Gren was smiling again. "Anyway, you haven't long to brood before you go out again."

Rodi looked up, startled. "You still think I'm suitable?"

"Of course. Do we want ignorant fanatics? We want young people who can think, boy.

"Now. There's a neutron star, not far from here. Spinning very fast... we've picked up a signal from its surface."

Rodi stared. "A human signal?"

Gren laughed kindly. "Well, of course a human signal. Why else would we send you?"

Rodi finished his drink and pushed the globe back into the table. "I guess I'd better find Thet..."

Gren laid a warm hand on his arm. "Rodi, this time you're on your own. Go and get some sleep; you've a few hours to spare--"

The flitter seemed empty without Thet.

The Spline's orifice dilated and Rodi returned to hyperspace. He began to thread his way out of the Exaltation, keeping his breath carefully level.

A Virtual sparkled into existence; Thet grinned. "Going solo this time, kid? I just called to wish you luck." Rodi thanked her. "Listen, Rodi... don't let me get you down. I rag everybody, and my opinions are my own. Right? And you did okay, down there on the Moon. Be safe." She winked at him and the Virtual dissipated.

Feeling warmer, Rodi dropped into three-space.

The neutron star was one of a binary pair. It was the remnant of a blue-white giant, once so bright it must have made its companion star cast a shadow. Perhaps there had been planets.

The giant had exploded.

Planets evaporated like dew and layers of the companion star blasted away. The giant's remnant collapsed into a wizened, spinning cinder as massive as Earth's sun but barely ten miles across.

The new neutron star dragged down material from its companion and rotated ever faster. The spin deformed it until at last it was virtually a disc, its rim moving at a third the speed of light. Spin effects there canceled out the star's ferocious gravity and a layer of normal matter began to accrete...

A human ship had blundered here, scarred by some forgotten war; Rodi found a battered wreck in close orbit around the neutron star. The crew had no way back to hyperspace and no way to call for help.

And in this dismal system there had been only one place that could conceivably sustain human life...

In Rodi's monitors the neutron star was a plate of red-hot charcoal. A point on the rim was emitting green laser light, picking out a message in something called Morse code. The message was one word of ancient English. "Mayday. Mayday..."

Rodi set up a reply, in the same old tongue and code. "I represent the Exaltation of the Integrality. What is mayday?"

The reply came a day later.

"Apologies are offered for the delay. It took time to locate the Comms Officer. I am the Comms Officer. What do you want?"