The Erin Kenner kept a respectful distance above the surface. Before Captain Josh Webster allowed anyone to set foot on the planet, there were some things to be explained. The inept attack on the Erin Kenner by an unmanned ship was a physical manifestation of the overall mystery of the planet. The failure of two well-engineered and maintained spaceships and the deaths of four people aboard them was a sobering reminder that there were things unknown encased in the ice.

Both Josh and Sheba were achingly aware that their parents and siblings lay locked in the planet's frigid embrace. In the case of Ruth and David their shame was there for any observer to witness, and that bothered Josh almost as much as the basic question which was: Why the hell was the planet so cold when enough solar radiation poured down on her to melt all ice except, perhaps, for small areas near the poles?

The Erin Kenner was not equipped for efficient probings beneath the ice. In the normal course of events the X&A ship would have run a surface survey of the planet while conducting a thorough scan for life readings.

Finding none in the ice, she would have recorded the ice planet's basic measurements, characteristics, and position in space in a claim of discovery for the people of the United Planets. Any utilization of the planet's resources would have been left to private sector prospectors and miners. A mining ship would be equipped with drill drones and probes that could, with relative ease, examine the metallic deposits under the ice.

Josh had three robotic exploration and test drones at his disposal, none of which was designed to burrow through ice. All three of the drones were at work. They measured a temperature well below zero at the surface of the ice while air temperatures a few feet above the ground indicated the strength of the sea of energy poured onto the planet by her sun. The drones began to pinpoint strong readings of metal beneath the ice and an interesting pattern emerged.

Kirsty Girard, in her role as science officer, called the captain into a small space packed with screens and dials and recording devices. "It gets a bit weird," she said, as she punched up a graphic on a monitor. "These large, pink areas are ore fields, some of them quite deep. They're pretty typical of a planet in the life zone."

"And those bright red spots?" Josh asked.

"I'm getting to that," Kirsty said. "That's the weird part." She punched buttons and the graphic expanded to take in a wider area. "So far the drones have covered most of the southern half of this large land mass.

Take a look at the distribution of the red dots."

The dots formed a grid.

"The distance from dot to dot is uniform, almost exactly two hundred miles," Kirsty said. "As you can see by the color, each dot represents ahighly concentrated mass of metal. Each one seems to be identical."

"Emanations? Electrical? Other?"

"None that we can detect," Kirsty said.

"How thick is the ice covering?"

"It varies, but there's at least two hundred feet of ice over the shallowest of the masses."

"Any doubt in your mind, Lieutenant Girard, that we've encountered the work of intelligent beings?"

A shiver went up and down Kirsty's spine. "None at all, sir."

"How long will it take to get the drones aboard?"

"Three hours."

"Okay. Start 'em up."

"Aye, sir," Kirsty said. "I wonder, sir, if I might have just a couple of hours?"

Josh waited.

"I've just started moving one of the drones." She pushed buttons and the image of the planet turned on the screen. A pointer stabbed toward an area of featureless white. "Here's another major land mass on the opposite side of the globe. I'd like to have a drone work there for a couple of hours to see if the same grid pattern of installations is in place."

Josh nodded. "I see no problem with that."

Sheba was with Angela on the control bridge. When Josh told them that they'd be blinking out toward the Rimfire route in about five hours, Angela sighed deeply. It had become apparent, with the attack of the unmanned drone, that the Erin Kenner had encountered an alien intelligence. She had not questioned Josh openly, but she'd felt then that it was time to back off and call in the headquarters boffins with their elaborate equipment and stringent safeguards.

Sheba said, "What about the bodies of our folks?"

"Queenie, they're a part of the whole. We couldn't touch them, even if I disobeyed regulations and common sense and sent a manned launch down to the surface."

"Josh, they'll see," Sheba said. "Everyone who comes here will see what Ruth and David were doing."

Josh shook his head regretfully. "Can't be helped, Queenie."

"My father and mother are down there," Sheba said with emotion. "He was born on Tigian II, and he loved it. You were sent a copy of his will. If you read it, you might remember that he provided that his and Mother's ashes be placed in the family memorial at T-Town. That meant a lot to him, because that memorial holds the ashes of six generations of Websters. He provided a place for each of us, too, Josh. There are niches for Ruth and David."

"We can request that the remains be sent there when X&A has completed its investigation," Josh said.

"Josh, damnit, I don't know what kind of a place this is, or what the hell went on down there, but I know damned well that what Ruth and David were doing when they died was not their idea."

"No, I guess not," Josh said.

"You could separate them with one of the drones," Sheba said.

"Queenie, if a drone touches them, they'll shatter. We haven't been able to get exact temperature readings of frozen objects such as a bone, or the metal of the ships. We know that objects alien to this planet are much colder than the very thin air around them. Kirsty Girard thinks that it's close to absolute zero in the interior of the metals that shattered on touch, and that would hold true for the bodies. At that temperature durasteel crumbles like a cracker. Try to separate David and Ruth and we'd have a pile of frozen chips of flesh and bone."

"Which could be decently cremated," Sheba said.

"No," Josh said. "I'm sorry."

"Captain," said Kirsty Girard's voice on the communicator, "can you come to Science and Navigation?"

"On my way, Kirsty," Josh said.

Both Angela and Sheba followed him to stand in the door to Kirsty's

"office" as Josh leaned over a monitor. They could both see a darkness in a field of white ice.

As Josh watched, the dark spot resolved itself into a square cube of metal. The drone was airborne, and was closing on the structure.

"Why didn't we spot this before?" Josh asked.

"Because up until about one hour ago it was covered by two hundred feet of ice," Kirsty said. "I had the area on camera, a wide view, when the ice began to melt. The computer alerted me to the change in image. It took only sixteen minutes for the ice cover to be removed."

Josh felt a prickle of alarm at the nape of his neck. She had phrased her words to indicate that she believed that the dull metal square had been deliberately revealed by someone or by something.

"Keep the drone at two miles distance," Josh ordered. "Readout?"

Kirsty was controlling the drone with eye and head movements inside a snug-fitting helmet. She hovered the drone and ordered use of all of its sensors.

"No emissions. No radiation. No heat," she said.

"Bring the drone home," Josh said.

"Wait," Kirsty said, with excitement in her voice. "The shell of that square is made of the same metal that was in the hull of the ship that attacked us. No wonder we're getting no readings. That stuff would keep heat or any emissions inside."

"Bring it home, Kirsty," Josh ordered calmly.

"Yes, sir," Kirsty said. She thought the order.