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They’re my brothers’.
    “Explain it to me,” I insist. “You have something about my brothers.”
    “Just some readings on the conduits.”
    “But you’ve isolated waveforms for each of them. Do you think you can use those to locate them? And you ran a simulation—on what?”
    “Random ideas, a bit complicated. I really
am
busy, Liddi.”
    She probably is, but I’m tired of being put off, tired of being told to wait, that I’ll understand later. “Computer, resume results summary and disable pause.”
    Minali glares—there’s a familiar impatience in it—but I just listen. The computer details the results of the simulation. She was right about the complexity. I don’t
understand all of it, but I get the idea.
    And I don’t like the idea I’m getting.
    “Conclusion: hyperdimensional stabilizing using biological catalyst remains feasible with multi-stage implementation. Stage one complete. Time to stage four completion is forty-five days,
with levels of success greatest for Variants A, F, and C.”
    A cold void forms inside me, numbing everything. The simulation has projected possible results of an experiment…an experiment that’s already in progress. “My brothers are the
‘biological catalyst,’ aren’t they? What have you done?”
    Minali smacks a workstation with her palm, sending me back a step. No mere microexpressions now. Her eyes are bright with panic. “You don’t understand. First your brothers, now you.
The conduits are
failing
. The Seven Points won’t survive if they do. Without resources from the other Points, Sampati will crumble, and without leadership from Neta, the others will
fall to chaos. Not one of the planets can survive alone, not without being set back centuries, even a millennium.”
    Yes, the conduits’ failing is a problem, but this is wrong.
Minali’s
wrong, something’s sick or broken in her mind if she thinks sealing
people
inside is the
solution. “So you trap my brothers? Even if that made any kind of sense—which it does not—they’re our best chance at fixing everything!”
    “No, they’re not. They refused to acknowledge what it’ll take, refused to move forward and act. And you…nothing
ever
goes right with you, does it? Computer, execute
primary contingency.”
    I have no idea what that means until a column of blue light shines on me, and then it’s too late. The computer emits a signal calibrated precisely to my brain waves, and everything goes
black.

Liddi’s plastic robot man needed to climb to the top of Metal Mountain, but he was only one inch tall. He’d need help. So she took the blocks from the tub in the
corner and started building a tower with steps. Robot-Man was good at climbing steps.
    “Garrin, can you get me the schematics for the conduits?” Mr. Jantzen said. “I have a few thoughts.”
    “Certainly, sir.”
    Liddi’s fingers slipped, knocking one of the blocks off-balance, and the noise drew her father to the other side of the desk. “Liddi, I said you could play in my office. You
don’t need to bother Garrin.”
    “But Walker-Man’s desk is better, Daddy,” she protested. “Yours is bumpy.” She couldn’t easily brace her tower against the wooden carvings on her
father’s desk.
    “It’s no bother, Mr. Jantzen,” Garrin said. “And you’re busy. I can keep an eye on her.”
    “All right. If she gets in the way, send her in. Durant will be by to pick her up this afternoon.”
    Once Jantzen disappeared back into his office, Garrin peered over the edge of the desk at Liddi. “Nice tower. Try adding a few more blocks to the bottom before you start building
higher.”

EVERY CELL IN MY BODY ACHES, and I’m not surprised. That’s a side effect of the neural incapacitator. There’s a sharper pain and
tightness somewhere on my neck, and again where my shoulder blades and hips rest against a hard surface. I open my eyes, knowing I won’t like what I see.
    I’m laid out on a metallic table