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replied.
    As soon as they were locked inside, Taren spilled her guts about everything, including her vision regarding Amie, which she was sure Kassa would pick up on before long anyway. She was careful not to even think about anything that occurred before landing on this ship, but told of the dialogue that had passed between herself and the anomaly sample in quarantine via the FFRD. ‘And as I can only ask it yes-or-no questions, I need you to see if you can telepathically perceive what this entity’s problem is? It might even be able to identify the thief.’
    Kassa, although stunned and rather concerned by Taren’s claims, was eager to help if she could. ‘You ask the questions and I’ll tell you if I perceive any answers.’
    ‘Do you mind if I tape this?’ Taren suspected this might be a sticking point.
    Kassa considered the request a moment. ‘On the provision that you consult me before you make anyone else privy to it. I can’t hide forever and I’m not sure I want to any more, but it’s a big coming out for me, so I want to be consulted should it come to that.’
    ‘I understand completely.’ Taren gave a nod in agreement. They both turned as one to confront the anomaly in the lab and Taren instructed the computer to record.
    ‘What can we do to assist you?’ The FFRD needle again wavered about in the negative range, but the fluctuation wasn’t detected by the computer systems monitoring the sample.
    ‘Ah…’ Kassa gave a slight moan of pain, or perhaps frustration.
    ‘Something?’ Taren queried.
    Kassa screwed up her face. ‘Distorted sound,’ she informed. ‘It’s like it’s trying to tune into my frequency.’
    ‘Perhaps it is.’ Taren gave the theory some thought before doublechecking that Kassa was still keen to do this. ‘Does it hurt?’
    ‘I’m good,’ she hissed, motioning Taren to silence, as she was perceiving faint words in a voice not specifically male or female, but monotone and distorted. ‘Return the missing part. Return all parts to the whole.’ She repeated the words she could now hear. The unearthly tone of the being’s voice echoing in her mind caused Kassa to shudder as she continued: ‘A part is not infinite in energy, as it might at first seem. The part draws from the whole and the whole is weakened. It is damaging to us to be sucked of energy in this manner.’
    Taren had stopped breathing during the discourse and drew breath to query. ‘What manner? I have only measured the electric charge of this part, which, as you say, seems infinite. But I have not attempted to extract a charge,’ Taren explained to the sample and its channel.
    ‘The missing part was the energy extraction point,’ Kassa conveyed.
    ‘Was?’ Taren queried.
    ‘Now it travels,’ Kassa relayed, ‘to the next star system to be further abused. This will not be tolerated by the whole. We will do whatever we must to protect ourself from attack. Return the parts to the whole, before the whole departs.’
    ‘Departs?’ Taren was anxious. ‘Where are you going? When do you leave?’
    ‘Fourteen more times around the planet of water and our job here will be done. Home is the next project to which we are drawn across space and time to tend.’
    ‘Wow!’ Taren was pleased to be taping this. The way the being referred to itself in the plural and the singular was very interesting, the implication being that the separated parts of this substance were stillin contact with each other and with the whole. And the anomaly’s use of the word ‘tend’ seemed to support her theory that this entity had been drawn to this planet to implant the potential for the genesis of life here—much like the role attributed to devas in the ancient legends of her home planet of Maladaan. Perhaps a deva was exactly what this was? Still, Taren had a big problem. ‘If you depart in two weeks, there’s no way we’ll be able to return the missing part to you in time. Our space travel is not fast