"Congratulations!" cried Tassley happily, throwing her arms around Thomas's neck and hugging him tight. "I just heard! Completely exonerated of all wrongdoing, plus a commendation for stopping the blight! You must be delighted!"

     "Relieved," agreed Thomas, "but I'm not looking forward to seeing Saturn again. You should have seen the look he gave me when they gave their verdict."

     "He'll get over it." She stepped back a pace to examine Thomas's face. "Did he really say you should have left me to bleed? I can half imagine him saying something like that, something so cold blooded..."

     "It was in the heat of the moment," said Thomas. "I know the high regard he holds you in. He probably regretted it the moment the words were out of his mouth."

     "I'm not so sure," said Tassley, though. "He can be unbelievably callous sometimes..." She stepped back into his arms and rested her head on his chest. "Thank you for saving my life. Prup told me the state you were in, looking for Tim. You really care for me, don't you?"

     "In a sisterly sort of way," agreed Thomas carefully.

     "Then I suppose I'll have to make do with that." She kissed him, and for the first and only time in his life Thomas let her, knowing she was only thanking him in the only way she knew how. He let it go on for three or four seconds, then gently pushed her away again. Lenny would understand, he knew. The next time she read his mind she'd see why he'd let her do it and how little it meant, for him at least.

     "You're welcome," he said, smiling. "How's the head, by the way?"

     She touched the spot where the scalp had been gashed open, the skin now smooth and flawless again. "Fine," she said. "Tim healed me the morning after, as soon as he was recovered enough." Then her face fell. "We lost four moon trogs, you know. They didn't stand a chance. There's another enquiry going on to figure out whether there's anything that could have been done. If the ship could have been designed differently or something."

     "I don't think it would have made any difference how the ship was designed," said Thomas. "They're just so frail and weak... The only way would have been to prevent whatever it was from hitting us. What was it, by the way?"

     "Some kind of weapon. It exploded with the force of a dozen fireball spells. If it hadn't been for the Globe of Invulnerability... Saturn's got a commendation as well, by the way, for his quick thinking in making the ship ethereal. It hasn't improved his temper, though."

     "I can't imagine anything in the universe that would. So, how are the repairs to the ship going? They've kept me pretty much under wraps while the enquiry was going on. I haven't heard a thing!"

     "It's almost finished. The damage was pretty superficial, you know. Just a few walls and bulkheads eaten through. The moon trogs had them patched up in just a couple of hours. The main problem was the outer hull. It's the source of most of the ship's structural strength, as you know, and they had to be very careful with the welds to get them just right. One weak spot and the ship might tear itself apart in mid flight."

     "I didn't really need to know that," said Thomas, grimacing unhappily.

     Tassley laughed. "So, when are you going back aboard?”

     “Now, I suppose. There’s nothing for me to do here, and Lenny’s already back aboard. She left a couple of days ago.” He paused, looking unhappy. “The day it took for her to teleport across, that was really weird. A day thinking that my wife didn’t exist, or was nothing more than some kind of magical potential, waiting to become a person again. I didn’t like it. Not at all.”

     “Well, now it’s your turn,” chuckled the other wizard. “It’s perfectly safe, you know. I’ve never heard of anyone coming to harm in teleportation cubicles unless there was interference around.”

     “Saturn will probably be aboard,” said Thomas, looking afraid.

     "You've got to face him sooner or later. Might as well be now. Get it over with."

     Thomas hesitated, but then he nodded. "You're right. And when I see him I'm going to look him right in the eye and dare him to say something."

     Tassley laughed again. "That's the spirit! Show the old goat you're just as good as he is." She linked her arm in his, so naturally and unthinkingly that Thomas was taken off guard and found himself going along with it before he knew it, and the two of them walked side by side to the teleportation chamber, Thomas trying very hard to ignore the feel of her breast against his elbow.

