Queen Hadassah came to Dr. Kang as near to alone as she could manage. She brought with her a mere three handmaidens, her chief soothsayer, and her 8-man personal bodyguard. The other 100 members of the royal bodyguards had taken up strategic positions in and around the observatory that Dr. Kang had converted into an ansible.

"Your eminent majesty," said Dr. Kang, nodding, when he saw the Queen and her entourage enter the room.

He was always careful to call people by their correct form of address. Title and ceremony was one of his favorite jokes.

"That will suffice, Sir Doctor Kang, we have no time to stand on propriety. When my son Asher came to me asking to fund this project I did so out of fondness for him. I did not consider the old stories, nor your new ones, about the technological prowess of the ancestors to be credible."

Dr. Kang smirked a little, but said nothing.

"The situation has, obviously, changed. You have been teaching our tradesmen, from a diverse cross section of trades, all manner of wonderful tricks. The things I've heard tell come and go from this tower are miraculous. Much of it I have seen with my own eyes. And now, a few hours ago, I saw a display of lights from my own balcony that I don't even begin to understand. Evidence is quickly mounting that I was mistaken. I'm ready to reevaluate my position. Tell me, Sir Kang, about dragons."

* * *

Ensign Gul had constructed a primitive shelter out of some of the remains of the lander. He was lying in it when Gibson, Mitzner and the others arrived.

"It took you long enough," he said, getting up slowly.

"You volunteered," said Mitzner "We couldn't very well leave the lander alone. Sometimes Exploration Fleet is about sitting around doing nothing eating bad ration packs."

"They're actually surprisingly good," said Gul.

"So who are our guests?" asked Gibson.

He motioned towards the two men Gul had wounded. They were still too beat up to really pose much of a threat so Gul had them stretched out on makeshift beds.

"They attacked me out of nowhere," he said "Didn't even get out the 'we come in peace' bit before they were shooting arrows at me. They had no kind of defenses; one shot from my coilgun took out all four. Two died. I buried them a ways over there," he pointed "Marked the graves with stones."

"They attacked you?" asked Gibson "What did you do?"

"Nothing," said Gul "They just came charging at me as soon as they saw me. I yelled the standard greeting but that just seemed to anger the more. I've been thinking it over, though, and I think I know why they attacked."

"Why?" asked Gibson.

"Remember that huge energy discharge a while ago? When those two amicable fellows saw it they started yelling in, I don't know, religious ecstasy?" said Gul.

"What do you mean?" asked Mitzner.

"They were celebrating, I think. I'm pretty sure," said Gul "It would explain why they attacked me, at any rate: they're in league with the dragon."

"That doesn't make any sense," said Mitzner.

"It did have memetic weapons," reasoned Gibson "And it's a learning intelligence that has been active for a very long time. Who knows what it's capable of?"

"Religious mind control?" asked Mitzner, her voice dripping with bemused skepticism.

"We're not ruling anything out until we know more. You and Ensign Gul go check it out," said Gibson.

"Right," said Gul "Finally."

"Let's go," said Miztner "I brought you a spider-wolf."

Mitzner and Gul took off in the direction of the energy discharge, the same direction that the attackers came from.

Gibson and the rest hooked the remains of the lander up to the work-spiders. Then, after making sure to carefully load the two wounded men so as not to aggravate their injuries, began the journey back to town.