Colonel Hall regarded the Guest with an expression of mild pain. "It's saying we should be on war alert?"

"It's saying ..." Harry began angrily, and then controlled his tone, "it's saying we haven't got the chance of an ice cube in hell. Art, you read more science fiction than Ì do. Who was that fellow—"

"Saberhagen. Fred Saberhagen. He called them 'Berserkers.'"

"I am not being spoken with," the Guest said. "Have you become aware of the results of this information?"

"I think so," Arthur replied. They had not asked a perfectly obvious question. Perhaps they didn't want to know. He appraised the Guest in the silence that fell over them. "How long do we have?"

"I do not know. Perhaps less than an orbit."

Harry winced. Colonel Hall simply gaped.

"How long ago did your—did the ship land?" Arthur continued.

The Guest made a small hissing sound and turned away. "I do not know” it replied. "We have not been aware."

Arthur did not hesitate to ask the next question. "Did the ship stop by a planet in our solar system? Did it destroy a moon?"

"I don't know."

A short, powerfully built Asiatic man with close-trimmed black hair, dark pockmarked skin, and broad cheekbones entered the room. Arthur slapped his hands on his knees and glared at him.

"I beg your pardon, gentlemen," he said.

Sanborn cleared his throat. "This is Colonel Tuan Anh Phan." He introduced Arthur and Harry.

Phan greeted each with a reserved nod. "I've just been informed that the Australians are releasing news photos and motion pictures. I believe this is important. Their visitors are not like our own."

PERSPECTIVE

InfoMet Political News Forum,

October 6, 1996,

Frank Topp, commentator:

President Crockerman's rating in the World-News public opinion polls has been a rocksteady 60 to 65 percent approval since June, with no signs of change as Election Day approaches. Political pundits in Washington doubt that anything can derail the President's easy victory in November, not even the hundred-billion-dollar trade imbalance between the Eastern Pacific Rim nations and Uncle Sam ... or the enigmatic situation in Australia. I, for one, am not even wearing campaign buttons. It's going to be a dull election.

GUARENS ME, SEDISTI LASSOS

7

Hicks, bleary-eyed, clothing rumpled, sat on the straight-backed hotel desk chair and scanned the contents of the file he had marked "Hurrah." "Hurrah" contained the choicest bits of information from twenty-two hours and perhaps three hundred dollars' worth of accessing specialist bulletin boards around the world. He did not care about costs. He was still high.

Australia did indeed have an artifact in their Great Victoria Desert, something apparently disguised to resemble a huge chunk of red granite. The Australian government had kept the find secret for about thirty days, until leaks through investigating military and scientific agencies threatened to scoop them on the greatest story of all time. This much and more—speculation, rumors—had been repeated again and again on all the networks he had accessed. While the government had not released full details, they were expected to do so any day.