“I think we do.” Elke turned to the Angel. “Would you like to explain, or shall I?”

The fronds dipped in her direction, and the synthesized voice from deep within the Angel said, “Too many cooks spoil the broth.Please, continue.”

“All right. I’m going to throw an assumption at you. Better take a deep breath, because it’s a big one. On the other hand, it seems to explain everything else. Here it is: the Link entry point in the Geyser Swirl is different from any that we know, and it doesn’t perform the usual type of transition. A ship that transfers to it does not emerge in the Swirl. Instead, the ship undergoes a second transition to somewhere else.

“ And” — she continued before anyone could object or comment — “that somewhere else is not anywhere in our own universe. It is in a different cosmos, call it a parallel universe if you like. That’s why the safeguards against emerging where there is matter didn’t work. And that’s where we are now.”

Someone, it sounded to Bony like Danny Casement, muttered, “A long way from home,” and Chrissie Winger said softly, “I don’t like this. Come on, somebody, give me a nicer explanation.”

“If you can think of a better explanation,” Elke said, “I’d be more than happy to hear it. But see what my one assumption explains. First, a different universe is likely to have different basic physical constants. Not too different from what we know; in fact things in both universes have to be very close or we wouldn’t be able to survive here at all. The very fact that we’re sitting talking means that any changes have to be small. But small changes are enough. Minor differences in the physical constants during the first minutes of the universe give big differences in the relative amounts of hydrogen and deuterium. I speculate that almost all water in this entire universe will be heavy water, in order to have a planet with heavy-water oceans. The same differences, later on, affect the rate of stellar evolution. A blue giant star doesn’t burn up so fast, and planets around it have time enough to develop life, and even intelligent life. The strange globes in the night sky are alternate forms of stars, things which can form here but which can’t form in our own universe. That would suggest a difference in the basic gravitational constant, which would also help explain Limbo’s low gravity but large size.

“Now, we might be able to talk away everything I’ve said, but there’s one fact above all else that convinces me that we’re in a different universe. That’s the times. The intervals between the times when our ships entered the Link transition points in our universe, and the interval between our emergence into the ocean here, don’t match. We’re in a universe where not only the physical laws are different. The time rates in the two universes are not the same. A couple of months pass back home, while only a day passes here.” Elke turned to the Angel. “You did the calculations. What did the relative rate come out to be?”

The Angel had sunk lower and seemed to be luxuriating in the presence of the rich soil at its base. It roused itself and mumbled, “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, old time is still a-flying. To be more specific, and to three-figure accuracy, time is passing on this world 61.2 times as fast as standard time on Earth, Sellora, or other worlds of the Stellar Group.”

Elke had seen the scowl on Dag Korin’s face, and added, “In practical terms, General, the Angel is saying that two months will pass on Earth for every standard day that we remain here on Limbo. Our friends back home will already be worried about us. They’ll be wondering why we haven’t returned from the Geyser Swirl.”

“Well, dammit, I’m ahead of them.” The General was still scowling. “I want to know more than that. Maybe I’m simpleminded, Dr. Siry, and certainly I’m old, but I don’t give a tinker’s cuss about deuterium and time rates and all that science crap. The way I see it, we were sent here with a job to do. We had to find out what happened to the other expeditions that came before us. Well, we’ve done that, and more. Except for Friday Indigo, who it sounds like went off and killed himself in the storm, we have everybody from all the expeditions accounted for and here on this ship. So my question is this: How and when can we go home?”

“I’d like to know that, too, but you’re asking the wrong person.” Elke turned to Chan Dalton. “What’s the condition of the ship?”

“I’m not sure, but I suspect that it stinks.” Chan didn’t really want the attention on him. He had listened to Elke Siry with mixed feelings. On the one hand, what she said cleared up an awful lot of mysteries. On the other hand, the news that you’d been thrown into some different universe had all sorts of other implications. What else might be different here? Would a ship’s drive work, even if you could get it out of the water?

But first things first. He went on, “When we arrived we had to shed our external shielding to slow our descent. That worked and we were able to make a soft landing on the seabed, though apparently it smashed the pinnaces beyond repair. The whole ship isn’t in good shape, and I doubt it can ever make a Link transition. Many of our displays report abnormal status.” He nodded toward Bony. “The Bun’s the one to tell us what condition we’re in, and make the fix-ups if they can be made. Unless one of the other ships might be a better choice?”

“Forget it.” Bony didn’t know the condition of the Hero’s Return , but Chan’s question was still one that he could answer. “The Finder , the ship that Vow-of-Silence and Eager Seeker used to come here, was on its last legs when we left it. By now it’s a dead hulk. The Angel’s ship, the Minister of Grace , was swept into deep water by the storm, and we haven’t been able to contact it. And although we don’t know where Friday Indigo took the Mood Indigo , he hasn’t responded to any of our ships’ signals. His own ship is well made but it doesn’t have the structural strength of this one. If he went too deep, the hull would implode. Up near the surface, the storm might have smashed it to pieces.”

Chan nodded. “So it’s this ship, or nothing. How long will it be, Bun, before you can tell us where we stand?”

“Give me half a day and I’ll give you a first guess.” Bony hesitated. “Look, is it really this ship or nothing?”

“What other options do we have?”

“I’m not sure. But somebody made the Link entry point, here on Limbo. It’s a Link like none we’ve ever seen before, located at a sea-air interface instead of out in space. We know it wasn’t the bubble people who built it, they lack the technology. We know it wasn’t any member of the Stellar Group, because the whole design is different. But there is someone else on this planet, and they are land dwellers. Also, they have technology. When we were ashore, Liddy and I saw one of their flying machines.”

“Did you meet them?” Dag Korin asked.

“No. The aircraft flew over us, and gave no sign that it knew we were there. But if we can contact whoever made it, and if we can communicate with them, and if they are friendly and they will cooperate by lending us one of their machines and let us use it to travel through the Link entry point, then we won’t have to rely on this ship at all.”

Dag Korin raised shaggy white eyebrows. “Young man, do you realize how many conditions you just hung together in one sentence? But you’re quite right. We need more than one string to our bow, and if the only answer is to find and strong-arm another bunch of aliens to get ourselves home, that’s what we’ll do. You concentrate on the condition of the Hero’s Return , and the rest of us will think about ways to go ashore and meet the other aliens. One question, though. Do you have any idea whereabouts on land the other aliens might be?”