Novek still wasn't sure what was going on, despite Lyn's efforts. He wasn't sure if the problem was in the explanation, or his understanding.

  He tried again, “Explain it to me like I'm a kit. What's the impact? It sounds like it's the equivalent of a gunshot in the distance — loud, and attention grabbing, sure, but anonymous.”

  Lyn had their head in their hands, and their voice was thin and tight. “Again, announcing ourselves today is a secondary concern — I want to stress this isn't a gunshot, it's more like a scream. A not insignificant number of Ber'Duun that felt that will be able to recognize the creator of it. It's distinct, like a voice.”

  “Okay, so what? It's not like Moira has a body. Nobody can kidnap her.”

  “It's not just about that. It's about broadcasting — not quite thoughts, not quite feelings — more like the fundamental aspect of a being. How to put this — up until ten minutes ago, I thought I understood the isolation that Moira feels. I did not — at all.”

  Nat had been staring out of the window — which Novek had recognized as an attempt to discourage further conversation. At that last however, his head turned, and he squinted at Lyn. Novek watched his eyes unfocus and move back and forth in thought, until he noticed Novek watching, and turned to look back out the window.

  I am, again, sorry for that. I did not realize just how — to use an imprecise word — loud it would be. It was simply meant to be a comforting gesture.

  Nat followed her commentary, his tone defensive, “Moira was just trying to help me out. She didn't do anything bad. Let's just drop it — what does it matter, anyway?” Novek corrected his assessment mid-sentence — protective was more accurate.

  Lyn turned to face Nat, and Novek could hear them trying to soften the tone of their voice, “I'm not trying to cast blame, here. I know we're all learning as we go. I'm just trying to address the operational considerations. We are moving, if only indirectly, towards known antagonists. Any sufficiently sensitive Ber'Duun, who recognizes that pattern, have an understanding of your state of mind, Moira. They might try to manipulate that. If nothing else, it makes it easy to recognize your activity — which is bad, it's more identifiable than leaving a calling card. Future covert activity will be harder.”

  Novek's suspicions had been building over the course of the week, and that was just too much not to address. He turned his full attention to Lyn, “I think we need to have a talk soon about some of your concerns. It's not that I don't agree — I do. But I expected to have to be lecturing the therapist, healer, whatever, on security — not the other way around. I know you've worked with Ceress, so I'm not entirely surprised to hear some of it; but is there something the rest of us should know?”

  Lyn raised their head out of their hands. “Yes. But not today. We've almost to our meeting point, and it would take longer than we have just for me to get the preamble out of the way.”

  Nat raised an eyebrow as he glanced back inside, “The what?”

  “The part where I explain why you should all still trust me.”

  Novek got it immediately, or at least he thought he did. “Oh — you're a spy. Well, you should have just said so.”

  The strained tone returned to Lyn's voice, accompanied by a slow blink of their eye membranes at Novek. “I am not a spy.”

  “Covert agent, whatever you want to call it; same difference. One question — are you really a healer, or is that a cover and you're only using natural regeneration? I just want to…”, Novek's voice took on a mock professional tone for this next bit, “…calibrate my expectations regarding the potential quality of future treatment.”

  “I am, in truth, an aetheric therapist. Among other things.”

  Novek nodded his head in understanding. “Hey, no judgment here — spy work is work. Is it honorable? No, of course not. But it is necessary. Anyway, that's all I needed to know.”

  Novek couldn't be sure, but Lyn's irisless silverpaw eyes seemed to be trying to stare a hole through him. He could feel himself digging a deeper hole, conversationally.

  He tried to dig up, instead. “A job is a job, is what I meant. You know what? I'm going to move on. Okay, so — and this is to everybody — what's the plan? We're close to the creche, Tanner's got lead on that, since he's the one with something on the line. Or if you don't want to lead the charge, you've got final veto, Tanner. But we have our own task and Lyn's flappy friends out there haven't said exactly where we're going yet.”

  Lyn answered with a dismissive wave of a hand, “The Clackaw are obviously at the creche.”

  He raised an eyebrow — he agreed, but in his own mind he kept himself from accepting it as fact. Assumptions could get you in trouble, or killed, in his experience. “You're so certain — why?”

  “Our escorts haven't provided any further instruction, once it became clear we were headed to the creche. Thus, that's the destination. Amateur mistake on their part.”

