“We know where they are. We think we do, anyhow: behind airlock-type doors we can’t open,” Pournelle said. “That stuff the centaurowls build with, it may look like mother-of-pearl, but mother-of-pearl, is it ever tough.”

Jerry laughed. “Anybody who does W. C. Fields can’t be all good.”

“I may not be all good, but I’m pretty damn good,” Pournelle said with a laugh of his own. “And you aren’t too bad yourself, kid. Now I remember seeing that story of yours in Analog. Felt real. Can’t ask for more than that.”

“Thanks,” Jerry said, astounded. “I’ve sold another one there.”

“Good for you! Easier to do it once than twice, believe me. If you can sell regularly, you’ll build yourself a nice career.”

“If we make it through this. Maybe. I hope.” Jerry hesitated, then went on, “But if we can’t get at the controls or the engines, we are gonna have to press those big yellow buttons pretty soon, aren’t we?”

“Unless you or the Russians figure out how to reach them, yeah, I’m afraid so. Either that or sink Humpty Dumpty even deeper than it was before. It’s piss or get off the pot time, sure as hell.”

“What do you want to bet we and the Russians both have missiles with H-bombs aimed at this ship right now?”

“I won’t touch that one. I’m sure they do and we do. That’d end everything in a hurry, anyway—unless the aliens can shoot down the warheads or make it so they don’t work,” Pournelle said.

“I think the aliens worry about nuclear weapons, or at least the ship does.” Jerry explained his idea about why Humpty Dumpty might have sunk the K-129 but suffered itself to be brought to the surface by the Glomar Explorer.

“Huh!” Pournelle said. “That makes a fair bit of sense. I don’t recall hearing it from anybody else, either.”

“I thought of it after I got shitcanned,” Jerry said. “Not something I can prove, not without asking one of the centaurowls, but it seems to be the way Occam’s razor slices.”

“Yeah, it does. I first thought you had sense when Neuwirth showed me your list of scenarios. Now that I’ve met you, and now that I remember your Analog story, I see I was right—even if you do like the Russians too goddamn much.”

“I don’t like them for beans. But they’re here, whether we like them or not. We’ve got to deal with them. We’ve got to deal them in, too. Word about the Glomar Explorer was already coming out, remember. So was word about Humpty Dumpty, even if the news guys couldn’t believe it.”

“Some people are too rational to cope with reality,” Pournelle said.