"Why in hell should they do that? Government's relation with the community has been awful the last few years. This certainly won't help."

"Yes, but I concur this time."

Another chill. Hoffman was very dedicated to the community.

"If there's a blanket over everything, how do you know?" Lanier asked.

"Connections through ISCCOM. I've been put on oversight by the President."

"Jesus."

"So while our friends are partying out there, I need to know if I can rely on you."

"Judith, I'm just a second-rank PR type."

"Bullshit. Orbicom thinks you're the best personnel coordinator they have. I had to wrestle Parker for three months to get you transferred to Washington. You were lined up for a promotion, know that?"

Truthfully, he had hoped to avoid another promotion. He felt he was getting away from the real work, higher and higher up the tower of power. "And you got me transferred, instead?"

"Pulled enough strings to look like the puppet master I'm supposed to be. I may need you. You know I don't pick candidates unless I'm sure they'll yank my ass out of the fire later."

He nodded. To be part of Hoffman's circle was to be groomed for importance. Until now, he had tried to overlook that as a truism.

"Do you remember the supernova sighted about the same time as the Stone?"

Lanier nodded; it had made a brief splash in the journals, and he had been too busy to find that low-profile coverage odd.

"It wasn't a supernova. Just as bright, but it didn't match any of the requirements. In the first place, it was first recorded by DST as an infrared object just outside the solar system. Within two days, the flare became visible, and DST detected radiation of frequencies associated with every atomic transition. The flare temperature started at a million degrees Kelvin and peaked at just over one billion degrees. By that time nuclear explosion detectors on satellites—the new GPS super-Vela—were picking up thermally excited gamma rays from nuclear transitions. It was clearly visible in the night sky, so DST had to make up a cover story, and that was the discovery of a supernova by space defense installations. But they didn't know what they had."

"And?"

"The display went out, everything got quiet and then a visual sighting was made in the same portion of the sky. It was the Stone. By that time, everybody knew they weren't dealing with a simple asteroid." The video pictures flickered and a chime sounded.

"Well, here it is. Joint Space Command has taken over the Drake and rotated it."

The Drake was the most powerful orbiting optical telescope. There were bigger instruments being built on lunar farside, but none yet in operation matched the Drake. It had no Defense Department connection. Joint Space Command legally had no jurisdiction—except in time of national security crisis.

The Stone appeared on the screen greatly enlarged and cradled in numbers and science data graphs. Much more detail was evident—a big crater at one end of the oblong, smaller craters all over, a peculiar band running latitudinally.