"Unified force theories," he said rapidly. "That's your field. At high enough energies the forces of physics combine into a single superforce. The principle of the old GUTdrive. Right? And the only time when such energy densities obtained naturally was right after the Big Bang. The superforce held together your quagma." He was a slight man, but the steadiness of his pale eyes made me turn aside. "So the early Universe is your field, after all. Dr Luce, don't try to catch me out. You think of me, no doubt dismissively, as an entrepreneur. But what I'm an entrepreneur of is human science. What's left of it... I've made myself a rich man. You shouldn't assume that makes me a fool."

I raised my glass. "Fair enough. So why do you think this lithium thing is so important?"

"Two reasons. First, creation physics. Here we have a precise location where we can be certain that something strange happened, mere moments after the singularity. Think what we could learn by studying it. A whole new realm of understanding... and think what an advantage such an understanding would prove to the first race to acquire it."

"And what profits could be made from it," I said dryly. "Right? And the second reason?"

"The Silver Ghosts think it's important. And what they're interested in, I'm interested in."

That made me cough on my wine. "How do you know what the Ghosts are up to?"

His grin was suddenly boyish. "I've got my contacts. And they tell me the Ghosts are sending a ship."

I choked again. "Across fifteen billion lights? I don't believe it."

"It's a fast ship."

"Yeah..." I thought it through further. "And how could such a ship report back?"

Wyman shrugged. "A quantum-inseparability link?"

"Wyman, the attenuation over such distances would reduce any data to mush."

"Maybe," he said cheerfully. "In conversational mode anyway. I hear the Ghosts are planning a high-intensity packet burst device. Would that get through?"

I shrugged. "Perhaps. You still haven't told me why you're talking to me."

Abruptly he leaned forward. "Because you've the expertise."

I flinched from his sudden intensity.

"You've no family. You're fit. And the youthful idealism that trapped you in research has long worn off -- hasn't it? -- now that your contemporaries are earning so much more in other fields. You need money, Doctor. I have it."

Then he sipped coffee.

"I've the expertise for what?" I whispered.

"I've got my own ship."

"But the Ghosts--"

He grinned again. "My ship's got a secret... a supersymmetry drive. The Susy drive is a human development. A new one, can you believe it? The Ghosts don't have it. So my ship's faster, and we'll beat them."

"For Lethe's sake, Wyman, I'm an academic. I've never even flown a kite."

A cheese board floated by; he cut himself precise slices. "The ship will fly itself. I want you to observe."