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retired for the night, save the one guard prowling the perimeter of the camp in his soggy cape, Leonie got up and went to the entrance of her tent.
    She peered out cautiously, turning her attention to the sky. The clouds lay heavy and dripping above, showing little inclination to move until they had dropped all of the rain they carried. But Leonie knew from years of experience that clouds were always moving, it was merely a matter of which way and how fast. It had only been within the last year or so that she had been able to put her observations to actual use.
    She watched carefully until she could tell the direction of movement, the direction that would tell her which way the wind was blowing at the height of the clouds. Past experience had shown her that it was not always the same direction as the wind on the ground. Once she knew the right path, she reached out with her mind and nudged the heavy clouds in that direction, pushing them along like a shepherd with a flock of fat, lazy sheep, until they were out of her way and she could see the sky. The four moons floated high above the tents, all at the full, each a different color. They were beautiful—
    but they were silent and enigmatic as ever.
    Leonie tied the entrance flaps open and sat on one of her pillows, trying to touch something within her that would give her vague premonitions some form or substance.
    All that earned her was a growing sleeplessness.
    She sat at the entrance to her tent and stared up at them for several hours, trying to focus her laran on what she could see with her physical eyes, the round shapes of the four moons—trying to focus her mind on what she knew was coming, trying to focus on the terrible apprehension she felt.
    Trying to find the answers she sensed that she would need—and soon.

CHAPTER 3
    A ring of little domes, like an untidy nest of mushrooms, had sprouted on the
    surface of the largest of the moons. Around the domes, space-suited personnel and machines worked to make the installation self-supporting and self-maintaining.
    Inside the largest of the domes, Ysaye sat before a computer terminal, watching
    on the screen as the brightly painted, toylike satellite fired a last retro and slid elegantly into orbit.
    “Well, that’s number one—the first mapping and weather satellite,” David
    commented happily, looking over her shoulder. “Now Elizabeth and I can really go to work. That’s a remarkably sophisticated piece of machinery, according to her.”
    “Sophisticated in what way?” Ysaye asked. “The onboard computers aren’t all
    that special.”
    She wanted to keep him talking; she was aware of the hiss of air in the ventilation system in a way she had never been on the ship. She just didn’t feel entirely confident with nothing between herself and vacuum but a thin skin of flexible membrane.
    David seemed willing to oblige her. “It’s the observational equipment, the optics, that are special. I hear that this Terra Mark XXIV has high enough resolution to see a lighted match on the night side. At fifty thousand meters, I’ve been told the ones in geosynch orbit over Terra would let you read the license plate on a car parked in the Ambassadorial Parking Lot in Nigeria. I assume this one can do the same.”
    “That’s if they have cars and parking lots,” commented Elizabeth, coming up
    behind him. ‘And Embassies. Of course if they don’t, I suppose we can help them to build some—”
    He turned with a smile and answered, “Well, to see the numbers on a street sign.
    Or whatever they use down there for streets and signs. Hello, love! Are you here to start the weather observations?”
    “You guessed it,” she replied. “If you’ve got first watch for Mapping and
    Exploring, we’re going to be able to work together.” She looked around her, at the bank of monitors showing the ships’ crew working outside. “Do you think the people here ever reached their moons?”
    “If they did, they didn’t leave