While Louis Nenda stared at her, apparently more in surprise than annoyance, she went on, "Oh, I don't mean most of what you said—I came to many of the same conclusions. This system isn't our final destination, it's a halfway-station used by a lying Polypheme, probably one Bose jump from where we really want to go. But Louis, when you say the Builders haven't been at work here, you are wrong."
Nenda opened his mouth, said, "Well—" and paused. Atvar H'sial had reached out to place one black paw on his shoulder, and was leaning over him so closely that the Cecropian's pleated pouch touched the top of his dark hair.
After a few seconds Nenda nodded. "Yeah, yeah, yeah." He turned back to Darya Lang. "Atvar H'sial says she knows the Lang Universal Artifact Catalog—all editions—forward, backward and sideways. And in none of those, dealing with more than twelve hundred artifacts in the Orion Arm, do you anywhere suggest that the Builders destroyed a whole stellar system. Why are you changing your tune now? Is it just because we're in the Sag Arm?"
"No. I'd say the same if we were back in our local arm. Louis, you had all the evidence staring you in the face, you just ignored it. The planet you mentioned is amazingly cold. In fact, according to the physics that we know, it is as you said impossibly cold. Colder than the microwave background radiation of the universe, which means there must be some mechanism at work on that planet to get rid of incident radiation falling onto it all the time from space. Otherwise it must increase in temperature to match its surroundings. Mentally, I tagged the place as Iceworld as soon as I made the first measurements. It's huge, just as you say, but it has hardly any gravitational field. You realized that, because it hadn't swept a region clear around its orbit. But you didn't take the next step. If you had measured the orbital periods of Iceworld's satellites—it has seven of them, all small—you could have calculated the planet's mass. I did that. The result is tiny, something you would expect from something one hundredth the diameter. What does that tell you?"
Nenda shook his head. He seemed to be waiting for Atvar H'sial to provide an answer, but a survival team member—one of the women, Lara Quistner—got in first. "Big diameter, small mass. Are you suggesting that your Iceworld is hollow?"
"I am. And that has other implications, ones that you don't know because you weren't with us on our earlier explorations. First, a hollow object that size can't be created by any natural processes that we understand. Second, we were led once before to a system and a giant planet, Gargantua, that seemed totally dead. But one of its moons, Glister, was hollow, and the evidence of Builder activity was inside it—including a transport vortex that could take you to other places. I bet that's happening here. If we want to reach our true destination, we have to go down to the big planet and explore below the surface."
Julian Graves said gently, "Professor Lang, even if you are right you didn't answer Atvar H'sial's question. Did the Builders destroy this whole stellar system, in order to make a single artifact on Iceworld?"
"I don't know. But Atvar H'sial is correct, in no other case have we found evidence that the Builders did such a thing."
"Not the Builders, Professor Lang. Then who?"
"Others. Destroyers, Voiders, Dead-Zoners, call them what you like. Whoever or whatever it is that the Marglotta believe is at work destroying the Sag Arm. Councilor, I have spent my life studying the Builders and their actions. What we find here does not match my instincts."
"But you may be wrong."
"Of course I may be wrong. It's only a theory. So let me go to the planet—and find out if I'm right! Something inside Iceworld should lead to our real destination, Marglot."
It was not Hans Rebka's job to tell Darya to stay away from inexplicable and probably dangerous worlds. He would have interrupted anyway, but Julian Graves saved him the trouble.
The councilor shaded his misty blue eyes with his hand and said, "Destroyers, Voiders, Zoners. Professor Lang, you desire to resolve a mystery by the somewhat risky procedure of introducing a greater one. Rather than one kind of super-being, the Builders, you now propose that we consider two. The avoidance of unnecessary complications has been a known working principle since the dawn of human history. Also, as you point out, what you have is no more than a theory. Others may have different ideas and suggestions."
As though on cue, E.C. Tally jumped in. "May I speak?"
The embodied computer was sitting well away from the others. A gleaming fiber-optic cable connected the socket on his chest with the computer system of the Pride of Orion.
