I patted the pockets of the Explorer jacket. They all felt empty. "It seems I do not have such a device; but I know where to get one."

"New Earth," Uclod said gloomily.

"There is one much closer than that," I told him. "In Nimbus’s cabin."

"In…" Festina stopped as she realized what I meant.

"Zaretts," I said, "have the ability to make long-distance broadcasts. And we have an infant Zarett."

Without waiting for an answer, I headed off. I had been official communications officer on Starbiter Senior; I intended to assume the same role with Starbiter Junior.

16: WHEREIN I ACQUIRE NEW FAMILY

Black Goo

Outside Nimbus’s room, there was no sign of the black clouds that had been guarding him. However, the floor was smeared with a black goo that looked exceedingly yucky; I did not want to step in it, for fear it would stick to my feet.

Festina stared down at the gunk on the floor and whistled softly. "Looks like Captain’s Last Act cooks defense nano."

"Good thing too," Captain Kapoor said. "The defense clouds are controlled by the ship-soul; with the computers off-line, you’d have billions of hunter-killer nano-bots flying around without supervision. Thank heavens we don’t have to worry about that." "Don’t speak too soon," Festina said. "We haven’t told you about sick bay. Now stand back if you please, Captain, and let an Explorer put her foot in it."

She stepped carefully onto the awful black deposit, tapping it a few times with her toe before setting down her full weight. "Not sticky," she said. Experimentally, she pushed her foot a short distance across the black surface. "Not slippery either." She glanced back at the rest of us. "Considering my usual luck, this is where the cloud suddenly rises from the floor and chews the meat from my bones."

But no such horror occurred. Instead, Festina moved to the door of the cabin and smashed the heel of her palm against a little plastic patch in the very middle. I had been told that one touched such patches in order to request admittance; I had not been told one could bash in the cover plate and manipulate the exposed mechanisms so as to open the door manually. It made me wonder if Lajoolie had been wasting her strength when she broke down the door of the computer room… but then, Lajoolie was not a navy person and therefore did not know the intricacies of the Hemlock’s hatches.

Anyway, I am sure she found it far more satisfying to bludgeon a door out of its frame than to twiddle tiny gears until something went click. There is far too little bludgeoning in the human navy.

A Great Fright

After Festina worked her trick with the lock, she could easily pull the door open. To my surprise, the cabin appeared empty; baby Starbiter nestled securely on a padded chair, but there was no sign of Nimbus. "Where has he gone?" I cried.

"Check if the floor’s sticky," Uclod said bitterly. "Maybe whatever zapped the defense nanites took out Nimbus too."

"Is that possible?" I asked in Great Consternation.

Festina shook her head. "I don’t think so. Zaretts are made of biological components; nano is mechanical."

"On a microscopic scale," Uclod said, "how much difference does it make? Both Nimbus and the nanites are just fancy organic molecules."

"So are we," Festina replied. "And we’re still alive."

"We’re natural creatures," Uclod told her. "Nimbus wasn’t."

"You’re not natural," Festina said. "The whole Freep species was bioengineered."

"We’re a minor variation on natural Divian stock — just a few tweaks away from the original. But the Shaddill created Nimbus from scratch. God knows, his components may have been closer to nanites than real living cells. We should check for smears on the rug."

"Husband," said Lajoolie. "Hush." She turned to the rest of us apologetically. "He’s still distressed about his grandmother. Pay no attention."

She gave a reassuring smile… but it had no effect on the butterflies fluttering in my stomach. Until now, I had never quite grasped that Nimbus was an artificial being: built by the Shaddill as a gift to the Divian people, just as my own race had been built as a gift to ancient Earthlings. Surely Nimbus and I possessed similar design features, with many DNAs and other Chemicals in common — were we not both transparent, clear and colorless? So in a way, we were brother and sister by virtue of our Shaddill-ish origins.

And now my brother might be dead? As lifeless as the black nano-things coating the floor like soot? What was wrong with this universe, that so many people kept dying?

Feeling scared and angry, I strode across the black residue encrusting the carpet, straight into the cloud man’s cabin. "Nimbus!" I cried. "Come out right away! Do not make us think you died from some foolish Science not even intended for you. Where have you gone, you poop-head cloud?"

For a moment, I sensed no response. Then, with a great whoosh, mist poured through a ventilator grid high up on one wall. The fog circled me once, a thick stream impossible to feel through my jacket; then it swept toward baby Starbiter and coalesced into the shape of a ghostly man seated on the infant’s chair.

"I’m back," said Nimbus. "What’s the problem?"

"You went away!" I was most furious with him for the fright he had given us. "You foolishly left; you abandoned your child! Whom you are supposed to take care of, so others do not have to. We are not such ones as know which hydrocarbons are best for a Zarett of tender years."

"Sorry to upset you," Nimbus said without sounding sorry at all, "but I went to see what was happening. The power died, and I heard a sort of crackle in the ventilator; when I investigated, I found my nanite guards were all settling out of the air, dead as dandruff. I decided I’d try to find someone to ask what was happening, but…" A ripple went through his body. "I got lost in the air ducts."

"You got lost?" I asked. "That is most irresponsible, you foolish cloud, when certain persons might choose to worry about you. Persons such as Uclod and Lajoolie. And little Starbiter. But not me, not even a little bit."

"It was pitch black everywhere," Nimbus said. "I couldn’t tell where I was till I heard yon hollering."

"I was not hollering!" I cried. "I never ever—"

Festina stopped me by laying her fingers lightly on my arm. "Hush. He’s fine. I was worried too."

The Howls Of Infants

"Now, Nimbus," Festina said, turning to the cloud man, "we’ve been sabotaged. Disabled. And we don’t have the right equipment for sending a Mayday. We were wondering if the little girl…" She took a moment to smile fondly at the baby snuggled inside Nimbus’s body; then her smile faltered. "I was going to ask if Starbiter could send out a Mayday for us. But now that I look at her, she’s so small… is she old enough to broadcast FTL messages?"

Nimbus did not answer immediately. The mist of his body rolled like steam from a fiercely boiling pot. Finally he said, "The ability to broadcast is present from birth; but she’s far too young to control it. The situation is similar to newborn children of your own species — they have well-developed vocal cords, but they certainly can’t talk intelligibly."

"Starbiter does not need to talk intelligibly," I said. "All she must do is cry. If we cause her to weep in a plaintive manner, will it not catch the attention of ships traveling nearby? And do not pretend she cannot wail, for it is the nature of babies to make such noises."

Behind me, someone made precisely the type of noise I had just described. The sound did not come from little Starbiter; it came from Lajoolie, who was looking most alarmed. "You don’t mean…" she said. "But you don’t want to hurt her… you wouldn’t…"