“All right. You’re smart, I hear you.” Nenda’s breathing was becoming easier. “Tell me something I need to know, or we’ll be here till Summertide and we’ll all fry.”

“Very well. You are here because you want to know what will happen at Summertide. But I say that you did not initiate that idea. You know too little science or history. Someone else applied Darya Lang’s idea and told you the significance of this time and place. It would be of interest to know who that someone is.”

“That sure sounds like a question to me, even if it’s not phrased like one. But I’ll tell you.” Nenda jerked his thumb to the ship’s hatch. “Kallik.”

“Your Hymenopt? A slave!” Atvar H’sial was more than surprised. She was outraged. “It is not fitting for a slave species to perform such high-level work.”

“Ah, nuts.” Nenda was grinning. “She has a brain — might as well let her use it for my benefit. Anyway, it keeps her happy when she can read and calculate in her spare time. She saw Lang’s work, then did the computing herself. She decided this was the special time and place. Then she got all excited, wanted to tell somebody. I said no way. We’ll tell no one — and we’ll go to Quake ourselves. And here we are. But I want to compare notes with you on something more specific. Let’s talk about what will happen here at Summertide.”

“That sounds like a question to me. I do not choose to answer.”

“So I’ll make a statement instead. Let me tell you what Kallik says, based on her analysis, and you can comment if you want to. She says the Builders are going to return — here, and at Summertide. The secret of their technology and the reason for their disappearance will be revealed to those present. How’s that grab you?”

“That is also a question, not a statement, but I will answer it. Kallik’s suggestion is plausible. However, it is not certain. There is no actual evidence for an appearance of the Builders.”

“So it’s a bet you have to make. And what Kallik didn’t say — but what I think, and it won’t surprise me if you’re way ahead of me — is that anyone who gets the keys to Builder technology will be plenty powerful in this spiral arm.”

“I agree. The technology will be the prize.”

“For some people. But it’s still not the only reason you’re here.” Nenda moved closer and went so far as to tap Atvar H’sial’s shiny abdomen with his index finger. “Fact: You’re another Builder fanatic, as much as Lang and Kallik. You all think you’re going to meet the Builders, seventy hours from now. Know what Kallik calls this Summertide? The Epiphany — when the gods will appear.”

“My own term is the Awakening. Do you accept that there will be some momentous event?”

“Hell, I don’t know. What do you mean by momentous? I’m damn sure the gods won’t appear. The whole thing’s a long shot, but it’s for super-big stakes. That’s my game. I’m a gambler, and I play long shots.”

“You are wrong. It is not a long shot. It will happen.”

Atvar H’sial’s conviction was unmistakable in the pheromonal message. Nenda knew that subtlety of communication technique was beyond him. He won-dered if the Cecropians had mastered the means of lying with their chemical messengers.

“Already there is evidence of it,” Atvar H’sial went on. “All through the spiral arm, the artifacts are restless. And they point here.”

“Hey, you don’t have to persuade me. I flew eight hundred light-years to land on this crapheap — and I don’t give a damn about the artifacts. You can have them all — you’re as bad as Kallik. Me, I’ll settle for a few new bits of Builder technology. But I’ve another question for you. Why did you come here to see me, knowing I might blow you away? Not just to compare notes with me and Kallik, that’s for sure.”

“Ah. that is true. I came because you need me. And because I need you.” Atvar H’sial gestured to the port, and to the bare expanse of Quake beyond it. “If you and I were the only people on this world, we would enjoy sole knowledge of any new Builder techniques. We might battle later over who should enjoy the powers of the Builders, but I would accept such a contest.”

“That would be your mistake. But I still don’t know why you came to me.”

“Because today we are not the only ones on Quake. Others are here, who would make new knowledge generally available for the sake of science. Now, you are not a scientist, you are an adventurer. You are here for personal gain.”

“Damn right. And so are you.”

“Perhaps.” There was amusement in Atvar H’sial’s message, now that Louis Nenda knew how to read it. “And we do not want the Builders’ powers shared still further. Rebka, Graves, and Perry are on Quake. They traveled the Umbilical just after us. They will not keep new knowledge to themselves. We might do something about that, but we have no way of knowing where they are.”

“I assumed they would follow. What about Darya Lang? She came with you.”

“No problem. She has… already been taken care of.”

Chill certainty in the pheromones. There was a long pause.

“Well, all right,” Louis Nenda said at last. His voice was soft. “You are a cold-blooded son of a bitch, aren’t you?”

The Cecropian’s proboscis trembled. “We attempt to give satisfaction.”

“And you’re taking a risk, telling me this.”

“I think not.” Atvar H’sial was silent for a moment. “There is no risk. Not to someone who has read and remembered the Lascia Four files. May I refresh your memory? A medical-supply capsule was plundered en route to Lascia Four. It never reached the planet, and without the viral inhibitors it carried, three hundred thousand people died. An augmented human, accompanied by a Hymenopt slave, was guilty of that atrocity. The Hymenopt died, but the human escaped and was never captured.”

Louis Nenda said nothing.

“But about the other humans,” Atvar H’sial continued. “We cannot locate them. I am especially worried about Graves.”

“He’s a madman.”

“True. And he reads me and you — even without augmentation, he understands what I am thinking. He is too dangerous. I want him out of the way. I want all three out of the way.”

“Understood. But I can’t find them on Quake, any more than you can. So what are you proposing?”

“Before Summertide they will leave Quake. Their escape route is the Umbilical. That would have been my own line of retreat, until I saw your ship arriving and realized that it is equipped for space travel.”

“To the edge of the galaxy, if I want to go. I can see how that might be useful to you, getting off Quake with no risk of running into Graves. But what do you have to offer me? I don’t want to be crude about this, but I’m not your fairy godmother. Why should I provide you with free transportation off Quake? I told Kallik, we can have a pretty good look around her site on the surface, but come Summertide, we’ll be watching from orbit. But that’s for us. I’m not running a bus service. Why should I help you?”

“Because I know the codes for control of the Umbilical. The complete codes.”

“But why should I care…” Louis Nenda slowly looked up at the Cecropian, at the same time as the sightless head swung down close to him.

“You see?” The pheromones added a message more strong and yet more subtle than any words: pleasure, triumph, the touch of death.

“I do. It’s pretty damned clear. But what about them?” Nenda gestured at the window. J’merlia and Kallik were huddled together on the hot ground, trying to find shelter behind the starship from Mandel’s searing summer rays. They were both shaking, and J’merlia seemed to be trying to comfort the Hymenopt. “I’ll go along with what you propose, but there’s no way I’m going to drag them along to watch.”

“Agreed. And we do not need them. Anything that requires J’merlia’s sensitivity to half-micrometer radiation, you can perform in his place.”