The Final Nexus

by David Clarke

Chapter 19

My first instinct was to huddle down in a corner: after all, there were professional soldiers in the room, and I don't think anyone would have blamed me if I had decided to leave the fighting to them. But Sam showed no inclination to do anything other than fight, and of course Stefan's training had reasserted itself even after a layoff of two years, and I felt I couldn't let them down by ducking and hiding, especially since Stefan had said nothing to reproach me for breaking my promise to leave before things turned ugly.

The first two or three Greys died very quickly, but after that they decided to start throwing grenades through the door, and that was clearly a signal to get under cover, though apart from the map table (which was on a solid pedestal), some chairs and a couple of rather lightweight partitions there was little of that, because most of the radio cabinets were set against the walls. Unceremoniously I grabbed Sam and pulled him to the floor: he'd never seen a grenade before, of course, and when the first one went off on the far side of the room it came as a complete shock to him. The second one also exploded some distance away from us, but the third landed about six feet away and sat there spinning round, and at that point I really thought I was done for. Then Irfan dived across the room, batted the grenade off into a corner and slid into us just as it exploded. And I knew straight away that he'd been hit, because when a Konj�auml;ssi broadcasts pain like that, even a non-Konj�auml;ssi can feel it.

"Are you all right?" I asked.

"Not entirely. You?"

"I'm fine. Why did you do that?"

"Slaves cost money," he said, with a weak grin. "You should always protect your investments..."

And he coughed and fell silent. I didn't think he was dead because I could still hear breathing, but I thought he might not last too long unless we could get him to the crawler for repairs. Only one more grenade came through the door, and that one didn't land near us, though cries and groans across the room made it clear that Irfan wasn't the only casualty. But there were enough uninjured people left in the room that the next Grey to try putting his head around the door was met with a hail of bullets.

There were still noises of fighting outside, suggesting that there were still members of General Lee's crew in action, too. No more Greys appeared in the doorway and no more grenades came through either, and after a minute or so Mr Narj put his head carefully around the door and reported that Lee's men had the upper hand. He gathered together a band of uninjured men and led them out to help Lee's crew finish things off. Stefan went with him, but I stayed put: I wanted to make sure that Irfan got moved to the crawler as soon as the coast was clear. The moment Aarnist, who had gone out with Mr Narj's sortie, came back inside I grabbed him and asked for help moving Irfan.

"I don't think he can make it," he said, examining his colleague. "He's lost a lot of blood."

"He'll make it if we get him to the crawler before he dies," I said. "Their medical facilities are close to miraculous."

"Take his feet, then," said Aarnist, grabbing Irfan under the arms.

We got him over to the crawler. It wasn't easy: there were piles of corpses outside the door. But somehow we got past them and round to the back of the crawler. Fortunately Captain Altay was on duty at the ramps, and when I said that Irfan had saved my life, and Sam's, he gave us an escort and arranged for priority treatment in the crawler's medical bay.

"Why this sudden interest in Irfan's welfare?" asked Aarnist, as the medics took over from us. "I didn't think you and he got on."

"Nor did I, to be honest. But he still chose to save my life by knocking a grenade away from me and then covering me with his body. It looks as if I got him all wrong."

"Not necessarily. I think instinct has a lot to do with how we act in those circumstances. Wouldn't you have done the same thing if your roles had been reversed?"

I thought about that. If it had been Sam lying next to the grenade I'm pretty sure I would have done, but Irfan?

"I don't know," I said. "I'd like to think I would, but... I'm no hero."

"That's not what Colonel Narj says. I was talking to him earlier, using your friend Stefan as interpreter. He said you risked your life to save Kerpia from the reptiles last time they invaded."

"Well, that was a bit different," I said. "That was just a case of planting a bomb. Nobody was shooting at me or chucking grenades about."

"Even so, it must have taken a certain amount of courage to carry it past the reptile guards. And Stefan said you've put yourself between your friends and people shooting at them at least twice. I think you're probably braver than you give yourself credit for."

"That was just heat of the moment stuff. If I'd had time to think I probably wouldn't have done it. When the Greys came into the radio room just now I just felt scared, not remotely heroic. And when that grenade landed next to me I was terrified."

"So would anyone else have been. But even then you still made sure your friend Sam was protected by your body, didn't you? You shouldn't underestimate yourself, Jacob. Narj was right: you're a brave lad."

