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and the big sergeant would return soon from their “secret” mission. Jahup had been excited about going, about spending time with the sergeant, and he’d told Noojin more than he’d been supposed to. Like a fool, he’d sworn her to secrecy.
    That was wasted effort. She was part of his hunting band. They had placed their lives in each other’s hands for years. There was no closer-­knit relationship, not even in families.
    She was still angry with Jahup and the sergeant for not allowing her to go along. She was as good as Jahup in the jungle, and much better than the sergeant. If anything, the big-­footed offworlder would probably get Jahup killed clomping around the jungle as he did.
    She made herself stop thinking about Jahup getting hurt. That wasn’t going to happen, and it was a waste to dwell on it. She wouldn’t let it happen. Grandmother Leghef had told her several times that the power of the mind could control the future. It only took a strong mind.
    The Terran fort stood brightly lit in the night, a sharp contrast to the Makaum dwellings and public buildings around it that bore the colors of the jungle and seemed to melt into it. Until the offworlders arrived, ­people had risen with the sun and gone to bed shortly after sunset. There had been little to do at night and several of the nocturnal predators were more dangerous than those that hunted by day.
    Powerful lights lit the fort, illuminating the grounds and paths between the Quonset huts where the soldiers slept and day-­to-­day business was carried on. Other sec lights monitored the hangars that contained the fierce engines of destruction that Jahup was so interested in.
    In the heart of Makaum, the Terran Army had erected an alien fortress that warred with the environment. At the other end of the city, the Phrenorians, the (ta)Klar, and the corps all did the same. It was as if a sea of technology and otherness strove to form a barrier around the Makaum ­people. The effect was suffocating and Noojin found she didn’t like being in the sprawl. She preferred being out in the jungle hunting.
    Some looked on those offworlder efforts to grow their own world on Makaum as a step toward security that the Makaum ­people had never had. Migrating jungle creatures had threatened the city at times, but the ­people had always rebuilt. Those attacks were natural things. The offworlders were not.
    Noojin felt that the city was being imprisoned. Roads into and out of Makaum now had checkpoints managed by the Terran Army. The offworlder word checkpoint sounded harsh and explosive, and as offensive as it was. Before, ­people who lived in the city had been free to come and go as they pleased. Now “identification” had to be presented to travel the roads close to the fort, and no one was allowed at the embassies except those who were invited.
    The restrictions were intolerable.
    An eanga , glowing a soft violet, flitted through the air near Noojin’s head and distracted her angry thoughts. Only a few centimeters in length, the small winged lizard was probably curious to find her seated there. She lifted a hand and called it to her with her mind.
    Come.
    For a moment, the eanga hesitated. Its small, vaporous thoughts brushed up against hers. Although those thoughts weren’t completely decipherable, just as hers weren’t to it, Noojin knew the little creature was searching her intentions for any predatory overtures. There were things, creatures as well as plants, that could lure victims into traps from which there was little chance of escape.
    She thought only happy thoughts at the eanga , then slowly reached into her kit for the journeycake she’d stuffed there in anticipation of the long night of waiting for Jahup’s return. She held a crumb between her thumb and forefinger.
    Cautiously, the eanga flitted in and darted its tongue out to test the crumb. Satisfied there was food and nothing