of the proof. We just need to know who is trying to destroy Wildlings, why they generate the false fear and what their motive is. When we know that, I have the authority to do whatever is necessary to protect Wildlings and ensure justice. Even if it means disbanding the government and starting from scratch, with military rule." She held out her hand to Seth. "I pledge the support of the Scout Corps. Do I have yours?"

"Completely." He slid his hand into her grasp, warm and dry and strong. "Please, Captain, don't tell Lucas yet." Seth let out a dry little chuckle when a puzzled frown wrinkled her forehead and mouth. "If we're going to solve this once and for all, I can wait a little longer. I'm almost used to the guilt."

"You're the only one who will tell him," she promised. Kay'li realized she was a coward. She didn't want to see the disbelief, the hurt and anger that would spill out of Lucas when he learned the truth. Despite understanding what Seth had done, and why, she didn't want to have to defend the man to his son. Lucas had been her best friend when they were children.

What was he now? Someone to rescue? Someone she could never understand, because their lives had taken such different paths? Kay'li wished she could turn back time and freeze it in that idyllic spring before her mother fell ill.

Despite the accusations that they were idealists, foisting old-fashioned ideas of honor on the universe, Scouts were realists. Kay'li knew she only wasted time, longing for what could not be.

* * *

Kay'li walked into Nobi's office late the next morning and saw three people. The unexpectedness of the combination jammed her cheery greeting in her throat.

Nobi, Lucas, and a tall, square-built young man in a Peace Forcer uniform stood at one of the desks, studying papers. Logic said Peacers reported to Nobi as the magistrate for Emers, but current events made her think the Peacer was here to harass Lucas, who hadn't done anything. He was simply a Wildling, and everyone knew Peacers hated Wildlings.

Questions clogged in her throat. The two sides stared at each other in silence. Then Nobi grinned.

"You couldn't take it very long, could you?" He laughed and turned to the two young men. "Lucas, you remember--"

"I ran into Kay'li in the cemetery yesterday." Lucas glanced at the Peacer. "We told you about Captain Fieran, right?"

"You're little Kay'li?" The Peacer stepped back and shook his head, a grin spreading across his face as he looked her over from head to foot. "I didn't think the Scout Corps grew them like that."

Lucas elbowed him in the ribs, hard enough to make him grunt and bend over, his face turning red. Kay'li stared when Nobi just laughed and shook his head.

"Ah--Uncle Nobi--"

"Oops." Nobi shook his head. "Kay'li, this is Brad Kemp. Jase's nephew. He and Lucas are my right hands."

"Two right hands?" Her brain scrambled to assimilate the new information. Brad was all right, despite his uniform. "Is that better or worse than two left feet?"

"She's going to fit in here too well," Brad said with a grin. His cocoa-brown eyes sparkled. He shook her hand, and held onto it a few seconds longer than was comfortable.

"So." Nobi settled down at the desk with the highest stacks of paperwork and data disks. "Have you decided on your plan of action yet?"

"Plan of action?" Lucas walked over to another desk and yanked a coat off the back of the chair behind it.

Kay'li tried not to stare. Did that mean that was his desk? Lucas worked for Nobi? That meant she would spend a lot of time with him in the weeks to come. Was that good or bad? Helpful to her mission--or a distraction she didn't need? She could still feel the warmth from that brief hug she gave him yesterday.

"I'm just going to walk around and get re-acquainted with Emers and move back into my parents' home," she said with a shrug. There were two more desks in Nobi's office, and they both looked empty. Maybe she could snag some kind of job working for him, to give her an excuse to be here constantly, and access to all his files and security clearances.

"You can't move back in there," Nobi protested. "It's been closed up ever since you two left. It's probably filthy and the air's bad, no power left in the cells, no water in the purifier system, no food, probably not a decent mattress or cushion left in the place."

"So I'll stay in the boarding house until everything's clean. Shouldn't take me more than a day." She avoided looking at Lucas, not sure what reaction she wanted from him.

"You're not staying in any boarding house. I have five bedrooms here nobody's using."

"Five." Kay'li snorted and grinned. "What do you need five bedrooms for out here?"

"They had big plans for Emers Outpost when they first built it." Lucas finished putting on his coat and picked up a data pad.

