Part 6 (2/2)

Nito, not Snowden, handled the controls. As perfectly as the human pilot had ever done it, at the top of his finest form, he picked the immense s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p up and slipped it silkily into subs.p.a.ce.

”Well, I'll be a ...” Snowden gasped. ”That's a better job than I _ever_ did!”

”Not at all, Master, as you know,” Nito said. ”It was you who did this.

I merely performed the labor.”

A few minutes later, in the main lounge, Navy and BuSci personnel were mingling as they had never done before. Whatever had caused this relaxation of tension--the friends.h.i.+p of captain and director? The position in which they all were? Or what?--they all began to get acquainted with each other.

”Silence, please, and be seated,” Hilton said. ”While this is not exactly a formal meeting, it will be recorded for future reference.

First, I will ask Laro a question. Were books or records left on Ardry by the race you call the Masters?”

”You know there are, Master. They are exactly as you left them.

Undisturbed for over two hundred seventy-one thousand years.”

”Therefore we will not question the Omans. We do not know what questions to ask. We have seen many things. .h.i.therto thought impossible. Hence, we must discard all preconceived opinions which conflict with facts. I will mention a few of the problems we face.”

”The Omans. The Masters. The upgrading of the armament of the _Perseus_ to Oman standards. The concentration of uranexite. What is that concentrate? How is it used? Total conversion--how is it accomplished?

The skeletons--what are they and how are they controlled? Their ability to drain power. Who or what is back of them? Why a deadlock that has lasted over a quarter of a million years? How much danger are we and the _Perseus_ actually in? How much danger is Terra in, because of our presence here? There are many other questions.”

”Sandra and I will not take part. Nor will three others; de Vaux, Eisenstein, and Blake. You have more important work to do.”

”What can that be?” asked Rebecca. ”Of what possible use can a mathematician, a theoretician and a theoretical astronomer be in such a situation as this?”

”You can think powerfully in abstract terms, unhampered by Terran facts and laws which we now know are neither facts nor laws. I cannot even categorize the problems we face. Perhaps you three will be able to. You will listen, then consult, then tell me how to pick the teams to do the work. A more important job for you is this: Any problem, to be solved, must be stated clearly; and we don't know even what our basic problem is. I want something by the use of which I can break this thing open.

Get it for me.”

Rebecca and de Vaux merely smiled and nodded, but Teddy Blake said happily, ”I was beginning to feel like a fifth wheel on this project, but _that's_ something I can really stick my teeth into.”

”Huh? How?” Karns demanded. ”He didn't give you one single thing to go on; just compounded the confusion.”

Hilton spoke before Teddy could. ”That's their dish, Bill. If I had any data I'd work it myself. You first, Captain Sawtelle.”

That conference was a very long one indeed. There were almost as many conclusions and recommendations as there were speakers. And through it all Hilton and Sandra listened. They weighed and tested and a.n.a.lyzed and made copious notes; in shorthand and in the more esoteric characters of symbolic logic. And at its end:

”I'm just about p.o.o.ped, Sandy. How about you?”

”You and me both, boss. See you in the morning.”

But she didn't. It was four o'clock in the afternoon when they met again.

”We made up one of the teams, Sandy,” he said, with surprising diffidence. ”I know we were going to do it together, but I got a hunch on the first team. A kind of a weirdie, but the brains checked me on it.” He placed a card on her desk. ”Don't blow your top until after I you've studied it.”

”Why, I won't, of course....” Her voice died away. ”Maybe you'd better cancel that 'of course'....” She studied, and when she spoke again she was exerting self-control. ”A chemist, a planetographer, a theoretician, _two_ sociologists, a psychologist and a radiationist. And six of the seven are three pairs of sweeties. What kind of a line-up is _that_ to solve a problem in _physics_?”

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