"It's beautiful!" exclaimed Lirenna, staring around at the simulated forest in wonder. "I had no idea... I mean, I spent two weeks in the test chamber back in the valley, just to see if I could handle the confinement, but this..."

     "The illusions here are a good deal more sophisticated than those in the test chamber," said Sune Shala, the most senior of the shae folk aboard the Jules Verne, although seniority wasn't a concept the shae folk were comfortable with. The shae folk aboard the Jules Verne had to interact with humans and moon trogs, though, both of whom had rigidly structured, hierarchical societies, and they needed to have someone who could act as a mediator. Someone to whom the Captain could give orders and receive reports from instead of having to speak to each shae individually.

     Sune Shala had taken the job because, as a former Captain of a Bird of Paradise, a shayen flying warship, he was the one with the greatest understanding of the concept of leadership, even though it was not a quality he possessed himself. Being Captain of a shayen warship involved weighing needs and priorities. It involved co-ordination, not command.

     Lirenna just stood and stared about her, literally struck dumb. The dwelling tree from which she'd just emerged stood behind her. There was another just in front and another two behind it, each tree home to a husband and wife except for the one she herself would be inhabiting, which she would be sharing with Flinda Luell, an unmarried woman. The trees were the only things in sight that were neither alive nor illusion, having been magically constructed from dead wood and paper.

     Even though they weren't alive themselves, though, their branches were steeped in life, with a covering of mosses and lichen, kept green by the steaming, humid air, and hanging vines and creepers strong enough for the shae folk to climb and frolic amongst in the way they loved so much. The ground was covered by a two foot depth of loamy soil in which small undergrowth plants grew, their bright flowers adding a delicate fragrance to the air, and a colony of snake moles had been introduced to burrow through it, emerging to sniff the air during the night, animal life being an essential complement to the plants.

     The full range of jungle insects had also been brought in, to the considerable annoyance of the human crew members as they found their ways to other parts of the ship. Lirenna spent several minutes watching an ant exploring the green stem of a dobriar, rapt with fascination. This was no illusion. This was no pretence. This was real! There was life all around her. In the air she was breathing. In the soil under her feet. Even in the small pond on the other side of the terrarium where tiny silver fish swam and bright green frogs sat with only their bulbous eyes above the surface of the water. It was beautiful! She could spend years examining all the tiny details. The little nooks and crannies the designers had introduced to make the twenty yard wide hemisphere appear larger than it really was.

     There were illusions, of course. If she looked up she could see a yellow sun in a blue sky, and at night she would see the stars, moons and comets. Around her, more trees extended away to the limit of vision, but they weren't real. The edge of the terrarium would stop her from walking that far, like walking into an invisible wall. Only the birds singing in the trees could see through the illusion, an adaptation deliberately conditioned into them to stop them braining themselves on the walls. To the shae folk, though, the effect created was perfect. They were in a forest! Billions of miles from Tharia, they were in an equatorial forest, deep in the heartland of the shayen race.

     "The Orb of Propulsion is in the central tree," said Sune, taking a step towards it and waiting for the demi shae to follow before continuing. "That is the tree in which Glindia and I live. Our exit from the forest goes down to the bridge."

     Lirenna nodded. The other three trees, standing around the edge of the terrarium, had exits into deck six, the zero gravity shell in which the moon trogs lived. From there they could enter the human decks, if they so wished, using the same connecting corridor that the moon trogs used, on deck two.

     Glindia emerged from the dwelling tree as they approached, to welcome them in, and they spent the next half an hour asking after each other's health and families, swapping various pieces of small talk in the traditional way of introduction before shayen custom would allow the visitor to enter. Once, back in Haven, before she'd left to enter the University, Lirenna had been comfortable and happy with this. She had seen it as only civilised and polite compared to the hectic and frenzied human way of doing things. Now, though, after having spent so long among humans, the thought of having to go through all this every time one of them visited one of their neighbours had her fidgeting with impatience.

