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office. They hadn't made it to the end of the corridor when the tone sounded on the lift and the door opened. When it did, a half dozen armed security officers stepped out.
    Kate and Sissy braked to a halt.
    "Just hold on right there!" Kate said a little hoarsely. "I'm going to talk to Warner. Don't you dare do anything before I've had the chance to talk to him!"
    The officer in charge glared at her. "You don't have the authority to countermand Warner's orders-and he was clear."
    "Then I'll go over his head and talk to high command!"
    "The order came from high command, from General Hart himself!" he retorted. "Step aside!"
    "No!" Kate said stubbornly. "You can't do this, damn it! They aren't animals! They're an intelligent species! We need to understand them better! We've got colonists on the way to Sirius now. We don't have any idea what they might be up against!"
    The officer studied her grimly and finally nodded his head at one of the other officers. "Take her into custody-both of them."
    "You can't just shoot them down like animals!" Kate gasped as the security guard advanced on her and tried to subdue her, wrestling with the man to keep him from capturing her wrists. It was a short battle and she lost. Even as the guard secured her wrists, though, she suddenly remembered she'd left the containment door unlocked and Sissy had distracted her when she'd gone to secure it. A mixture of guilt, hope, and fear flooded her as her mind leapt to the possibility that the Sirians might have escaped when she and Sissy had abruptly abandoned the lab. She didn't think they'd been fooled by the habitat for one moment, despite her efforts to carefully construct it from the images they had of the surface of Sirius.
    Even as she watched the security team hurry down the corridor, however, she realized that there hadn't been enough time for the Sirians to escape even if they'd heard anything and been able to understand, and she doubted that. The guilt switched poles from her fear that she might have released a potentially dangerous species to guilt that she was the one who'd fought to have them brought back to start with and she was ultimately responsible for their deaths. She began struggling again against the man restraining her. "Don't do it!
    They're peaceful! They haven't hurt anyone or even tried, damn it! You don't need to do this! We could just send them back to Sirius with the next shipment of colonists!" she shouted after the security team.
    The team leader paused at the door to her lab and hope sprang into her that she'd swayed him. Instead, he sent another man back to help the first. "Take the two of them down to lock up until Warner decides whether he wants charges brought against them or not."
    Kate gaped at the man in disbelief. The comment took the fight out of her, however, not the anger and resentment, not the sense of guilt that she was responsible for the creatures' deaths, and not the nausea that followed that thought. She saw that struggling was useless, however.
    As she and Sissy were hauled into the lift, though, she wished fervently that she'd had enough sense to lock the doors and change the codes. That would've held them off a little while ….
    Not that it would do the Sirians any good, she realized in dismay. They were trapped, regardless, defenseless against the armed team of well trained security officers.
    * * * *
     
    They are coming. They have their weapons set to kill, Dae said grimly.
    Noo didn't answer. He was studying their habitat for the best vantage point to launch an offensive attack.
    They will split into two teams as soon as they enter. We may not have to kill them. If we can catch three together, we can use their weapons to stun them, hide them, and take their forms. It may give us the time we need to escape. Let us take up positions near the entrance. They will only become more agitated if they must search for us.
    We do not know how long they will be stunned! Noo pointed out. If we only stun them