Well, I still wasn't convinced: I'd been on the point of wetting myself when that grenade landed next to me, and I really don't think heroes generally have to change their underwear after a fight. I was happy enough to be alive, especially considering how many others hadn't made it.

When we got back to the radio room we found it was a mess: the grenades had destroyed some of the equipment, so we didn't know what was happening anywhere else. The surviving operators were trying to re-establish communications with the other crawlers and with the militia units south of us. There was no sign of either of the Arvelan aircraft in the sky, so I assumed that they had been forced to land on the motorway, something that was confirmed when Sam managed to get his radio working again. He was also able to confirm that, according to Cho's spotters, there was still no sign of the portal reopening.

"Can we find a wavelength the Greys are using?" I asked Mr Narj. "If we can, this would be a good time to ask them to surrender."

"Do you think they might? The ones that attacked us here didn't seem to be interested in giving up."

"No, but if we can talk to their leaders we might be able to persuade them. After all, we know what's happening out there. They might not. And remember that last time they got cut off from their base they chose to be sensible about it."

"True, but last time there were only a few of them, and they didn't have any tanks. But we should probably try. I'm sure their scientists will be trying to open a new portal, and if we can get them to surrender before that happens maybe we can talk them into going quietly. For now, anyway, because we can be pretty sure they'll try again before too long."

"Maybe not. What's it worth to make sure they don't come back?"

"Oh, come on! There's no possible way to do that, not now they have portal technology themselves. The best we can hope for is for them to give us time to arrange a permanent alliance with the crawler generals, and maybe even with Arvel - though I'm still not completely sure about that. At least then we might be able to fight when the Greys come back."

"I think we might manage to do better than that. After all, we know the Greys are keen on self-preservation, and there's a huge difference between walking into a place with no defences and trying to invade someone who is well-armed and ready for you. If the Greys lost enough soldiers today, maybe they'll listen to reason."

"I think you're being too optimistic. But I suppose there's no harm in trying."

He got all the remaining operators to scan their wavebands until they found one being used by the Greys, and eventually one of them intercepted a transmission. It was using a lot of code words and so couldn't easily be understood, but we weren't interested in what they were saying: we just wanted a means of talking to them. Mr Narj got the operator to crank the power up and then took the microphone - he spoke Grey himself, of course, so for once I didn't have to interpret.

"This is Narj Larzel of the Royal Kerpian Militia," he began. "The portal back to your world has been destroyed, and will be destroyed again if it reappears, so you have no retreat. There are more of the large war machines on the way, similar to the one that has recently appeared to the south-west. However, we have no wish to kill any more of you than is necessary, and so we have called off our air force to give you a chance to surrender. If you do so, and if we can come to an agreement regarding the future, we will repatriate such of your troops as remain alive. Please reply on this frequency."

That was not, of course, entirely truthful, but the Greys were not in a position to know that no more crawlers were coming, or that the air force was temporarily unavailable to us. And so, a minute or so later, we received a reply.

"Hello, Narj. This is Senior Force Leader Nass. To judge from our previous meetings I believe we can rely on you to keep your word, and so we would be prepared to offer a truce while we talk to each other. Be advised, however, that we still have plenty of tanks, and that we believe the interface can be re-established before too long, and consequently it's a little early to talk of surrender. But we will consider what you have to say. Will you come to us?"

"I think perhaps somewhere away from the fighting would be better. If you have the means to cross the Ill - that's the river that runs south to north, to the east of your position - we can find an area where there aren't bodies all over the place. Approximately twelve ezerhersps north-north-east of where your portal used to be..."

"That's about thirty khirokubs," I put in.

"Thank you. Right, so thirty khirokubs north-north-east of your position you'll find a place where the motorway used to cross the river before we blew the bridge up. Cross the river there - if we meet at the far side of the motorway embankment we will be out of the line of fire of your troops and ours. We'll keep our aircraft on the ground at least until after the meeting. Perhaps we could meet there in about half a kend? Nass, I know you know how our units of time work."

"We will be there," Nass promised.

