And to that, Quanshuk reminded himself, I had no conclusive reply. Not then, not now. Shipsmind has found no substantial inconsistencies in what they have told us. I can only await what happens, and when the time comes, fight skillfully and very hard.

Fortunately the admiral's mood was not always so dark. But never was it bright. It hadn't been since they'd somehow been cast across intergalactic space, into this galaxy so impossibly far from home. That such a thing could happen… His view of the universe, and his confidence in himself, his fleet, his science-his reality!-could never be the same.

Qonits quickstepped down the corridor, his bodyguards close behind. The chief scholar shared Quanshuk's concerns, but not his responsibilities. And in temperament he was a scholar, not a master, driven by an urge to know, not to rule.

Arriving at the prisoners' door, his senior guard knocked, and Qonits identified himself.

"Come in," David answered. Qonits opened the door and entered, his guards stopping just inside.

"My friends," said Qonits in Terran, "we will do something different today."

David's eyebrows rose. "Different? In what way?" Both he and Yukiko had adjusted to the monotony, but Qonits' visibly good spirits suggested that the change would be pleasant. Or at least well intended.

"I shall take you to see more of the flagship. You shall see the place of command and control, and the place where the, um, the ship's workings are accomplished."

"Ah! The bridge and the engine room."

Qonits peered carefully at the human male. "Perhaps. Where we go, I will show you things, and you will tell me their names."

Yukiko spoke next. "Qonits, we would like very much to do those things, but we cannot leave Annika alone. You have seen how much better she is now than when we first arrived. If we leave her, I'm afraid she will relapse-get worse again. She might even die."

Qonits' expression changed into one they had not seen before. A Wyzhnyny grin? "I have," he told them, "foreseen the problem." Turning, he spoke in Wyzhnyny toward the open door, and in from the corridor came another guard, pushing an AG seat large enough to accommodate Annika. "You will bring her with us," he said. "On this."

Yukiko examined it, testing its stability, poking and pushing on the cushions, inspecting the seat belt, its adjustments, and the simple fastener. "Oh, Qonits!" she said. "A stroller! It's lovely! It should do beautifully!"

It wasn't "lovely," of course. It was strictly utilitarian. But her appreciation was genuine, and Qonits felt it. He and David waited while Yukiko took Annika to the potty stool they'd had made for her, and waited while the girl relieved her bladder. Then David buckled the savant into the stroller, and the humans left with the chief scholar.

They hadn't been outside the cell since they'd been put in it, nearly ten Terran months earlier. They'd eaten in it, slept in it, exercised and bathed-even on occasion made love in it. Told stories to each other and to Annika, to fill the time and amuse each other. By now they felt no discomfort at being nude among these people, these aliens who themselves wore no clothing.

First they visited the bridge, and for the first time saw a Wyzhnyny master. Three of them, in fact-the grand admiral, the ship's master, and the watch officer, though the humans didn't know those identities. Like Qonits, all three were blue and red, but their crests were considerably larger and showier than any scholar's. They guessed Quanshuk's identity from his ornate harness. The bridge watch, to the best of their ability, pretended to ignore the visitation, but all managed a look. Almost none had seen the prisoners before, even on a monitor. Only Qonits and the prisoners spoke, and only to establish the Terran terms for the bridge's equipment and furnishings.

Next the Terrans were shown the engine department. Both thought they recognized some of what they saw, and by asking questions, were able to provide names, probably correct. Shipsmind, meanwhile, heard and saw everything, including the uncertainties. It stored, dissected, parsed, assigned tentative evaluations based on known roots and contexts, and ran correlations. Iteration was a major tool.

Next they visited a beamgun battery, then a torpedo battery, and finally the shield generator. Little guessing was needed.

The last technical visit was brief-the stasis section, where the equipment was even more unmistakable. Their final stop was the officers' galley, where a grinning (surely that was a Wyzhnyny grin!) chief baker gave each of the visitors what the baker regarded as a treat. It was crunchy and dense-rather like something they often received at meals. But this was also sweet, its flavor reminding them of maple sugar. His eyes watched intently, expectantly, and he spoke to them in Wyzhnynyc.

"He asks if you like it," Qonits interpreted.

"Oh yes," Yukiko said. "Delicious," David added. Annika gnawed silently, without cerebral response. The baker spoke again, Qonits interpreting. "He says he will send some special food to you each day."

Then they left the galley, and the chief scholar led them back to their cell.

Afterward Qonits went to his own quarters. Shipsmind would already have analyzed, organized, and formatted the additions, but he was in no hurry to examine them. After mid-meal would be soon enough. Meanwhile he would close his eyes and nap briefly.

He felt good about the tour. The prisoners had benefited from the change, and the ship's human vocabulary had expanded in an important area, filling a hole. It seemed to him there couldn't be many holes left. More and more they'd worked on the nuances that separated synonyms. Important work but less vital, for now at least.

The human language seemed more complex than Wyzhnynyc, but less so than either of the two exotic languages previously deciphered. It was basically oral, and many of the nuances were verbal, as in Wyzhnynyc. But even more than Wyzhnynyc, the human language seemed to him to have many visual nuances, including postures, arm and hand movements, head movements, facial expressions, eye movements… Qonits wasn't sure how many of those signals were deliberate and how many subliminal.

If the time comes when we must negotiate with their rulers, he thought, then the nuances will be critical.

He hadn't voiced the thought of negotiation to Quanshuk. It would be dreadfully inappropriate; circumstances would have to do it. But with the translation program developing so nicely-surely the possibility had occurred to the admiral. We negotiate among ourselves, Qonits thought. Surely we can negotiate with others. Even if we never have before.

On his closed command monitor, Quanshuk had watched the tour after it left the bridge, had seen Qonits say good-bye to the humans, and leave them in their prison. Shipsmind will have analyzed the whole thing by now, Quanshuk thought as he entered his quarters. As for the prisoners, none of it had surprised them-the bridge stations and their screens, the strange-space generator, the beamguns… which strongly suggested that human science and technology were much like his own. They'd hit the wall in much the same places.

He didn't know whether to feel relieved or disappointed.

The cube showed only the savant, Ramesh, lying in trance on his couch, with Burhan sitting attentively beside him, while words issued from the savant's lips in a variety of voices. As usual, the president and the prime minister viewed it in Peixoto's office, unedited except that the brief silences had been compressed. Now they viewed it again.