"It's seven bedrooms, anyway," Nobi said. "Lucas has one, I have another, and that leaves five for you to choose from."

"Lucas lives here?" Kay'li wished she didn't feel like she tripped over her tongue.

"Have to earn my keep," Lucas said with a crooked grin. "You ready?" He glanced at Brad, who had been watching the exchange with a grin that reminded Kay'li of her moons living with the K'vreesh. She prayed he wasn't one of those wife-hungry young men she had been warned about. The last thing she needed was an unwanted courtship interfering with her mission.

Especially someone who's a friend to Lucas, a quiet little voice deep inside added.

In moments, Lucas and Brad left, running for the landing field and the four-man sled with Peacer markings on the nose and tail.

"He lives with you," Kay'li muttered, as the door closed. "And Jase Kemp's nephew is a Peacer. Uncle Nobi, something is going on here that I don't understand."

"Yeah, I can imagine." He put his feet up on his desk and stretched his arms toward the ceiling, arching his back, before slouching down. His usual position for a good, long talk. "Brad is all right. It took a while to prove to most of the Wildlings around here that he was on our side, but Jase and Lucas are good character references. Brad's passed up two promotions already so he could stay here and help. He and Lucas are just about the best Wildling hunting team on the entire planet. Not a single kid they bring back has ever been hurt or frightened and they all go through Rehab at triple speed with no complications."

"That's good. So, Lucas lives here with you." She settled on the edge of his desk and looked around the cluttered office.

"Stupid paper-pushers at Rehab," he growled. "Lucas is a legend, surviving two winters alone. That makes him a figurehead for all the Wildlings. They'd do just about anything he asked. And that kind of authority and visibility makes him a bomb waiting to explode, in the eyes of the neurotics who think all Wildlings are dangerous, mentally unstable and carrying some plague that's going to wipe out the entire colony." He shook his head. "The best way to keep them from setting spies on him, give him some freedom to move and live a normal life, is to have him right under the nose of the local government authority."

"A retired Scout. Above suspicion or reproach." Kay'li snorted. "They don't know you too well, do they? If they ever learned just how sympathetic you are to Wildlings...."

They shared a grin, eyes sparkling.

"So, now you understand some of the situation here."

"Some." Kay'li nodded. "No wonder most of the migration from Port settles around here. With a friendly Peacer and a Wildling as the magistrate's assistant, this is the safest place to settle. My orders are to contact the leader of the Wildlings, if they have a leader. Lucas?"

"He'd deny it, but everybody takes their cue from him. If they need advice or someone to pass judgment, they'll go to Lucas before they'll come to me or their own magistrate."

"Grandmother remembers Lucas. Mostly because he wasn't at all respectful when she came out here to visit Mama. She knows he's here, and she wasn't too happy about my plans to stay out here. I had to promise to come visit her regularly."

"That's good for our plans. Keep on her good side, and she'll give you all the data and support you need to get your job done." His grin went crooked when Kay'li just shrugged. "What about Kallin?"

"I don't know. He didn't talk much to me. He watched me, though. Most of what he and Grandmother talked about had to do with matchmaking. Just like with Mama, I'm a tool to further their political ambitions."

"Won't they be shocked when it all comes to light?"

"More than a shock." She sighed and rubbed at her eyes. She felt too tired for all of this. Not just making her parents' home livable again, but all that lay behind her need for a private residence.

Kay'li wished she could just walk into the Council, dissolve the colonial government, set up a military government and then turn over the entire planet to Wildlings. Anyone who didn't support them could leave.

That was the easy solution. Easy solutions, according to her father, were never the fair or the right ones. She needed proof, concrete and irrefutable, pointing clearly to the guilty parties, before she could act.

"So, when is your Upper University researcher coming to set up shop?" Nobi asked.

"He's in orbit right now, wading through the medical and security clearances. You should have heard Grandmother when she got the news at breakfast." She shook her head. "I have this feeling she's one of those people who don't really want to know the truth about Phase and what makes a Wildling change."

"Ignorance and going on imagination instead of fact is certainly a lot more comfortable and convenient."

"For who?"

"The side with the power and all the comforts, of course." He shook his finger at her. "Didn't they teach you the right things after I retired?"

"That was a rhetorical question."

"Oh, now she uses big, fancy words."

