Arriving back on the bridge, Saturn demanded a report from Timothy Birch. The cleric told him that he'd seen nothing leaving Tharia and heading out into space, although he pointed out again that he wasn't able to watch the whole planet. Saturn nodded, then put on a Coronet of Farspeaking for an update from Seskip on the progress of the interrogation.

     "There were six of them," the Head Proctor informed him. "Haskar believes that the others are long gone by now. They had a system of hidden signs along the mountain path, changed every day, to tell each other that all was well. When the signs were not updated following our discovery of their hideout, Haskar believes that his colleagues will have been tipped off and fled. We have now updated the signs, of course. It may not be too late."

     "Have you learned anything else of interest?" asked Saturn.

     "Nothing much. They were apparently motivated solely by the fear that we would enslave them if we were able to reach their world. Their experiences with the race they know only as the Masters have left them paranoid on that point. They meant us no harm. They simply hoped that we would abandon the Rossem Project if they hampered us enough. Schoena Scull's death was a tragic accident. Not that that's any excuse, of course. I'll be conferring with the Director later today, discussing a suitable punishment for them."

     "He'd better not go soft on them," growled Saturn angrily. "What they did was an act of war."

     "I'll make sure he remembers that," agreed the Head Proctor. "Soon, we'll know the exact location of their world, and I'm going to be pressing him for a punitive strike in the near future. Evaluate their defences, that sort of thing."

     Saturn scowled. He agreed with what Seskip was saying, but to be told by a man he considered a mere functionary... He should remember his place, he thought, being careful not to transmit these thoughts over the Farspeaking link. His job is just to enforce the laws, keep the students in line, not dictate policy. He's getting above himself.

     It was Saturn's own fault, of course. He'd been away from the valley much too much lately. First on the mission to the Southern Continent and now aboard the Ship of Space. He needed to be back in the University, keeping an eye on things. The trouble was, he also needed desperately to be in charge of this mission searching for the Shipbuilder civilisation. That was not a job he dared leave to any lesser man. What he needed was to find a man he could trust to look after things in the valley while he was away, or he might return to find the Director firmly in the Head Proctor's pocket, with no easy way to remedy the situation.

     It occurred to him that these were dangerous thoughts to be thinking while he had a Farspeaking link open to his rival. All it would take was one mistake, and Seskip was not a man to make an enemy of. Not openly, anyway. "Good," he said, therefore. "Let me know if you learn anything more of importance."

     It felt good to give the upstart a direct order, senior wizard to mere functionary, and he thought he detected a trace of anger in the Head Proctor's acknowledgement. A moment later the connection was broken and he removed the Coronet with a grimace of satisfaction.

     He looked at the ring, still turning in the scrying mirror, and brought his attention back to the matter at hand. He looked again at the markings engraved around the inner and outer edges. The motion of the ring made it hard to see them properly. There were details he couldn't quite make out. Never mind, there'd be plenty of time to inspect it later.

     "Can we attach a line to it?" asked Timothy.

     "Not while it's still spinning," replied Saturn. "And even if it weren't spinning, towing it with a line would risk pulling it into a collision with us. There is a magic spell that will do the job, but it requires spoken words and we know from experiments conducted on the surface of Kronos that you need air to speak magic words. Even wearing Necklaces of Vacuum Breathing, you can't speak in a vacuum." He sighed. "It may be possible to pre-cast it."

     "Pre-cast it?" asked Timothy.

     "Modify it slightly, so that the effects don't take place until later, when it's triggered by a hand movement or something. We can cast the spell in here and trigger it outside. Unfortunately, modifying a spell so it can be pre-cast is no simple undertaking. I'll need to get a couple of other senior wizards to assist me."

     So saying, he left the bridge, leaving the shae and the cleric breathing sighs of relief behind him.

☆☆☆

     No-one saw Saturn again until the next morning, when they were relieved to see that his mood had improved a little.

     Timothy and Rin Wellin, meeting Thomas by the inner door of airlock two, filled him in on the problem, but the younger wizard was too preoccupied to care much, being much more concerned with the Transfusion spell that was soon to be cast on him. Would this be his last day as a functioning wizard? Was he soon to be left permanently crippled or handicapped? He fidgeted anxiously as he waited for the elder wizard to appear, crossing his fingers that something might have happened so that he wouldn't have to go through with it.

