Flinx Transcendent Part 27

"You're not making any sense." An increasingly irritated Flinx glared at the nearest visual pickup. "If we're accelerating, how can we not be moving?"

He broke off. Additional detailed explication could wait until later. In fact, everything could wait until later. He felt pressure at his waist. Clarity was hugging him, hard. The two humans standing shoulder to shoulder allowed Pip and Sc.r.a.p, mother and offspring, to push up against one another. Off to their left Bran Tse-Mallory, the Eint Truzenzuzex, and his relative Sylzenzuzex joined the two humans in staring straight ahead.

They did not know what they were seeing. They did not understand what they were seeing. They knew only that they could not turn away from it.

The Teacher's Teacher's confusing and seemingly contradictory attempt at explanation notwithstanding, it appeared that they had entered some kind of tunnel. A tunnel or corridor composed entirely of energy that was simultaneously volatile and unwavering. It was as if, Flinx reflected in awe, someone had taken an entire galaxy in all its glory, replete with suns and nebulae, pulsars and masers, black holes and X-ray bursters, and attenuated it until it was no greater in diameter than the coruscating tube they were presently speeding through. The curved walls that enclosed them flung successive waves of electric crimson, intense cobalt, and eye-bending yellow at their stunned retinas. Some emerged from astern to overtake and blast past the s.h.i.+p itself. He had the feeling that if the confusing and seemingly contradictory attempt at explanation notwithstanding, it appeared that they had entered some kind of tunnel. A tunnel or corridor composed entirely of energy that was simultaneously volatile and unwavering. It was as if, Flinx reflected in awe, someone had taken an entire galaxy in all its glory, replete with suns and nebulae, pulsars and masers, black holes and X-ray bursters, and attenuated it until it was no greater in diameter than the coruscating tube they were presently speeding through. The curved walls that enclosed them flung successive waves of electric crimson, intense cobalt, and eye-bending yellow at their stunned retinas. Some emerged from astern to overtake and blast past the s.h.i.+p itself. He had the feeling that if the Teacher Teacher was to drift to the left or right, up or down, and make the slightest contact with that scintillating, flaring cylinder of encircling energy, the s.h.i.+p and everything within it would evaporate like a cough in a hurricane. was to drift to the left or right, up or down, and make the slightest contact with that scintillating, flaring cylinder of encircling energy, the s.h.i.+p and everything within it would evaporate like a cough in a hurricane.

"Some kind of plasma tunnel." Tse-Mallory had found his voice. He spoke in that tone of barely controlled excitement scientists reserve for those special moments when they realize they have come across something that truly justifies the employment of the word "new."

"Irrespective of what the s.h.i.+p says, I can't tell if we're moving through it or if it's moving around us."

"I can tell you this, cri!l!kk." this, cri!l!kk." Truzenzuzex's antennae were quivering like violin strings at the height of a Bartok arpeggio. "We are Truzenzuzex's antennae were quivering like violin strings at the height of a Bartok arpeggio. "We are traveling. Sitashk traveling. Sitashk, we are traveling! What I would not give to be able to pause and step for a moment outside these sculpted walls of dynamic conveyance."

Occasionally they had glimpses of other loops of force that might have been similar corridors. There were not many, and they were widely dispersed, but they materialized often enough to show that the one that was conveying them was not the only one of its kind. Glimpses of other such tunnels rapidly became fewer and fewer. Before long the occupants of the Teacher Teacher found themselves utterly alone, speeding down a channel formed of unfamiliar energies toward an equally unknown destination. found themselves utterly alone, speeding down a channel formed of unfamiliar energies toward an equally unknown destination.

"I guess the Xunca," Sylzenzuzex observed hours later as they forced themselves to break away from the eye-numbing view out the foreport long enough to eat and drink something, "liked to get around."

Seated across from her, Clarity was hand-feeding Sc.r.a.p slightly burnt bread crumbs. The minidrag would rear back and strike from her shoulder, dispatching one piece of toast after another as if he were stalking prey deep in the sweltering jungles of distant Alaspin.