"So did Grandmother when she warned me to be very careful around my former playmate. She seems to think any change in the weather or different conjunctions of the moons will affect a Wildling's mind. She really believes the Rovers are the norm, not the rebellious minority. She thinks it's a waste of time and Dr. Habbab's good reputation to try to find the cause and cure or prevention for Phase."

"Chorillan still isn't viable enough to pay Commonwealth taxes, so what is she worried about?" Nobi muttered. That earned a snort of laughter from Kay'li, but not much more.

"She says Dr. Habbab will regret coming here."

"Making threats against a Commonwealth Upper University doctor? That wouldn't be good for her."

"No." She shook her head and slid off the desk to pace, a few steps up, turn, a few steps back, turn. "More like she knows someone who will make things difficult or even dangerous for Dr. Habbab. I wish I could warn him, but the story is that we've never met." A thin smile stretched her lips but didn't reach to her eyes. "I could send word through my contact in Port. His organization is very well-anchored in the academic sector."

"Oh, really? Would you mind filling me in on this? I'm just a retired Scout and I've only been coordinating everything the last three years, but--"

"Seth Aidan." Kay'li settled on the edge of the desk and watched Nobi's face shift through several reactions to the news.

"Tides do turn," he murmured after several long moments. "How long has this been going on?"

"Since Lucas didn't come back that first winter. His father moved to Port and was shocked by the anti-Wildling feeling in the city. He decided he had to do something. When Lucas came back, he was under suspicion, so he had to disown Lucas to protect the Underground. It hasn't been easy for him." She wrapped her arms around herself, chilled by her thoughts. "I wanted to hit him. I've been so angry for Lucas's sake, and then to find out it was political maneuvering--"

"You're not going to tell Lucas about his father, are you?" Nobi nodded approval when she solemnly shook her head. "It's best if we leave things as they are, and let those two sort it out for themselves when it's finally safe."

"That's what Master Aidan said."

---

Chapter Three

"He's late," Brad muttered, glancing at his companion. He smoothed the front of his red and gray Peacer uniform, then rested his hands on top of the table. Worry wrinkled his broad, good-natured face, darkening his eyes. He ran a hand through his golden-brown short curls and shrugged his shoulders as if his uniform had grown too tight.

"Trae's never late. Your chrono is fast again." Lucas grinned crookedly and leaned back in his chair. "When will you learn to tell time without that piece of junk?"

His midnight hair and eyes helped him blend into the shadows of the greasy diner. He was more uncomfortable than Brad, but necessity taught him to hide his reactions when in Port. He held his breath as a cloud of rank steam from the kitchen drifted past. This diner was the worst place to eat on the whole planet, and smelled it. It sat next to the spaceport with its attendant noise and stench. No one would ever expect hyper-sensitive Wildlings to come to such a place. Which was why they met Trae Alvers there.

Only for Trae would Lucas put on the synthetic clothes worn in Port. He would have a rash over most of his body by afternoon. The itch had already started. He wished the plastic smell of the material was strong enough to mask the nauseating odors of bad food, shuttle fuel and too many unwashed bodies in one place. He actually envied Brad's numb nose.

Lucas felt a change in the airflow in the diner. He glimpsed a shadowy form nearing the table.

"Sorry," Trae muttered as he slipped into the third seat at their corner table. He brushed a lock of hair out of his face and managed a shaky grin.

Lucas frowned, studying his friend. He hadn't seen Trae since before winter. The changes alarmed him. Silver threads glinted among his dark red hair. Cheekbones made sharp angles under pale skin. Only a moon into spring now, Lucas already had a healthy tan that made him look dark as mud in comparison.

"What's up?" Brad glanced around, feigning nonchalance that didn't fool Lucas.

Not even the grimy waitress had come near their table since serving them greasy, lukewarm spyce. The other customers stayed on the far side of the room. A uniform was the best way to ensure a private conversation.

"We got word when the ship came into orbit yesterday morning. The Commonwealth Upper University has finally sent someone." Trae sat back, eyes shining.

"A cure?" Brad pursed his lips to whistle, then caught himself and settled for a broad grin.

"Not so fast." Lucas shook his head. He hated seeing the instant break in his friends' excitement, but he disliked even more watching hopes plummet. "He can't find cure or prevention until he finds out what causes Phase."

