At one kill-radius from the primary, harsh white sunlight reflected blindingly off the little ovoid, all but blotting out the intricate gamma colored designs that covered its surface.

Two creatures sat within the apparition. Considering the variety possible in this universe, they looked much like the Dorvik. A closer examination by someone trained and clever might have revealed a trimness and efficiency in the intruder's structure that was missing form the Dorvik-that is missing from any natural race. For the intruder's race had supervised its own evolution for more than 1000,000 years. The result might not be remarkable in appearance, but the brains housed in those bodies were far quicker, far more subtle than anything unaided natural selection could produce. And though their grosser emotions were perhaps intelligible, any conversation presented here verges on falsehood in its incompleteness.

One of the creatures--identifiable by the two bristly spikes that grew tangentially from its head--turned to the other and said, in effect, "I still want S Doradus."

"Gyrd, this star is almost as big. And quite a bit easier to reach, too." The creature paused, adjusted the controls somehow. "Figuring the jump back is going to take all my concentration, so you'll have to cancel the relative velocity on the converter when we drop it."

The first replied. "No one tells me what do to, Arn."

An air of hostility just short of physical violence filled the tiny cabin. Then Gyrd submitted with a nod.

"That's better." Arn relaxed. "Just imagine all the maggots that will fry in the fire we're going to set."

Lal broke the awful silence. "How far away is this object?"

"Twelve billion kilometers, Puissance. We won't be able to detect it by electromagnetic means for another ten hours."

"How long would it take to compute a jump to its location?"