To Wang-mu's horror, Grace laughed out loud at her, instead of nodding respectfully.
"Overkill," Peter murmured.
"Oh, don't criticize her," said Grace. "She's Chinese. From Path, right? And I'll bet you used to be a servant. How could you possibly have learned the difference between respect and obsequiousness? Masters never are content with mere respect from their servants."
"But my master was," said Wang-mu, trying to defend Han Fei-Tzu.
"As is my master," said Grace. "As you will see, when you meet him."
"Time's up," said Jane.
Miro and Val looked up, bleary-eyed, from the documents they were poring over at Miro's computer, to see that in the air above Val's computer, Jane's virtual face now hovered, watching them.
"We've been passive observers as long as they'll let us," said Jane. "But now there are three spacecraft up in the outer atmosphere, rising toward us. I don't think any of them are merely remote-controlled weapons, but I can't be certain of it. And they seem to be directing some transmissions to us in particular, the same messages over and over."
"What message?"
"It's the genetic molecule stuff," said Jane. "I can tell you the composition of the molecules, but I haven't a clue what they mean."
"When do their interceptors reach us?"
"Three minutes, plus or minus. They're zig-zagging evasively, now that they've escaped the gravity well."
Miro nodded. "My sister Quara was convinced that much of the descolada virus consisted of language. I think now we can conclusively say that she was right. It does carry a meaning. She was wrong about the virus being sentient, though, I think. My guess now is that the descolada kept recomposing those sections of itself that constituted a report."
"A report," echoed Val. "That makes sense. To tell its makers what it has done with the world it . . . probed."
"So the question is," said Miro, "do we simply disappear and let them ponder the miracle of our sudden arrival and vanishing? Or do we first have Jane broadcast to them the entire, um, text of the descolada virus?"
"Dangerous," said Val. "The message it contains may also tell these people everything they want to know about human genes. After all, we're one of the creatures the descolada worked on, and its message is going to tell all of our strategies for controlling it."
"Except the last one," said Miro. "Because Jane won't send them the descolada as it exists now, completely tamed and controlled--that would be inviting them to revise it to circumvent our alterations."
"We won't send them a message and we won't go back to Lusitania, either," said Jane. "We don't have time."
"We don't have time not to," said Miro. "However urgent you might think this is, Jane, it doesn't do a lick of good for me and Val to be here to do this without help. My sister Ela, for instance, who actually understands this virus stuff. And Quara, despite her being the second most pig-headed being in the known universe--don't beg for flattery, Val, by asking who the first is--we could use Quara."
"And let's be fair about this," said Val. "We're meeting another sentient species. Why should humans be the only ones represented? Why not a pequenino? Why not a hive queen--or at least a wo
rker?"
"Especially a worker," said Miro. "If we are stuck here, having a worker with us would enable us to communicate with Lusitania--ansible or not, Jane or not, messages could--"
"All right," said Jane. "You've persuaded me. Even though the last-minute flurry with the Starways Congress tells me they're about to shut down the ansible network at any moment."
"We'll hurry," said Miro. "We'll make them all rush to get the right people aboard."
"And the right supplies," said Val. "And--"
"So start doing it," said Jane. "You just disappeared from your orbit around the descolada planet. And I did broadcast a small fragment of the descolada. One of the sections that Quara pegged as language, but the one that was least altered during mutations as the descolada tried to fight with humans. It should be enough to let them know which of their probes reached us."
"Oh, good, so they can launch a fleet," said Miro.
"The way things are going," said Jane dryly, "by the time any fleet they send could get anywhere at all, Lusitania is the safest address they could have. Because it won't exist anymore."
"You're so cheerful," said Miro. "I'll be back in an hour with the people. Val, you get the supplies we'll need."
"For how long?"