"But just think about it." Trae leaned in closer and lowered his voice, as if the weary spaceport workers wanted to hear their conversation. "We could have kids without worry about them dying during Phase. We'd know."

"You too?" Lucas sighed. "I thought you were on my side."

"On your side?" Brad's voice rose a few steps. "What are you talking about now?"

"I like being a Wildling. If the government would leave us alone, let us help children our way, there wouldn't be any trouble." He met first Trae's, then Brad's gaze, daring them to contradict his words.

"Well, out there at Emers it might be all right. If you had to live here--" Trae began.

"You don't have to live here. There's plenty of land around Emers. And further out."

"Look," Brad said, "we've been through this a thousand times already. We all made our choices." He grinned as guilt crossed their faces. Brad had turned down promotion to a command in Port to stay at Emers.

"Sorry." Lucas took a deep breath to calm the core of anger in his chest. He hated coming to Port. Yet he was the one who came running whenever there was trouble or news or someone needed help. "So, a doctor has finally come from the Commonwealth. What else?"

"He sent word ahead that he needs volunteers. Wildlings in a wide age range. I'm going."

"The last time someone did a study, Wildlings were so damaged by the drugs, they crawled off to die."

"That was before we were born!" Trae glanced around as his voice rose. Still, no one seemed to be listening.

Lucas looked away, wishing for the words to dissuade his friend. Yet, if anyone searched for the cause and cure of Phase, Wildlings needed someone on the inside, to know the truth. He sighed. "Okay, who else is going?"

"Not sure yet." Trae grinned nervously. "You're the first ones I've told. Besides Linnell."

"You could have just sent us a letter, for that much news," Brad grumbled, teasing.

"That's not all. Timpsons need to move. A girl on their street hit Phase three days ago. Bad, hyper-fast. Her parents bypassed the authorities and took her past Corley in the middle of the night. They're camping out to keep track of her, but the relatives left behind are burning. They blame the Timpsons."

"It's no virus," Brad said with a snort of disbelief. "Even the Council agrees to that."

"You could lose your job if you talk like that in public," Lucas reminded him with a wry grin. "Okay, we'll arrange it. The old Zepti place is in pretty good condition."

"Thanks, Luc. You're saving their lives." Trae sat up like a weight had left his shoulders.

"It can't be that bad yet."

The fear and prejudice against Wildlings was always worst in the spring, when susceptible children entered Phase. When would the rising tide against the Wildlings reach its predicted peak and begin to ebb? Dr. Donal kept assuring him it would, that it had before, but Lucas found it harder to believe as time went on and nothing got better.

Trae brought a disk from his pocket. "Sam," he said, pushing it across the table to Lucas.

"Thanks." He pocketed the message gingerly, the plastic tingling against his fingers. Lucas wondered what rumors his brother warned him about now. Sometimes he wished Sam would stop trying to make up for problems that weren't his fault.

Trae stood and glanced around. "I'll send you word once I've talked with Dr. Habbab."

"Take care, Trae." Lucas reached across and squeezed his friend's shoulder once, hard.

He nodded and left. Lucas didn't watch but he knew his movements by heart. The way Trae shortened his stride when he walked down the public street, the furtive glances, the hunching of his shoulders. All that vanished whenever he entered the areas of Port where Wildlings lived. Then Trae would walk with light steps, long strides, gliding down the street, straight and tall. Lucas hated the game of conformity Wildlings played in Port, but it was the only way to avoid trouble.

Brad and Lucas lingered in silence, drinking more spyce until the late morning crowd changed to lunch rush hour. Lucas thought over what Trae had told them. He wondered what Dr. Donal knew about the incoming scientist. The time had come for change. Lucas hoped something would influence that change for good.

* * *

The first time a total stranger walked through the mudroom door of her parents' house, picked up a bucket and started helping with the massive cleaning job, Kay'li was startled enough to reach for the tiny dart gun tucked into her boot cuff. Nobi stopped her with a shout and a grin, and the newcomer gave her an abbreviated salute. Kay'li fought for composure while Nobi introduced her to the first Scout team leader.

She knew she should have been suspicious when Nobi volunteered to help with cleaning. It was the perfect cover, though, to meet with her team quickly and in private. And it got her house halfway livable in one short afternoon.