     He managed to disengage himself when they reached the chamber, where the guard on duty checked them for mind protection spells and read their minds to confirm their identities before allowing them to enter. Thomas reflected that, now that the felisians had come into the open and were co-operating with them, such stringent security measures were probably no longer necessary, but Saturn had insisted that they remained in place and the Beltharans concurred. There was no knowing what new enemies might come along, wanting to wreck the Rossem Project for reasons of their own.

     Thomas was again unaware of the day he lost while teleporting, and was almost disappointed when a soldier told him that Saturn wasn't aboard at present. Now the terrible confrontation would have to wait and Thomas would have longer to worry about it. They trotted up the stairs and Tassley led him to the laboratory, where she'd been injured and the blight had been born.

     “I’m rather impressed they could fix the ship while it was still way out here,” said Thomas. “I was sure they’d have to take it back to Kronos.”

     “Now that we can surround the ship with a shell of air, there’s no longer any need to go back there. We wizards can provide heat for the moon trog burner cables. The generators float a few hundred feet away in space in case they interfere with the ships magics. Everything else comes through the teleportation cubicle.”

     “Extraordinary!” breathed Thomas, staring around in wonder.

     There was a bright, shiny new section of wall and floor under the table where the spell ingredients had spilled and mixed. The rest of the floor was shabby and dirty in comparison, stained with the other spilled chemicals, some of which had eaten pits in the metal or left permanent discolouration. A graphic illustration of their power and potency. He looked at the shelves on which a new supply of spell components and ingredients had been stocked, and saw that each bottle was now held securely in place by a pair of metal clips. There was now no way that anything could just fall.

     The table had been attended to as well, and a number of steel-coated shallow depressions had been added, designed to hold mixing bowls snugly or in which powders and potions could be mixed directly.

     "Why didn't we do this before?" he asked, gazing approvingly around at the new design features. Features that had been used aboard ocean going ships for centuries. "Why didn't we do it this way right from the beginning?"

     "We thought the ship's gravity field would make it unnecessary," said Tassley. "Even Saturn thought the lab was safe. I've got a suspicion that's part of the reason he's so angry with you. You showed up the flaws and inadequacies in his design. You might remind him of that if he starts getting heavy with you."

     "Yeah, right," replied Thomas with a worried smile. "No, I'm just going to keep out of his way for a while. Maybe if he doesn't see me for a few days he'll just forget I exist."

     "It was a really small incident really," pointed out Tassley. "Nobody died because of the blight. No-one was even injured, and we were coming back for repairs anyway because of the original attack. Four moon trogs were killed by that. Plenty more people were injured, including me. Drenn was nearly killed by his own sword. Let's keep some sense of perspective, shall we?"

     Her words made Thomas feel better and he put a grateful hand on her shoulder, removing it quickly in case she misinterpreted the gesture. "You're a good friend, Tass. I mean it. Thanks."

     "Just putting the record straight on a few things," the girl replied, but she was grinning with warm pleasure. "I like being your friend. Most of the men I take to bed could be swallowed up by the ground for all I care, but if anything happened to you..."

     She suddenly blushed scarlet as if only just realising what she was saying and took a couple of steps away from him, turning her attention firmly to the shelves of spell components. "Anyway, I suppose I should be cataloguing all this stuff. They just dumped it here, all higgledy piggeldy..."

     Thomas nodded. "Yes, and I want to find Lenny. Will you excuse me?"

     Tassley nodded with a smile, and Thomas went off to find his wife.

☆☆☆

     "This report contains everything we know of the world," said Clordus, handing copies of the bound sheaf of papers to everyone sitting around the conference room. "Everything the original survey team could remember, no matter how trivial and unimportant. There's a lot in there about the structure of the rings and conditions down on the surface, but the gist of it can be summed up in just a few words. The world is dead. Completely dead. There is not a single sign that any of the original inhabitants still survive, either down on the surface or in the rings."

     "And yet someone shot at us," said Strong, leafing quickly through the papers. He would only pretend to read them, of course. Like all senior officers, he would have someone else read them and then explain it to him in words he could understand.