  A voice from outside, atop the coach, identifiable as Rezzan broke in, “The terrible spy is correct.”

  From the bench outside, Ellie yelped and Tanner barked in surprise, “Skies above! How did you…”

  The rest of what he said was lost as Khe, startled by his father's bark, drowned out further commentary with his own higher-pitched accompaniment.

  A minute of calming the excited pup later, and Rezzan, now sitting on the door with the other clackaw, finished their commentary. “As I was saying, the… healer trying at espionage is correct. It was a mistake on our part — but we're all learning, here.”

  Tanner had climbed down from the front, and was now standing on the runner, pup in paw, in the door opposite Rezzan. “Okay, hang on a moment. Is this related to why they're not letting anyone in to, or out of the creche?”

  Rezzan bobbed their head, “Related to, yes. But it is not our doing — things have escalated, and it seems that there may be some contention to gain access to our mother.”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  Novek bared his teeth in a grin, “Aren't you glad we brought the whole group then?”

  Rezzan's voice took on a similar strained tone to Lyn's, “The consequences of that decision remain to be seen.”

  Novek's grin increased, with more teeth becoming visible. “Oh, I'm sure they'll make themselves known sooner than you'd like.”

  The clackaw shuddered slightly in response, “That is precisely our concern.”

  Rezzan hopped inside the already crowded cabin, “I apologize, but I would ask if anyone not directly in the healing party to wait outside, please.”

  Tanner took a breath before he answered, “As long as I'm told anything I need to know before we arrive. My pups are there — and I will not risk them for anyone.”

  “Acceptable. Thank you, Tanner.” With a bow of their head, Rezzan hopped into the cabin. “Let us discuss next steps. Given the escalation, we will be as forthcoming as we can — certainly more than prudence would dictate we should.”

  Lyn brought their hands together, palms out, “It's not my fault — it's this group. I don't know what it is — decades of communications security training, out the window.”

  Nat had ceased staring out the window, and was somewhat disquieted to find Rezzan staring directly at him, as soon as she entered the cabin.

  Then the clackaw did something utterly bizarre; she leapt into his lap, and continued to stare straight into his eyes. “Unfortunately, I do not have the time to discuss preparations in full.”

  Oh. Well, that was obvious. Let's see. Himself, Lyn, Novek, Rezzan — and enough air to talk. That's going to cut the time down, but he could compensate, he thought. He reached out and put a hand on Novek's shoulder, and put a foot against Lyn's leg. Siya had curled on the bench during the discussion, so that should be safe enough.

  [Slip]

  Lyn didn't miss a beat, “So, how did you land without us hearing?”

  “First, I didn't use any aetheric abilities. So you and Moira wouldn't be able to detect me. Second, did you know that all sound is a waveform?”

  Lyn simply nodded. Moira took on her tiny puppet form, as Nat extended his hand. Yes, and?

  “And if you know what something will sound like, you can simply create an inverse waveform, to effectively cancel it? Not perfectly, but enough to fool almost any listener.”

  I did, in fact. But it requires incredibly fast processing speeds to do dynamically.

  “Take everything we tell you here to your grave, or you'll take it to ours — all of ours. Every Clackaw, potentially everywhere.”

  Nat was taken aback at Rezzan's casual statement of horrific potential consequences, “What, the whole world?”

  “If only it was such low stakes. No — possibly on every world. We would be exterminated or lobotomized, but in either case, we would no longer be what we are. Lyn understands, ask them about it.”

  With a nod and a knock of the hand, Lyn answered, “I do, but later. The time in Nat's Talent is going to be very limited with this much mass.”

  “I've sped us up — we should have as much time as we need.”

  Not quite, there's only so much oxygen brought along. So, talk fast.

  Rezzan took the comment quite literally, to Nat's eye — they sucked in a breath, and immediately launched into the discussion, speaking twice as fast as their usual somewhat lazy cadence.

  “Don't make me regret this, Moira. Hopefully we're early enough so that when you go insane in fifty years, you remember us as friends.”

  Okay, now you've got my attention. So, how exactly do you know about that?

  “No time for that now. Now, you may be an agent, but Nat here is clearly no avatar. So, we're going to give you the five-minute rundown. The best part about this is they're all different, and they're all completely insane, so there's no real comparison that can be made.”