"I wonder where we're going?" she ruminated.

"I think I can hazard a guess." Tse-Mallory sipped the hot drink the s.h.i.+p had prepared for him. "The end of the road. The last station on the line. The definitive terminus." He peered over at Flinx. Their host was neither eating nor drinking as his imagination worked overtime. "The place that the Tar-Aiym Krang told Flinx was coupled to the Xunca warning system on Horseye. The locality of..."

"... the defense," Truzenzuzex finished for his friend. "If "If we are lucky. And maybe also if we are not lucky." we are lucky. And maybe also if we are not lucky."

Clarity blinked at the thranx. "I don't follow you, Tru."

The philosoph looked back at her. "We are traveling through a transportation system whose technology is at least as old as the last of the Xunca. Say, roughly half a billion terrestrial years." A truhand gestured toward a projection hovering conveniently nearby. It displayed the view forward of the s.h.i.+p: a seemingly infinite corridor of energy and light.

"That something so old still functions is in itself almost beyond belief. Yet if Flinx's exchange with the Krang was accurate, it is conveying us toward a construct, a device, beside which this astonis.h.i.+ng example of ancient engineering must appear little more than a sandy path by comparison."

Clarity nodded pensively as she pa.s.sed Sc.r.a.p a piece of crust. "I wonder when we'll get there. Wherever 'there' is."

"I will happily settle for arriving before we're dead," Sylzenzuzex volunteered.

It took nearly a month. Given the speed at which they were traveling (or not traveling, if the seriously confused s.h.i.+pmind was to be believed), the expanse they must have crossed exceeded anything previously traversed by humans or thranx by many, many orders of magnitude.

"I think we're slowing down."

Flinx's general call caused everyone to drop what they were doing and race to the control room. Finding him seated in the command chair, his companions joined him in staring out the foreport. At first glance nothing seemed different: it looked as if they were still traveling inside the endless tunnel of glowing plasma. As everyone's perception adjusted, however, a number of other realizations became obvious.

Most immediately, it appeared that the diameter of the channel had been greatly enlarged. Though the Teacher Teacher was still fully enveloped, the enclosing walls were farther off. The corridor had ballooned into a bubble big enough to hold a hundred s.h.i.+ps the size of the was still fully enveloped, the enclosing walls were farther off. The corridor had ballooned into a bubble big enough to hold a hundred s.h.i.+ps the size of the Teacher Teacher. Set alongside other megastructures Flinx had encountered in his journeying, the spherical structure of s.h.i.+mmering iridescent energy was not large. Compared to something like the Tar-Aiym weapons platform its dimensions were downright modest.

What was was impressive was what could be discerned just beyond the borders of the bubble that enclosed them: an all-pervasive luminosity. impressive was what could be discerned just beyond the borders of the bubble that enclosed them: an all-pervasive luminosity.

They were surrounded, insofar as he could see, by light. Beyond the barrier of the plasma sphere there was only radiance. He queried the s.h.i.+p.

"I have already been a.n.a.lyzing the omnipresent broad-spectrum phenomena-or attempting to do so, given that my instrumentation is exceedingly inadequate for such a purpose," the Teacher Teacher explained. "It is virtually impossible to impart an explanation in words. I myself can only just begin to appreciate the true nature of the phenomenon through the application of pure mathematics." explained. "It is virtually impossible to impart an explanation in words. I myself can only just begin to appreciate the true nature of the phenomenon through the application of pure mathematics."

"Give it a try," Flinx urged his s.h.i.+p. "In words. Simple words."

"A contradiction that I fear may be impossible to resolve," the s.h.i.+pmind replied. "Outside the enclosed plasma spheroid in which we presently find ourselves, in all directions and to a distance I am unable to measure, there is nothing but a solidity of gravitons."

