He stopped for so long, Jerry said, “And?”

“Fuck you, too.”

Jerry blew him a kiss. By Dave’s expression, he didn’t know whether to laugh or be disgusted. He compromised with a sweeping get-away-from-me gesture. Jerry did. An hour or so later, he and Nikolai Kalyakin went up to Humpty Dumpty’s round entry door. It was closed, which meant no one—no one human—was inside. Kalyakin had a 35-millimeter camera on a strap around his neck. It wasn’t a Russian model, or even a Zeiss from East Germany, but a Japanese Nikon.

“May I be one to open door?” the astronomer asked Jerry.

“Sure, go ahead. Think friendly thoughts before you speak, remember.”

“I shall do this.” After concentrating, Kalyakin said, “Dryzha!” Jerry was sure he couldn’t have brought out the vocative of dryg—friend—on a Russian test, but he recognized it when he heard it. Kalyakin addressed the airlock as if it were a person. And he looked childishly delighted when it opened as if a person were operating it.

He went in ahead of Jerry. Yes indeed, the people on the Glomar Explorer had done more exploring since Jerry left the ship. He’d had to study almost as hard as the Russians to catch up. One of the chambers they’d found seemed to be the crew quarters. At least, it held three things that might have been centaurowl beds and a jumble of junk that had the look of personal effects, if you weren’t exactly a person.

Kalyakin took some pictures. “I see no photos here,” he said. “This is strange. No memories of loved ones or of favorite places? What kind of beings were these aliens?”

“Good point. I wish I had an answer, but I don’t,” Jerry said.

“Is permitted to touch and pick up these artifacts?” Kalyakin asked.

“Nobody told me it wasn’t. We aren’t supposed to take anything out of Humpty Dumpty without letting people know, though.”

“All right. Thank you.” The Russian lifted something that looked like a slightly thicker clipboard backing. One side was clear glass or plastic, and cracked. The other seemed to be made of the same tough stuff as the starship hull. “What you think this may be?”

Jerry shrugged. “Maybe it’s a super-duper computer.” He thought of the state-of-the-art Honeywell machines in the Control container. “Or maybe it’s just a tray they ate dinner from. No way to tell, not for us.”

“You are right. One day, maybe we know.” Kalyakin carefully put the whatever-it-was back where he’d found it. He lifted a couple of other incomprehensible objects, examined and photographed them, and set them down again. “No idea what any of this is, but so fascinating!”