  Correction — now you have my full attention. A difficult thing to manage, but manage it you have.

  “First off, you need to take your puppet show full size, like you did earlier.”

  How did you see that? We were accelerated far beyond normal visual processing.

  “For Humans — that seems to be a big blind spot of all of yours.”

  It goes with the territory. It's a long story.

  “Tell us about it when you have some time later. We've heard gossip, rumors, and fabrications — a chance to know even part of the truth is beyond valuation. Anyway back to business — I just told you about inverse waveforms — this is no different. You've met Trant — did you make him angry enough that his nose started glowing?”

  We did, in fact.

  “Well, don't talk directly in front of him — he can see this, and you can't be sure he can't read it, or remember it for later. Watch closely — this is the feather-language of Clackaw. First, our alphabet.”

  Wait, I can't see that, unless it's done aetherically.

  “Don't be silly — they can, so of course you can. All you need is a material that can vibrate aetherically in reaction to normal photons.”

  And where, pray tell, can I find that?

  “You really are new at this, aren't you?”

  I wasn't kidding, it's been just over a week, Enkoet time. Fun fact, in my world, weeks are seven days, not five.

  Novek huffed at that, “That's got to be confusing.”

  You have no idea. Ask me about the calendar, later.

  “Anyway. Nat's eyes are — slightly — aetherically active. I'm certain you've noticed.”

  Nat put his hands in front of his eyes, “What?”

  I… had not. Lyn?

  The silverpaw shook their head, “Same answer — I had not. Mine are, obviously — you might be able to use them. But Nat's? My sensitivity isn't high enough to detect that.”

  Nat was curious, now. “Is that part of the Talent?”

  Rezzan's answer carried an acerbic tone. “The sample size of Humans with a helmsman package is exactly one. But if I had to guess, I'd think it's from the theronic affinity itself, a pre-requisite for any helmsman.”

  “Huh, that might explain why I sometimes see glowing disks in the sky for just a moment.”

  Lyn and Rezzan both turned their heads to him at his comment.

  Seeing the look, he gave a simple, “What? Haven't I mentioned that? It happened the day I met you all — while I was on the ground at Bell House.”

  With a sigh, Lyn pulled out a small book and fiddled with it. “The list of things I need to follow up on just keeps growing.”

  “Is it important?”

  Lyn snapped the book closed and tucked it into a pouch. “It might be. Let's move on.”

  Rezzan continued immediately, “Practice seeing later, then, and I'll show you our language when an opportunity presents itself. We can communicate quickly enough that messages can be seen and understood even the lower end of speeds of a helmsman, just slow down and hold each letter until you see an acknowledgement. Keep in mind that speed isn't a guarantee of privacy. Any Clackaw will be able to read what is being said, and some like Trant may have learned our writing. Your best bet is to simply not be seen while communicating.”

  Got it. We'll practice as soon as we can.

  “Next up — let's talk approach, if you feel you need to make an appearance. Any Brin creche is going to be familiar with agents. They're the ones providing the necessary expertise for the later uplift generations, after all. You've got two options. One — hide Nat in your aetheric puppet entirely. Or two — manifest your puppet distinctly, only if you feel you need to make a showing. Both are fairly common modes of manifestation, but if you pick one, stick to it for the duration.”

  It was Novek's turn to stare at the Clackaw now. “Wait — explain that.”

  “We're low on time, and you heard what I said. Help our mother, and I'll have ample time to answer your questions.”

  “Consider it done.”

  “I hope you're as capable as you are confident.”

  “Like you wouldn't believe.”

  “I'll hold you to that. Moving on.”

  We're low on time. Do we need more time in the Talent?

  Rezzan considered a moment before answering, “No. I am not sure what is going on exactly, and I don't want to overly bias our responses. Harm no Clackaw unless immediately threatened — ignore insults. Tell the creche nothing you wouldn't tell Trant. Assume that everything said outside of these few moments in the Talent have been seen and overheard.”

  Novek nodded. “Got it. We've been under superior surveillance, don't rely on surprise unless an ability hasn't been demonstrated.”

  Rezzan seemed pleased by the response, “Exactly so. Okay, now for the most important part of any war — the deception. Cancel the Talent, but remember that everything I will say after we leave, is a lie.”

  [Slip]