Tse-Mallory blanched at the explanation. "That really is a contradiction in terms. Gravitons have zero ma.s.s and no charge. They're closed strings in special low-energy vibrational states. You can't catch them, you can't see them, and you certainly can't collect them in one place, much less in anything resembling a 'solidity'"

The Teacher Teacher was not perturbed. "I told you that the reality I am perceiving crosses over into the inexplicable. Remember that as closed strings without endpoints, gravitons are not necessarily restricted to this brane. Or if you prefer, to what is referred to as the immediate physical universe in which we exist. They are perfectly capable of existing in and traveling through other branes as well as the greater Bulk." was not perturbed. "I told you that the reality I am perceiving crosses over into the inexplicable. Remember that as closed strings without endpoints, gravitons are not necessarily restricted to this brane. Or if you prefer, to what is referred to as the immediate physical universe in which we exist. They are perfectly capable of existing in and traveling through other branes as well as the greater Bulk."

"My head's starting to hurt," Clarity muttered.

"It does not matter," Truzenzuzex objected. "What Bran said about gravitons holds true."

"In this universe, yes," the Teacher Teacher agreed. "But much as we know about this brane, we know nothing of others. As has long been theorized, the laws of physics in other branes may be completely different from those in ours. A proton in another brane, for example, might have no ma.s.s. A wave or particle like a photon that could possibly exist in both might exhibit entirely different properties in another brane. In the L-brane, O-brane, or another, such a particle might possess ma.s.s, charge, or both. agreed. "But much as we know about this brane, we know nothing of others. As has long been theorized, the laws of physics in other branes may be completely different from those in ours. A proton in another brane, for example, might have no ma.s.s. A wave or particle like a photon that could possibly exist in both might exhibit entirely different properties in another brane. In the L-brane, O-brane, or another, such a particle might possess ma.s.s, charge, or both.

"Some physicists and mathematicians have long believed that branes are not fixed within the infinity of the multiverse or Bulk, but that they are in constant motion-at least at the edges of the branes themselves. Where the ripples of two such branes impinge upon one another insistently enough, you get a bang. Sometimes a Big Bang. If that theory is to be believed, new universes contained within their own new branes are being born all the time-universes upon universes within universes.

"Envisage a technology so advanced that it could bring about such an interaction between a pair of branes, but under controlled conditions and on a manageable scale."

Truzenzuzex's mind was awhirl with the possibilities. "Cr!!lk "Cr!!lk, perhaps that's where the Xunca went. Through a congruency of two branes, from this one into another. The ultimate escape. Perhaps they traveled in craft propelled by focused gravitons-or composed of them."

An equally enthralled Tse-Mallory was not averse to taking the impossible another step further. "If they could influence such processes on such a scale, maybe they manipulated the degree and extent of the interaction in order to generate their own made-to-order Big Bang." Raising a hand, he brought thumb and forefinger toward one another to ill.u.s.trate his point. "A little Bang, say. The result would be the creation of a new small universe contained within a customized brane. Nothing ostentatious. Insignificant, really. Say, a thousand available and unoccupied new galaxies they could explore and colonize at their leisure."

"An entire civilization?" Clarity was whispering without knowing why. "To escape what's coming toward the Commonwealth they moved their whole civilization to another dimension dimension?"

Tse-Mallory smiled softly. "Tru and I are just speculating. If there was a Xunca around, I'd ask it. But they're not here anymore. As Flinx says, they went away. Only some of their works remain behind to hint at what little we know of them." With a wave of his arm he encompa.s.sed the view forward. "The plasma tunnel transport system. This place. The quantum impossibility it somehow holds at bay."

The s.h.i.+pmind was not finished. "But before they learned how to do whatever it was that they finally did, they rendered this brane and another barely proximate in an attempt to try and acc.u.mulate what they thought would be enough energy to counter the oncoming menace, which itself I have come to believe is quite likely an intrusion of another kind of matter-energy from still a third brane."

Truzenzuzex whistle-clicked softly. "I would need to do the math, but the juxtaposition of our brane with another could possibly provide an explanation for the Great Attractor's unbelievable energy."