     He had no such luck, though. When Saturn arrived, he was grimly determined to push on and told the younger wizard to prepare himself for the spell. "First, I must halt the ring's rotation, though," he said. "I spent the night modifying a Hold spell so it can be pre-cast, and I now need only make a simple gesture to trigger it. We will need to rotate the ship to match the ring's spin. The spell will then connect the ship and the ring with a bar of magical force, making them behave as two halves of a single object. We will then de-spin the ship and the ring will be stopped as well. It will then be safe for me to close to within touching distance, allowing me to teleport it back to Kronos.

     "Good luck," said Timothy earnestly, not wanting to face another burst of frustrated anger like the day before. "Let's hope there aren't any more problems."

     "Indeed," agreed the wizard, opening the airlock door. "Wait here and do nothing until I return." He entered the airlock and closed the door behind him.

     Rin Wellin watched through the airlock's tiny window as Saturn depressurised the tiny cubicle and opened the outer door. Then there was nothing to do but wait. The time dragged by for poor Thomas, and he paced up and down fretfully until Timothy asked him what was wrong. Thomas briefly explained the dangers inherent in the use of a Transfusion spell, whereupon the cleric grew angry and glared the way the elder wizard had gone with an expression of fury.

     "You must refuse," he insisted. "It's not worth the risk."

     "I can't," replied the younger wizard, looking up into the cleric's narrowed, angry eyes. "It would be the end of my career. Besides, maybe I exaggerated a little. The danger's not all that great, and besides, all spell use is inherently dangerous. If I wanted a safe life I would have become a librarian."

     "Maybe we could attach the disc to the ship," mused Rin Wellin thoughtfully. "If we strapped it firmly in place, we could take it back to Kronos with us."

     "The extra mass would put a strain on the hull," replied Thomas. "We'd risk tearing the ship's skin open every time we moved." Then he froze as a thought hit him. "I wonder if it would fit in the hanger? There's enough space down there for two ships like the Hummingbird. With them not yet in place, there ought to be plenty of room for that disc."

     Rin Wellin looked puzzled. "Why is that different from strapping it to the hull? I am not doubting, my good friend, merely seeking enlightenment."

     Thomas laughed and clapped a hand on the shae's shoulder. "In the hanger, it would be within the ship's gravity field, which would protect it from feeling the manoeuvres we make. The only question is whether the hanger floor can support the weight."

     "Two Hummingbirds weigh more than that disc, surely," protested Timothy.

     "It seems to be made of solid stone, remember," pointed out the wizard. "Besides, even if it's not as heavy, what weight it has is all in one big lump, not spread over a wide area like a big wooden ship. No, now that I think about it, I'm not sure it's such a good idea after all. Maybe Saturn's way is best after all."

     "We can at least suggest it to him," replied Timothy with determination. "Maybe he just never thought of it, like the rest of us. You never know, he might be annoyed with himself for not thinking of it first."

     "Yeah, right," chuckled Thomas, forced to smile despite himself. "And maybe his mother was Queen Tenobia of the Pharonii."

     The cleric grinned in return, but Rin Wellin just looked puzzled until the others explained the historical reference to him.

     Saturn returned five minutes later, looking pleased. "The ring's rotation has been halted," he told them.

     "We didn't feel a thing in here," replied Thomas.

     "Of course not. I will now cast the Transfusion spell. Prepare yourself."

     "Wait a minute," said Timothy hurriedly. "While you were outside we thought of something."

     He explained the idea to the elder wizard, who listened sceptically, his single eye studying Thomas's face as if he knew very well the real reason for their search for alternatives. "It might work," he conceded, "but it would take too long. By teleporting it, it can be back on Kronos and ready to be studied in just a few minutes."

     Thomas's heart sank, but then new hope flared as another idea came to him. "Studied by other people," he said. "It might be ages before we get a look at it ourselves. If we take it on board, though, we can study it straight away. I don't know about you, but I'd love to get a good look at it myself."

     Saturn stared at him in surprise, then nodded slowly. Thomas saw with increasing excitement that he was tempted. "Ye-es," he said at last. "Yes, that's a good point, and I must admit that I share your curiosity. Can the hanger door be opened in space?"

     "They were never designed to be," replied Rin Wellin, "but there is no reason why not. There are airtight doors between the hanger and the rest of the ship."

     Saturn considered a moment longer, then came to a decision. "Very well," he said. "Master Gown, since it was your idea, you can be the one to guide it in. Take a Necklace and a Coronet of Farspeaking and go down to the hanger deck."

     "Yes, master!" cried Thomas in delight and he hurried off to obey.