Julian Graves glared at him. Tally was apparently not on the list of candidates likely to offer useful theories. "Is this relevant?"
"It is indeed most relevant. When we made the final Bose transition, I happened to be in the observation chamber with Professor Lang. However, after the transition she appeared uninterested in further conversation with me."
Hans Rebka saw Darya looking in his direction, and raised an eyebrow. You threw him out?
She smiled and shrugged, as E.C. Tally went on, "I then decided that I could perhaps employ my own extensive data bases to good effect. I made observations of my own. First I examined not the dark star system to which we have recently come, but our general stellar environment. I found an unexpected asymmetry in incident radiation. More starlight is coming to us from one region of the celestial globe than from its antipodes. It did not take long to discover why. The distance of the nearest visible stars varies from less than a lightyear in one direction, to more than twenty lightyears in the opposite direction. I asked myself, why should there be such a difference? But I found no obvious explanation. I therefore set out to make more observations, looking not at our local environment, but back toward the Orion Arm. Even across the distance of the Gulf, it is possible to identify certain of the supergiant marker stars employed in celestial navigation within the Orion Arm. And from their apparent locations, I could by triangulation compute an accurate position for us in the Sag Arm."
The embodied computer paused. E.C. Tally sensed that for the first time ever, others might be hanging on his words. "Before we started on this journey," the computer went on at last, "I had made my own estimates of the place in the Sag Arm where the Marglot system might be located. I was, unfortunately, wrong."
Graves said, "You trusted the Chism Polypheme's navigation files?"
"Regrettably, I did. However, my earlier error is not the point I wish to make. I believe from my observations and calculations that I know where we are now. If I might employ the displays?"
"You're hooked in? Then go ahead."
The lights dimmed. E.C. Tally said into the darkness, "This is a presentation of the Sag Arm as we observed it before we left Upside Miranda Port. Do you see the spherical region which, as Councilor Graves remarked at the time, is utterly lacking in light and life? Good. Now I am going to shift the origin of coordinates of the display, to one centered on a particular position at the extreme edge of that dark region."
The display seemed to zoom through space at an impossible speed, crossing the Gulf in seconds and plunging into the depths of the Sag Arm. When it slowed, a new and strange starscape revealed itself.
"You will probably not recognize this," Tally went on. "Nor might you expect to, since you could presume that no one from our spiral arm has ever been at such a location in the Sag Arm. This is, in fact, merely a portion of the Sag Arm as seen from the place that I computed by triangulation as our location. You would, however, be wrong in your assumption. I will now display the sky as it actually appears to sensors on the Pride of Orion at this very moment."
The image flickered. Tally continued, "If you fail to observe any difference, that is because there is no difference. We are where my computations suggested that we would be: at the very edge of the zone of darkness."
The lights in the chamber brightened. E.C. Tally, who had been standing, sat down to a baffled silence. It was finally broken by Julian Graves.
"Very good. So we know where we are. I do not see how that i
s of much help to our present situation."
"May I speak?"
"I rather wish you would."
"We are at the extreme edge of the region where the stars have ceased to shine. The Marglotta, who came to us and sought our assistance, may be presumed to be just beyond that edge since their home system is currently in danger. And since we were directed here, it is logical to assume that the Marglotta home world is at no great distance from us. I therefore propose that we travel to and explore the nearest stellar system. It will be, with high probability, the Marglot system."
Hans Rebka had listened carefully to every word. He decided that he understood the problem: although E.C. Tally was totally logical, the embodied robot was also totally crazy. Unless you got lucky, and found either another Bose node or a Builder transport vortex, a subluminal trip to the nearest stellar system was a multi-year proposition.
But maybe you didn't have to be crazy—just have an indefinitely long life-span, like an embodied computer.
Julian Graves said, "You leave one important point unspecified. Who would undertake such a journey?"
"Why, I would. Who else?"
"Who else, indeed? I need time to consider your suggestion, and also Professor Lang's. Does anyone have other ideas to offer?"