"All that effort and science to create a defensive weapon became unnecessary," the Teacher Teacher continued, "when the Xunca found a way to step from this brane to another, or to create their own. Either means of escape would have rendered this weapon superfluous." continued, "when the Xunca found a way to step from this brane to another, or to create their own. Either means of escape would have rendered this weapon superfluous."

"But," Flinx pointed out, "they left it behind."

"Yes," the s.h.i.+pmind concurred. "They left it behind."

"Too big to move," Flinx found himself thinking aloud. "No need to move it, anyway." He eyed his companions. "Or maybe-maybe they left it behind, and intact, so that whatever civilizations and intelligences arose after them would have a chance to fight this thing that's coming toward us."

Clarity was not convinced. "If they wanted to help, why didn't they leave a signal that would lead us to the same brane where they've taken refuge?"

Tse-Mallory chuckled softly, shaking his head. "It wouldn't have mattered if they had, m'dear. In order to get to an island, you first have to have a proper boat. Maybe a quantum boat. It's not just that humanxkind is still learning how to swim: we don't even know what the water is like." He looked over at her. "What's the point of a signal you can't follow?"

"Oh, right," she murmured in sudden realization.

Turning away from the statistical illogicality visible through the foreport, Truzenzuzex spoke without looking at any of them. "The s.h.i.+p's speculations offer explanation not only for the Xunca defense, but perhaps also how the destructive Evil that we must confront can exist in our brane. It is background independent."

Flinx regarded the two scientists. "What does that mean? From a practical standpoint?"

Tse-Mallory explained. "It means that the oncoming menace flows through our brane without being a part of it, swallowing up matter and not acting like a normal part of our universe because it's not not a part of it. It-leaked in. Or punched its way in. Or for all we know, deliberately gnawed its way in from some incredible, impossible, much larger 3-brane where such perversions of physics are an accepted and natural occurrence. As such, not being subject to the physical laws of this universe, it likely cannot be destroyed. Not in the sense that we understand destruction. Therefore the only way to stop it is by forcing it back out. Back into its own brane, or into another." a part of it. It-leaked in. Or punched its way in. Or for all we know, deliberately gnawed its way in from some incredible, impossible, much larger 3-brane where such perversions of physics are an accepted and natural occurrence. As such, not being subject to the physical laws of this universe, it likely cannot be destroyed. Not in the sense that we understand destruction. Therefore the only way to stop it is by forcing it back out. Back into its own brane, or into another."

Flinx slumped in the command chair. Clarity came up behind him while Pip's tongue flicked out from her perch on her master's shoulder to lightly caress his cheek.

"I don't," he mumbled wearily, "feel much like a plumber."

Tse-Mallory offered a hopeful, encouraging smile. "Try not to let yourself become overwhelmed by the scale involved." Turning, he gazed out the foreport. "We've moved beyond that, anyway."

Flinx looked at his old friend and mentor. "No worries there, Bran. How can I be overwhelmed by something that's beyond comprehension?" He murmured under his breath, "So I was right all along: certain kinds of evil are are quantifiable." Raising his gaze, he looked toward the nearest visual pickup. quantifiable." Raising his gaze, he looked toward the nearest visual pickup.

"s.h.i.+p, why haven't we been torn apart, crushed down to nothingness, or snapped out of this existence and into another one by the kind of forces that are at work here?"

"The unique bubble of energy that encloses this one small sphere of normal s.p.a.ce s.h.i.+elds us," the Teacher Teacher informed him. "Otherwise we would no longer be. All here-you, your companions, myself-would be compacted down to a single subatomic particle. Or something less than a waveform. Or perhaps we would be kicked out of this universe and into another one. My own feeling is that by compressing our protective bubble, the energy of the solidity that surrounds it actually makes it stronger by forcing its bonds tighter together." informed him. "Otherwise we would no longer be. All here-you, your companions, myself-would be compacted down to a single subatomic particle. Or something less than a waveform. Or perhaps we would be kicked out of this universe and into another one. My own feeling is that by compressing our protective bubble, the energy of the solidity that surrounds it actually makes it stronger by forcing its bonds tighter together."

