And she couldn’t go back even though she still had his ship—because he was bound to kill her for stealing it in the first place.

It was as well her mind turned in that direction because it dawned on her that she hadn’t made any attempt to get it back to him even though she knew she could program the computer to return it.

She hadn’t because she was struggling with the urge to go back even though she knew she probably wouldn’t even be welcome. In fact, just the opposite!

But the damned government/security was on to her now! She didn’t trust them not to rifle though all of her memories, regardless of her objections, and that meant they’d find out about the ship and they might confiscate it!

It seemed very likely that they would want to study it because it was alien technology.

And that meant she had to send it back to him or risk losing the chance.

And she couldn’t do that to him. It wasn’t just his pride and joy. According to Terl, it was critical to his people’s survival, not just a convenience they used to raid for women . They couldn’t grow enough food to make it through the winter. They’d starve if they weren’t able to raid to get food!

Even with that resolve, she had a hell of a time sneaking out of the colony since they still had very little access to the world outside, due mostly to the fact that they’d already been attacked and had several colonists captured—her and Monica. She did not, in point of fact, know how she would’ve gotten out if not for the delegation from Jules’ village.

But Jules turned out to be her savior in another sense, as well. She managed to talk him, and his mother, of course, into allowing her to do a scan so that the computer could gather data about the biology of the natives.

Armed with that data, the computer was then able to ascertain that her fetus appeared to be perfectly normal and healthy—for a hybrid. Which mean there was still not enough data to determine how a hybrid would turn out. Preliminary data, however, suggested that the infant would have traits from both parents and no physical abnormalities.

She was tearfully grateful to learn that and able to successfully eliminate the objections of the colony to the infant on the grounds that it might be a societal burden. It should not, from what they could determine, have special needs.

The governor was waiting for Queen Niri and her party to leave to interrogate Noelle further and to access her PMAI since, technically, Queen Niri was actually Noelle’s guest. She’d come to visit, at least according to her, based on the invitation Noelle had thrown out without any expectation whatsoever that the queen would ever take her up on it.

The truth, of course, was that, like any politician, she’d used the thoughtless invitation as an opportunity to look the colony over and see these ‘mechanical wonders’ the star children supposedly possessed for herself.

She was impressed. It took no more than a few hours to see that, even though the aliens were vastly outnumbered by the natives, the natives were vastly overwhelmed by the technology of the star-children. They would be, she decided, formidable enemies and good to have as friends. Since she also concluded that Noelle had no other motive for befriending and helping her son than honest affection, she thought she might not mind being friends with the intruders.

The fact that the queen and her entourage considered themselves Noelle’s guests and the anxiety of the entire colony in general and the governor in particular to try to make peaceful allies of as many of the natives as possible, also gave Noelle the chance she needed to reach Drak’s ship. She told the governor that she’d agreed to escort the queen and her party beyond the perimeter of the colony as added insurance of the good will of the Earth people.

She was more than a little worried that the governor would ask the queen point blank if that was true, or some remark on either side would reveal it for the lie it was, but she was in luck. The governor was so pleased with her for giving them an opening to at least begin the process of forming alliances that he merely thanked her for her service to the colony.

Clearly, he was relieved to see the queen and her party leave. Not that they hadn’t enjoyed entertaining local ‘royalty’ but he’d been fearful some incident arising out of ignorance might destroy what little progress they managed to make and once they were out the door it was no longer something he needed to concern himself over.

Noelle could see the queen and company found it odd and not a little unnerving that she had decided to accompany them to the foothills. Unfortunately, she couldn’t tell the queen why she’d decided to join them and she couldn’t think up a lie that would make her comfortable.

It wasn’t likely, to her mind, that the queen would take it well if she knew the plan.

Drak was liable to swoop down and carry the child off again, but that was their problem to work out as far as Noelle was concerned.

She traveled with the queen’s entourage until they were out of sight of the colony watchtowers, waited until the party had traveled on a goodly distance, and then headed to the clearing where she’d stashed Drak’s ship.

As she’d hoped, there was no difficulty in programming the ship to return to the cavern where it had been when she’d taken it. She hesitated when she’d finished, trying to decide whether to leave a message for Drak or not. Finally, she decided she wanted to at least try to explain the circumstances. She thought sending his ship back to him was going to go a long way toward appeasing him.

But he was a man.

He was probably suffering agonies that a mere female had managed to outsmart him and slip through his fingers.

When she’d finished recording her message, she left the ship and headed back to the colony.

Drak frowned in concentration as he studied the map he and Kulle and his captains, Iral and Tomas had been poring over for days, plotting, searching for flaws and weaknesses. He didn’t particularly like the lay of the land, but it was what they had to work with and he was as convinced as he could be that every contingency had been considered and a plan of action plotted.

It was just a shame that the darkling warlord, Javar, had secured his clan’s ship in a nearly inaccessible grotto.

They’d had a hell of a time even discovering the location. It had taken weeks to obtain that information and then more time to work out a plan to acquire the ship with the least loss of men.

Impatience flickered through Drak, but he firmly tamped it.

He would not get the ship and Noelle by being impatient and careless.

He was tempted to go over the plan again—one last time to look for anything that they might have missed—but reluctantly dismissed the impulse. The men were wound tight with nerves as it was, and exhausted because he had pushed them as hard as he had himself. It would do none of them any good to face the battle tomorrow bleary eyed from exhaustion.

Finally, he nodded and dismissed them to seek whatever rest they could find before the sun set and they set off for their destination under cover of darkness.

The men had begun to file out of his solar when they met up with a breathless watchman. “There’s something coming this way, my lord! In the sky. I think … it looks a ship!”

Drak’s heart seemed to stop in his chest painfully. For a split second he felt perfectly blank, then a surge of elation filled him …. And doubts. It had been weeks. It couldn’t be them.

He’d watched for them for days, days that turned to weeks, knowing that every hour that passed, every day, it became more and more likely that they’d perished and less likely that they would return safely.

He couldn’t accept that it was his ship returning—or that there was no hope at all.