Graves was already on his feet, ready to end the meeting, when Louis Nenda coughed and said, "Yeah. Well, maybe. Though the last thing I offered got shot to hell. Thing is, At and me figure the rest of you are missing a big piece of all this. What about the Polypheme?"
"Mr. Nenda, you are the one who pointed out that Chism Polyphemes are the most crooked, unreliable, deceitful species in the galaxy."
"Absolutely. Did I mention they're also totally self-serving? If I didn't, I should have. But you had a Polypheme piloting the ship with the Marglotta on board. More than that, by the time it reached Miranda it was a dead Polypheme, something nobody I know ever saw or heard of. Polyphemes may not live forever, but they do their best to. So At an' me, we asked ourselves, why would a Polypheme get mixed up in tryin' to help the Marglotta? We can come up with only one answer: the Polyphemes are involved because they're scared light green. An' why? 'Cause their home world is next on the list, or maybe next but one. Otherwise, they wouldn't give a damn what happened to the Marglot system. So if anyone can tell us what's goin' on, the Polyphemes can."
"Mr. Nenda, what you say may well be true. There is, however, a fatal flaw in your argument: we have no idea where the Polypheme home world might be, and we know they will do everything they can to conceal that knowledge from us."
"The hell with their home world. We don't need it. Polyphemes gossip and gabble like nobody's business. You can bet your ass and hat that if the whole species is in trouble, any Polypheme you run into is likely to know about it. I don't want all the Chism Polyphemes. I just want one, and a chance to pull information out of it."
"How would you do that?"
"Don't you worry your head. I got my methods."
"I would be concerned by that statement, but for one thing: you have no Polypheme."
"Not yet. But I think I know a way to snag me one. Only thing is, it's going to take a few more hours of work before we know what we got."
"Indeed? Then a few more hours is what you will have. Not, I should add, for your benefit but for my own." Julian Graves surveyed the group. "I am sure it is hardly necessary to point out that we have gone from a paucity of ideas as to where we are or what we should do next, to a superabundance of theories. It is perhaps also unnecessary to remark that when three suggestions appear equally plausible, there is a better than fifty-fifty chance that any given one of them is wrong. I will inform you tomorrow of the result of my deliberations."
Julian Graves stood up and left the chamber. It was obvious that he was in no mood for further discussion, but Hans Rebka hurried out after him.
"Councilor, I know you have not yet made a decision but I want to point something out to you. It would be absolutely criminal to permit Darya Lang to head down to the surface of Iceworld unless someone who knows what he is doing goes with her."
"It certainly would, Captain Rebka." Graves turned in the doorway. "Your concerns are noted. They are, however, premature. I request that you, like everyone else, wait until tomorrow before you jump to conclusions. Please do not pursue me further."
A wave of his arm, and the door closed.
Hans Rebka was left alone in the corridor with another mystery to ponder: How could somebody with so little idea of danger be placed in charge of an expedition so far beyond the boundaries of known space?
CHAPTER NINE
The parting of the ways.
Louis Nenda was out of the meeting chamber almost as quickly as Hans Rebka. He, however, had no thought of pursuing Julian Graves. His interest was in returning to the Have-It-All as fast as possible.
He left Atvar H'sial to make her way back at her own speed, and as soon as he was in the corridor leading to the ship's computer center, he was calling, "Hey, how are you doing?"
His question was intended for Kallik and J'merlia. The doorway, however, was blocked by the massive body of Archimedes. Rebka was presented with a view of the Zardalu's midnight-blue hind end.
He kicked at one of the thick tentacles and tried to squeeze past. "Kallik? J'merlia? What the hell's going on here? I didn't tell you to let Archie push his way in."
"With respect, Master Nenda, Archimedes did not enter unsanctioned." J'merlia's voice came from beyond the mass of leathery flesh. "Kallik and I invited his presence."
"Why'd you do a thing like that?" Louis pushed, and the Zardalu wriggled a little to one side. "Archie doesn't know a damn thing about Bose nodes."
