Resurgence

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 planets? 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?”