The monitor image had not yet come into focus. Yates translated picts carrying information about the conditions on the other side. "The monitor is in a high vacuum," he said, "with a very low radiation count. If we are indeed in another section of the Way, the flaw is particularly inactive and stable."

"There doesn't seem to be any flaw," Ry Oyu commented, squinting in concentration.

The visual image clarified.

"It's enormous," Senator Oyu said quietly.

At whatever point the gate had intersected the Way, the tube-shaped universe had expanded to a diameter of at least fifty thousand kilometers. "Geodesic drift," Patricia said.

"Well, that might account for it," Ry Oyu said. "But it may not be inherent."

Lanier didn't bother asking for an explanation; he doubted he could absorb it.

The Way was filled with cyclopean structures, dark crystalline masses thousands of kilometers long, some floating free, casting broad shadows against the opposite walls of the Way as they passed before an intense, meandering, snake-like plasma tube.

"Surface attraction is about one-tenth g," Yates said. "The parameters are substantially different, Ry. Do you suppose it's another Way, not our own?"

"Do we have reason to believe anyone else would have made a universe like this one?" the gate opener asked.

"No," Yates admitted.

"We imposed our own heritage on the shape of the Way when we made it cylindrical—I strongly doubt others would duplicate it. Not with the endless possibilities available."

"Still, there's a convenience to such a shape, a practicality if commerce is desired. . . .”

Ry Oyu agreed to that much with a curt nod. He seemed angry, surveying the results of his work. "It's very strange there," he said. "No detectable flaw, and the plasma tube is highly irregular. I'd say it's been tampered with."

"By Jarts?"

"No," the gate opener said. "Those structures are very un-Jart-like. I'm not sure I can conceive any practical uses for them—they're either distortions in the geometry, space-time extrusions and crystallizations, or. . .” He shook his head. "Or they're beyond our comprehension. And besides, I doubt very much if Jarts could have progressed so far. This junction—if it is a junction—has to be beyond one ex fifteen—over a hundred light years down the Way."

"There can't be any gates there, then," Patricia said.

Yates raised his eyebrows. "Why not?"

"Because that's beyond the end of our universe, in time. Gates would open onto. . .” She held up her hands. "Nothing. Null."

"Not necessarily," Ry Oyu said. "But you have an interesting point. The Way is adapted to fit conditions in its epoch of origin. Where it surpasses those conditions—extends beyond them—it may naturally reach other accommodations."

"Can the Axis City ever travel that far?" Prescient Oyu asked.

"I don't know. If the flaw ceases to exist, they would have to make adjustments. . . it would be difficult. And if there's no flaw beyond a certain point—"

"The Way is self-sustaining," Yates finished for him.