Kay'li would have been delighted with the afternoon, even with her sore back and arms and her hands wrinkled from hours in wash water, but for one thing: every Scout reported a disturbing pattern. Many participated in Wildling hunts, to get first-hand knowledge of the children and their treatment. Too many times over the last two years, the target children had simply vanished. The hunters closed in, and then there suddenly was no child. Once would have been an isolated incident. Twice was coincidence. It had happened to everyone at least once. Someone quietly captured the children and took them beyond the reach of the hunters. None of the children ever re-entered society later. Where were the children? Were they alive or dead?

Who had them? The Wildlings who refused to come back to Port, led by her Uncle Daral--if Daral was still alive? Or had Ian Fieran's worst fears become reality, and the Gen'gineers were hard at work, analyzing and dissecting Wildling children to help create the superior Human of their dreams?

Figures were hazy, kept that way by government secrecy and the lack of cooperation from bereaved parents and Wildlings. All the Scouts could decipher was that two-thirds of the children who went into Phase were never reported to the authorities until late fall, when they hadn't come back from a summer of running wild and likely never would. The prevalent mentality was that the children were better off dead than in Rehab and facing life as a Wildling on the edge of society.

Even more disturbing, the birthrate on Chorillan had dropped so low, even with regular immigration--and that had dropped off at an alarming rate, as if people were discouraged from settling--the colony had reported negative growth for the last six years. Didn't anyone care? And why, with children being the most precious commodity on the planet, didn't anyone do anything about the threat to them?

* * *

"I wish you had told me you were meeting with Lucas." Linnell Alvers looked up from her tray of drying herbs. "I'm running low on a few things." She brushed a strand of dull blond hair out of her eyes and sat back from the table to study her younger brother. Gray eyes narrowed in worried contrast to his excitement. "You're joining the study, aren't you?"

"Somebody has to." Trae looked around the large, airy room his sister used for treating her patients. His nose twitched at the scents of home-brewed, natural medicines. "Lin, we need answers. Things aren't getting better."

"I know." She shrugged, weary. "I just think of others who tried to find cures. Something always made them give up. And things just got worse when those hopes were dashed."

"That's just it!" Excitement gave color to his winter-pale face. "Nobody but Lucas and a few others listen when I say it's worse than ever."

"I know! I was there when you hit Phase. The neighbors stayed away until you went to the Holding House." Linnell fled the room.

"Aaron broke off your engagement because of me," he said in a soft voice as he followed her to the kitchen. "Because you use natural medicines and help Wildlings, people don't come to you. Lin, why don't you just move to the outposts?"

"You sound like Lucas." She turned on a heating coil under a pot of water. "Tea?" When he nodded, she dug through the cupboards for cups and the tea canister. "Just like you tell Lucas, I can't leave. The Wildlings in Port need me. I do understand why you have to go into the study. I just have this awful feeling...and it's not my empathy, either." She turned from the cupboard and gave him a watery smile. "You'll be careful, won't you?"

"Since when haven't I been?" Like layers of mud peeling away, Trae felt tension leave. Convincing his sister was the hardest part of deciding to contact Dr. Habbab. "Devon Litt, Myra Collins and Trissa Goli are going. We need a bigger age range, but it's a good start."

"Have you even talked with Dr. Habbab yet?"

"Tonight. I'll feel out the situation. If I don't sense any trouble, then the others will volunteer."

"It's about time you showed some common sense," she teased, her teary eyes giving a lie to her cheerful tone.

"Between you and Lucas on my heels, how can I do anything else?" Trae slipped an arm around her shoulders and gave her a shake. Someone knocked on the mudroom door. He made a comical grimace of disgust and let Linnell go answer the door.

He couldn't hear the voice, but the breeze that came from the mudroom brought Trae scents of bitter pain, salty blood and burned flesh. He set out a third cup and searched for a tray to carry it all to the healing room.

Linnell led Matt Thorn into the kitchen. He cradled his arm, partially hidden by the jacket draped over his shoulders. The burly blond gave Trae a searching glance with blood-shot blue eyes, then relaxed enough to nod to him. He followed Linnell to her healing room. When the water boiled, Trae poured it into the teapot and took everything to the other room.

