"So have you. Is that gray I see there? Time gnaws, does it not? It must be fate. I was just thinking about you-and here you are. What are you doing here? Come with me. Before that Mistress gets impatient and plops down on our heads."
"Are you all right? You look tired."
"I am tired, Bagnel. I have looked at more stars than you can imagine even exist. Though you must have seen how many there are when you spanned the reach outside the cloud. Come. Let's get something to eat. You must be starved."
"My stomach is too unsettled. That passage ... It was too much for me, I fear. The Up-and-Over ... I find myself dreading the return trip already."
"You still haven't told me what you're doing here. Has something happened?"
"No. Except that I have been stripped of my job and prerogatives. Whoa! It's only temporary. A cabal of senior factors and high silth ganged up on me and ordered me to take a vacation. They said I was pushing myself too hard, that I was on the edge of a breakdown because I was trying too hard to keep the project ahead of schedule. They stripped me of my powers so I would have no choice. Since they wouldn't let me do anything at all, and the Redoriad were willing when I approached them, I decided to come walk the stars while I had a chance. You invited me, you'll recall. I think I am sorry I did it."
"I recall. I believe I invited you to come after I caught the Serke."
"But you haven't. You've been out here forever. It begins to seem unlikely, doesn't it?"
"I am narrowing it down, Bagnel. Narrowing it down. I have a very good idea where they're not."
"You are still able to be amused at yourself."
"Not often. But I don't think it will be too much longer."
"You sound like you're trying to convince yourself."
Marika noted Grauel and Barlog hovering. They were polite enough to remain out of earshot, but they were there, eager to discover the meaning of Bagnel's appearance. Marika asked, "You're sure this isn't business? That someone didn't send you out to get me to come home?"
He looked surprised. "No. Why do you ask that?"
"We get very little reliable news out here. What we have gotten are rumors about increasingly bad rogue trouble. Trouble nobody seems able-or maybe just willing-to solve. I thought maybe someone sent you to get me to come back and deal with it."
"Marika ... I might as well put it bluntly. The vast majority of silth are very happy that you are out here instead of at home. That's why you get the support you do. The farther away you are, the happier they are."
"Oh."
"The rogues have become a problem again, though, that's for sure. They're much better organized this time. They learned a lot."
"I believe I predicted that. I believe no one would listen to me."
"Right. It's no longer possible to use the tactics you developed. One cannot be taken and forced to betray scores more by subjecting him to a truthsaying. They have structured their organization so that few members know any of the others. And they are careful to keep the risks low whenever they choose to strike."
"That was predictable too."
"And even where the hunters know who they are looking for it has been hard to track a culprit down. Your Kublin, for example."
"Kublin?" Marika had done her best not to think of her littermate over the years. It had been her thought to destroy his hope by shattering the support lent by the Serke and their rogue companions. But the Serke remained unshattered.
"He is rumored to be the mastermind, the one they call the warlock. Not one hunter has been able to find a trace of him since his escape from you. Whenever someone does get a line on him he is found to be gone by the time the hunt closes in. There is still strong support for him and those who fled with the Serke among the bond meth and even our worker brethren."
"I can find Kublin."
"No doubt. You have always done whatever you set your mind to. I will mention that to anyone who is interested. My own opinion is, you should continue the search for the Serke. Step it up, even. It could be important."
"Ah? Is that it?"
"What?"
"The true reason you put yourself through what it takes for a meth unfamiliar with the Up-and-Over to come out here?"
"I came for a vacation, Marika. I came where I could see a friend who has been missing from my life for far too long. I'm just trying to tell you what is happening at home. If you care to interpret that as an attempt at manipulation ... "
"I'm sorry. Go ahead. Tell me the news."
"Last month we finally caught a courier from the rogues trying to sneak in. Two of them, actually. Both brethren who had gone into exile aboard Starstalker. I was brought in for their questioning because they had things to say about the project."
"And? Did you get any hints as to where they are hiding?"
"Just one. Inside the dust cloud. Which you suspect already. Naturally, they would not have been risked had they known more. I wish we could have taken the Mistress of the Ship who brought them in."
"Of course. What did they have to say otherwise?"
"We learned a lot about what they've been doing, which is mostly marking time and hoping the aliens find them before you do. They are no longer so confident of Bestrei."
"What?"
"It turns out that our estimates of the Serke situation were not quite right. They have no direct contact with the alien. What they have is a very large alien ship orbiting a planet. They have been studying it and appropriating from it, while they wait for its builders to come looking for it."
"But ... "
"Give me a chance, Marika. There is a story. I'd better tell it so you know what I'm talking about."
"I think you'd better. Starting from the beginning."
"All right. Here it is. Way back, a venturesome Serke Mistress of the Ship ... "
"Kher-Thar Prevallin?"
"Exactly. That most famous of the farwanderers. A legend of our own times. But if you keep interrupting you will never hear the story."
"Sorry."
"Way back, Kher-Thar decided she wanted to see what lay on the far side of the dust cloud. While she was passing through she decided to rest her bath at a particular world. An almost optimally friendly one, by all accounts. After several days down she had just reached orbital distance departing when the alien ship appeared, I take it out of the Up-and-Over. The way I was told, it was not there one moment, and there the next. It detected the darkship and gave chase. Out of curiosity, apparently."
Marika grumbled beneath her breath. He was stretching it.
"No. There was no evidence the creatures aboard were hostile. But Kher-Thar, you will recall, was not known for her cool head. She panicked. Thinking she was being attacked, she attacked first. The aliens were unable to deal with her, though she was not known for the strength of her talent for the dark side. The aliens abandoned the chase. Kher-Thar scrambled into the Up-and-Over and scurried home, nearly killing her bath."
"I always thought she was overrated. She was a total misfit, which is why the Serke put up with her wandering in the first place. They wanted her out of their fur."
"You would understand that better than I."
"Vicious, Bagnel. Tell your story."
"Let me."
"Well?"
"The aliens who survived Kher-Thar's attack managed to get their ship into a stable orbit around the planet, but could not save themselves. When Kher-Thar returned, accompanied by a horde of Serke investigators, they were all dead. The investigators knew the importance of their find, but could make no sense of it. After long and often savage debate their ruling council voted to ask the dark-faring brethren bonds for help. Ever since, for more than twenty years, they have been studying the alien ship, appropriating equipment and technology, and waiting for another ship to come looking for the first."