When I found Farfetch(second in a trilogy) in a bookbox, I was immediately drawn to get the other books so that I could read the entire story. I've enjoyed Lichtenberg for many years, but only knew her through her Sime-Gen stories. Fortunately, I was able to located copies of Dushau and Outreach through Paperback Swap so that I could read straight through.Krinata is a debriefing officer employed by the Allegiency to work with the Dushau exploration teams returning from a search for habitable planets. The Dushau are a near-immortal species, some of whom possess the ability to form a telepathically linked group called an 'oliat'. Within the oliat, they are able to understand the ecology of planets they discover and determine whether colonization is possible without destroying either the indiginous species or the colonists themselves.When we meet Jindigar, he is one of the surviving members of his oliat and attempting to provide his report to Krinata in spite of the overwhelming grief he feels for the deceased member of the oliat. Unfortunately, the emperor demands that Jindigar's oliat come to report personally, in spite of the fact that such stress is likely to be harmful to the members of the oliat until after they have grieved and disbanded their telepathic linkages. During their meeting with the emperor, Jindigar acknowledges a growing rapport with Krinata as both are practical and pragmatic in spite of their personal idealistic goals. Recognizing that the empire of the Allegiency is imploding, Jindigar convinces Krinata to flee with him to a hidden planet where they can join a multi-species colony and ride out the coming chaos. ( )