"I know, Dr. Herat, that you want the facts and figures about Jentry's Envy," she said. "You'll get them. But I had a real hard time thinking of what to say today and I didn't know why for a while. Then I realized it was because the whole experience of being there at the Envy was so… huge, so wild, that I didn't have the words for it. I mean, I went into this whole thing without a clue what I was getting into. The Envy was a shock. I don't think it's fair to any of you to let you think that this is going to be like anywhere else you've ever been.
"Admiral Crisler and his aides have told me what star travel is like in the R.E. You get on a ship, eat some fine meals and use the exercise facility, hobnob with the other passengers for a couple of days, and then you're at your destination. It's seamless.
"Well, cyclers aren't like that." She glanced at Evan Laurel, who chuckled silently.
"To go to a cycler is not to go from one part of your world to another," she said. "To go to a cycler is to leave everything that you know and see it dwindle into specks and disappear in the hugeness. It's not like visiting somewhere, it's like leaving home for good."
Crisler cleared his throat. "With respect, Ms. Cassels, we're all experienced travelers. I think we know what to expect from your kind of travel."
Rue stammered. "Yes, of course…"
"What about Jentry's Envy?" asked Herat mildly. "What did you find when you got there?"
She smiled at the professor. "Well, that's just it. We'd arrived, but not at what we'd expected, and not at anything we could figure out. Radar showed a bunch of spheres of different sizes. There were other things, too— big half-empty gasbags that barely showed up in radar and little dense packets obviously made of metal. They all had thin lines trailing off them, joining up and ultimately connected to the plow sail. Most of them were at ambient temperature— a few degrees above absolute zero. A couple, though, were warm."
"You explored them," said Dr. Herat.
"Well." She adjusted her pince-nez. "We started to. But while the cycler was doing its turn, there was a slight pull on everything. If we parked our little habitat next to something, that something would drift away. If we used fuel to follow it, we were, well, using up fuel. So we found the warmest sphere in the whole collection and we attached a line to its line. Then we were hanging with the other cargoes, like some kind of weird chandelier."
"Surely you did some exploring," coaxed Dr. Herat.
"At first we thought the cycler was going to finish its turn in a couple of months. But it didn't, it kept turning; it was still going to pass Chandaka, but on the other side of the star from what we'd expected. We'd explored Lake Flaccid while we waited, then afterward I decided it wouldn't be wise to waste too much fuel, so we only explored one other—"
"Lake Flaccid?" Dr. Ophir was trying to keep a straight face.
Max gave a long-suffering sigh. "Our Rue has a talent for naming things," he said. "And, as captain, it's her right to name stuff however she wants."
"It is flaccid," cried Rue. "The name is perfect and you know it."
Dr. Herat held up a hand, a pained expression on his face. Michael could see that the professor didn't think much of Rue Cassels. He would never name a priceless alien site so irreverently.
Michael had to smile.
"What is Lake Flaccid?" asked Dr. Herat impatiently.
Rue appeared puzzled. "We took photos. You didn't…?"
Admiral Crisler half stood. "We decided to withhold the key pieces of evidence until we had everyone committed to the mission. Sorry, Dr. Herat, but we couldn't show you everything before."
"Ah." Rue frowned at Crisler. "Well, let's take an inscape look at it now, if you want."
The picture of the Banshee was replaced by another image. This seemed to be a shot down the length of a round tunnel. Evan Laurel stood balanced on one toe near the camera. He was grinning behind his suit's faceplate and he was brightly lit by a light source near the camera while everything behind him faded into shadow.
"That's the rotational axis of one of the midsize habitats," said Rue. "It's huge by cycler standards— sixty meters across, easily. The axis is about seven meters across, so the bulk of the place is 'under' this cylinder. The habitat rotates, so gravity at the outside would be about two gees. At the axis, it's micro."
"This isn't the habitat that has the Lasa writing on it," Crisler said to Herat, who nodded slowly.
Rue paused, staring at the image. "At first we thought we might set up camp here. The atmosphere's pure nitrogen and though it was about minus twenty, we were going to hook up some heaters and oxygenate a tent. Do some real exploring. But when we got to the lake we got too creeped, so we ended up back at the ship. Well, all except Evan and Corinna. They seemed immune to the creeps."
Evan shrugged. "Needed to get off the ship for a while, that's all."
"What is this lake?" asked Ophir.
"You can see it in the picture," said Rue. "See that dark line?" Behind Evan in the picture, a broad expanse of darkness ringed the cylinder. Michael had taken it to mean that most of the length of the cylinder was surfaced with some dark material. Now he could see that that surface was indented some centimeters below the white metal Evan balanced on.
"We shone lights into it," said Evan. "Couldn't figure out what it was. Some liquid, we figured, but if it was water it would have massed an incredible amount and you just don't ship that much water up to light-speed. Costs way too much."
Rue shrugged. "We only visited one other place— and it was even weirder than this." She shook her head. "I'm afraid we don't have much to tell you, Doctor Herat."
"Which brings us to the reasons for this expedition," said Crisler. "Obviously it's a huge undertaking and none of us would be doing this if we didn't expect to reap great reward from it. We all have our agendas and it's time to make those clear. Let's start with yours, Rue."
"I've been up front about it all along," she said. "I own the Envy. It's impossible or at least prohibitively expensive to slow it down to sub-light speeds— like it or not, it's a cycler and therefore the only issue is its course and ability to serve as a habitat for travel between planetary systems. I want to make sure it services the halo worlds. I also have to make sure that its course really is a 'cycle'—it has to pass by Erythrion again eventually. So this time out we're looking for ways to live off the habitats that are already there and change its course if we have to."
Dr. Herat sputtered. "That's… criminal. Well, no not criminal but I'm sorry, this is a priceless artifact, you can't turn it into a floating motel—"
"Doctor Herat," barked Crisler.
"Our civilization is held together by the cyclers and nothing else," said Rue coldly. Her shoulders were hunched now, as if she were anticipating a blow. "There are very few cyclers now and fewer every day, thanks to you people. Anything that can bring back a little of what you stole from us is to the good. If your precious investigation has to suffer so that billions of my people can continue to communicate, then so be it!"
"There is also the fact that not even the Cycler Compact has the systems in place to decelerate something as massive as this starship," said Crisler. "The Envy is not something you can tote home to a museum, Professor Herat. It will continue on its course until it erodes away. Ms. Cassels's plan is only sensible, provided we establish a permanent scientific presence aboard the cycler to investigate it during its occupation."