A total of six years had passed. Nathan was now fifteen, but showed no sign of it. He still looked nine.

Most of the older kids and adults had gotten used to Nathan not growing, and had stopped talking about it.

Nathan found it surprisingly annoying that the younger kids seemed to want to spend their time with him. He found their pastimes boring and tedious. Even more annoying was how tall the younger kids were. They had lived most of their lives at .75g. By six or seven they were all taller than Nathan, who had done his growing in .94g, and had not grown since he got the virus just before his ninth birthday.

The Sasseich trees had grown faster than anyone had expected, but they had decided to keep the silkmice away from the trees one more year, so grubbing was still a daily chore in the early Summer.

Gerd and Seeker had mapped the continent, and found all six settlements. They had been evenly placed on the East and West coasts at the arc/trops and equator.

The East coast was more geologiclly interesting than the West coast. Extending from the Northeast and Southeast corners of the mainland were two long peninsulas.

Gerd had aptly named these peninsulas 'The Arm' and 'The Tail'. The resemblance to each of their namesake body parts was uncanny.

'The Shoulder' formed the actual Northeast corner of the mainland. The Arm hung alongside the mainland, paralleling it North and South. Between Arm and mainland was an extremely long, narrow bay. The equator crossed The Arm just South of the small cape which formed The Elbow.

The eastern equatorial settlement was anctually located on the bay side or inside of The Arm.

While The Tail was mountainous, and apparently of volcanic origin, The Arm consistend of low, rolling sand hills. Gerd said it reminded him of Florida, back on Earth.

(During Gerd's travels, he had already become somewhat larger-than-life. Sometimes it was hard to separate fact from legend. No one knew if Gerd had really spent time on Earth or not.)

While a couple of rivers emptied into the bay, the bay's water was brackish all the way to The Pit at the farthest northern end.

With the nearly total absense of tides, the bay had a circulatory current. The rivers entering from the West produced a southerly flow down to the sea. This flow caused an eddy current to flow northward along the eastern shore. These currents proved useful in Gerd's exploration of the bay.

The people of the eastern equatorial settlement were an extremely practical, no nonsense group. They had resisted all Gerd's attempts to persuade them to name the bay something other than 'The Bay'.

They had reasoned, based on Gerd's own exploration, that since it was the only bay of any size on the continent, why call it anything but what it is?

Since Gerd's village had taken on the job of exploration, they were declared to be the capitol (none of the other villages were interested in the job).

The leader of Gerd's village had designated Gerd in charge of External Affairs - meaning the rest of the planet.

Gerd had then made the rounds of the villages holding town meetings to determine what form of government Neuerde (New Earth) would have. No one could remember deciding the planet's name, but the name was adequate and there were no serious complaints.

It was decided that each settlement was the nucleus of an independent city-state. The continent would be divided up at the midway points between settlements in each direction.

Because of the irregular shape of the continent, this meant some regions had more land area then others. But since there was so much land, and so few people, no one much cared.

Most of Neuerde's inhabitants just wanted to provide for their families and be able to persue research in their areas of expertice. In most cases, persuing research meant building up a lot of infrastructure. They were too busy for politics, and most of them despised politics anyway.

Oddly enough, Gerd MÜller, Prime Minister of Neuerde, despised politics as well.

As much as he loved laser spectroscopy, he knew he'd not be working in that field again for years to come, if ever.

The emporer had clearly brought them here, naked and tooless, for some purpose. Gerd wanted to be ready when any Imperial ships returned.

He had no idea yet what they could do, but he would do his best to nudge trade and technical development in the direction of military readiness.

In that regard, the Ghanstones were probably the single best discovery they could have made. The empire would not expect them to have global communications so soon. Instant communications meant accelerated technological development, since re-inventing-the-wheel could be minimized, and breakthroughs in one area could spark ideas in others.

Gerd had shared these thoughts with Nathan the last time he came to Southwest City.

Nathan had wondered why Gerd had seemed to make a point of talking with him on each visit. When he had finally asked Gerd, he had told him that he suspected that with Nathan's lack of growth, he would end up outliving anyone around. Gerd's family were unusually long-lived, he had said, and he expected to live long as well, and it made sense to befriend people who would be around for a while.

After this somewhat questionable explanation, Gerd had casually dropped a bombshell. "And I've watched you talking with your double."

Nathan's first reaction was to say "You mean my twin?"

"Give me a little more credit than that, son" Gerd had said. "I've talked with your parents, remember?"

That had been the end of the conversation, because one of Gerd's crew had approached with ship's business.

Nathan had avoided Gerd the rest of that visit.

Gerd and crew were back now. Nathan saw no way to avoid him, and wondered how much he should tell about Olos and his people.

He had asked Gerd's whereabouts, and had been told he had gone for a walk in the hills. That would be a good time to talk about the Oreni in private, Nathan had reasoned, and he went looking for Gerd.

When he found him, Nathan was not remotely prepared for what he saw. Gerd and Olos were seated on nearby rocks. Olos was in glass-man form, his Nathan-skin neatly folded on a third rock.

"Oh," was all Nathan could think to say.

"Pull over rock and join us," Gerd said. Nathan sat numbly.

"He already knew about us," Olos told Nathan.

"I've been seeing what is it? Oreni?" he looked at Olos, who nodded "for years. No one else ever saw them - or admitted to it, anyway."

