"Let me rephrase," Rybicki said. "I've been as honest with you as I've been allowed to be."

"You lied to me and Jane and an entire colony's worth of people," I said. "You've shunted us to the ass end of the universe and threatened us with annihilation from a group none of us even knew existed. You took colonists trained on modern equipment and forced them to colonize with ancient machines they barely knew how to use. If some of our colonists hadn't happened to have been Mennonites, the only thing you would have found here would have been bones. And because you didn't survey this planet well enough to know it has its own goddamned intelligent species, seven of my colonists have died in the last three days. So with all due respect, General, you can kiss my ass. Jane's not here because if she was, you'd probably already be dead. I'm not feeling any more charitable to you myself."

"Fair enough," Rybicki said, grimly.

"Now," I said. "Answers."

"Since you mentioned annihilation, you know about the Conclave," Rybicki said. "How much do you know?"

"I know what information you sent us," I said, neglecting to mention I knew anything else.

"Then you know that it is actively seeking out new colonies and getting rid of them," Rybicki said. "As you might expect, this is not going over well with the races who have had their colonies expunged. The Colonial Union has taken the lead in resisting the Conclave, and this colony has played a major role in that."

"How?" I said.

"By staying hidden," Rybicki said. "Christ, Perry, you've been here for almost a year. The Conclave has been going nuts looking for you. And every day it hasn't found you, the less terrifying it looks. The more it looks like what it is: the universe's biggest pyramid scheme. It's a system where a few strong races are leveraging the gullibility of a bunch of weaker races to snap up every habitable planet in sight. We've been using this colony as a lever to pry off some of those sucker races. We're destabilizing the Conclave before it can reach critical mass and crush us and everyone else with it."

"And this required deceiving everyone, including the crew of the Magellan," I said.

"Unfortunately, yes," Rybicki said. "Look. The number of people who knew about this had to be kept to an absolute bare minimum. The Secretary of Colonization. Me. General Szilard of the Special Forces and a few of his handpicked soldiers. I supervised the load out and engineered some of the colonial selection. It's not an accident you have Mennonites here, Perry. And it's not an accident you had enough ancient machinery to get you through. It's regrettable that we couldn't tell you, and I'm sorry that we couldn't see another way to do this. But I'm not going to apologize for it, because it worked."

"And how is this playing back home?" I said. "How do the home planets of our people feel about you playing with the lives of their friends and families?"

"They don't know," Rybicki said. "The existence of the Conclave is a state secret, Perry. We haven't told the individual colonies about it. It's not something they need to worry about yet."

"You don't think a federation of a few hundred other races in this part of space is something most people might want to know about," I said.

"I'm sure they'd want to knew about it," Rybicki said. "And between you and me, if I had my way, they probably would know about it already. But it's not up to me, or you or any of us."

"So everyone still thinks we re lost," I said.

"They do," Rybicki said. "The second lost colony of Roanoke. You're famous."

"But you've just given the game away," I said. "You're here. When you go back, people are going to know we're here. And my people know about the Conclave."

"How do they know?" Rybicki asked.

"Because we told them," I said, disbelieving. "Are you serious? You expect me to tell people they can't use any technology more advanced than a mechanical combine and not give them a reason? I would have been the first death on the planet. So they know. And because they know, everyone they know back in the Colonial Union will know, too. Unless you plan to keep us stranded. In which case those same people who are jumping for joy outside that window will string you up by your thumbs."

"No, you're not being put back in the hole," Rybicki said. "On the other hand, you're not quite out of the hole yet, either. We're here to do two things. The first is to pick up the crew of the Magellan."

"For which they will no doubt be eternally grateful, although I expect Captain Zane wants his ship back," I said.

"The second thing is to let you know that all the equipment you haven't been using, you can now," Rybicki said. "Say good-bye to the second millennium. Welcome to modern times. You can't send messages back to the Colonial Union yet, though. There are still a few details to develop."

"Using modern equipment will give us away," I said.

"That's right," Rybicki said.

"You're giving me whiplash," I said. "We've spent a year hiding so you can weaken the Conclave, and now you want us to give ourselves away. Maybe I'm confused, but I'm not sure how getting ourselves slaughtered by the Conclave helps the Colonial Union."

"You're presuming you're going to get slaughtered," Rybicki said.

"Is there another option?" I asked. "If we ask nicely, will the Conclave just let us pack up and go?"

"That's not what I'm saying," Rybicki said. "I'm saying that the Colonial Union has kept you hidden because we needed to keep you hidden. Now we need to let the Conclave know where you are. We have something planned. And once we spring our little surprise, then there'll be no point keeping either you or the Conclave a secret from the colonies. Because the Conclave will have collapsed, and you will have been the key."

"You need to tell me how," I said.

"Fine," Rybicki said, and did.

"How are you?" I asked Jane, in the Black Box.

"I don't want to knife people anymore, if that's what you're asking," Jane said, and tapped her forehead, signifying the Brain-Pal nestled behind it. "I'm still not happy about this."

"How could you not know it was there?" I asked.

"BrainPals are remotely activated," Jane said. "I couldn't have turned it on myself. Rybicki's ship sent out a search signal; the signal woke up the BrainPal. Now it's on. Listen, I've gone through the files Hickory gave me."

"All of them?" I asked.

"Yes," Jane said. "I've been completely made over and have the BrainPal. I can go back to Special Forces processing speed."

"And?" I asked.

"They check out," Jane said. "Hickory has video and documentation from Conclave sources, which is suspect. But he has corroborating material for each case, from Obin sources, from the races whose colonies were removed and from the Colonial Union, too."

"They could all be faked," I said. "It could be a monumental hoax."

"No," Jane said. "The Colonial Union files have a verification hash in the metatext. I ran them through the BrainPal. They're genuine."

"Certainly gives you an appreciation for ol' Hickory, doesn't it," I said.

"It does," Jane said. "He wasn't lying when he said the Obin wouldn't send just anyone to be with Zoe. Although from what I can see from these files, it's Dickory who is the superior of the two."

"Jesus," I said. "Just when you think you know a guy. Or gal. Or creature of indeterminate gender, which is what it is."

"It's not indeterminate," Jane said. "It's both."

"What about this General Gau," I said. "Do your files have anything on him?"

"Some," Jane said. "Just the basics. He's Vrenn, and what he says in the extended tape of ours appears to be correct; after the battle with the Kies he began agitating to create the Conclave. It didn't go over at first. He was thrown into prison for political agitation. But then the Vrenn ruler met an unfortunate end and the general was released by the next regime."