Ideas from individual other team members came swarming in, alien yet accessible. Sometimes they appeared as sounds, sometimes as images, or as transient illusions of physical touch. In that cross-fertilization of mind, new ideas and speculations were like blazing fireships, moving to ignite convoys of thought within every member of the mind pool.

From the Angel, a statistical conclusion blazed in on Chan as a crimson starfish of analysis:

Probabilities of specific Q-ship personnel.

Esro Mondrian, P = 0.99 

Luther Brachis, P = 0.72

Kubo Flammarion, P = 0.21

Godiva Lomberd, P = 0.66

Tatiana Snipes, P = 0.14

All others, P < 0.05

The pooled minds did not wait for their individual members to wrestle with the complexities of probability analysis. They rolled on:

OPTION TWO: A LANDING CAPSULE APPROACH TO THE Q-SHIP WITH NO PRIOR COMMUNICATION.

PROBABLE OUTCOME: DESTRUCTION OF LANDING CAPSULE BEFORE REACHING Q-SHIP AT PROBABILITY LEVEL P >> .99.

The thoughts of the Pipe-Rillas were sinuous and delicate, filled with feeling more than logic. They rippled across the mind pools, drawing with them shimmering silver ropes of implication. Chan grasped at those gossamer strands. With Angel’s help he felt them condense in his mind and take on solid numerical forms:

Preferred contact points if present on Q-ship.

Tatiana Snipes, success probability P = 0.65

Godiva Lomberd, success probability P = 0.47

Kubo Flammarion, success probability P = 0.29

Luther Brachis, success probability P = 0.09

Esro Mondrian, success probability P = 0.03

Above and beyond the Pipe-Rillas’ thoughts, the pooled minds were already advancing:

OPTION THREE: A LANDING CAPSULE APPROACH TO THE Q-SHIP BY THE RUBY TEAM, STATING IT WAS NOT SUCCESSFUL IN SUBDUING OR DESTROYING THE MORGAN CONSTRUCT, BUT IS SEEKING RETURN TO THE ANABASIS.

PROBABLE OUTCOME: DESTRUCTION OF LANDING CAPSULE BEFORE REACHING Q-SHIP AT PROBABILITY LEVEL P = 0.87.

Within the mind pool, Angel’s own thoughts formed a passacaglia and fugue in three dimensions. It was too complex for Chan to assimilate. He could sense, barely, that there was a rock-solid logic behind the patterns. That logic appeared to him as coral monoliths, reaching up from the bed of a crystal sea. Only the ship specification was visible, transferred directly to him from Angel:

Q-ship analysis.

Three entry ports, monitored by the ship defense system.

Ship defenses:

Main: radiative, gravitronic, particle beam, projectile.

Back-up: jamming field, shearing cones, fission/fusion, E/M shields.

Ship offenses: fusion, subnucleon, gravity singularity, sterilizers.

Sustained energy output level of weapons system: 940 gigawatts.

Burst output energy level of weapons system: 14,400 terawatts.

Chan struggled to see more clearly into Angel’s data banks. Screened by the mentalities, they would not come into focus. He persisted, looked again. Too bright, said an urgent internal voice. It showed a dark-glass image of a naked star. Chan groped within the mind pool for a message, and at last found one. It was a warning. The complexity of Angels’ thought was too great for direct contact by a human mind. He must settle for pale reflection.

The message from the pooled minds continued.

OPTION FOUR: APPROACH OF CAPSULE TO Q-SHIP. COMMUNICATION TO INDICATE THAT TEAM RUBY HAS CAPTURED THE MORGAN CONSTRUCT. NO MENTION OF TEAM ALPHA.

PROBABLE OUTCOME: DESTRUCTION OF LANDING CAPSULE BEFORE REACHING Q-SHIP AT PROBABILITY LEVEL P = 0.62.

The fourth option was accompanied by a bewildering jumble of sensation, like a light that pulsed and flickered and was never still. Chan struggled and. resisted, until finally he realized what had to be done. He relaxed, and allowed the patterns to dictate their own meaning. He was moved at once to a world where steady states had no existence. There were only averages of continuous fluctuations.

Chan was seeing the thoughts of a Tinker Composite, in which individual components were added and subtracted, but all minor fluctuations had to be ignored. It was cerebration as a statistical process, a grand canonical ensemble of mental function. He learned to be content with a knowledge of only the average state. And now he saw the gleeful kaleidoscope of Tinker ideas, displayed in exuberance throughout the web of the pooled minds. A hard assessment came glinting through:

Evaluation.

The current condition of the Morgan Construct is known to the Q-ship at probability level P = 0.24 or less.

The mind pools drove on. Individual member contributions were absorbed arid effortlessly merged.

OPTION FIVE: APPROACH OF LANDING CAPSULE TO Q-SHIP, PRECEDED BY COMMUNICATION INDICATING THAT TEAM RUBY HAS SURVIVED AND HAS SUBDUED THE MORGAN CONSTRUCT, AND THAT TEAM ALPHA HAS BEEN DESTROYED.

PROBABLE OUTCOME: DESTRUCTION OF LANDING CAPSULE BEFORE REACHING Q-SHIP AT PROBABILITY LEVEL P < 0.17.

Underlying every function of the mentalities was a cruel driving energy, propelling the mind pool toward decision and action. Chan sensed its presence as an immanent force-field, permanent and omnipresent and irresistible as gravity. He groped for its source, and at last found it. His mind recoiled in shock. The force that drove the group originated in Leah and Chan…

Before he could absorb that, the conclusions were forming.

SUMMARY ANALYSIS. OPTION FIVE PROBABILITY OF LANDING CAPSULE REACHING Q-SHIP IS THE BEST THAT CAN BE FOUND. PROBABILITY OF DEFEATING Q-SHIP REMAINS VANISHINGLY SMALL WITHOUT ADDITIONAL DATA REGARDING Q-SHIP PERSONNEL. Q-SHIP WILL INITIATE AGGRESSIVE ACTION WITHIN TWO DAYS UNLESS CONTACTED.

CONCLUSION. ALMAS MUST FLY THE LANDING CAPSULE TO Q-SHIP. NIMROD WILL REMAIN ON TRAVANCORE, AND THE SURVIVAL OF NIMROD BE CONCEALED. THE MORGAN CONSTRUCT MUST ALSO BE LEFT ON TRAVANCORE AS POSSIBLE INSURANCE FOR THE SAFETY OF ALMAS.

ASSESSMENT: THE OVERALL SURVIVAL PROBABILITY OF BOTH ALMAS AND NIMROD IS P = 0.16. THIS SURVIVAL PROBABILITY WILL BE ACHIEVED ONLY WITH PROMPT ACTION.

With that assessment, the mental activity of the mind pool reached and passed its peak. Chan felt the two group minds start to loosen their hold. At the same time the connecting chain between Almas and Nimrod broke, and the Tinker components fluttered away to rest on creepers and branches. Joint thought faded and vanished.

Chan, dizzy from the surge of mental energy that had been flooded through him, stood up slowly and went inside the tent. Leah was already there, entering the control sequence that would bring the landing capsule down to Travancore.

She looked at him and shook her head. “Only a one in six chance of surviving. I’d hoped that we could find something better than that.”

“We have to.” Chan came to sit next to her. “And I mean we. I believe there are thoughts that Almas and Nimrod just can’t allow, because the other team members are too pacific. So it’s up to us. You and I have to find a new angle. And we have only a couple of hours to do it.”