They walked back up the corridor until they reached the point where they had originally entered the shuttle craft. A portal appeared in the same place as before, and Vantolos led them out into a corridor that was much larger than the one on the shuttle. It was busy with a breathtaking array of automatons, as were branching side corridors that led teasingly to unknown destinations.

For what seemed like a long time they walked in one direction. Occasionally the corridor would twist or bend like a dropped rope. The design of both the mothership and the shuttle reflected an aversion to straight lines. To a greater or lesser extent, everything around Dev and his companions was curved or bowed. He could only wonder at the construction techniques that permitted such flowing lines. Though he looked hard, he could not see a single bolt, rivet, weld, or seam. It was as if the interior of the ship, or at least of the corridor down which Vantolos was leading them, had been poured rather than assembled.

Without warning, the corridor opened into a vaulted chamber whose highest point rose some three stories above them. The by-now-familiar flurry of automatons was active here as well, but in contrast to the paucity of live crew on board the shuttle, Dev saw a number of Olone and A'jeii active at positions scattered around the open area. The entire center half of the forward section was transparent, showing the darkness of space and, in an unexpected reminder of home, the familiar disc of the moon. Among all the automatons, Olone, and A'jeii, Dev saw only a single Kaijank.

Flaunting lines of pulsing red and orange light across their otherwise dun-colored bodies, a pair of automatons approached. Devoid of feet, they hovered less than an inch above the deck. Assorted and presumably specialized limbs moved over and around the visitors, examining without touching. When they had finished, the devices retreated in opposite directions.

“Central control.” Vantolos gestured with a tentacle. “While the ship is perfectly capable of self-operation, it is useful to have certain functions supervised by organics. When visiting a world, for example. As you can see, any type of manipulative digit or ocular functions effectively. Flexibility is a hallmark of any sufficiently advanced technology.”

No less intent than Katou-Zimmer, Pavesi pointed out the blatant omission. “I only see one representative of the Kaijank.”

Mysterious, flagrantly organic ripples increased beneath Vantolos’s tunic. “The scarceness to which you refer has nothing to do with digital inadequacy. The Kaijank prefer to relinquish the routine operations of the ship to my kind and to the A'jeii.” Observing that Reed had his communicator out and was making sweeping recordings of the central control interior, the Olone gestured diffidently. “Make all the pretty images you wish. They will provide fodder for your technologists to admire, if not duplicate. I am certain that …”