not, could not, trust Arachne. That left Victoria to buffer her, in the same position Feral was in when he died.
"You're worried about me?" J.D. asked. She slapped a sandwich together and wolfed down a bite.
"At least everybody knows where I am." Victoria smiled wryly.
"I'm right here," J.D. said. "I'm going back inside in a minute."
Satoshi appeared, surrounded by the complex equipment of the observatory. "How mad is Nemo?"
J.D. swallowed another bite of sandwich.
"Nemo's not mad at all, as far as I can tell." She glanced at the image Arachne created of Nemo's planetoid. Several of the craters bulged with distended silk.
"You aren't in any danger?" Victoria asked.
"I'm sure not."
Esther Mein's image appeared. "I can bring help with the transport. It's ready."
"Thanks, Esther. But it isn't necessary. Really. I better get back."
"How much longer?" Victoria asked.
"I just can't say."
"You're cutting it awfully close!"
"I can't help it."
"But what are you doing?" Zev asked.
"I guess . . . I'm acting as midwife. I have to go, Zev, I love you. Keep an eye on those other craters. I think . . ." She smiled. "I don't know for sure. But I think you should watch them."
She rushed back through the tortuous silken path. The curtains continued to deteriorate. J.D. followed a trail of her own footprints, bruises in the silk, back to Nemo's chamber.
Infinity patted the nest of towels on the floor of the closet. In the comer, the meerkat stood in sentry position, her paws crossed on her rounded belly. She fixed
him with a suspicious gaze through her mask of black fur.
"Oh, my god," Esther said behind him.
"Don't scare her," Infinity said.
"I can't believe Europa left her behind! What a rotten thing to do." She knelt beside Infinity and tried to pet the meerkat. The meerkat snapped at her. Esther snatched back her hand.
"I think we better leave her alone."
Infinity sat back on his heels. The meerkat walked a few steps on her hind feet, then dropped to all fours and jumped into the center of the towels.
Someone knocked on the front door. "Are you ready?" Kolya asked.
Infinity quickly slid the closet door most of the way shut, hiding the meerkat.
"We're ready."
He and Esther joined Kolya on the front porch.
"This is getting to be a tradition," Esther said, "watching transition from outside-" She cut herself off when she saw Griffith. "Oh . . . are you coming?"
"I'm checked out on the suits," Griffith said, defensive.
"I invited him to come with us," Kolya said. "He's allied himself with the expedition. We should accept that."
Infinity shrugged. "Whatever you want."
"Do you feel better today?" Esther said to Kolya. "You look better." She hugged him, then drew back, startled.
Kolya reeked with the smell of tobacco. Not the sour smell of his sweat, when the nicotine fits had hit him, but the fresh sharp smell of smoke. "You said you ran out of cigarettes," Infinity said.
"I did," Kolya said, embarrassed. "But . . . I found another source. Tobacco grows wild. My friend Petrovich discovered it." He gestured toward Griffith.
"But you'd almost quit!" Infinity glared at Griffith. "Some friend you are!"
"Mind your own damn business," Griffith said.
"It is MY- 11
"No, it isn't," Kolya said gently. "I appreciate your concern, my friend. And you're right, I'd be better off if I'd quit. But I was miserable and sick, and now I'm not miserable and sick. Let's leave it at that."
He set off across Infinity's garden, heading for the access hatch on the other side of the field. Griffith followed him, hurrying to keep up. Infinity glared after them. Esther took his hand. "Come on," she said. "He's right. It isn't any of our business."
Without replying, Infinity walked with her through the garden. They avoided the corner where his cactus grew. He was afraid the floods had drowned it.
The path was full of water. A nearby stream had escaped its banks and turned the meadow around it into a pond. The access hatch was underwater.' Kolya and Griffith hesitated at the pond's edge.
"We'll have to find a hatch on higher ground," Kolya said.
"Can't you make the water level go down?" Griffith said to Infinity.
"No."
"But-"
"I can't, " Infinity said. "There was too much snow. It melted too fast. There's no place else for the water to go. It's flooded the rivers, too." "You should evacuate some of the water into space."
"We already lost some when your damned missile hit!"
"It wasn't my missile!"
"Starfarer's a closed ecosystem. If we lose much water, it'll turn into a desert."
"Okay, but doesn't this place have reservoirs? Can't you fill them? Or let the ocean get deeper?"
"All of that's happening," Infinity gave up trying to keep the note of irritation from his voice. "What do you want me to do, bail?"
"Petrovich," Kolya said to Griffith, "the rivers drain
into reservoirs and the ocean. As you can see, they're working as fast as they can."
Griffith shrugged. "Lousy planning, then."
"I'm going over to the wild side," Infinity said. "The rest of you can do what you want."
He walked away with his hands shoved into his pockets, his shoulders hunched. After a moment, Esther caught up to him.
"That Griffith can be a pain," she said.
Infinity did not reply.
"Okay, what's wrong?" She splashed through a puddle. "It is Kolya's business whether he smokes."
"I planted it," Infinity said.
"Huh?"
"I planted the tobacco!"
He stopped. Esther stopped, astonished.
"I planted it. There's not that much. I never thought anybody'd use it-I never thought anybody'd find it."
"Why?"
"Because . . . it ought to be there. It belonged in the ecosystem, and it wasn't there. And it was part of the tradition-I know this doesn't make any sense. . . ."
Esther slipped her arm around his waist and hugged him.
"Sure it does," she said.
When J.D. reached Nemo's chamber, the squidmoth was wrestling weakly with another egg case, drawing it slowly inward. J.D. hurried to Nemo's side and helped position the egg case for its journey through Nemo's body.
With each new egg case, Nerno's deterioration continued. The edges of the wings shredded iridescent scales throughout the chamber. They swirled like the snow back on Starfarer, but in drifts of color. Nemo's tentacle twitched spasmodically. The squidmoth's whole body was shrinking in on itself, collapsing in folds of skin and scales. The articulation of the wings, where they joined the body, stood out in sharp relief.
J.D. picked up the last egg case. She took it to Nemo, but hesitated before setting it down.
"Enough, Nemo," she whispered, not using her link. "Isn't it enough?"
She drew a deep breath and knelt down to present the egg case.
Nemo did not respond.
"Nemo-!" she cried, afraid Nemo had died without saying goodbye.
"It is done," the squidmoth said. "The last must go to waste. I have nothing left to give it."
Weak with relief, J.D. looked blankly at the egg case. She was exhausted, too, not from work but from worry. Her mind moved, slowly understanding what Nemo had said.
She put the egg case out of reach of the tentacle, and returned to Nemo's side. The squidmoth's eyes opened and blinked. Instead of their usual faceted glitter, they were dull and dry.
"What happens now?" J.D. said.
"Your help has left us time to talk."
If I leave here this instant, J.D. thought, I can still get back before Starfarer enters transition.
Ifl go back . . .
As soon as she realized she would have to decide, she knew she had already made the decision. Nemo had asked her to stay; she would stay.