"That is true." J'merlia, in the absence of his dominatrix Atvar H'sial, tended to speak too much rather than too little. "Archimedes knows nothing of such things, nor does he need to. Kallik and I completed that phase of the analysis more than an hour ago. As you instructed, we began with the data bank from the ship of the dead Polypheme. It contained many thousands of Bose point references within the Sag Arm, many of which doubtless follow the Polypheme custom of providing spurious data to confuse other would-be users. We sought to eliminate those from consideration by correlating them with star positions. We argued that although Bose transition points in empty space certainly exist—such points led us across the Gulf—the ones in a navigation catalog are likely to lie at reasonable sub-lightspeed travel distance from habitable worlds. This reduced the number of nodes to be considered, to nine hundred and twenty-seven. This, however, is still far too many to be of practical value—"
"Hold on. I didn't ask for a lecture. I asked what this lump of fat and gristle is doing in here."
"With respect, Master Nenda." Kallik pushed around the other side of the Zardalu. "The presence of Archimedes was not relevant to the Bose node analysis. He was, however, essential to the task that evolved from it. My eyesight is excellent, and so is that of J'merlia. But neither can compare with that." The Hymenopt pointed to Archimedes's head. The eye-pupils of the Zardalu were each the size of Louis's fist. "The spatial resolution that Archimedes can achieve is so good that we have trouble believing the results."
"I still don't get it. What did you have Archie looking at, that anybody cares about?"
The Zardalu must have understood the sense of the question, if not the full meaning. Archimedes produced an urgent series of clicks and held out toward Louis a big sheet of hardboard.
"Our apologies if we have exceeded your orders." The little Hymenopt bowed her round black head. "If I may continue with what J'merlia was saying, we reduced the number of stars with associated Bose nodes to nine hundred and twenty-seven. However, you had suggested as you left that you were most interested in Bose nodes close to neutron stars. You did not say why, but I made an inference as to your intentions. A Chism Polypheme, as we learned from our earlier experiences with them, enjoys hard radiation. Hence, a natural question: Do any neutron stars close to Bose nodes possess plan
ets? Unfortunately, this was not a question that either J'merlia and I could answer using our instruments and our observations. Archimedes, however, was able to do so. He has been transcribing his results."
"Is that what you've been trying to show off? Gimme a look at that." Louis grabbed the sheet of hardboard, slightly slippery to the touch from the Zardalu's waxy skin. "Archie, next time I tell you you're a useless sack of gas and blubber you can talk right back to me. I brought you along thinkin' we'd need your strength. It never occurred to me you might have other uses."
A veil of pheromones drifted from beyond the long body of the Zardalu. "Louis, what game is being played here? Why is this object blocking my way?"
"It's all right, At. Give Archie's rear end a poke and he'll move. I think we're going to see action—at last! We get the go-ahead from Graves tomorrow. Then, we make a jump and we're out of here."
* * *
"You presented your plan to me yesterday as a certainty." Atvar H'sial was again sitting behind Louis Nenda in the main chamber of the Pride of Orion. "Do you still adhere to that view?"
"Hell, I don't know." Louis stared around the room, about half of which seemed to be taken up by the great body of Archimedes. "Julian Graves is crazy, so you never can tell what he's goin' to decide. But I don't like this setup at all."
"Too many are present?"
"You got it. All are present, except Graves himself. Me, you, Archie, Kallik, J'merlia, Rebka, E.C. Tally. Why involve everybody? Why even hold a meeting? What we need from him is a simple yes or no."
"And if Graves says no?"
"We reevaluate. We got a ship, we have a set of Bose nodes and stars and planets to go with 'em. We could take off and explore the Sag Arm."
"What of our return to the Orion Arm?"
"Why would we go back? We're no better off there than we are here—maybe safer here. Nobody's chasing our tail in the Sag Arm."
"Louis, for you that may be an option. For me it is not. Ultimately I must return to the Cecropia Federation and mate. If I do not, I die."
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