“Something — or somebody — in the Geyser Swirl doesn’t like company. They’re knocking off your expeditions as fast as they arrive.”

“That is our f-fear. B-but how do we d-determine if that is true?”

“Easy enough. You send a third team. If it doesn’t come back, you’ll know for sure.”

“Regarding a third team—” began Dougal MacDougal, but he was drowned out by the Pipe-Rilla, screaming a reply.

“ Y-yes. A third t-team. But that would m-mean s-s-sending s-s-s-someone t-to almost s-s-s-sure d-d-d-d-d.” The Pipe-Rilla’s speech degenerated into a series of sputtering noises. The Tinker Composite broke into a myriad small components that darted frantically around the imaging volume.

“It is difficult to speak of such things,” the Angel said slowly. “Impossible for a Pipe-Rilla or a Tinker, and possible for me only because I am able for brief periods to operate in human simulation mode. You know the prime rule of the Stellar Group: Intelligent life must be preserved. It cannot be destroyed — ever . But we suspect that it is being destroyed in the Geyser Swirl. The Swirl is dangerous .”

“Sounds like it. But you won’t be sure of that unless somebody goes there again and takes a look.”

“Yes indeed. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data . Therefore let me, quickly, attempt to say the rest of this. We concur with your suggestion. We should send a third expedition, to learn the fate of the first two and if possible rescue them. But that might mean our sending intelligent life, knowingly, to its death in the Geyser Swirl.”

“Can’t be helped. That’s what you have to do.”

“But, Chan Dalton, that is what we are unable to do.”

“Then you got problems.”

“Problems indeed. And, as we see it, only one possible solution. Humans. You do not have the same attitude toward the preservation of life — even of your own lives — as other Stellar Group members. An expedition to the Geyser Swirl, headed by a human whom we already know and trust, a human who is willing to do whatever is necessary to learn the fate of the earlier teams, and if possible bring them home …”