Jeffer repressed a sigh. "Yes, Chairman. Booce?" Booce pointed to Jeffer's selection. "That one."

Ten klomters above the tuft, the wood of the trunk had grown to enclose a node of foreign matter. Jeffer saw Booce catch his daughter's eye as Carlot was about to speak. She held her silence.

At the tree midpoint Jeffer nosed the CARM against the trunk. He ran the attitude jets while his crew pounded spikes into the bark to mark a rectangle the size of the CARM's bow. The CARM drifted while they chopped out a dock with matchets.

Even on this younger tree, the bark was a meter thick. They made life easier for themselves by chopping along cracks. The five of them lifting together could rip great mattresses of bark away from the wood beneath, then saw off sections. Booce and Carlot used the saw, then let others take over until they got the hang of it.

Booce and Carlot rejoined Jeffer in the CARM. Booce said, "They seem to be doing all right."

"But it's scarred," Carlot objected.

"And how much wood will that cost us?"

She shrugged. "Five percent? And weren't we in a hurry to get home?"

Booce was smiling. "Exactly. Jeffer, why this tree?"

"You'll be painting a line of honey down the trunk, stet? Have a look at that scar."

"Can you tell me what I'm supposed to find?"

"No, I can't."

"Jeffer the Scientist, Citizens Tree gave us shelter and a place among you. We're grateful. I will not quarrel with any decision you make. You won't need to test it again."

Jeffer could feel his ears and cheeks burning. "If that scar isn't more interesting than you expect, you can count on it that I won't make a fool of myself twice. Stet?"

"Stet. I won't raise this subject with the Chairman, ever."

"You are kind. What's next?"

"The honey line."

In the cabin the roar of the main drive was like a great beast heard far away; but outside the airlock the roar was deafening. A translucent blue flame reached out from the CARM's main rocket nostril. Warmth backwashed against the bark.

Carlot's eyes were big with fear. Rather pulled at her arm to set her kicking toward the in tuft, and followed, with Booce following him.

They stopped where the noise had decreased somewhat. The rough bark itself absorbed sound. Booce screamed, "That noise is beyond belief! What is that damn CARM, a ship from the stars?"

"Jeffer says it rode here on the starship. My father never saw Discipline." What Rather said would be true whoever his father was. "But he's seen the stars. They're real."

"I'm afraid of it. I admit it. Look, the noise is scaring the bugs out of the bark! Let's get to work."

Booce used a branchwood matchet to open a hole in one of the honeypots. The interior was partitioned; the cells held red, sticky honey. Booce used the blade to paint it on the bark.