"Yeah, but did they work?" Shawn asked. "I never heard of any design likethat."
"Which means it can't possibly have been of any use," Tera murmured. "Not ifyounever heard of it."
Shawn turned a glare toward her. "Double-sphere designs work just fine,"
Nicabar put in, the firm authority in his tone cutting short any further argument.
"The only reason they're not used is that the Mobius-strip arrangement is morestable."
"Terrific," Shawn said with a sniff. "An unstable stardrive. Just what weneed.
Just what the Spiral needs."
"It's not unstable that way," Nicabar insisted, starting to sound annoyed.
"The theory shows that oscillations can form in the upper harmonics under high- stress conditions, that's all."
Shawn snorted. "Sure, but if—"
"Look, if you two want to discuss stardrive theory, go do it on your owntime,"
Tera cut him off acidly. "What I want to know is how we're going to getthroughthis gauntlet and to Earth."
"Why Earth?" Shawn demanded. Clearly, he was intent on alienating everybodyaboard today. I wondered uneasily if we were getting low on his medicineagain.
"Just because the majority of us are human?"
"Speaking as one who is not," Ixil interjected calmly, "I would say thatBorodin's ownership of the device should adequately define our finaldestination and cargo disposition."
"What ownership?" Shawn countered. "He dug it out of a desert on someoneelse's planet. What gives him any more rights than the Ihmisits who already livethere?"
"Basic Commonwealth law regarding salvage and extraindigenous archaeologicalrecovery, that's what," Tera told him stiffly. "The guidelines clearly putBorodin and his people in possession. That one's not even arguable."
"Well, well," Shawn sneered. "And when did you become our resident legalauthority?"
"We're drifting from the point," I spoke up quickly. I had no doubt Tera couldquote him the relevant laws line for line, and I had no intention of lettingShawn goad her into a display of such unreasonable expertise. "Tera's rightabout Borodin's claim," I went on. "But at the same time she's wrong about thefunctionality of this stardrive—"
"This alleged stardrive," Shawn insisted.
"This alleged stardrive," I corrected, "being none of our concern. In point offact, this hunk of metal may be all that stands between us getting to Earth orwinding up in the bottom of a very deep Patth pit somewhere."
For a couple of heartbeats they all just stared at me. Everett got it first, as I could tell by the distance his jaw dropped toward the floor. "You aren'tsaying—you're not suggesting—?"
"I think it's our best chance," I said. "The Patth know perfectly well howfast the Icarus can travel—it's not like stardrive speed ranges are any secret.
Theyalso don't want any more people than necessary knowing about this little huntof theirs, which means they're probably timing their bribes and governmentalpressurings to hit the systems just ahead of where we're flying at any giventime."
"I see where you're going," Nicabar said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Ifwe can get ahead of that wave front, we might have a chance of landing andrefueling before anyone in the area even knows what a hot ticket we are."
"Right," I said. "We may still run into a random Patth advance scout or two, but that'll be a whole lot easier to deal with than taking on an entire customsand military establishment."
"What about the underworld characters they've been bribing?" Everett asked.
"Even if the Patth themselves aren't talking, they're bound to be spreadingthe word about us."
"True, but remember that they're only giving out half the story to thatbunch,"
I said. "The Spiral's underworld is looking for me, and doesn't know anythingabout the Icarus itself. The Icarus's name won't do them any good, since we'recoming into each port under a different ID."
"Unless they also find out its shape," Shawn muttered. "We are just a littledistinctive, you know."
"And we know the Najik have already made the connection," Nicabar added.
"What's to keep them from spreading the word back to the Patth and across the rest ofthe Spiral?"
"The same thing that's keeping the Patth from doing so," I told him. "Namely, the desire to play this whole game as close to the vest as possible. For thePatth, the reasons are obvious; for the Najik, it'll be the hope of puttingthe choke collar on us themselves, thus guaranteeing themselves the full range ofwhatever goodies the Patth are offering."
"The basic flaw in motivation by bribery," Tera said. Her tone was neutral, but I thought I could detect a little grudging respect for my reasoning in hervoice. Or maybe it was just resignation. "All your supposed allies spend asmuch time jockeying for position among the rest of the group as they do on the huntitself."
"It's about all we've got going for us," I said. "That, plus the star-driveitself, If we can get it up and running."
Everett shook his head. "It's still crazy," he said. "What do any of us knowabout alien technology?"
"Not a lot," I conceded. "On the other hand, we're not exactly starting fromzero, either. Tera tells me she's found what seems to be a full set of theexpedition's reports in the computer."
"You're kidding," Everett said, blinking. "They put all their files aboard, too?"
"Why not?" Nicabar said. "They want to get the data to Earth, too. Why nottake all of it together?"
Shawn snorted. "Ever heard of putting all your eggs in one basket?"
"Actually, I suspect it's more a case of having had all the eggs together inthe first place," I told him. "I think the reason our computer is so badly suitedfor starship operation is that it was never intended or programmed for thatpurpose in the first place. It was probably the expedition's regular workingcomputer, which was already hooked up to the alien electronics in the smallersphere. They just left it where it was when they constructed the Icarus aroundit."
"Maybe," Shawn said. "Assuming all of this isn't just some hallucinatorywishful thinking, how exactly do you suggest we proceed? If Chort is right, wherewe're sitting right now is supposed to be a resonance chamber."
"Yes," I agreed. "And obviously, if it's going to resonate, it's going to haveto be empty. Mostly empty, anyway."
"Resonance means completely empty, McKell," Shawn growled. "Any first-levelphysics student can tell you that. Were you thinking we could cram the wholeship into the wraparound?"
"It does not have to be completely empty," Chort said, his feathers fluffing.
"In this application, the resonance effect only requires the central area."
"He's right," Nicabar seconded.
"For that matter, the presence of the interior gravitational field argues that the designers weren't expecting the whole thing to be empty," I added. "Thefield's clearly there to clear out the center and move everything to the edge, where it'll be out of the way."
"Unless the gravity is part of the resonance mechanism," Tera said.
"There's nothing like that in the theory," Nicabar said. "At least, not that Iremember."
"Nor I," Chort said.
Shawn waved a hand. "Fine. I stand corrected."
"So what's the plan?" Nicabar asked. "Disassemble the interior corridors andbulkheads and stack everything along the inner edge?"
"Basically," I said. "Except that I don't think we have either the space orthe need to keep everything. The interior wall and hull material should come apartinto a collection of mostly one-meter-square plates, which we can dump outsidethrough the main hatch. Ditto for some of the other unnecessary stuff."