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technically alive."
    "Oh good," said Li. "So she's conscious enough to know she's being eaten, enslaved, and brainwashed."
    Ubatu flinched. She mumbled something under her breath, then turned her back on both Li and the vidscreen.
    "Forgive an old man his senility," Captain Cohen said, "but what is the Balrog's point? If it's so inhumanly smart, why's it doing this? Kaisho... Zoonau... what does it want?"
    "I can't answer about Zoonau," I told him. "As for Kaisho, there are plenty of theories why the Balrog took her, but they're all just speculation. The only thing we can say for sure is that the Balrog's action was premeditated—it can predict human actions with a high degree of accuracy, so it must have known when and where Kaisho would be. It waited for her at the perfect spot for an ambush. Then it took her the moment she came within reach."
    "Did it want this Kaisho in particular," Li asked, "or was she chosen at random?"
    "Only the Balrog knows."
    "Damn." The ambassador paced a few steps, then turned back to me. "Has it ever taken anyone else?"
    I checked. "There's nothing in navy records."
    "Has it ever done anything like it's doing to Zoonau?"
    This time I knew the answer without doing a data search. "A few years ago, the Balrog attacked an orbital habitat belonging to the Fasskisters. It overgrew the entire place—coated every square millimeter."
    "Ah!" Li said, rubbing his hands together. "Now we're getting a pattern. Did it leave the Fasskisters themselves untouched the way it's leaving the Cashlings?"
    I shook my head. "You know that Fasskisters are puny little aliens who encase themselves in robot armor? Big powered suits that compensate for the Fasskisters' physical weakness? Well, the Balrog covered each Fasskister suit with a thick mass of spores that disrupted the mechanical control systems. The Fasskisters ended up imprisoned like knights in suits of rusted metal. Kaisho, speaking for the Balrog, said the Fasskisters would be kept immobilized for twenty years. Their life-support systems would stay operative, and they'd be supplied with whatever they needed to survive, but they wouldn't be allowed to move till the Balrog let them go."
    "Did she say why the Balrog did it?" Cohen asked.
    "As punishment. Apparently the Fasskisters had captured a few Balrog spores and locked them in containment bottles. Then they used the spores' long-range telepathy as a private communication system. The Balrog was furious at having bits of itself kidnapped to serve as someone else's intercom. It imprisoned the Fasskisters as vengeance."
    "Vengeance." Li echoed the word as if he liked the sound. "Do you think that's the reason for Zoonau?"
    I shrugged. "Cashlings aren't noted for prudence. They might have done something to make the Balrog angry."
    Li nodded. "They annoy the crap out of me every time I meet them. And they're greedy too. I could easily picture them trying to exploit the Balrog and getting the damned moss mad."
    "Do you think that's it?" Cohen asked me. "You know this Balrog better than we do."
    I didn't answer—I just turned a dial on my console. The picture of Kaisho disappeared, and the screen returned to Zoonau. No significant change in the picture. A few Cashlings were talking into comm implants now, holding animated discussions. Knowing Cashlings, they probably weren't calling home to check on loved ones; they'd be contacting local news services, trying to sell their stories. Trapped by a moss monstrosity: my terrifying ordeal! Others were no doubt calling politicians, bureaucrats, anyone who'd answer. The people of Zoonau would howl to government officials, and those officials (eager to pass the buck) would call our Technocracy consulate for help... wailing, "Please, we can't handle this on our own."
    Although our consuls were probably sick of Cashlings whining, this particular crisis would elicit a quick response... because people at our consulate knew that sooner or later, some Cashling in Zoonau would