Tse-Mallory was nodding to himself. "The Xunca not only knew how to fas.h.i.+on one h.e.l.l of a transportation system, they knew how to build walls."

"To keep the 'water' out," Truzenzuzex added.

"Maybe they had to go elsewhere and didn't use this defense because-it doesn't work," Clarity could not keep from wondering.

Tse-Mallory nodded. "That's possible. I believe, however, that in addition to everything else they abandoned, they also left behind the means by which we may find out." Moving to the foreport, he leaned to his right and pointed.

No one had noticed the object before. Or maybe it had not been present until just then and it was their arrival that had caused it to appear. Or possibly, Flinx thought a little wildly, it had drifted out of this brane and into another and back again. If Bran, Tru, and the Teacher Teacher were to be believed, anything was possible here. They were in a s.p.a.ce-place unprecedented, a minuscule bruise on the skin of the s.p.a.ce-time continuum that teetered on the cusp of outrageous calculation. Anyone attempting to state for certain why something was happening, or even why something were to be believed, anything was possible here. They were in a s.p.a.ce-place unprecedented, a minuscule bruise on the skin of the s.p.a.ce-time continuum that teetered on the cusp of outrageous calculation. Anyone attempting to state for certain why something was happening, or even why something was was, might as easily be right dead as dead right.

Careful, he told himself. Concentrate on the knowable. The Teacher Teacher. Pip. Clarity. Those were solid things, those were real things. They consisted of actualities he could hang on to. Or were they and himself and everything else he believed to be real nothing more than transitory expressions of the tortuous, convoluted physics and mathematics of some whimsical long-vanished species?

At least what Tse-Mallory had singled out looked real enough.

It was a hemisphere. Translucent red, it was so dark it was almost brown. Flinx was not surprised when the Teacher Teacher revealed that it occupied the exact center of the plasma bubble. At his direction, the s.h.i.+p cautiously adjusted its position to move closer-but not too close. That the revealed that it occupied the exact center of the plasma bubble. At his direction, the s.h.i.+p cautiously adjusted its position to move closer-but not too close. That the Teacher Teacher could maneuver at all in such an outre environment was in itself surprising-and encouraging. It was with relief that he saw that not every law of nature had been abstracted in this place. could maneuver at all in such an outre environment was in itself surprising-and encouraging. It was with relief that he saw that not every law of nature had been abstracted in this place.

As they drew carefully nearer the hemisphere, which was the color of fine burgundy, they saw that it contained, hovering within it, a lump of some wrinkled maroon material shaped like a kidney bean. Three loops of what appeared to be gold wire but were undoubtedly something else encircled the object lengthwise like slender hovering halos. At no point did they come into contact with the material or each other. The center of the bean shape was occupied by a prominent concavity.

A mesmerized Flinx studied the object intently. If the depression in the center was intended to cradle a living ent.i.ty, its dimensions suggested that the Xunca had been physically much smaller than the Tar-Aiym, smaller even than humans. Though the long-since-departed master engineers were closer in size to the thranx, he had no doubt who was going to be asked to take up a position within that beckoning indentation. His initial trepidation began to diminish even before the issue was brought up for discussion. After all, wasn't this what he had come all this way for?

Staring absently out the port, he found himself remembering a slightly built redheaded youth who with his pet minidrag had once innocently and without a care haunted the byways and back alleys of bustling, beguiling, aromatic Drallar. A boy who had worried only about staying one step ahead of the authorities, having enough to eat, looking after his elderly adoptive mother, and learning, learning, learning absolutely everything there was to know.

What a long, strange journey it had been.

It was Clarity who voiced what everyone was thinking. "That depression looks like it might be about the right size and shape to accommodate a body, Flinx." Lips pressed together, she looked over at him. "I don't want you to find out if it is, but I know you have to."

He nodded slowly and peered past her. Tse-Mallory, Truzenzuzex, Sylzenzuzex-eyes single-lensed and compound stared back at him with equal intensity. No one said anything. No one had to. They were waiting on him.

