"Call me Nik," the other said.
"Okay, Nik. What are those pinpoints of fire ahead? And the huge dark massesabout them?"
"Those are my people, performing an experiment. I've been moving us at a veryhigh velocity."
"I've noticed that the hole covers a lot more of the sky now. What sort ofexperiment?"
"Those great dark masses are the remnants of tens of thousands of suns andplanets we've transported here. You only see the ones in space proper. We pullthem out as we need them. We're shooting them into the hole."
"Why?"
"To increase its rate of rotation."
"Uh -- To what end?"
"The creation of closed timelike curves."
"You've got me on that one."
"Time loops, To permit us to run backward through the past."
"Any successes so far?"
"Yes. A few."
"Have you got anything that might permit me to get back to the Raven before theexplosion?"
"That's pushing it. But it's one of the things I wanted to check."
They matched velocities with the flickering congregation, and Nik took him intothe vicinity of the largest of these beings. The conversation that followedresembled heat lightning.
"Vik says there's one that might do it," Nik told him after a time.
"Let me use it. Please."
"You should also have strength of mind sufficient to alter your velocity bythought alone," Nik said. "Come this way."
Jeremy followed him by willing it until, abruptly, he faced a mass of lineswhich resembled a computer design suddenly generated in free space.
"I did that just to make you conscious of it," Nik said. "Enter the trapezoid toyour left."
"If this works I may not see you again. I'd better say thanks now."
"Noted with pleasure, though I'd like to have kept you longer, for fullconversations. I understand your state of mind, however. Go."