Mr Narj turned the radio off and began to get a negotiating party together. All of the participating worlds would of course have to be represented, and I thought that it would be a good idea to get the Tammids to attend as well, since the Greys might find it easier to relate to other non-mammals. Mr Narj wanted me, Stefan and Sam to go along to act as interpreters, and so I suggested we should take Dec as well, since he could speak Common and Arvelan. And so while Mr Narj was organising transport, General Lee opened a small portal back to the Arvelan world so that Dec could come back to our side. And I went and pressed the button on my bracelet to summon the Tammids, hoping that by now they had managed to cross into Kerpia.

North of Kolmar the bridges had not yet been destroyed, and so we were able to cross the Ill at S�lestat and follow its east bank southwards. The Tammids simply flew to the meeting place once we had reached it and landed close by.

Mr Narj was obviously expecting the meeting to go on for a while, as he'd managed to find a large tent and a number of chairs, and by the time the Greys arrived the tent was up and the chairs were arranged in a circle inside it. I'd spent that period talking long and hard with Kirk: he had a lot of questions about the various participants, and I answered these as best I could, telling him as much as I knew about each of the societies they represented.

Mr Narj and I met the Greys as they got out of their truck and invited the three officers into the tent.

"I remember you," said one of them to me. "You came up to the control room with Narj just before I returned home. What are you doing here?"

"Translating, mostly," I said. "I've lived in all of the worlds involved here, so I speak all the languages - and of course I was implanted with your language two years ago. You're Force Leader Nass, aren't you?"

"Senior Force Leader, now. I'm sorry, but I can't remember your name."

"Jake," I said. "Jake Stone, or Stone Jake, whichever you prefer. Anyway, if you'd like to take a seat I'll introduce you to everyone."

I waited until everyone was seated.

"You know Colonel Narj, of the Royal Kerpian Militia," I began. "This is Air-General Lorness and High Captain Aarnist of the Arvelan Confederation; these are Generals Lee, Khan and Cho of the Great Horde of the East, and this is Colonel Rietsch, of the Militia of Lower Elsass. And in the boxes are Dan and Kirk, who are Tammids. They come from another planet and have an arrangement with Elsass, my home world. I suggested they should be here because they're neither mammals nor reptiles, and so they'll be able to offer a neutral point of view if needed. And these are my friends Stefan, Sam and Declan, who will be helping with the translating."

"Well, I am Senior Force Leader Nass 04239083, and this is Adjutant Kessin 92246112, and this is Force Marshal Merss 89217082, who is in command of our army. So, Narj, what do you have in mind?"

"May I say something?" I asked, before Mr Narj could answer.

"Go ahead," he invited me.

"You're going to let a juvenile do the talking?" asked the Force Marshal.

"His Grey is better than mine," said Mr Narj. "Besides, he's spent more time beyond the portals than anyone else I know about, and that probably makes him better qualified to talk about them than me. Of course if I disagree with him I'll say so, but in the past he's generally been worth listening to."

"Well," I said, extremely grateful for that endorsement, "the thing is, you're all professional soldiers, and I thought maybe it would be helpful to get a civilian's view before your start getting all martial with each other. May I ask first of all why you decided to attack Kerpia?"

"Because we can," said the Force Marshal. "We have the technology now."

"Yes, you have. And the point about that technology is that it can take you anywhere: you're not limited to this world alone. There are empty worlds out there, places where you can find the minerals you want, or open land to raise your cattle, or places where you can build new towns to prevent your own world from becoming overcrowded. You don't have to fight the neighbours for control of what is already occupied territory when there are open spaces available to you where nobody lives. Why end up throwing away hundreds of tanks and hundreds of soldiers if you don't have to?"

"Well, we weren't expecting a lot of resistance," Nass pointed out. "Which leads me to ask: how did you know we were coming?"

"That was pure chance," I said, grateful for the opportunity to protect Ssyrl and his colleagues. "A couple of days ago High Captain Aarnist took a small party of us into your world because he needed to talk to one of the boys who were with us last year about something that happened back then. In his country there is a race of men who can read minds - you can understand that they're very useful at police work. Well, in retrospect I can understand why the officer in charge of the place where we came though wasn't pleased to see us: obviously with the invasion imminent he thought we were coming to do some spying. But I suppose he thought we'd get even more suspicious if he refused to let us in, and so he allowed Aarnist and one of his mind-readers to go and interview the boy, and I went with them to translate. He sent an escort with us, of course, and we had an uneventful journey: we did the interview and came back to the police post. But while we were gone your officer had been worrying about the invasion and whether we knew about it, and because he'd decided to keep the rest of our party - including three mind-readers - with him, they picked up what he was thinking, and when we got back to Kerpia they raised the alarm.

