«Perhaps they were only here to build the dish,» Wai said. «They intended it to be a remote research station in this part of the galaxy. Once they had it up and running, they'd boost it into a high-inclination orbit. They had their accident before the project was finished.»

«That still doesn't explain why they chose this system. Any other star would be better than this one.»

«I think Wai's right about them being long-range visitors,» Marcus said. «If a xenoc race like that existed close to the Confederation we would have found them by now. Or they would have contacted us.»

«The Kiint,» Karl said quickly.

«Possibly,» Marcus conceded. The Kiint were an enigmatic xenoc race, with a technology far in advance of anything the Confederation had mastered. However, they were reclusive, and cryptic to the point of obscurity. They also claimed to have abandoned starflight a long time ago. «If it is one of their ships, then it's very old.»

«And it's still functional,» Roman said eagerly. «Hell, think of the technology inside. We'll wind up a lot richer than the gold could ever make us.» He grinned over at Antonio, whose humour had blackened considerably.

«So what were the Kiint doing building a radio telescope here?» Victoria asked.

«Who the hell cares?» Karl said. «I volunteer to go over, Captain.»

Marcus almost didn't hear him. He'd accessed the Lady Mac 's sensor suite again, sweeping the focus over the tip of the dish's tower, then the sheer cliff which the wreckage was attached to. Intuition was making a lot of junctions in his head. «I don't think it is a radio telescope,» he said. «I think it's a distress beacon.»

«It's four kilometres across!» Katherine said.

«If they came from the other side of the galaxy, it would need to be. We can't even see the galactic core from here there's so much gas and dust in the way. You'd need something this big to punch a message through.»

«That's valid,» Victoria said. «You believe they were signalling their homeworld for help?»

«Yes. Assume their world is a long way off, three or four thousand light-years away if not more. They're flying a research or survey mission in this area and they have an accident. Three-quarters of their ship is lost, including the drive section. Their technology isn't good enough to build the survivors a working stardrive out of what's left, but they can enlarge an existing crater on the disc particle. So they do that; they build the dish and a transmitter powerful enough to give God an alarm call, point it at their homeworld, and scream for help. The ship can sustain them until the rescue team arrives. Even our own zero-tau technology is up to that.»

«Gets my vote,» Wai said, giving Marcus a wink.

«No way,» said Katherine. «If they were in trouble they'd use a supralight communicator to call for help. Look at that ship, we're centuries away from building anything like it.»