Matt sat on the examination table, his jacket and shirt tossed onto a chair. The stiff hairs on his arm were scorched away. Streaked patches of flesh were ice white, on the verge of blistering. In some places, blood oozed from shallow scrapes and deeper burns. The man sat up straight and stared out the window while Linnell washed his wounds with kesselroot solution.

"Another accident?" Trae asked in a neutral voice. Matt grunted, all the answer necessary. "Seems like too many lately."

"If we weren't so fast helping others and getting hurt in turn," Matt said, "they'd blame Wildlings for all the trouble."

"I have yet to see a clumsy Wildling." Linnell snorted and stepped over to the sink to wash out her cloth.

"How about the Rovers?" He looked down at his arm and favored her with a grin. "Getting better already."

"Sometimes I wonder why you even come to me. Your healing rate is something for the medical books. Lotusite," she added, coming back to the table with a clay pot that gave off an acid-sweet smell. She put on a glove and smoothed the whitish ointment on the burns.

"No medical books, no officials, no doctors--and no reporting the accident," Trae added. "Am I right?"

"We get more proof every day there are no true accidents," Matt's growled. "Still not enough proof. Yet." He winced, inhaling deeply.

"That's what you get for jerking your arm around when I'm treating it." Linnell tapped his shoulder in rebuke. "There. Just let it sit until the lotusite works."

"Sweet Linnell, what would we do without you?" He chuckled when she rolled her eyes in exasperation and took the pot back to the cupboard. Matt's guarded expression brightened. He nodded thanks when Trae handed him a cup of tea. "I heard Lucas and Brad were in Port today. Making arrangements for the Timpsons?"

"It's a good thing the Peacers aren't so sharp." Trae glanced at Linnell, then back to Matt. "I'm volunteering for Dr. Habbab's program. What do you say?"

"I say we have more martyrs than we need."

"You won't try to discourage others, will you?"

"No." Matt shook his head. He concentrated on his tea. "Lotusite's deadened it. Can you bandage me up now? I have to meet Jac at the depot and slip some packages into the shipment for Corley Outpost."

"Not guns, I hope?" Linnell teased. Matt pretended shock. Trae shook his head, smothering a grin under his hand.

"Guns are noisy, woman. Wouldn't use them even if we had them. Wildlings take the silent way. The less notice we attract...." Matt shrugged. They understood.

* * *

Lucas and Brad didn't reach Emers Outpost until almost dinnertime. Trae's news was too important to pass through the usual Wildling communication channels. They visited with the leaders in each outpost, going in a wide circle around Port until they reached the furthest outpost, Emers. Lucas was tired, his head ached from thinking too long and depressing himself with worst-case scenarios, and he stank from that diner in Port and the synthetics filling the air in the sled.

The scent of Kay'li filled the house, his first breath making him momentarily dizzy when he walked through the door. Lucas closed his eyes, confused by the sweet, clean perfume with a tinge of synthetics that always made him think of sickness and rot; a paradox. He had forgotten Kay'li would stay there until she had her parents' house livable. Would that be a problem? Lucas made a fist, his scarred thumb sticking out, and stared at it. They had vowed to be there for each other, always be friends when they grew up.

Who would be in more danger, if the radical elements in Port learned a single, non-Wildling female lived in the same house with a single Wildling male? There was no justice when Wildlings were the victims. If anyone thought Kay'li was involved with him, there would be no justice for her, either.

Remembering the little girl she had been, Lucas suspected warning Kay'li could get disbelief, then fury, and she would stay in Nobi's house permanently, just to make a point. It was smarter to keep his mouth shut. For now, anyway.

Lucas barely heard Nobi's greeting shouted from the kitchen as he headed up the stairs. He tried not to, but he followed Kay'li's scent, looking for her.

He found her in the room at the far end of the hall. As far as she could get from his room while staying in the same house. Maybe Nobi had warned her already. Kay'li didn't turn around, didn't sense him watching her unpack her two small trunks.

She had definitely grown up. If she wasn't careful, with her gliding walk, upright posture and economical movements, someone would suspect she was a Wildling. He would have to warn her about that--but how could he tell her to be clumsy and make noise when she walked?

