“Preparing to pass the buck.” Luther Brachis spoke with an impassive face and without moving his lips.

“Naturally.” Both men had learned the parade ground knack of invisible speech long ago, but the trick could still come in useful. “Did you ever doubt it?” went on Mondrian softly. “Mac’s a good bureaucrat, if he’s nothing else. He decided long ago where he was going to place the blame.”

“First, a statement from Commander Luther Brachis,” said MacDougal, as though he had managed to intercept Mondrian’s last remark. “Commander Brachis is the Chief of Solar System Security. As such, he is responsible for monitoring all anomalous events that occur within half a lightyear of Sol.” MacDougal turned away from the other Ambassadors, and moved so that all four were in line facing the witnesses. Hidden lamps came on to frame Brachis in a crossfire of illumination.

“You may begin,” said MacDougal.

Brachis nodded to the four shapes in their cocoons of light. His thoughts, whatever they were, would not be read from his blunt lion’s face.

“The Ambassador correctly stated my duties. Security is my job, from Apollo Station and the Vulcan Nexus, out to the edge of the Oort Cloud and the Dry Tortugas. I have held that position for five years.

“Two years ago, I received a request for a development project on Cobweb Station. That station is a research facility about twelve billion kilometers from Sol. It is a free orbiting artificial structure, in the ecliptic, and roughly halfway between the orbits of Neptune and Persephone.