He hugged Clarity, and that made him not want to go, too. As they gently disengaged he turned back to his mentors, one human, the other not. "I don't know what to do." He gestured at the object visible through the foreport. "I don't even know if it's designed to do anything and if it is, what it's supposed supposed to do." to do."

"Remember the first time you lay down on the operator's dais inside the Krang?" Tse-Mallory spoke encouragingly to his young friend. "The same lack of comprehension applied." He indicated the hovering, motionless hemisphere outside the s.h.i.+p. "I see no sign of anything like a switch, dial, b.u.t.ton, headset, or even the overarching domes that allow activation of the Krang. Clearly this is not a Tar-Aiym device. It was made by a race as far in advance of the Tar-Aiym as they were beyond us." The soldier-sociologist shrugged helplessly. "All you can do, Flinx, is go out there, fit yourself to the beckoning concavity as best you can, and see what happens."

Flinx nodded. He had already reached the same conclusion. But it didn't hurt to hear Tse-Mallory confirm it.

"We're wasting time, and the more I think about it the less of a mind I have to want to do it."

They took turns helping him to suit up. There was no atmosphere, breathable or otherwise, inside the plasma bubble. In fact, as near as the Teacher's Teacher's instruments could tell, there was nothing at all within the sphere that kept untold forces at bay except for the claret-colored hemisphere. They were surrounded by the most perfect vacuum imaginable, devoid even of a hint of interstellar hydrogen. Beyond, the plasma container seethed and churned enough energy to shred the electrons from their orbits around the nuclei that composed their bodies, and then reduce the resultant basic particles to the subatomic equivalent of dust. Inside the s.h.i.+p inside the bubble, everything remained scandalously normal. instruments could tell, there was nothing at all within the sphere that kept untold forces at bay except for the claret-colored hemisphere. They were surrounded by the most perfect vacuum imaginable, devoid even of a hint of interstellar hydrogen. Beyond, the plasma container seethed and churned enough energy to shred the electrons from their orbits around the nuclei that composed their bodies, and then reduce the resultant basic particles to the subatomic equivalent of dust. Inside the s.h.i.+p inside the bubble, everything remained scandalously normal.

Pip went with him, of course. Pip almost always went with him, whatever the circ.u.mstances, whatever the danger. The flying snake was as much a part of him as an arm or a leg. The minidrag had been crucial to his contact with the Krang and with the Tar-Aiym weapons platform. It was impossible to know whether she would or could perform a similar function here, but to Flinx that was not what was important. What mattered was that he had his friend with him. There was plenty of room in the survival suit.

It was more than a little disconcerting to be traveling in a survival suit through a spatial vacuum that was pure white instead of jet-black. As he jetted away from the Teacher Teacher he spared only occasional glances at the curved, enfolding walls of force that held total annihilation at bay. The greater part of his attention was focused on the reddish-purple hemisphere looming steadily larger in his vision. he spared only occasional glances at the curved, enfolding walls of force that held total annihilation at bay. The greater part of his attention was focused on the reddish-purple hemisphere looming steadily larger in his vision.

Halting his forward momentum within arm's length of the artifact, he commenced a circ.u.mnavigation, examining it closely from all sides, underneath, and from above. Tse-Mallory's distanced a.s.sessment proved accurate: there was nothing visible in the way of a control or any kind of instrumentation. Just the three encircling gold wires, if wires they were. The future of his civilization, of his galaxy, might depend on his ability to make this incredibly ancient relic respond in some way. But how?

Only one way to find out, he told himself unenthusiastically.

Skillfully manipulating his suit's thrusters to avoid the floating wires, he eased himself over the upper edge of the hemisphere and down toward its midpoint. Lowering himself carefully, he eased downward until he made contact with the half-moon-shaped indentation in the center. The object seemed to exert a very slight gravitational pull. Turning off his thrusters, he let it draw him in until he was lying on his back. Encased as he was in the survival suit he had no way of ascertaining the composition of the material beneath him, other than that it exhibited no give. Relaxing as best he could, he gazed out through the pure whiteness of his surroundings at the protective arc of the plasma bubble. At least, he thought to himself, there was one thing about his present condition he knew for a certainty. He knew exactly where he was.

