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files—at least those files the CCU has made available.”
    “Then why isn’t the captain questioning me?”
    “He thinks I have a friendlier face.” West grimaced. “What exactly have you been up to for the past thirteen months?”
    “I was frozen for most of it.”
    “But before that? We know you were in the company of rovers and that they took you to a planet in the Valen Sector. What were you doing there?”
    “They were doing what seeding rovers do. Stealing BRATs to sell to the Fringe.” BRATs—biocyph retroviral automated terraformer seeds—were the Crib’s terraforming machinery, used across the Reach prior to colonizing new worlds. “The rovers had information that the seeds on that planet never germinated—easy pickings. Have you turned the ship around?”
    “Yes, we’re heading back to the Lichfield for your friend. Then we rendezvous with the Learo Dochais in two weeks, and you’ll be placed in Administrator Natesa’s custody.”
    “Then I don’t think we have anything else to talk about, Sergeant .”
    West sighed. And gave up rather too quickly. Perhaps he didn’t have the authority to question her, after all. His next statement essentially confirmed it.
    “The Crib is sending an officer to the Learo Dochais to interview you further.”
    “Perhaps someone with a little more clout?” she mocked.
    West shrugged, and she suddenly felt sorry for him. His manner so far suggested he was a nice guy, and in her experience there weren’t too many of those in the Crib.
    “Someone you know, apparently. Colonel Theron.”
    West left her to contemplate the name. Theron—he’d been a commander all those years ago, in charge of the seeding team that went to Scarabaeus. He’d never even gone dirtside, as far as she knew. But at the time she’d held him responsible, as a representative of the Crib, for the plan to destroy that beautiful world. A world she knew they weren’t supposed to be standing on. There were rules, and the Crib had broken them. Planets were supposed to have no more than simple lifeforms to qualify for terraforming. Scarabaeus was the first attempt to terraform an advanced ecosystem.
    Eight years ago she hadn’t been able to stand by and let ithappen. But her solution had only made things worse. The result was the mutated jungle where the Hoi Polloi crew had died a year ago.
     
    By the following day, Edie felt strong enough to get up and move about. She was ordered to stay put, which meant she was limited to the tiny med cubicle and the passageway outside it. Her limited exploration confirmed that the ship was only thirty or so meters long, the rear third of the cabin consisting of the medfac and crew bunks slotted into every conceivable spare space. The middle third, from the brief glimpse Edie had caught of it, was the mess and rec area, and the front third must be the bridge and teck stations.
    West told Edie she was to eat and sleep in the med cubicle, as there was nowhere else to put her. At her expression of dismay, he found her some entertainment caps—ridiculous toons that she watched in a daze between napping and anxiously awaiting news of Finn.
    The Peregrine docked with the Lichfield while Edie was asleep. The first she knew of it was when West told her, hours later, that they’d retrieved the capsule. They were keeping Finn frozen until they met up with the Learo Dochais . She had to believe him, because she wasn’t allowed to see for herself. She had to trust that Natesa knew she was serious.
    The two-week journey passed monotonously. Stuck in the med cubicle, Edie had plenty of time to consider her future. Escape was an unlikely option. Natesa simply would not allow that to happen a second time. Finn, a highly trained Saeth soldier, had been unable to escape a labor gang for four years, and his eventual escape had only been possible with outside help.
    Their only outside help was Cat—still in cryo, unless the Lichfield had already reached a dock where her