     Saturn, though, was reading his, while simultaneously paying close attention to the conversation. Dividing his attention equally was a trick he'd learned at an early age, and he was capable of following three or four separate conversations simultaneously, an ability that had some people in awe of him. "Someone or some thing," he said, without taking his single eye from the report.

     Strong ignored the comment. It didn't matter what had attacked them. The important thing was that something had. "I suspect there is a community of survivors hidden somewhere in the ring," he said. "The degenerate remnant of a once mighty civilisation, perhaps, but still powerful nevertheless. Still dangerous."

     "Do you intend to return?" asked Natan Crowley.

     "We have to," replied Strong. "We can't continue searching for the Shipbuilders elsewhere unless we know for sure that we haven't already found their world. We have to search the remains of this civilisation until we find proof either that they are or aren't the builders of the Rossem ship. The danger should be minimal, now that we know how to defend ourselves against their weapons. We can make the ship ethereal for the approach."

     "They may have other weapons," pointed out Valeron Hort. "Wouldn't it be better to stay by the portal and examine the planet by scrying mirror?"

     "Wizards cannot sense magic through a mirror," said Saturn. "They have to be there, in person. We can search for likely sites, though, only moving in when we spot something interesting. Or, we can borrow a felisian ship. They seem able to approach the world with impunity, without attracting any unwanted attention."

     Pondar Walton looked up, suddenly alert and fully attentive. He scowled at the felisian suspiciously, his eyes narrowing and growing hard.

     "Would you be willing to loan us one of your ships?" the Director asked Clordus.

     The felisian elder looked uncomfortable. Strong remembered that the feline race only had a precious handful of ships and no way of manufacturing more. Indeed, they had already reached the point where they were forced to cannibalise some in order to keep the rest going. They took very great care of them and were very careful not to put them in danger, so the idea of allowing the Tharians to get their hands on one and take it somewhere where they'd already been attacked once was not one he would like at all.

     On the other hand, though, it would be a powerful demonstration of their desire for friendship and would put the Tharians in their debt. The Captain could imagine that idea appealing to him greatly.

     Sure enough, the Felisian elder nodded slowly. "Some of my people would have to remain aboard, to operate the ship," he said. "Unless you want to take the months it would take to show you how."

     Natan Crowley looked around the room, trying to read their faces to see what the others thought of the idea. "What do you think, Captain?" he asked Strong.

     The Captain looked thoughtful. "We could use it as a scout ship," he mused. "The same personnel aboard as we would put aboard the Trill-Dal or the Galtalista. The Jules Verne would go through the portal with it, but remain there while the felisian ship approached the planet. If there was any trouble, they could teleport back to the Jules Verne at a moment's notice."

     "Leaving our ship to its fate!" protested Clordus, looking anguished. "We only have four functional ships! We would have to insist that every effort was made to protect it and return it to us undamaged."

     "You are in no position to insist on anything!" snarled Pondar Walton. "After what you did to us..."

     "Please!" interrupted the Director impatiently. "We are trying to put those unfortunate incidents behind us. The felisians have gone out of their way to help us, and nothing but good can come from our continued co-operation. If you cannot put the past behind you it would be better if you stopped attending mission briefings. I'm sure you have plenty to occupy you that has nothing to do with the Rossem Project."

     The other wizard glared at him, then turned a look of withering fury on the elderly felisian. "Please accept my apology," he said through gritted teeth. "Your help is sincerely appreciated."

     No-one missed the continuing blaze of hatred in his eyes, though. It was obvious to everyone that he just wanted to keep coming to the meetings, so he could keep an eye on what went on during them.

     The Director sighed, but nodded. "Saturn, I'm putting you in charge of evaluating the idea," he said. "Find out what would be required to make it work. You'll make your report to Captain Strong and make a recommendation. He'll make the final decision."

     Saturn nodded, and his single eye flicked momentarily in Strong's direction as if in resentment and annoyance. Then he returned his attention to the report and let the rest of the conversation wash over him as he scanned rapidly through the pages of information, looking for any clue as to what they might find waiting for them on the dead planet.