Lucas heard Nobi and Brad talking downstairs. Enough words came clearly through the wood floor to guess yet another security directive had come from Port. Lucas didn't want to hear about it. At least, not until after supper. From the aromas, Nobi had that well in hand and didn't need his help. Maybe there was time for a long sit in the sweathouse. Lucas dashed down the hall to his room and grabbed the first clean clothing he found. A stack of soap bars sat on the table by the window. Jesse Tarrant had been by with a new batch. Lucas snatched up a bar and a towel and hurried downstairs again.

He went through the kitchen and the mudroom, avoiding Brad and Nobi's conversation, and slipped outside, into the forest. It felt like reaching refuge. The air smelled sweet, heavy with a threatened shower. Lucas enjoyed the feel of moisture against his skin, soothing away the grime and poisons from Port air. Flowers began to close with approaching dusk, sending their various sweet and bitter perfumes into the cooling air.

Scents of clay and reeds reached Lucas before he topped the rise above the riverbank. He slowed where the ground turned pebbly and sloped down. The water gleamed dull silver green with the setting sun, inviting him into the cool depths. He tugged off his jacket and shirt and turned to the right before he reached the bank.

A squat, round hut of logs covered with clay and grass waited in the shadows. The door of silverdeer skin swayed in the breeze. A faint odor of smoke and herbs hung around it. Wood in the fire pit and fresh water and herbs in the buckets inside waited for the next person.

Kneeling, Lucas scraped a sparkstone against his knife to start the fire. He tried to still his thoughts, concentrating on the flame and the smoke going upward. When he had the fire going strong, he put the smooth heating stones between the burning branches, then stacked more wood on top. By the time he finished his bath, the stones would be hot.

He dropped his clothes in a reed basket hanging from one side of the hut as he undressed. Bracing himself, he picked up the soap and ran the last few steps to plunge into the water.

Cold! He broke the surface with a shout, snapping his head back so the water sprayed from his hair. Already, Lucas felt better, the taint of Port fading. He rubbed soap all over his body, silently blessing Jesse for her generosity. Three times he scrubbed and rinsed. The third time he came up, he headed for the bank.

Lucas snagged his towel and wrapped it around his hips. His ritual cleansing bath and sweat after visiting Port had become a mental and physical necessity. Solitude made it easier to concentrate on his concerns and recent events.

Images from the past few days returned. Lucas considered the problems and silently asked Fi'in for help. Not until he sat inside the sweathouse, dipping water over the hot rocks and hearing them sizzle, did thoughts of Kay'li Fieran intrude. Lucas splashed more water on, until the steam choked him.

Kay'li was going to be a problem. She was a Chorillan native, yet had lived most of her life on other worlds. Would she simply assume she knew her home world, and then go on to make dangerous mistakes? Or would she be too cautious, ask too many questions, maybe catch the attention of the wrong people? Could he protect her? Should he try? Would his presence cause her more trouble? Lucas decided to introduce her to some women settlers for friends and refuge. Jesse and Maura came to mind first.

His thoughts didn't stay long on Kay'li, much as he would have wished it. The news he had heard came back to him. He closed his eyes as the steam grew hotter and thicker.

Trae's walking into trouble and I can't stop him. Lucas choked on laughter as a thought came to him, as clear as words spoken in the steamy darkness.

Who made him responsible for every Wildling? Who told him to think for everyone, carry a load of guilt for their mistakes, and plan for their survival at the expense of his own peace of mind?

Rivulets of sweat rolled down his face as he leaned back against the log walls and breathed the hot, moist air. Lucas wished he could think so clearly all the time. Many Wildlings did depend on him. He was the focal point for so many plans and hopes and fears it was a crushing weight that sometimes stole his sleep. Even with friends who listened and offered advice and support, he still felt alone in the struggle.

Lucas flung aside the skin door and dashed through the growing shadows into the river. The sudden change from steam to chill tore his breath from his lungs. He emerged from the icy grip of the water gasping and laughing. His senses turned crystal clear, colors brighter, smells almost solid in the air. He shivered, feeling his skin shrink over tight muscles. He gloried in being alive and fully alert. Reluctantly, Lucas climbed out of the water and put on his clean clothes.

* * *

Kay'li walked back to her parents' house after the supper dishes were cleaned up. She needed to get the feel of it at night, quiet, with no Scouts filling it with depressing reports and speculations and the smells of cleaning solution. She had repai