"So it was just bad luck on your part, really, or good luck on ours: our visit had nothing to do with the invasion, and if we hadn't had the mind-readers with us we'd have gone away none the wiser. But now that it's happened once you can be sure that the Kerpians - and their allies - will be ready if it happens again. That's why it would be a lot more sensible to use your portals to go elsewhere."

"I can see the logic of that, but so far we've only managed to open the one interface," said Nass.

"Well, maybe the Kerpians can give you some help with your portal project."

"Whoa! Hold on, Jake," said Mr Narj. "I certainly didn't say anything about that!"

"I know," I said, switching languages, "but think about it: is it better for the Greys to come and kick you all over your own back yard, or for you to help them find an empty world of their own? This time we knew they were coming. Next time they might pop up unexpectedly at the other end of the country, where you'll get no help from either Elsass or Arvel. Surely you'd be better off co-operating with them?"

"I don't think the government will agree to that at all. I'm going to have enough trouble persuading them to offer anything to Arvel, never mind the Greys."

"They'll change their minds when a Grey portal pops up by the Duna and the Greys sack Budd," I said. "Or even Temishar - I should think the mountains are much the same in the Grey world, so it shouldn't be impossible for them to open a portal in that area. The thing is, your country and mine don't have much of an army, and I don't want to see either of us needing one, either. If you've got powerful neighbours like the Greys and the Arvelans, surely it's better to have an agreement with them instead of just waiting for them to come and kick your door in late one night?"

"That's true, provided you can trust them to keep to the agreement."

"I think there's at least a chance of that."

"All right, Jake, carry on," he said. "But obviously anything you offer would have to be acceptable to my government."

"I'm doing my best not to make any concrete offers, just suggestions," I said. "I'm more than happy to leave the proper negotiations to the experts."

We'd been speaking Kerpian, of course, so:

"Problems?" asked Nass.

"No, not really. Colonel Narj was just reminding me that I can't actually agree anything myself - that's a job for the government. But I can make some suggestions that everyone might want to follow up later.

"Maybe none of you here will agree with me, but personally I think the best solution all round would be for all five worlds to come to some sort of agreement about using portals. You could agree on spheres of influence, for example - so perhaps the European powers would be happy to give the Arvelans free rein in the Americas, or the Greys in Africa - they're better suited to hot conditions, after all. The Horde might be more interested in Asia, since that's where their roots are, though actually the Horde are a bit different from the rest of you, and so maybe they'd be looking for a different challenge.

"But it seems to me that, if you pool what you know about portals, you'll find that there are plenty of worlds out there for everyone. We could set up some sort of council to handle problems - the Tammids could chair that, since they don't have any pro-mammal or pro-reptile bias - and perhaps you could have regular meetings to iron out any minor issues, or to help each other resolve problems in the new worlds. I'd suggest the best place for that might be here in Elsass, since all of you have a presence in this area in your own original worlds. Maybe my Elsass could find a physical place for that to happen."

"I don't think that would work," said Nass. "We'd be outnumbered, and I'm virtually certain we'd never be accepted in a mammal world."

"There might be problems at first," I agreed. "But Elsass now accepts the Tammids without any problem, and you're a lot less alien-looking than they are. Yes, there's likely to be a certain amount of distrust between you and Kerpia, but that's hardly surprising: it'll take time for that to end. But you might be surprised to find that other mammal worlds are more welcoming. If you talk to the two boys who travelled with us last year they'll confirm that in most mammal worlds they were treated exactly the same as we were. And over time we'd get used to each other, especially if we encouraged open portals between your world and ours. Perhaps we could have school exchanges: that happens between different countries in my native world: kids tend to be less prejudiced than adults to start with, and once we got to know each other I think we'd find we could get along pretty well.. Certainly I found that I got on well with the boys I met in your country, just as Torth and Sarleth got on well with us and the other kids we met on our travels.

"Anyway, that's something for the future. All I can say is that from a civilian point of view I'd far sooner we were all talking to each other about a shared future than trying to kill each other."

