Iris

it is, this isn't even a real spaceship. It's an atmospheric shuttle, like the GM155 at Reykjavik.'

'But for what kind of a planet?' demanded Sealock, climbing down from his perch. 'Can you imagine flying this monster in an Earth-type troposphere? The trailing-edge vortices alone would constitute major weather disturbances!'

'Not to mention what the engines'd do . . .' That was from Krzakwa . 'Could it have come from Iris itself?'

'Impossible,' said Hu. 'Iris is too cold for any conceivable life form. Even if we presuppose complex lipids dissolved in methane . . . well, that might work on a surface-stabilized version of Neptune, but Iris is too cold.'

They walked along peeking into the hexagons until they came upon one that still had an occupant. They were silent, looking it over. Whatever it was, it almost filled the capsule, a six-sided, bronze-colored body that tapered to a graceful, gemlike point on the end they could see.

'Let's get it out of there,' said Krzakwa .

They pulled the thing out of its cavity and let it fall gently to the floor, not failing to notice that the force field was quite willing to grasp it. The object was three meters long, a littlemore than half of which was the six-sided body. The other end tapered slightly, then evolved into a banded cylinder a little over one meter long. The inner end had eight articulated arms, each possessed of two fingers. Inside the ring that these formed were eight projections, much like the ones that sprouted from the end of an ancient vacuum tube—and they were obviously intended to mate with the sockets in the capsule. Finally, the thing ended in a short, hollow, flexible hose.

'What do you suppose?' said Sealock. 'A robot? Maybe something like the work-units we use?' Hu squatted and put her suit sensors to the end of the jointed, hoselike apparatus. 'There are chemical traces in side it,' she said, 'mostly CH4.'

They looked at it for a while longer, then, completely frustrated, decided to press on, walking toward the aft part of the ship. Sealock turned around and took a last look at the thing. 'You know,' he said, 'I know that shape from somewhere. I wonder ...' He shook his head in irritation.

While the bulk of Aello's mass stood between the colonists and the Artifact site, there would be no transmission of data for another four hours, at which time the imperceptible but headlong pace of the moons about their small primary would bring the sub-Iridean hemisphere of Aello into view. The broadcast from Polaris had shown the alien vessel being unearthed from the Aellan globe and relayed remote telemetry from the thing. But as soon as the ship started its landing they had been cut off. The six remaining colony-bound people were strewn across the floor of the central room, Beth paired with John and Harmon with Vana. As the enormity of what they had seen faded into the past, they looked at each other, still shaken. Harmon pressed close to Vana, trying to take solace in her presence. Aksiniaabruptly popped up, flinging her hands over her head to project herself into an artful somersault, continuing like a star-shaped Frisbee just above the floor until she gracefully landed by the far wall. ' Wheee!' Her breath came suddenly in a series of short bursts. 'This is . . . just like . . .every God damn ess -fiction story . . . ever written. Except it's really happening! I think I'm going to pop!' She feverishly combed her hand through her loose curly brown hair.

'Calm down, Ax,' said Beth. 'I admit that I feel a little like jumping around myself. But you're getting ca—'

'Stop trying to make her act differently,' said John suddenly. 'I know you have a revulsion to behavior you see as 'drugged,' but she has a right to react any way she chooses. In a way, her reaction is more appropriate than us just coolly discussing it.'

Aksiniawas nonplused. 'Don't 'discuss' me! You know, you're all a bunch of deadheads. If I don't hang around with you that much it's because of that. You all walk around as if you saw the world through layers of gauze. I get more emotion reading Herodotus than trying to relate to any of you.'

'You should try the Illimitor World, Ax,' said Vana. 'It's different—no, we're different there.'

'Fucking fairyland,' muttered Harmon.

'That's what I'm trying to point out,' said Ax, now suddenly cool. 'This is as much of an adventure as anything you could dream up. But does anybody laugh, cry, or even jump up and down? No.' She pushed off from the wall and settled slowly to stand on the floor. 'I'm going to my room. I'll be back in three hours and forty minutes.'

When she was gone, John smiled stiffly. 'Defense, anyone?' Four faintly embarrassed grins were the only reply. 'Beth? Sorry. Shall we make rapport then?'

'Sure.'

'We'll be back in a couple of hours,' John said to no one in particular. 'If Aello disappears or anything like that, break in. Otherwise please don't.'

With John and Beth unconscious to the world, and Aksinia fled, even the momentous discovery of the Aellan Artifact couldn't mask the tension that existed among Harmon, Vana, and Demogorgon. The latter smiled quickly at the two others but remained silent.

'Well,' said Harmon, standing, 'I'm going to check the mail.' This was a function he had assumed for himself; dailyhe reviewed the messages that had been tightbeamed to them from the various comsat stations. It was a way he could be useful. And a way to forget . . .