 After this conversation, Cecelia covertly leaves Rotterdam for Rockhouse Major.There she stiffens the spine of Bunny's widow, Miranda, and aids her and Brun by taking the twins fathered on Brun by the Texans, fostering them with Raffaele and Ron on their colony world Excet-24; while on the colony, Cecelia discovers that something has gone very wrong in the colonial system.Most colonies appear to have been swindled and exploited.