Mr Narj had been giving a running translation of that into Kerpian, and my friends between them rendered it into English, Horde Common and Arvelan, and once the translations were complete I looked around the room. And I realised that I'd failed to convince them: the Kerpians plainly didn't trust the Greys, the Arvelans didn't trust the Kerpians and the Greys didn't trust anyone.

My shoulders slumped. For a moment there I'd genuinely thought I had a chance of bringing them round them, but now it looked as though I'd been wrong.

"I'm sorry," said Nass. "I really don't think this is feasible. We have nothing in common with mammals, and..."

"One moment," interrupted a voice in English.

It took everyone a moment to work out that the voice came from the box of one of the Tammids, but Nass fell silent all the same.

"We would like to contribute to this discussion," the voice continued. "Jake, will you and your friends translate for us, please?"

"Certainly," I said. "Go ahead."

"We do not like war," the Tammid went on. "We have seen enough of it on our travels and we know that no good comes of it. And we see no reason why there should be war on this planet if it is not necessary."

"Who are you to say what is necessary?" asked the Grey force marshal.

"We are Tammids. We have travelled, and we have seen. But we understand that you each believe you have reasons to fight: Jake has told us something about each of your nations. And we have an alternative way to offer."

"And what might that be?" asked Nass.

"If you can agree to abstain from war we would be prepared to offer transport to any of you who is interested in exploring other planets. Each of you should find this beneficial. I will explain.

"The Horde has run out of land to explore and conquer. We can offer the chance to explore completely new planets. We have ships large enough to convey your travel machines, and we may also be able to assist in the repair of your machines. And we understand that some of you may prefer to stop travelling and make a home in one place. Clearly a peaceful outcome here would permit you to do this in worlds other than your own: you would have wider choices than that of simple agriculture in a largely empty world. We understand in fact that you have many things in common with the reptiles, who are also warriors and raisers of beasts for food. We believe that you may be able to co-exist with them.

"As for the reptiles, we understand that your primary motivation for expansion is to find the minerals you need, and to obtain living space for your population. These things could readily be accomplished if you had access to other planets. Or if you prefer to stay on this planet, by co-operating with the mammals you could improve your interface technology and use it to search out other reptile worlds - Jake tells us he has been to one such, and others almost certainly exist.

"For the people of Arvel this would also be true. I understand that your primary motivation is to obtain assistance with your own interface development, and clearly a peaceful outcome here would facilitate that. And you may also find the concept of space travel interesting. And for our part we would be interested in meeting the race of mind-readers of whom Jake has spoken to us. We find the concept that humans may have higher mental powers than we have hitherto seen fascinating.

"For Kerpia, clearly an accord with the reptiles would be in your interests. It is better to live in harmony with your neighbours wherever possible, and if you can reach an agreement here you will gain valuable allies in the event that your other neighbours - and we understand you have an uneasy relationship with the people of Lettria - should at any time prove troublesome.

"Elsass already knows the benefits of a peaceful existence. We believe that all of you could similarly benefit from an end to war.

"Now we will keep silent and allow you to consider our offer. We hope that you can see the advantages of a successful outcome to your discussions."

As I finished translating that into Grey I saw that the expressions of everyone around the circle had changed: the carrot of space travel did seem to have had an effect - even the Greys now seemed to be seriously considering the benefits of co-operating with the rest of us. Of course, I'd noticed that the Tammid had been careful to talk about 'transport' rather than 'technology': I was virtually certain that they weren't likely to share the technology with anyone other than Elsass - they wouldn't want to be held responsible for warlike peoples rampaging through the galaxy. By limiting their involvement to transport they could ensure that the Horde, for example, wouldn't choose to land on and attack an existing civilisation.

The discussions went on for quite some time, and although some of the mistrust continued to linger, by the time the meeting eventually broke up everyone had agreed to put the basic suggestion of a pooling of portal knowledge and resources, supported by some binding principles of non-aggression and the establishment of some sort of inter-world council to deal with problems, to their respective governments.

The meeting was concluded late in the afternoon, by which time the Greys had established a new portal, although no attempt had been made to send any fresh troops through it. Since it was comfortably within range of General Zhao's crawler any attempt to do so would certainly have been short-lived. Instead, when the Force Marshal got back to his command post he began organising the withdrawal of his surviving troops back through the portal.

