"Unacceptable," said Crisler. "I don't want information about the Envy getting out."
"Oh, come on! Colossus is two light-years from the nearest lit world. Even if your precious rebels heard about what we've got, it would take them years to find out about it!"
"Nevertheless," said Crisler. "And two years isn't that long."
"All right," she said. Her hand strayed to her throat. "I do have a… negotiable item independent of the Envy that I can sell. I'm sure we can get the stacks and more with it." She carefully ignored the looks of surprise that passed over her crew's faces at this revelation.
"So are we going to fly the Banshee into the Colossus system?" asked Katz.
Rue shook her head. "No, that would take too much energy and time. We send a small group, and they ride the beam in— just like we did at Chandaka."
"That sounds suicidal," sputtered Katz. "Admiral, are we really going to rely on this— sorry, Rue— primitive cycler technology?" She glared at him.
"Rue's right," said Professor Herat. "Why interrupt our investigation of the Envy by shipping out in the Banshee? For that matter, if Rue's negotiable item is information, we could sell it and order the stacks without having to leave the Envy at all. Isn't that right, Rue?"
She nodded. "Dr. Katz, the Cycler Compact has functioned for centuries. It's far from primitive. They would have to honor an agreement like that. Unfortunately, my item can't be radioed on ahead. I'll have to sell it in person."
"All right," said Crisler, "so we have the beginnings of a plan. Now, assuming we use the supplies that Captain Cassels has graciously donated, we can survive until we reach Colossus if we put… how many people?"
"Forty," said Katz, rather quietly.
"…Forty people into cold sleep."
This news did not go over well. Rue watched the scientists eye one another, and tighten into small groups, muttering. "I know," said Crisler, one hand raised, "forty of sixty-eight people is a huge hit. We have our unknown saboteur to thank for the situation and we'll just have to make the best of it. If Rue is right that we can pick up supplies at Colossus according to time-honored cycler tradition, then we revive everyone afterward. This means that we are committed to the full year-and-a-half exploratory mission, but considering what we've discovered in just scratching the surface here, I don't think that'll be a problem. We'll disembark at Maenad and return to the R.E. with our results. Comments, anyone?"
"Well, yeah," said a young chemist named Hutcheons. "Who's going into the tanks?"
"We want to maximize the science presence, obviously, but we can't completely eliminate the support team," said the admiral. "We can't ask Captain Cassels to spare any of her people, so a reasonable cut would be twenty of my people, mostly on the military side, except for a squad that will guard the tanks and other essential equipment from further sabotage. Twelve of the support staff leaves eight to be cut from the science team. Dr. Herat will have to decide on who he needs the most."
Hutcheons shook his head vigorously. "That's not fair. We all know Herat will keep the priest awake no matter what. Somebody's going to get put down in his place."
There was more muttering. The priest? Rue looked around at the crowd. Then she noticed Michael Bequith standing to one side, eyes still fixed on the ground. Other members of the science team were looking at him too.
"Oh, stop whining," Herat said. "You're only going to miss the initial exploratory phase— something Bequith has years of experience with. The real work comes later anyway, you know that."
Herat walked to the front and turned to fix his team with a determined look. "You all know I seriously object to tampering with alien archaeological treasures, but as Admiral Crisler keeps pointing out, this is a survival issue. We're going to have to search the Envy for usable supplies. One thing we can say is that oxygen is oxygen and we're not going to learn anything from the gas stored in the tanks we've seen attached to some of the Envy's habitats. We can harvest that gas if it's not being used by the habitats themselves. Now, we will learn from the tanks, damn it, so I don't want them busted, drilled, reamed out or painted! We need isotopic and engineering studies of them.
"Doubtless we could find a lot more supplies if we ransacked the place, but if we do that then we make a joke of the scientific expedition. So we will proceed slowly and systematically. Is everyone clear on that?"
There was no more grumbling. After a moment, Herat nodded sharply and said, "It's important to know what progress we've made in the little time we've been here. Dr. Katz, could you present our findings from the habitat Rue's people so colorfully call 'Lake Flaccid'?"
Katz was taken a bit by surprise. To cover himself, he began summoning inscape windows, until they surrounded his head like a cloud of playing cards. He glanced at these and cleared his throat.
"Well, the main finding is, of course, that Jentry's Envy really is a multispecies starship. This has profound implications; it could revive the project at Olympus and the political impact is going to be huge.
"Even so, this raises more questions than it answers. If there really are at least two species involved in creating Jentry's Envy, where are they? All the stars within twenty light-years are either inhabited by humans, or empty of useful planets.
"Secondly, we've completed isotopic analysis of Lake Flaccid and, by laser, on two other structures. The isotopic distribution matches several stars in the local stellar group. Most important, the hull of Lake Flaccid contains a record of its age: There's a steady rain of cosmic rays on the Envy and from the number of tracks in the hull metal you can directly calculate how long the ship's been travelling at this velocity.
"The answer is exactly forty-seven years." Katz waited while the now excited buzz of conversation died down. "If there is no FTL drive on this ship, then it's impossible for the Envy to have come from more than about forty light-years away. If it's a true cycler it's travelling in a rough circle and will eventually return to its starting point. We think that starting point is less than twelve light-years from here.
"If that truly is the case, then we have a paradox, since this whole volume of space is well known. At this point… I'd welcome any ideas," he ended weakly.
The scientists proceeded to get into a roaring debate. Crisler stood back, arms folded, and watched with satisfaction. Rue took the opportunity to edge in the direction of Mike Bequith, who was standing aloof; apparently no one would talk to him. Some kind of revelation had occurred concerning him, and Rue had to know what it was.
After letting the argument go on for a while, Katz raised a hand and said, "People, please! We can talk till we exhaust the stacks, but it won't get us anywhere. The evidence is there to be collected, if we just go look. I suggest that our next stop be the habitat that has the Lasa writing on it."
This touched off even more debate, but Rue had reached Mike now. "I wanted to thank you again for your discovery yesterday," she said. "I thought we'd lost you, and I apologize for getting you into that situation to begin with."
Mike appeared surprised. "It's… my job," he said, his voice a bit husky. "But thanks."
"I wanted you to know that you've served my ship and crew well," she said. "Now tell me, what was all that about?" She nodded in the direction of the arguing scientists.
Mike squinted at the wall for a few seconds. "I'm a suspect in the bombing," he said. "The only suspect, it seems."