I stared at him. I could not have possibly heard him right. Perhaps in my elation over Venan’s release, I had lost my senses and started hallucinating. Or perhaps Sevani was not there at all, and I was in the midst of a very realistic dream. Whatever the case, it did not seem likely the words I had heard were the words that were spoken.

“I’m sorry,” Phoebe said, looking just as stunned as I felt. “What did you just say?”

“You two will be sent to the Novain mother ship,” Sevani repeated. He looked much too calm given the outlandish plan he was explaining. “You will speak to the captain about his colonists and their condition.”

“What do you imagine could come of that?” I asked in disbelief. “You believe he has the cure for the disease stocked away somewhere on his ship and he did not think to mention it when sending his colonists down to us to set up camp?”

Sevani folded his hands indifferently. “At this point, we know nothing about this disease—mutacorpathy, as you have named it. If he or anyone on board has information about it, we need to know. If not, you return to Albaterra empty-handed, and we are no worse than when you left.”

“Could you not just communicate with them from your respective locations?” I demanded.

First, the Elders had sent me to this hospital in the middle of Dhal’at because, at Vi’den’s own admission, they wanted to make sure I did not interfere with Venan’s case. Now, they were sending me into space to meet with the Novai leaders who, for all I knew, had the same disease and were equally aggressive as the ones down here and could likely kill us if they so desired. It was infuriating.

“The Novai have left the range of communication,” was Sevani’s answer. He said it simply, as if it was an idle fact of no consequence. “If we are to communicate with them, it is necessary to take a ship to travel to them and board their ship to speak with them directly. A matter such as this, we feel, should be addressed face-to-face anyhow.”

“But why have you chosen us?” I asked heatedly. “I have no knowledge of substance about the disease, and any I do have is of no help to the task.”

“And I am only a nurse,” Phoebe chimed in. “Don’t you think, if you’re going to send someone with medical knowledge, it should be a healer or a doctor?”

Sevani started with her question first. “We have chosen you because we were quite impressed with the knowledge you demonstrated during the trial. We also considered you to comport yourself with elegance and grace under pressure, and that is a skill we feel will be necessary when speaking to the Novai.”

“I can’t speak to the Novai,” she protested. “They don’t speak English.”

“You will have a translator, of course,” Sevani told her. “An A’li-uud can speak for you.”

He then turned his attention to me. While he had spoken to Phoebe with a significant amount of respect, albeit some unhidden irritation at being questioned, his face hardened upon looking at me, and it was clear he did not have the same patience.

“You were chosen because you are an Interplanetary Affairs Officer. It is your duty to handle interplanetary affairs. Aside from that, you are the only Interplanetary Affairs Officer to have been onsite at any of our medical treatment facilities that we have established, and you have firsthand experience another officer would not.”

“That is a thin argument,” I snapped. “You are trying to get me as far away from you as you can.”

“I cannot deny that idea appeals to me personally,” Sevani sneered, “but I am afraid that is not the motivation of the Council as a whole. We believe you two to be best suited to the task.”

“When are we supposed to do this?” Phoebe asked. She was not looking at Sevani; she was looking at me, and she was clearly scared. Her eyes had gone wide, and her hands were clutching the edge of the table so tightly her fingertips had become yellowish-white.

Sevani explained, “We must ready a ship for your journey, and, of course, we must gather a crew to accompany you. That will take at least a few days, if not a week. Possibly longer, if we encounter any difficulties.”

I shook my head. I did not want to go into an explosive rage as I had so often over the past several weeks, but I had had my fill of the Elders. I had never cared for them much anyway, particularly during my years as a criminal, but I was certainly losing any tolerance I had developed very quickly.

“I still do not understand,” I said. “I do not believe the Novai would have known about this illness, its existence and its possible triggers, without having said anything. I certainly do not believe they would have sent down colonists unprepared should the disease have been encountered.”

Sevani tilted his head dangerously. “Are you insinuating the Council has ulterior motives?”

I was, but I did not want to get myself or Phoebe into trouble, and I certainly did not want any backlash to come to Venan after what he had just gone through, no matter how unlikely it was that would happen. “I believe the Council wants a treatment to be found,” I said. That was true, at least. “I am only unsure the Council has made a wise decision in choosing to send Phoebe and myself into space to speak with the Novai who we have only had minimal interaction with and whose demeanors are completely unbeknownst to us.”

“When the Novai sent their colonists to us, they were entrusting us with the care of their people,” Sevani said severely. I did not like him, but, if there was one thing about Sevani, he was fierce in his responsibility for those in his charge. The Novai colony had been established in his kingdom of Pentaba, and I imagined he had a much more personal relationship with those colonists than anyone else on Albaterra. It was likely this disease was more troublesome to him than others. “The Novai leaders deserve to know the current status of their colonists. They deserve to know that a disease of mysterious origin has developed amongst their kind. Additionally, as I have already noted, there is a very real possibility they will have information to help us in curing this disease, if they do not have the cure themselves.”

Phoebe was frowning now. I turned my gaze to her because it looked like she wanted to speak, and Sevani followed my gaze to look at her as well. She blushed under our attention but spoke up.

“I know you think the Novai may have been aware this disease exists, and I know you think it’s possible they’ve encountered it before and therefore have the treatment,” she said. “But we have done everything we could to determine not only a treatment to slow, if not stop entirely, the progression of the disease, but we have also researched, observed, tracked every last detail. If we haven’t found anything that could be of help, what makes you think they have?”

To this question, Sevani appeared to think deeply. His answer came slowly, as though he was thinking about each word before he said it. “I know you have not been on Albaterra long,” he said. “And I know human knowledge of sentient life outside of Earth, prior to meeting the A’li-uud, was limited. You must understand, the Novai are not of our world. They are not of our galaxy. What you and I encounter as existence in our respective lives may not be what the Novai know to be real. We cannot imagine what their planet was like. We cannot imagine the resources they had. The most information we know about them and the life they once had is there were similarities to what we have here on Albaterra. As far as medical developments and treatments, they may very well have had resources available to them we have never seen. If so, it is imperative we learn of them.”

I knew he was right. I did not want to admit it, but he was. While I may not have had any medical training, I knew enough from speaking to Phoebe and watching the Novai change with my own eyes to know they were not healing. They were only getting worse, and, if we did not do something, they would die just as others had. I also knew Sevani was right about what he had said to me: it was our responsibility, having accepted the Novai as colonists, to do what we could to ensure their safety and well-being. That was the entire purpose of the Elderhood, to ensure the safety and well-being of the A’li-uud. Once humans colonized here, the Council accepted that responsibility for them as well. It only stood to reason Novain colonists were protected under the same creed.

“I guess we don’t have a choice,” Phoebe said in a small voice. “They need to know, and we need to know what they know.”

“Yes,” Sevani agreed. He stood suddenly, and I realized he intended this to be the end of our conversation. “When a ship has been readied for your mission and a crew gathered, we will send warriors to fetch you and bring you back to Ka-lik’et. Until then, continue your work with the Novai.”

Without another word, he left the room, and Phoebe and I stared at each other. We may have just been sentenced to imminent death.