Analysis confirmed what the eye supposed: the object was largely metallic. Further information merely confirmed the obvious. The artifact was a ship. Three cones formed the front section of the vessel, attached by struts and beams to a sphere. The arrangement hinted at a different, but not radically so, propulsive system.

The senior science council had arrived on the bridge, drawn from their studies by the announcement of the forthcoming sublight encounter. Now they crowded next to the captain’s position and stared at the screen. There were three of them, in age all quite senior to Broh. They waited, however, for him to make the proper command inquiries.

Now more than ever in his brief and comparatively uneventful career, Broh was aware of his lack of experience. Not that he would permit that to show. In some ways the science council outranked him. He was grateful for that. It would allow him to ask obvious questions without seeming stupid.

“AAnn or related design?” he asked sharply.

“No,” replied the first observer. She studied the screen intently. “At least, not of any AAnn designs I’ve ever seen. The projection fans—for such we must assume they are—are quite different from ours or the AAnn’s, though somewhat more similar to the AAnn’s.”

“Also the number of projection units—three—is the same as the AAnn employ.” The second observer pointed toward the image and described silhouettes in the air. “But see, they are far more flat than ours or the AAnn’s. I wonder how that affects the field that wraps around the ship in Space Plus.” He muttered about the displacement of reality and other arcane matters that were as much solipsistic and metaphysical as hard science.

Of course, there was no firm boundary between reality and unreality when one was dealing with such concepts as Space Plus and Space Minus. When brilliant generalists like the three observers got together, even theology sometimes took on the aspect of a hard science.

The alien vessel grew steadily larger and magnification was correspondingly reduced until finally they found themselves looking at a real-size image.

“Try signaling,”’the third observer suggested.

“What frequency?” Communications asked.

“All,” Broh said. “Try standard hive channels first, then AAnn frequencies.”

“But the first observer already has said it’s not a recognizable AAnn type, sir.”

Broh ignored the insubordination. “It may be a new type,” he responded. “Or an ally of the AAnn we know nothing of.”

“If it’s an ally,” the scanner commented, “it’s been badly treated.” Screen two, to the right of the viewport, suddenly came to life with a close-up of the alien’s fore section. Two of the three cone-shaped units had been badly damaged. Broh requested an analysis and opinion of the damage.

“It could have been meteoric material, but I think not,” said the analyzer. “See the way the metal folds and twists back on itself there at the leading edges? And there, along the support beams, surely that’s the mark of heavy-energy weaponry.”

“Possibly,” murmured the first observer. She was more interested now in the after section of the ship.