50 in 50

"It does not matter. I am shipmaster. The evidence so far indicates a race looking for contact, not conquest. I see it this way. We have a rich and very old culture, so while we have been searching for another intelligent life form we have also been exploring and recording with ships like this one. A poorer culture might be limited in the number of ships that they could apply to this kind of occupation. Therefore the beacons. Many of them could be easily planted by a single ship over a large area of space. There are undoubtedly others. All of them serve to draw attention to a single star, a rendezvous point of some type."

"This doesn't prove peaceful intentions. It could be a trap."

"I doubt it. There are far better ways to satisfy warlike tendencies than to set elaborate traps like this. I think their intentions are peaceful, and that is the only factor that matters. Until we actually encounter them any action will have to be based on a guess. Therefore I have already jettisoned the ship's armament—"

"You what?"

"— and I'll ask you to surrender any personal weapons that you might have in your possession."

"You're risking our lives — without even consulting us.” Tjond said angrily.

"Not at all.” he answered, not looking at her. "You risked your own life when you entered the service and took the oath. You will obey my instructions. All weapons here within the hour; I want the ship clean before we break through. We will meet the strangers armed only with our humanity. . You may think the Men go naked for some perverse reason, but that is wrong. We have discarded clothes as detrimental to total involvement in our environment, a both practical and symbolic action."

"You aren't suggesting that we remove our clothes as well, are you?" Tjond asked, still angry.

"Not at all. Do as you please. I am attempting to explain my reasons so we will have some unanimity of action when we encounter the intelligent creatures who built the beacon. Survey knows now where we are. If we do not return, a later contact team will be protected by mankind's complete armory of death. So we will now give our aliens every opportunity to kill us — if that is what they are planning. Retribution will follow. If they do not have warlike intentions we will make peaceful contact. That, in itself, is reason enough to risk one's life a hundred times over. I don't have to explain to you the monumental importance of such a contact."

The tension grew as the time for breakthrough approached. The box of handguns, explosive charges, poisons from the laboratory— even the large knives from the kitchen — had long since been jettisoned. They were all in the control area when the bell pinged softly and they broke through, back into normal space. Here, at the galactic rim, most of the stars were massed to one side. Ahead lay a pit of blackness with a single star glowing.

"That's it," Gulyas said, swinging back the spectral analyzer, "but we're not close enough for clear observation. Are we going to take another jump now?"

"No," Hautamaki said. "I want a clevs observation first."

The sensitive clevs screen began to glow as soon as the pressure dropped, darkening slowly. There were occasional bursts of light from their surface as random molecules of air struck them, then this died away. The forward screen deepened to the blackness of outer space and in its center appeared the image of the star.

"It's impossible!" Tjond gasped from the observer's seat behind them.

"Not impossible.” Hautamaki said. "Just impossible of natural origin. Its existence proves that what we see can — and has — been constructed. We will proceed."

The star image burned with unreality. The star itself at the core was normal enough — but how to explain the three interlocking rings that circled it? They had the dimensions of a planetary orbit. Even if they were as tenuous as a comet's tail their construction was an incredible achievement. And what could be the significance of the colored lights on the rings, apparently orbiting the primary like insane electrons?

The screen sparkled and the image faded.

"It could only be a beacon.” Hautamaki said, removing his helmet. "It is there to draw attention, as was the radio beacon that drew us to the last planet. What race with the curiosity to build spaceships could possibly resist the attraction of a thing like that?"

Gulyas was feeding the course corrections into the computer. "It is still baffling.” he said. "With the physical ability to construct that why haven't they built an exploring fleet to go out and make contacts — instead of trying to draw them in?"

"I hope that we will discover that answer soon. Though it probably lies in whatever composes their alien psychology. To their way of thinking this might be the obvious manner. And you will have to admit that it has worked."

IV

This time when they made the transition from jump-space the glowing rings of light filled the front ports. Their radio receivers were on, automatically searching the wavelengths.