"They wanted squadrons then?" The captain gave a short bark of laughter. "Nearly fifty years ago? Hmmm. No Nastie activity was noticed that soon after the War. This Tubberman fellow doesn't specify. Maybe that's what he intended. Big unknown alien life-form attack might have stirred Federation." She gave a dubious sniff. "What sort of resources does this Pern have, Mister Benden?"

Benden had anticipated that request and inserted a smaller window on the main screen with the initial survey report. "Pern evidently only had minimal resources, enough to supply the needs of a low-tech colony."

"No, that sort of ore and mineral potential wouldn't have interested any of the syndicates," the captain mused. "Too costly to use an orbiting refinery or to transport the ores to the nearest facility. Nine years after touchdown? Long enough for those agrarian types to settle in and accumulate reserves. And the EEC doesn't list any predators." She paused in her review of the data and made a slight grimace. "Have Lieutenant Ni Morgana report to the bridge," she ordered the communications officer.

The captain tapped her fingers on her armrest. "Doesn't compute that Paul Benden would send any distress message," she went on. "So where was he when this Tubberman sent off his contraption? Had the menace from outer space done for everyone in authority?"

"Internal conflict?" Benden suggested, not able to believe his resourceful uncle would have been destroyed by a mere organism after surviving all that the Nastie fleet had thrown at him. That would be ironic. The EEC report listed no hostile organism on the planet. Of course, no one could completely rule out the admittedly bizarre possibility of an attack by a remnant weapon system. Sections of the galaxy were strewn with the unexploded minefields from ancient wars—and not necessarily of Nastie origin.

The grav shaft whooshed open and Lieutenant Ni Morgana entered, stood to attention, and snapped off a salute. "Captain?" She tilted her head, awaiting her orders.

"Ah, Lieutenant, there is not only an Oort cloud surrounding the Rukbat system, but it appears to be an orange tagged, distress message," the captain said, gesturing for Ni Morgana to read the data covering several windows on the big screen.

"Coming on a bit thick, weren't they? Alien invasion!" Ni Morgana gave a snort of disgust after a quick perusal. "Although…" She paused, pursing her mouth. "It's just possible that the ‘unknown organism' has been seeded into the cometary cloud to camouflage it."

"What are the chances of it containing some engineered organism that attacked the planet fifty years ago?" Captain Fargoe was clearly skeptical.

"I am hoping that we can obtain samples of the cloud as we pass it, ma'am," Ni Morgana replied. "It is unusually close in to the system for an Oort cloud."

"Have Oort clouds ever been found to harbor natural viruses or an organism that could threaten a planet?"

"I know of several cases where it's always been assumed that inimical mechanisms have been launched from one stellar system to another—'berserkers,' they were called."

"Could the organism this Tubberman mentions be a Nastie softening agent? Destroying all organic matter seems like a weapon of some kind, doesn't it?"

"We've learned not to underestimate the Nasties, Captain. Though their methods, so far, have been much more direct." Ni Morgana's smile was tight, understandable when one knew that the science officer was the only survivor of her family, solely because she had been at the Academy when the enemy had attacked her home world. "However, since the Nasties have been trying to establish bases far from well-traveled space, it becomes a possibility out here."

"Yes, it does, doesn't it?" the captain said thoughtfully and then grimaced. It was the ambition of every member, of Fleet and EEC, from the lowliest long-distance single scout to the commander of the heaviest battle cruiser, to discover the Nasties' home world, and Captain Fargoe was scarcely an exception.

"Whatever the attack on Pern was, they would not have sent for help unless their situation was desperate," Ni Morgana added. "You are aware that the Colonial Authority exacts punitive payments for such assistance?"

A complex series of expressions rippled across the captain's face. "Far too high for the service they give, and the time it takes them to respond. The colonists would be mortgaged, body, blood, and breath, unto the fourth generation to repay such a debt. Also the message was not sent by Admiral Paul Benden. That's one man I'd like to pipe aboard the Amherst."

"He'd scarcely be alive now," Ross Benden heard himself saying. "He was in his seventh decade when he started."

"A good colonial life can add decades to a man's span, Benden," the captain said. "So, I think we can entertain a rescue run to Pern. Lieutenant Zane, plot a course that will take us through the system close enough to this Pern to launch the shuttle. We can give the other planets and satellites a good probe on the swing past. Mister Benden, you'll command the landing party: a junior officer and, say, four marines. I'll want your crew recommendations, and calculations on projected journey to rendezvous with the Amherst on her turn back through the system. Allowing, say… how long did the EEC survey team take? Ah, yes, five days and a bit. Allowing five days on the surface to make contact with the colonists and establish their current situation."

"Aye, aye, Captain," Benden replied, trying hard to keep elation out of his voice. Lieutenant Zane on the navigation board shot him a malevolent glance, which he ignored, as he did Ensign Nev to his right, who was all but tugging his sleeve to remind Ross that he'd had xeno training.

"I suggest you talk with Lieutenant Ni Morgana, Mister Benden, when she has completed her survey of the Oort cloud matter. There might just be some connection, and these ancient weapons can produce some awkward surprises." She awarded Ross Benden a quick nod. "You have the com, Lieutenant Zane." With that, the captain slid from the command seat and left the bridge.

As Saraidh ni Morgana took her seat at the science terminal, she winked at Ross Benden, which he interpreted as her support in his assignment.

On the 3-D globe on the Amherst's bridge, the ship seemed only centimeters from the edge of the nebulosity that was the Oort cloud. As she approached at an angle to sample a core through the thickest part of the cloud, a great net was fired from a forward missile tube on the port side. The net would both collect debris and clear the ship's path. No ship would barrel through such a cloud, where particles were as close as tens of meters. The biggest particles were about a kilometer apart. The problem was to avoid collision of the net with anything above a tonne, which would tear it and bring the ship's meteorite defense into play.

During the next two weeks, while the Amherst passed beyond the cloud, heading into the Rukbat system, the science officer carefully examined the material. First she asked permission to rig an empty cargo pod with remote waldo controls and monitors. A work party towed the pod out to a point far enough that there was no risk to the Amherst and yet close enough to make frequent trips to the net feasible.

Then, with a work party, she jetted out to the net and selected fragments that might be worth examining. The cargo pod was already divided into sections. At first these were all kept in vacuum status at -270 Celsius or 3° absolute. Once back in the Amherst, Ni Morgana activated the monitors and began one of her legendary forty-hour days.

"I've got a lot of dirty ice" was her initial comment four days later, after she'd had some sleep and a second review of her data. "Most of the stuff has identifiable intrusions, particles of rock and metal, but there are also—" There was a long pause. "—some very unusual particles that I have never encountered before." As the science officer held five degrees in different disciplines and had landed on three or four dozen alien surfaces, that was an intriguing admission. "Before anyone gets an idea I don't want to give, there is no evidence of any artifact."