He was alone. Again.

Except for Pip. Slithering up his left side, she stretched herself out between the inner lining of the survival suit and his chest, her iridescent emerald-green head facing his chin. Raising up, he looked down at her. Did the tenets of convergent evolution allow for the presence of an alien snake in an alien Garden of Eden? If that was where he had fetched up, where then the tree, where the apple? He was certainly no Adam, but he knew exactly where Eve was. Back on the Teacher Teacher, waiting for him to come back to her. Waiting for him to do-something.

He closed his eyes, tried to concentrate, struggled to reach out with his Talent as he had so many times before. He reposed like that for minutes, for half an hour, for an hour plus additional minutes.

Nothing.

No response of any kind was forthcoming. There was no splendid display of coruscating light, no thundering blare of alien music. Whatever kind of artifact was currently cuddling him, it bore no operational relations.h.i.+p to a Krang contact. The same silence that had greeted him when first he had lain down within the smooth-sided concavity still echoed in his ears. Extending himself through his Talent he could perceive Clarity and the others on board the Teacher Teacher, so he was confident his facility was functioning. But there was nothing else to be perceived. Nothing more.

Yet there had had to be something more. Else why the entree tunnel, why the enclosing protective sphere, why the hovering relic? to be something more. Else why the entree tunnel, why the enclosing protective sphere, why the hovering relic?

Try again, he told himself. Go to sleep. You can do that, can't you? It's peaceful, it's comforting. You're exhausted anyway. Why not have a nice nap? The worst thing that will happen is that you'll wake up, the universe will be exactly as you left it, but you'll be rested and refreshed. Is that not an end greatly to be desired in and of itself? Go to sleep. You can do that, can't you? It's peaceful, it's comforting. You're exhausted anyway. Why not have a nice nap? The worst thing that will happen is that you'll wake up, the universe will be exactly as you left it, but you'll be rested and refreshed. Is that not an end greatly to be desired in and of itself?

Why shouldn't he? he mused. Nothing else was happening. Tse-Mallory and Truzenzuzex would chide him for squandering an opportunity, but Clarity would understand completely. Once again he closed his eyes against the all-pervading white s.p.a.ce.

So quiet. So still. He felt himself go limp as he let go for the first time in days. So much accomplished and learned, perhaps to no avail. His time to sleep, to take a mental break, was past due. He had earned the right.

A shock ran through his entire system as if a mischievous interloper had suddenly pressed one of his toes against a power transmission plate.

He and Pip were no longer alone.

On board the Teacher Teacher, Clarity gasped as she pointed out the foreport. "Look. Oh, look."

The hemisphere in which Flinx had stretched out had become a solid sphere that glowed like a ruby lit from within. From the newly formed orb the crimson radiance extended outward perhaps ten meters in all directions. The artifact's original translucency had given way to opacity and he was no longer visible.

Pressure on her right arm caused her to look over and down. Sylzenzuzex was standing beside her, her left truhand and foothand gripping the soft flesh of the taller human. The thranx could not smile-but Clarity sensed that the security officer was doing so, even if only internally.

"You don't have to watch this." Sylzenzuzex's tone was somber. "Something is happening. Knowing Flinx, something more is likely to. Whatever the outcome, good or bad, you watching will not alter it."

Clarity considered a moment, then nodded appreciatively. "I'm going back to the cabin. Our cabin. You can tell me when everything is-over."

Antennae bobbed and a truhand gestured understanding. "If you would like some company, I'll come with you. At awkward times and in difficult circ.u.mstances my kind always prefer to have others nearby. It's what comes of subterranean living in close quarters."

Clarity nodded understandingly. "My kind didn't evolve underground, but I'd be glad of your company, Syl." Heading for the master's cabin, the pair abandoned the control chamber to Truzenzuzex and Tse-Mallory. So immersed in what they were seeing were the two scientists that they didn't even notice their companions' departure.