"What have you told him?" Nathan asked Olos.

"Everything I asked," Gerd said. "Problem with that is, what do you ask? So far, I've determined we have nothing in common. They don't need food, water, rest, or protection from the elements. As near as I can tell, we have nothing to offer them."

"Friendship," Nathan and Olos said in unison.

"But what does friendship mean to beings who share none of our most basic needs?"

"Well, that just means that we don't have to compete for the same resources, doesn't it?" Nathan asked.

"Granted," Gerd said, as if annoyed. "What I am saying is that, with no common ground, we have no way of being assured we understand each other."

"Olos, do you understand us?" Nathan asked.

"Mostly," Olos answered.

"I don't mean whether he understands the German language," Gerd said. "I mean…" he paused, not sure how to express his concern.

"The Oreni need energy like you," Olos said. "You get energy from food. We get our energy directly."

"From where?" Gerd asked.

"Mostly from the sun."

Nathan chuckled.

"What?" Gerd asked.

"Just like us" Nathan said, smiling. "The plants we eat get their energy from the sun, the animals we eat get their energy from the plants they eat."

"I understand you need food and water," Olos said to Gerd. "Now you understand we need sunlight and other energy. If we expend too much of ourselves, we must restore ourselves.

"You eat, drink, sleep, and protect yourselves from the environment," Olos continued. "We nourish ourselves and rest in the environment. If we protected ourselves from the environment, it would be like you sealing off your stomachs."

"You know about our internal body parts?" Gerd asked, surprised.

"How could we not?" Olos seemed surprised at Gerd's question. "We closely studied the first humans that came here."

"You cut someone open?" Gerd asked.

"I am looking inside you right now," Olos said. "Did you know the top of your stomach is sticking up through your breathing muscle?"

"That's the diaphram," Nathan said to Olos.

"You're saying I have a hiatal hernia?" Gerd asked.

"If that's what you call it," Olos said.

"It would explain some things," Gerd said. Changing the subject, Gerd asked "If we damaged the environment so badly that your people couldn't live here, what would they do?"

"Leave you, and stop helping," Olos answered without hesitation.

"You've been helping us?" Gerd asked.

"Since the first day you arrived," Olos answered.

"How?" Nathan asked.

"We have redirected storms, reduced their strengths, and brought rain during dry seasons. This world was not made for you. It is still young. It is often harsh. You might not be alive now without our help." Olos showed no sign of boasting. He was simply stating facts.

"Made?" Gerd asked. "You said this world was not made for us. Who was it made for?"

"The Oreni."

"Who made it?" Gerd asked.

When Olos paused as if trying thinking of how to answer, Gerd interjected in a neutral tone "Was it made by God?"

"Not directly. The Oreni who made it do not have names in your language."

"Oreni?" Gerd asked, puzzled. I thought they came from here."

"No," Olos said. "We came from there." He pointed at the gas giant.

"From Grossa?" Gerd asked.

"One Oren came there long ago and had many children. Ghan let our first parent share his world until it was time for The Others to come."

"What others?" Nathan asked.

"The other people Ghan was going to bring. That world was too heavy for The Others, so Ghan removed the world's heart and put it out here. Then Ghan told the Oreni that this was our world."

"Removed its heart?" Gerd said. "That could explain the abundance of iron here. If this was the core of a larger planet, you would expect that. But how do you remove the core of a planet without destroying the rest of it?"

"Ghan did it," Olos said, as if that explained everything.

"This was before Ghan was turned into all those crystals," Gerd said.

"Yes. Before the explosion," Olos agreed.

"So you wouldn't stay around and try to help us if we mess up the environment, then?" Gerd asked.

"If we somehow destroyed all the food near your home, would you stay and help us fix things, or would you leave to find food?" Olos asked.

"We wouldn't have a choice," Gerd shrugged.

"Neither would we," Olos said. "Nathan said we mainly use sunlight. That is true. You humans mainly use sugar to operate your bodies, but you would not live long eating only sugar. We need a healthy world. You do also. You must try very hard to keep it healthy."

"I've studied enough history to know that humans with knowlege of technology tend to not treat the environment too well. In the past, it has always taken a crises to change their habits."

"With that knowlege, your people can avoid the bad habits," Olos said.

"For a generation or two," Gerd shook his head. "Stories of Earth are often discredited by our people as myths. When stories of Deutscherwelt become just old stories passed down, they will not be taken seriously. We had some of the same ecological disasters on Deutscherwelt as our ancestors had on Earth."

"Are you saying there is no way to avoid that here?" Olos asked.

"I'm just saying I will not be surprised if the next generations choose to ignore past warning stories."

"Can we give them new warning stories?" Nathan asked.

Gerd looked at Nathan warily. "What did you have in mind, son?"

"I don't know. Maybe if people knew how harsh the world can be, maybe they'll realize they need to be careful with the environment. Maybe the Oreni could refrain from weakening the storms quite as much. Let people know we're already living on the edge," Nathan ventured.

"Maybe occasionally. I think a lot of severe storms might bring about a live-for-the-day attitude rather than a long term conservative one," Gerd replied.

"You want us to not weaken some of the storms?" Olos asked.

"I don't think we need any real damage," Nathan said. "Just give people a taste of how harsh Neuerde is."

"I thought you would like the way we helped you," Olos said.

"We do," Gerd said. "But too much help may not be good for us."