They sat unspeaking for several minutes, staring at the approaching object—which was actually retreating from them.

Closer inspection did not breed familiarity. The impossible merely took on greater detail.

“We do have a loading job in three hours. Think it’s all right to shift station to fool with this thing?”

Reinke’s reply was muted. He was busy maneuvering the shuttle closer. “I can recognize a rhetorical question when I hear one. When the boss sees what we done gonna bring him, he’ll supply us with another ship—apiece.”

“I’m not picky, myself. I wish only a very small space yacht—KK drive equipped, of course—with a platinum head.”

“Kind of cold, hmmm?”

“Just to look at, idiot.”

“Mighty strange taste you’ve developed in art.”

“A direct return to the seat of human thought, you might say. Besides, all geniuses cannot expect proper appreciation from the lower depths of the herd.”

“All right, genius,” Reinke smiled. “Suppose you suit up and lay some cables on that carp. When we’ve first got the thing secured we can arrange surface transportation. Meanwhile, I’ll register salvage in case any of the other hock jockeys come nosing around. Take out a buoy first. As soon as it’s positioned I’ll transceive its frequency to Port Control. Then we can play with this thing at our leisure.”

Which occasioned a brief, horrible thought. Turning to the transceiver, he rapidly scanned normal salvage frequencies. The computer noted nothing not previously listed in the book.

They had moved hard by the gleaming central object. It floated just above them, relatively speaking. A gold, be-spiked, glassblower’s nightmare. The smaller body held sharp and clear out the fore port. M’wali had left to suit up, so Reinke occupied time in studying the immediate object of their attentions.

Interestingly, it appeared to float at the focal point of the three large, spiky projections of the central bulk. The pylons, or whatever they were, were a milky white, with faint shades of rose and light blue flowing across their surfaces every now and then. Glass or ceramic, looked like.

The detached spheroid had a few knobs and projections of its own, but nothing like the crazy-quilt above. It was pyramid-shaped. The base of the pyramid faced the larger object.

A body composed of more familiar curves and angles entered Reinke’s view from the right. M’wali trailed vacuum cables and powerful pulse-jets behind him. The readyspark strapped to his partner’s back sparkled in the glare from Repler’s sun.

No conversation passed between the two men. None was needed. Both had performed similar operations dozens of times. The subject was new, but the procedure wasn’t. Besides, M’wali liked quiet while he worked. He busied about the smaller object, setting himself for the routine task of arranging cables and jets on the alien construct.