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the Kinley were masters of all they surveyed and the future was wide open.
    “If those crystals still exist,” the Chief continued, “they would teach us the true nature of physics. They would vault us past Lucien technology and enable us, perhaps, to win a war against them.”
    Pruit stared at him, then slowly said, “You want us to find the technology.”
    “Yes,” the Chief said. “And bring it back. You two are young enough to make it through the trip without serious consequences to your health. And you have both proven your abilities as soldiers. I and the council believe you are the right choice. Obviously, this is a last-ditch effort. But Kinley science achieved faster-than-light travel once. There is no reason we cannot achieve it again. We just need the key. And what better time than now, when it may be our only option?”
    They almost laughed at the desperation of this plan, but neither thought of refusing.
    As they lay together in bed that evening, in their small suite of rooms on the very top level of Kellersland, they looked up through their plantglass ceiling at the dome canopy above. Through the dome, they could see thousands of stars, spread out across the galaxy.
    “I’m frightened, Niks,” Pruit said, her arms twined about him under their light covers.
    “Me too.” He held her to him, his lips in her hair. “But if someone will go, I’m glad it’s us. No matter how desperate it is.”
    “Yes,” she whispered back. She wouldn’t have it any other way.

CHAPTER 3
     
    Adaiz-Ari and Enon-Amet walked side by side down a wide hallway with an enormous arched ceiling. The ceiling was of a polished aluminum alloy that shimmered in the white light of the artificial suns outside.
    Adaiz was human, a man in his twenties, bred in a Lucien laboratory from human genetic material gathered from captured Kinley. At birth, when he had emerged crying from the Lucien incubator that had nurtured his prenatal development, he had been given to the father and mother of Enon-Amet, then a Lucien pup of three years, and Adaiz and Enon had been raised as brothers.
    The racial difference between them had never been of any consequence to either. Like any younger brother, Adaiz had adored and emulated his older brother Enon, and Enon had treasured his unique sibling.
    They passed guards standing at attention in front of high doors that led off from the hall, back into the meditation chambers and meeting rooms that filled the bulk of the Hall of Elders. Both Adaiz and Enon wore the uniforms of Clan Providence, the Lucien army, which left them bare to the waist. From the corner of his eyes, Adaiz caught glints of sunlight reflecting off the silver chest of his brother. Enon was slightly over six feet tall, average for a Lucien male.
    A human seeing a Lucien for the first time would think them insectile, but this assessment was incorrect. They were more akin to mammals than insects. Their most striking characteristic was their skin. It was silver and was partially reflective, as long as they were exposed to regular sunlight. Their coloring was caused by a subcutaneous layer of a silica solution that captured sunlight and employed it in biochemical reactions. Starved of sunlight, they became less and less reflective as their bodies sought to draw in all available light to perform these functions.
    Their oval heads tapered to a narrow point at the place where a human’s chin would be. Their mouths sat behind this point, at a place analogous to the underside of a human’s chin. Two small slits above the tapered point made up the Lucien nose. Their heads were smooth and hairless, and on each side, above small, pointed ears, were remnant antlers, the legacy of some previous step in their evolution. The antlers were about four inches long and lay back flush against the sides of their skulls. They were made of soft cartilage and covered with brown fuzz.
    Their arms were quite similar to human arms, but their legs had two knee