"Uh-huh. You would have sent them away without hurting them so much. How? Describe the procedure in detail."

"I can't do that. Jeffer hasn't told any of us how to fly the CARM! Clave, the Scientist is not to burn any tribe, ever again. I'm telling you, not him. You are to stop him."

"I'll tell him. Now what?"

"Oh . . . we'll leave everything but the helmet where it is. Jeffer's scientific eyes are in the helmet, right? Those little windows in the forehead? We'll moor it in the nest. He'll have a view. We'll be spending enough time around the Wart; we'll talk to him then."

The CARM with its cameras was hidden in a dark place, the pressure suit was in another, the incoming recordings were days old, and in present time Jeffer wasn't present. Kendy skimmed the recordings. He was learning more through Disciplined own senses.

Logbearer was easy to follow: forty kilometers of tree with tufts missing and a metal mass off-center, now rounding the starward limb of the L4 whorl. Maintaining contact wasn't going to be easy here. Discipline's new orbit had twice the period ofGoldblatt's World, with periVoy falling north of the L4 point. Tilting his orbit out of the Smoke Ring allowed his instruments to penetrate less of the garbage in the Clump; but the log and the CARM and all of Kendy's citizens would be circling that center on long kidney-shaped paths.

At least he wouldn't have to burn more fuel. If he could establish relations with the Admiralty, his present orbit might suffice for hundreds of years.

Savages in a thriving civilization would find trouble sooner or later. Patience. Some emergency would force Jeffer to bring the CARM into the L4 point. Then he must open the airlock to the Navy . . .

One problem at a time. Wait. Leam.

Jeffer entered the cabin before Kendy passed out of range. There was fresh pink blood on his tunic and more on his hands.

"Kendy for the State-"

"Hello, Kendy. How can we-"

"Jeffer, if Rather has an offer from the Navy, I want him to accept."

"You would. Rather didn't sound too enthusiastic. Neither am I. How can we get away with not hiding the silver suit?"

"An excellent question." Kendy was using light amplification, but it only showed him iron ore and chewed wood. Clave and Rather had departed the hiding place. "If the Navy has pressure suits, they'll recognize yours. I thought of disassembling it, but they'd know the helmet too. We would ruin the camera if we tried to dismount it, and the electrical source is in the helmet."

"So?"

"Patience."

"Feed your patience to the tree, Kendy. I've got a cryptic entry under 'Lagrange Points'-"

"I've had three hundred and eighty-four years to learn patience. You are almost out of range. Can you feed yourself there?"