Nerno's wings swept down, trembled against the floor, and lifted themselves slowly, painfully.
The passage is going to take at least an hour, J.D. thought. If I'm quick-
She touched her link to Nemo. 'I'll be right back.' She gently squeezed the furred tip of Nerno's tentacle. Hoping the squidmoth could hear her, could still understand her, she rushed back to the Chi.
On board Starfarer, the sun tubes brightened with morning. The temperature rose slowly. All over campus, the snow began to melt. Icy drips collected at the ends of branches and splashed to the ground; rivulets rushed down hillsides, formed tiny new streams, flowed into the rivers.
Infinity's boots squished in mud and crunched the ice crystals that remained beneath the surface.
He reached the dripping orange grove, stopped, and looked around.
The emergency measures had saved most of the trees. The fruit was another story. About half the ripe
oranges had fallen, and the blossoms for the next crop had wilted and died. Infinity sighed.
Guessed real wrong on this one, he thought.
His inside coat pocket scrabbled against his chest.
He opened the coat and slid his hand into the pocket.
11OW!' He jerked back his hand and inspected his nipped finger.
'Is that the thanks I get for saving you from freezing?' Infinity said aloud.
The meerkat burrowed deeper, her claws catching on the material of his coat.
'What is it you want?' He had tried to let the meerkat loose near her burrow, but she would not go.
I bet this critter is Europa's house pet, Infinity thought. And I'll bet she wants to live in a nice warm house.
Especially since she's about to have kittens.
Someone squelched through the deep mud toward him. Infinity caught a glimpse of Gerald Hernminge on the other side of the orange grove.
Listening to Gerald say 'I told you so' was the last thing Infinity needed. The last thing, except maybe having Gerald find out about the meerkat.
J.D. rushed back to the Chi. The Chi's transmission to Starfarer had not troubled Nemo, so J.D. could safely open her link.
Zev's image popped into being before her.
'J.D.! We thought-I was afraid-'
'I'm fine, Zev. How much got through before I pulled the plug?'
J.D. grabbed sandwich makings out of the cupboard and started some coffee. Victoria's image appeared near Zev.
'Just enough to scare us. We've been so worried about you!' Victoria floated in the sailhouse, helping Jenny position Starfarer for transition. Jenny still did
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
