They were on the verge of being drawn up into the belly of the gigantic main vessel when Reed voiced a question that had certainly occurred to his colleagues but which they were resolutely disinclined to ask. Given his rank, status, and instructions, he had no choice but to do so.

“Can we see your weapons systems?”

Dev held his breath while Pavesi adopted a stony expression. The Zimmers looked disapproving. To everyone’s great relief, and not inconsiderable surprise, their tentacled host replied without hesitation or apparent offense.

“I could show them to you, but without an adequately mature technical background they would mean nothing. Your best people could study whatever images you recorded and learn nothing. Besides, you have already seen some of our weapons.”

Dev remembered. “The long devices the Kaijank carried with them.”

Slitted eyes turned in his direction as Vantolos eased himself out of his shape-shifting pod. They must have arrived and docked, Dev decided. There had been no sense of slowing or stopping, no feeling of making contact with the larger vessel. Just as there had been no movement or motion when they had lifted off. Somewhat to his surprise there was no sensation of weightlessness, which suggested some version of the long-imagined artificial gravity so prevalent in his youthful reading. Fictional technology made real, he mused.

“You are observant,” the Olone told him. “It is to be commended.” As the speaker stood on all four tentacles, his attention shifted back to Reed. “There is no reason to try to hide anything, including motivation, because you cannot fathom what you will see. Your intentions are primitive and obvious. You hope to observe and image technology that your own people can reverse engineer. Please realize that you are incapable of doing so. Accepting this fact will make your brief visit here much more enjoyable for you personally.”

Ambling across the gray floor he approached the rear wall through which they had entered the corridor. Once again, a portion of the barrier appeared to dissolve at his touch. Slipping out of their respective pods, Dev and the others followed. A glance behind them showed the pods shimmying back into their original cup shapes. It struck him that ever since entering the alien craft he had not seen a single switch, button, or contact plate. Similarly, the A'jeii pilots, or conductors, had touched nothing, operating any controls and manipulating their multiplicity of hovering screens and readouts with movements of their overlarge oculars. Or maybe, he told himself, the aliens had achieved true mind-to-instrumentation connectivity. I think, therefore you do, he marveled silently.