     This realisation of how she was coming to differ from pureblooded shae folk mentally as well as physically shocked her, and she made a deliberate effort to prolong the conversation. To find more things to talk about so as to seem more shayen to her hosts, although she had the feeling, towards the end, that her words were beginning to get a little forced and her manner a little strained. It was a great relief, therefore, when Glindia finally stood aside and gestured towards the door.

     Lirenna entered with a feeling of frustration and failure. She had always had the uncomfortable feeling that she wasn't a proper shae, that she was only pretending to be a proper shae, and now that feeling was stronger than ever. The other shae folk, the real shae folk, must be feeling that she was some kind of impostor. An unwelcome intruder into their world.

     She forced the idea out of her head. If it were true, she would never have been asked to join the shayen contingent of the Ship of Space. A position of enormous trust and prestige. Feeling better, she followed the pureblooded shaes into the tree.

     This dwelling tree had three rooms on the ground floor and one room above, accessible through a rope ladder that ran through a hole in the ceiling. That was the bedroom. A private chamber that no outsider would dream of violating with his presence except as the last resort in an emergency. Lirenna, as custom demanded, refrained from even looking in that direction in case it was interpreted as sordid curiosity.

     One of the downstairs rooms was a kitchen and the other a cramped living room, even smaller than Lirenna's own back in the shaewoods of Lexandria Valley. The third, however, was the orb room, containing the Orb of Propulsion in the floor and the flight of stairs down to the ship's bridge. It was accessible by means of an outside door, so that the other six shae folk could get to it without having to go through Sune's home, but Sune took Lirenna to it now by means of an internal door from their living room.

     "Here it is," said the shae, staring in awe at what was the very heart of the ship, being not only at its exact geometric centre but also being the single most powerfully magical device aboard. Only the Lifegiver, the ship's life support system, approached it in importance.

     "The greatest secret of the shayen race," he added. "The one object which, above all others, must be guarded from spying eyes. The secret that guarantees our continued independence and influence in a world dominated by humans." He indicating the two foot wide sphere of glass, half hidden in the floor and surrounded by a low metal sill to protect it from careless feet. Like all magical orbs it was lit from within, but instead of a steady soft glow this orb contained flickering tongues of fire, jumping and dancing like living things as they licked the inner surface, spreading across the glass as if searching for a way out.

     Hideous, thought Lirenna, or maybe beautiful. She stared in fascination, unable to make up her mind. "It looks almost alive," she murmured, unable to take her eyes off it.

     "In time, you will learn all its secrets," promised Sune. "Athelasta, the returned one, has judged that you may be trusted with the knowledge, that you would die before you revealed it to any human. Even your husband."

     There was a shae already in the room. Gel Goldinnel, the orbmaster on duty. He nodded a greeting to the two new arrivals. Since this was no-one's home, they didn't have to go through the ritual of introductory small talk and they were able to get straight down to business.

     "I see we are no longer under power," Sune said, observing the subdued flicker of the orb's fires.

     "Indeed so," confirmed the other shae. "We completed the assigned period of deceleration just a few minutes ago. However, I have just received an order to perform a rather complicated manoeuvre. The ship must be made to tumble, top over bottom, with a period of about five minutes."

     "The humans must wish to observe our surroundings," said Sune thoughtfully. He turned to Lirenna. "Please watch closely as Gel performs the manoeuvre. I would like you to be able to pilot the ship within a few days. The words and passes are quite simple to perform. You should pick them up quickly."

     "I will endeavour to be an apt pupil," Lirenna replied, her eyes shining with excitement."

     "You are already an apt pupil," said Sune. "Athelasta would not have approached you unless he had already satisfied himself on that point." He turned to the other shae. "Gel, will you please show our beloved colleague how the manoeuvre is accomplished?"

     "It will be my pleasure to do so," replied Gel Goldinnel, and he began to move his pale, slender hands above the smooth, curving glass.