When we got back to the radio station we found that Lee's scientists had opened a new portal to Arvel between the other two masts, so the Air-General was able to radio his base and arrange for a fuel truck to be sent to refuel his two stranded planes.

"Can we go home now, do you think?" asked Stefan.

"You know what? That's a great idea," I said. "Except... there's one thing I need to check on first."

I took him to Lee's crawler, and Sam and Dec came too: they wanted to make sure that Xan, Vanya and our other friends had survived the fighting. So while they went to look for them, Stefan and I went to the medical bay to see how Irfan was doing. We found him conscious and looking a lot better than when I had last seen him.

"Impressive medical facilities," he remarked. "I thought I was in trouble when that grenade went off, too. So, how's it going out there?"

"The Greys are going home," I told him. "Everyone has come to some sort of an agreement. Aarnist was there, so I'm sure he'll be able to give you the details later. Anyway, we're going home, too. I hope you're not going to have a problem with that, what with us being escaped slaves and everything - I'm sure you'll understand that we don't want to go back to the school."

"Well, legally I ought to insist on you coming back with me. And I could, of course: neither of you seems to be wearing anything metal."

"Legally you're now the one in a foreign world without valid papers," I pointed out. "If Kerpia had the same laws as Arvel, you'd be liable for enslavement. Actually, now that it looks as if there's likely to be a fair bit of travelling between worlds in the future, maybe that's a bit of Arvelan law you ought to think about changing. I can sort of see a case for slavery for people who commit real crimes - Dec explained that to me a while back - but you can't just go about enslaving people who get lost and end up in your world by mistake."

"We might have to do that," he agreed. "But that's not my decision. I just enforce the law as it stands. Although in your case I suppose an exception might be made."

"Thank you. And...is there anything you can do about what happens at the school?" I asked. "Slavery is one thing, but what goes on there is torture and murder."

"Our people have to train. I can understand why you're not happy about it, but that's the way things are. You can't change the world, Jacob."

"I suppose not. Well, we'll be off then. And thanks."

"For what?"

"For saving my life, and for letting us go."

He shrugged. "A moment of madness," he said, grinning. "Now go before I change my mind!"

So we left the medical bay and I took Stefan to my old living quarters, and here we found Sam, Xan and the rest of Xan's riders, who had not been directly involved in the fighting.

"They said it was too dangerous for cavalry," complained Xan. "We'd have gone in as infantry if they'd let us."

"Then I'm glad they didn't," I said. "Quite enough people died out there. Besides, if you'd died here you'd have missed out on the chance to visit other planets."

"Yes, Dec was just telling us about that. It sounds amazing... although it might be interesting to see some other worlds on this planet first. Maybe it would be interesting to see how people live in your world, and if it really is possible to live in a city without losing yourself."

"What about you, Dec? Are you going back to Sarutaale now?"

"No, I'm going to stay here. This is far more interesting, and if the general does decide to look into going to other planets that would be amazing. Though perhaps we could come and visit you before then."

"I'm staying, too," said Sam. "Dec needs someone to keep him out of trouble."

I wondered if that was going to lead to a wrestling match - certainly it would have done if I'd made a remark like that. But instead Dec just put his arm around Sam's shoulders and gave him a quick hug.

"We'll look after each other," he promised me. "So, are you going home now?"

"Yes, we are. But what you said about visiting: please do. I shouldn't think you'll be going anywhere for a while, because all the crawlers are going to need repairs."

"True. Ours isn't too bad, but Khan and Cho both got knocked about a bit, and Shen's crawler is probably beyond repair. The Greys pretty much destroyed it from the inside. Still, now that we have access to civilisation the repairs will probably be faster than in our own world. I'm sure the Kerpians will help us out with materials. But we'll probably still have plenty of time to come and see where you live."

"Good. If you use the portal in Strossburi you'll find it easier, because the transport links are a lot better. Here, I'll give you my chipfone number - anyone at the Institute will make the call for you, and once I know you're there I'll come and find you."

I scrawled my number on a page torn from Stefan's notebook, and then, after a lot of hugging with Dec, Sam and all of Xan's riders we went back to the radio station to find Mr Narj.

"Is it all right if we go now?" I asked him. "It's just that we both seem to be still in one piece, and I'd like to get home before something else goes wrong."

"Of course, I'll get someone to run you up to the Hub. But I suspect that if everything here works out the king might want to see you again."

