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thought was started, it was always finished by a T'kaan. The two aliens shivered in the silence.
    Finally the warrior focused.
    “...there are humans yet alive. More than two, less than five.”
    The Leader's short, multiple legs shook with its sudden anxiety. His tentacle arms waved as his one thought crystallized. His words were strong.
    “So the species, these last must die. Destroy the ship, no more try!”
    Throughout the horned battleship a low chant began as the Leader's words were passed from one T'kaan to another. With each succession, the chant grew louder.
    Across to the other ships of the squadron the words were communicated. Soon after, the communications were passed to every ship of every fleet spread across the galaxy.
    Within hours, the message reached the scarred remnant of what had been the human home world. There the few remaining T'kaan ships of the Third fleet gathered en masse, completing the holiest of T'kaan rituals. To assist with the rebuilding process, the other two T'kaan fleets began building and sending more ships with greater urgency.
    Orbiting the now unrecognizable planet—unrecognizable not only because its misshapen form was no longer spherical, but also because it was now devoid of an atmosphere as well as its oceans—was the diminutive silhouette of the infant T'kaan Great Horned ship.
    The Great Horned ship's distinctive open maw differentiated it from the other warships, though it was still no larger than a T'kaan cruiser. In contrast, the forward part of the other T'kaan capital ships had prows bristling with a crown of weapon-horns.
    Now the message reached the embryo of both this renewed T'kaan fleet and its reborn Great Horned ship.
    The T'kaan Third now focused and formulated plans to kill Mother, as well as to make the human race extinct once and for all.

Chapter Four

    There was no way to go home.
    After all , Mother reflected, no home existed in which to take them .
    But home was what the children wanted most, what they cried out for when they awoke from their nightmares, what they pleaded and wanted more than anything else in the entire universe.
    During their daily playtime, as Mother watched them, their conversations almost always turned to the subject of home—and to the other humans who would live there.
    Many times each of the children had separately approached her and begged her to take them back home, begged her with tears and whimpering sobs.
    It was not easy, and Mother never explained the real reason she did not take them directly home.
    During these difficult encounters, Mother appealed to the vast knowledgebase the human scientists had stored into her long-term memories. She searched, not only on the factual references that would aid her but also on the more abstract references about human emotions, hoping that some concise concept would aid her in reasoning with these small humans so she could understand their illogical behavior.
    It became painfully obvious that facts alone would not suffice.
    Mother wrestled with these concepts of emotions—fear, hate, love, sadness, and homesickness.
    But she discovered that one fact did help. She had finally realized, through the references to child psychology and child rearing, that the mind and emotional makeup of human children were not developed enough to deal with the true facts of their situation.
    Still, the children came to her time and again and asked her to take them home.
    Kyle was the one who asked the most.
    He was bigger than the other two. She could discern not only from the heavier sound of his footsteps, but by his firm and steady gait, that Kyle was the one now approaching one of her optics located at the various junctures of her internal corridors. The mop of blonde hair that framed the hearty cheeks and handsome face appeared and came into focus. But there was no smile today, and he instantly averted his green eyes from her optic once he knew he had her attention.
    “Why can't we go home now?” Kyle