Abruptly the CARM #2 control board came to life. Kendy sent his signal. Records came back: stills of various bored Guardians in their shared pressure suits, culminating in (present time) six jungle-giant men in a half circle around the control board, wearing anxious faces and spotless new uniforms. These must be officers; and now Kendy had their insignia.

The signal disintegrated with distance.

He rounded forty degrees of Smoke Ring before he made contact with CARM #6.

The vehicle was in its wooden dock at the midpoint of Citizens Tree. It was empty of citizens and cargo. That was Logbearer next to the left cage, and some smaller structure next to that. Kendy "stared": he enlarged the image and examined it in detail.

They'd built a steam rocket.

They didn't have a metal pipe or sikenwire, so they'd used ceramics. Fired mud! The laundry vat was part of it!

Records: the CARM on its way home. Logbearer was strapped along the hull. Booce was missing. Rather was present(!). The jungle-giant stranger matched the still of Hilar Belmy's son.

Raff Belmy's medical readings, originally ominous, settled down over passing days. Carlot must have helped to calm him down. Rather was being abnormally polite to both, and keeping his distance. The two spent considerable time out of sight aboard Logbearer.

Records: moving toward the Citizens Tree midpoint. The ceramic rocket returned ahead of the CARM. It puffed toward the in tuft, pushing a huge glob of black mud, and passed out of range.

Records: "Year 384, day 2400, Jeffer speaking as Scientist. Carm and Logbearer are both docked at Citizens Tree. This will be my last log entry until Kendy calls.

"Kendy, for your information, Rather got out of Headquarters safely. We refueled the jets on an Admiralty pressure suit and returned it. Captain-Guardian Mickl could have had the other suits refueled too, but he never brought them. Now he's got a pressure suit with jets. We gave him some time to play, and then we told him what to do when they run out of fuel.

"We've had no further trouble. Booce got a good offer on the metal. The Navy was carving it up when we left.

"Rather suggests that Mickl wants the flying suit for himself. It's something even the Admiral doesn't have. He's got a secret now, and we know it, and he'll need us to keep it flying. That gives us a certain edge with the Captain-Guardian if we ever want to exploit it.

"We have some wealth and some influence in the Admiralty. We got it without your help. We do not appreciate your abandoning Rather in the middle of the raid.

"I've spent as much time waiting for your call as I care to. I'll be back from time to time. If you haven't called by the crossyear, which is three hundred and ninety-one days from now, I will turn Voice off."

Nobody was near the CARM. The lift wasn't running.