“That’s probably what the earlier Stellar Group teams did. But they’ve made it very clear that they don’t intend to go with us on this one. What they don’t know about won’t hurt them.”

“Fine. They certainly won’t hear it from me. All right, second problem. I don’t see any fun in going all the way to this Geyser Swirl place, just to be wiped out when we arrive. And everybody who has been there so far, near as I can tell, got themselves knocked off. Why will we be any different?”

“For one thing, we’ll defend ourselves, which the Tinkers and Pipe-Rillas and Angels wouldn’t do. And as far as the human team goes, we’re smarter. From everything that I’ve been able to find out, the man who led the human team was a rich idiot who couldn’t find his ass with both hands.”

“But the aliens aren’t fools. And they’re cautious.”

“We will be cautious, too. And we will have new information. After the two ships disappeared with Tinkers, Pipe-Rillas, and Angels on board, the Angels did a survey — remotely, of course — of the whole Geyser Swirl. We will have that survey, every last image and data byte, so we’ll know exactly where every star and planet and gas cloud is and what the possible dangers are. But look, before we get into details like that, I have to know. Are you in or are you out?”

“You ask me that, after seeing what it’s like here?” Danny’s thin eyebrows rose high on his wrinkled forehead. “After the big Q, the quarantine, everything on Mars headed straight down the toilet. Of course I’m in. I’m so far in you’d not get me out with forceps and a bucket of cold water. But you’ll need more than just me.”

“Sure. We need the whole team, or as close to it as we can get. We don’t have much time, either — the Hero’s Return leaves in less than two weeks. I’ve already started looking, but what do you hear about the gang?”

“Old news, mostly. Let’s see.” Danny leaned back on the rickety chair, closed his lips tight and puffed air behind them so that he looked even more like a chimpanzee, and held up his left hand, fist closed. After a few moments he lifted the index finger and went on, “Number one: Chrissie Winger. She’s your best bet, even though it’s a long journey. I saw a publicity release about Chrissie less than a year ago. She has her own magic show, big success, touring the Oort and making ’em gasp.”

“One of us will have to make the trip out and talk her into coming. What else?”

“Number two: Tully O’Toole. I heard from him maybe five years back. He was on Europa doing God-knows-what. As much the dreamer and the wild man as ever, but Tully the Rhymer still picks up a new language as easy as I pick up a glass.”

“Or a woman.”

“I told you, Leonora Coslett is a business associate.”

“I won’t argue. Who else?”

“Well, there’s Deb Bisson.” Danny glanced uncertainly at Chan Dalton. “She’s on Europa, too, easy enough to find. If you’re willing to risk it. I mean, you and she …”

“We’ll be fine. She and I got over that a long time ago.” Chan grimaced. “I hope.”

“Still a weapons master, is she?”

“That’s not the sort of thing you advertise. But could you imagine a Deb who wasn’t?”

“I could not. But I’ll tell you one thing, I’ll not be the one who visits her to find out.”

“I know, I guess I’m stuck with it. All right, four and five. What do you hear about Tarbush and the Bun?”

“I can only help with one of them. Nothing on the Bun. Tarbush Hanson still does his strongman stunts and his talking-to-animals act, and last I heard, three or four years ago, he was out in the Oort, too.”

Chan nodded. “He was. I’m a bit ahead of you on this. Tarbush and Chrissie Winger teamed up a few years ago and there’s a good chance they’re still touring the Oort Cloud together. Did you ever figure out how Tarbush does it?”

“No. So far as I’m concerned the easiest answer is the one he gives people: Tarbush can talk to animals. We never had the chance to find out if he can talk to aliens, too, the way he claims.”

“Maybe we’ll find out in the Swirl — if we get him that far. As for the Bun, I’m like you. I’ve drawn a total blank. I know he was at the Vulcan Nexus for a while, and that’s not a place you can easily hide a man. But I sent a trace, and it came back name and identification unknown .”

Danny sniffed and a frown grew on the wrinkled and tanned forehead. “Did you try his real name? I know he hates it, but he may be using it.”

“Bonifant Rombelle? Yeah, I tried that. I also tried the Bun, and Bunnyfat Ramble.”

“How about Senor Bonifant and Buddy Rose? I’ve seen him sign that way.”

“I tried those too. Tried everything I could think of. All the old ones, plus a few variations. Nothing. The common view on the Vulcan Nexus was that the Bun went outside with inadequate thermal protection and frizzled. Half an hour at those solar flux levels would bake you down to the bones. All you’d find in the suit would be a mess of blood and liquid fat.”

“Do you mind? I’d like to eat breakfast in a few hours, but I won’t if you talk like that.”

“Sorry. Anyway, I said that’s the common view. I didn’t say it’s what I think.”

“You have another theory?”

“Yes. There’s one other detail you need to know. At the time that the Bun vanished he was close to big trouble. Someone had cracked the Nexus code for solar activity prediction, and been caught doing it. Does that sound like the Bun, or doesn’t it?”

“Does indeed. Only man I ever heard of could make a working laser out of a dog collar, a grandfather clock, and the lower set of your Grandpa’s dentures. He could fix anything . Be worrying, working without the Bun.” Danny stood up. “I always thought someone like him was an essential part of our team — and there was no one like the Bun.”

Chan stared at him. “You thinking of backing out?”

“Hell, no. You know what they say: There’s nobody indispensable but thee and me; and I’m not too sure of thee . If we have to manage without the Bunny-man, we’ll do it. But you were talking tight time schedules, and it seems to me we have to start lining up our other team members right now.”

Chan nodded. “We do. So where do you think you’re going?”

Danny Casement was moving toward the door. “To say my sorrowful good-byes.”

“To Leonora Coslett?”

“Her, and one or two others of my investors. Make that three or four.”

“And return their money?”

“Please! Let’s be reasonable. Ask yourself, what could they possibly buy with their money as valuable as what I provide? Go ahead, make the travel plans.” Danny sighed. “I can leave tomorrow, but don’t look for me till then. This is going to be one long day. And night.”

Chan nodded without sympathy. “You can sleep all you want — once we’re on the way to the Geyser Swirl.”

7: THE OCEANS OF LIMBO

Bony was no deep-sea diver; still less was he a bold explorer. As he took that first, possibly fatal step, he paused and looked down.

The base of Airlock Number Two sat about three meters from the bulbous rounded end of the Mood Indigo. That base was where the drive unit was housed, and as the heaviest part of the ship it had hit the seabed first when the vessel drifted down through the water. Bony could see, directly beneath him, a broken array of sharp-pointed gold-and-green shafts, two meters long and scattered like toothpicks by the impact.

He held the side of the hatch and lowered himself slowly through the opening. When he was in water up to his waist, he hesitated. He had stated, very confidently, that the chemical properties of deuterium oxide were the same as those of ordinary water. But was that true? Was heavy water just like regular water for all normal purposes, except for its greater density? Bony thought so, but he was no more a trained chemist than he was a trained engineer. Also, he could not tell how strong those pike-like stems beneath him were. He had to be sure that he didn’t impale himself on one that still stood upright.