"If this works out it'll be nothing to do with me," I said. "It's only going to work if you all persuade your governments to go along with it, and I imagine that's going to be a lot harder than it was for me just to make a couple of suggestions."

"I was thinking more in terms of the fact that we wouldn't have known the Greys were coming at all if you hadn't warned us."

"You can thank Aarnist for that, because going into the Grey world was his idea. I wouldn't have gone there in a million years otherwise. And you might like to mention to the king that it was the Grey boys over there that really saved us. They were the ones who reckoned that reptiles and mammals didn't have to fight, and that's why they decided to warn me. So if the politicians on your side start getting awkward, just point out that the Greys were the ones who took the first step on the road to them and us getting along with each other. Although if you think it'll help for me to say that in public I certainly will."

"Thank you, Jake. That would probably be very helpful, but in any case I'll make sure someone keeps you up to date with how the talks go. Now wait here for a moment and I'll find you a driver."

While I was waiting I walked across the room to where Aarnist was talking to the Arvelan Air-General and waited for a break on their conversation.

"I thought I'd come and say goodbye," I said. "I'm going home."

"Ah, so you're going to sneak off while Irfan's not around? That might be a good idea."

"No actually I've just been to see him and he's okay with it. He must have hit his head when he fell, because he was almost friendly."

"That doesn't sound like the Irfan I know. You must have done something to impress him... anyway, I've got no problem with you going. It looks as if I'm going to get everything I wanted out of this. Even if the politicians don't go with your idea they're definitely going to have to take portals seriously, and that can only be good for me. I don't suppose you'll particularly want to come back to my world, but if you do you can do so freely. I'll make sure your file is cleared up - and if I can catch Irfan while he's still in a good mood I'll see if I can get him to agree to drop the case against the rest of your party, too. After all, there's at least a chance that your world and mine are going to have an alliance in the future, and we probably shouldn't be enslaving our allies."

"Thank you," I said. ""I appreciate it."

Mr Narj waved at me to indicate that he'd found us a driver, and a couple of minutes later Stefan and I were on our way back up to the Hub. And it wasn't too long afterwards that we found ourselves back in our own world again.

"Fancy taking your life in your hands one more time?" I asked Stefan.

"What do you mean?"

"I can't be bothered to walk all the way back down to Schlettstadt," I said. "And he'll have finished work by now, so..."

I pulled my chipfone out - Mr Narj had indeed managed to recharge it for me the previous evening - and called Alain. It was quite a way to ask him to come, but like anyone with their first car he didn't need asking twice. He arranged to meet us at the point where we'd met the previous day, so Stefan and I walked down the track to the point where it met the road, and there we waited.

"Do you think it'll work?" he asked. "Everyone getting together and playing nicely, I mean."

"I don't know. Probably not, if I'm honest, or at least not straight away. You can hardly blame the Kerpians for not trusting the Greys, or the Greys for being reluctant to share with everyone else, especially if they believe mammals aren't really proper rational beings, which is what Torth told me they think. Still, maybe in the long run it'll work - and in any case, it's nothing to do with us any more. Let the adults sort it out."

He nodded. "I suppose that's true," he said. "And there's one other thing: are you disappointed that Sam decided not to come and live with us?"

"No," I said firmly. "I like him - in fact I like him a lot - but I don't want anything to get between me and you. Remember what I said when we saw Marc for the first time? I said something like, 'He's pretty, but you're perfect'. And Sam's the same: he's pretty, but he isn't you. And you're all I want, and as far as I can tell, you're all I'll ever want."

I'm not sure how long it took Alain to reach us because I wasn't watching my watch. Instead I was holding onto my boyfriend and kissing him and hoping that we'd never be separated again. And when Alain did arrive we got straight into the back of his car together and carried on, and we only stopped when he accused us of steaming up his windows.

When we got back to the R�sidence we discovered that this time we were expected: Oli had gone round to get things ready while Alain came to pick us up, so we were greeted with a full 'Welcome Home' party, which was really nice, though since it meant that Stefan and I had to stay downstairs talking to everyone for at least an hour instead of being able to retire to the privacy of our room it was also a little frustrating. But eventually we were able to slip quietly away. It had been four months since we had last slept in our own bed, and I can't say how delighted I was to be back. At that moment I had no wish ever to travel anywhere again.