"Commander Quinn, the message!" MacArthur blurted, breaking the silence.

"Oh," Quinn mumbled. "Almost forgot. We got a letter in the mail. It was on the same cairn where Corporal MacArthur left your icon book. It's written in similar form, so I guess it's for you." Quinn walked over to his pack, unzipped a pocket, and pulled out a swatch of folded material. He carefully unfolded it and handed it to Buccari. The material was of heavy stock, a stiff cloth or linen. A stick figure of a man, identical to the icon she had used, was precisely drawn. Beneath the icon the letters «M-A-N» were printed with a draftsman's skill, just as she had presented the icon in her book. Next to the pictograph for a man were drawn two other figures, stick figures stylistically representing another race. One was much shorter than a man, an acute, inverted isosceles triangle for the head, short-legged, and arms extended with membrane wings opened, obviously a representation of a being like Tonto. The other was taller, although still shorter than the man, winged but less apparently different than a human. Beneath the winged icons were markings, evidently letters in the alien language signifying the creatures' name.

Buccari stared, fascinated. Her drawings, done with pen and straight-edge, seemed awkward and hurried in comparison to the precision of the drawings held in her hand.

"There's two different types!" she whispered.

"Male and female?" MacArthur ventured.

"Wonderful!" she said. "This is history! The first contact with high order extraterrestrial intelligence!"

"Actually the third contact," Quinn yawned. "The massacre at Shaula was the first; the second was our fleet getting blown back into hyperlight. This is the third."

"First peaceful contact, then," she corrected, her excitement unabated.

"But that's not all," Quinn said. The commander's energy seemed to increase as his memory replayed the events of their patrol. "At night the plateau…the cliff face is covered with lights. Amazing! And there's a bridge over the river. And MacArthur's valley is an ideal place to build our settlement when the time is right to move." He was babbling in his fatigue.

Buccari looked up at the commander thinking he was delirious, but she noted all four of the patrol members nodding their heads in affirmation, a far-off look in their eyes.

Chapter 20. Third Planet from the Star—Genellan

"We land at Goldmine Station, on the continent of Imperia," Et Avian said. His demeanor had transformed with his departure from Kon, and he wore simple working clothes devoid of badge. Only the golden complexion reminded Dowornobb of the noblekone's untouchable rank. "Goldmine is the only permanent facility on Genellan. Gold is no longer mined, of course, only rare metals."

"Are there no other inhabited sites?" Dowornobb asked.

"There is one, opened only during the summer—a small science station," Et Avian continued, "on Corlia, the other major continent, eh. here. It is called Ocean Station." The noblekone pointed at the chart on the computer terminal. "For the study of planetary science. The other sites were shut down decades, or even centuries ago. The cost to run them was exorbitant. I worked as an engineer at the last industrial site, an offshore platinum extraction facility." He shook his considerable bulk. Et Avian was large for a noblekone. "I was hoping never to be that cold again," he lamented.

Dowornobb was surprised that a noblekone would consent to travel to the frozen planet, much less work there. Prisoners had been sent to die on cruel Genellan in the ancient days, when the ore and fur trades had been profitable. Population pressures on Kon had been eased by the massacre of the Invasion and subsequently held under control by rigid breeding laws. As a consequence the planet was self-supporting. Mining the ores and minerals of Genellan had become uneconomical. Other industries, such as fur trapping, had atrophied as a result.

Dowornobb, once he realized that he was going to Genellan, had researched the third planet. Kones, under the auspices of the Imperial Northern Hegemony, maintained a scientific presence on Genellan. It was underfunded and begrudgingly maintained—just enough to protect the imperial property claim from poaching by other, less powerful nations of Kon. Not that any other nation was interested in or capable of doing so.

Three months had elapsed since Dowornobb' s impressments, surprisingly enjoyable. The young scientist ate well, which was important; he no longer had to put up with Director Moth's harangues; and he was able to use the high-performance computers of the Public Safety data network to link with his orbiting telescopes.

Dowornobb looked about the ship cabin. He was one of four specialists on Et Avian's science team charged with searching out the nature of the aliens. Scientist H'Aare, the renowned physicist, and Scientist Mirrtis, a metallurgist, were assigned to learn what they could of the technologies and propulsion systems that allowed the aliens to bridge the stars. Scientist Kateos was a linguist—and a female, which made things difficult. Common females were forbidden to speak publicly. Librarians, medical doctors, and linguists acting as translators were the notable exceptions; research, medicine, language, and translating had become by tradition exclusively female occupations. Other than those specific duties, females were expected to listen and obey. Dowornobb condoned breaches to that convention but only with females he knew well, and only when he was certain no one would be punished. Et Avian insisted gender differences be ignored, as they were among the nobility, which was fine with Dowornobb but not so with the others, particularly the four militia soldiers assigned to protect the team—hard cases all. The transit to Genellan had passed slowly, and the female had been predictably ignored.

Their trip had commenced with a gut-crunching blastoff from Kon to a Planetary Defense orbiting station. After a two-day layover, a constant-acceleration shuttle had boosted them on a direct flight to the third planet. Fortunately, Genellan was in optimal position. After depositing their landing module in orbit, the shuttle picked up fuel and a return cargo on the back side of the planet and, using the gravity of Genellan for an energy sling, was already whipping back on its return to Kon.

Reentry to Genellan was nominal. Their module settled onto the station platform, and turbulent deceleration was replaced by the planet's comfortably low gravity. Lander systems whined down; pressurization systems surged and pulsed, causing Dowornobb's sinus passages to flutter. A loud thunk signaled the attachment of the umbilical tower, and soon the warmth of the station's environment flowed into the passenger spaces. Dowornobb luxuriated in the satisfying lungfuls of full-pressure air. A crewman signaled to debark.

As the team crawled down a telescoping access trunk, Dowornobb gawked through a window. Immense distances! Uncomfortable distances! His eyes struggled to focus on faraway images. The air was so clear. The fables were true. Dowornobb felt as if he had magnifying lens over his eyes. He could see forever. "The air is invisible!" he said to no one in particular.

"Because there is almost no air there," Et Avian said.

The newcomers clung to the ports, staring at the magnificent landscape. The colors were starkly defined: a vivid cobalt sky spotted with luminescent clouds. Verdant grasses swept to ivory-tipped mountains on one side and to the scintillating oceans on the other. Translucent domes arched over their heads, refracting the solar radiance and generating prism images that shifted slowly with the sun, and more rapidly with the position of the viewer.

"Oh, it is so very, very beautiful!" Mistress Kateos gushed. The female immediately realized her error and dropped her head in abject subservience. Everyone stared. There was no excuse for such gross behavior. Mirrtis turned pale and coughed. Even Dowornobb was appalled. H'Aare, standing next to the hapless linguist, crawled quickly away.