The radio spoke. «Welcome to Ship Fourteen. Please step outside for conveyance to our office. Take nothing on the outsides of your pressure suits.»

Elephant asked, «Do we?»

I said, «Sure. The Outsiders are nothing if not honorable.»

We went out. The six Outsiders offered us a tentacle each, and away we went across open space. Not fast. The thrust from the gas pistols was very low, irritatingly weak. But the Outsiders themselves were weak; an hour in the gravity of Earth's moon would have killed them.

They maneuvered us through the tangled clutter of silver ribbons, landing us on a ramp next to the looming convex wall of the drive capsule.

It wasn't quite like being lost in a giant bowl of noodles. The rigid ribbons were too far apart for that. Far above us was the light source, about as small and intense and yellowish-white as Earth's sun seen from a moon of Neptune. Shining down through the interstellar vacuum, it cast a network of sharp black shadows across all the thousand looping strands that made up, the city.

Along every light-shadow borderline were the Outsiders. Just as their plantlike ancestors had done billions of years ago on some unknown world near the galactic core, the Outsiders were absorbing life energy. Their branched tails lay in shadow, their heads in sunlight, while thermoelectricity charged their biochemical batteries. Some had root tentacles dipped in shallow food dishes; the trace elements which kept them alive and growing were in suspension in liquid helium.

We stepped carefully around them, using our headlamps at lowest intensity, following one of the Outsiders toward a door in the wall ahead.

The enclosure was dark until the door closed behind us. Then the light came on. It was sourceless, the color of normal sunlight, and it illuminated a cubicle that was bare and square. The only furnishing was a transparent hemisphere with an Outsider resting inside. Presumably the hemisphere filtered out excess light going in.

«Welcome,» said the room. Whatever the Outsider had said was not sonic in nature. «The air is breathable. Take off your helmets, suits, shoes, girdles, and whatnot.» It was an excellent translator, with a good grasp of idiom and a pleasant baritone voice.

«Thanks,» said Elephant, and we did.

«Which of you is Gregory Pelton?»

«Gronk.»

The wall was not confused. «According to your agent, you want to know how to reach that planet which is most unusual inside or within five miles of the sixty-light-year wide region you call known space. Is this correct?»

«Yes.»

«We must know if you plan to go there or to send agents there. Also, do you plan a landing, a near orbit, or a distant orbit?»

«Landing.»

«Are we to guard against danger to your life?»

«No.» Elephant's voice was a little dry. The Outsider ship was an intimidating place.

«What kind of ship would you use?»

«The one outside.»

«Do you plan colonization? Mining? Growth of food plants?»

«I plan only one visit.»

«We have selected a world for you. The price will be one million stars.»

«That's high,» said Elephant. I whistled under my breath. It was, and it wouldn't get lower. The Outsiders never dickered.

«Sold,» said Elephant.

The translator gave us a triplet set of coordinates some twenty-four light-years from Earth along galactic north. «The star you are looking for is a protosun with one planet a billion and a half miles distant. The system is moving at a point eight lights toward —» He gave a vector direction. It seemed the protosun was drawing a shallow chord through known space; it would never approach human space.

«No good,» said Elephant. «No hyperdrive ship can go that fast in real space.»

«You could hitch a ride,» said the translator, «with us. Moor your ship to our drive capsule.»

«That'll work,» said Elephant. He was getting more and more uneasy; his eyes seemed to be searching the walls for the source of the voice. He would not look at the Outsider business agent in the vacuum chamber.

«Our ferry fee will be one million stars.»

Elephant sputtered.

«Just a sec,» I said. «I may have information to sell you.»

There was a long pause. Elephant looked at me in surprise.

«You are Beowulf Shaeffer?»

«Yeah. You remember me?»

«We find you in our records. Beowulf Shaeffer, we have information for you, already paid. The former regional president of General Products on Jinx wishes you to contact him. I have a transfer-booth number.»

«That's late news,» I said. «The puppeteers are gone. Anyway, why would that two-headed sharpie want to see me?»

«I do not have that information. I do know that not all puppeteers have left this region. Will you accept the transfer-booth number?»

«Sure.»

I wrote down the eight digits as they came. A moment later Elephant was yelling just as if he were a tridee set turned on in the middle of a program. «— hell is going on here?»

«Sorry about that,» said the translator.

«What happened?» I asked.

«I couldn't hear anything! Did that mon— Did the Outsider have private business with you?»

«Sort of. I'll tell you later.»

The translator said, «Beowulf Shaeffer, we do not buy information. We sell information and use the proceeds to buy territory and food soil.»

«You may need this information,» I argued. «I'm the only man within reach who knows it.»

«What of other races?»

The puppeteers might have told them, but it was worth taking a chance. «You're about to leave known space. If you don't deal with me, you may not get this information in time.»

«What price do you set on this item?»

«You set the price. You've got more experience at putting values on information, and you're honorable.»

«We may not be able to afford an honest price.»

«The price may not exceed our ferry fee.»

«Done. Speak.»

I told him of the Core explosion and how I'd come find out about it. He made me go into detail on what I'd seen: the bright patch of supernovas, spreading out as my ship caught up with ancient light waves, until all the bright multicolored ball of the Core was ablaze with supernovas. «You wouldn't have known this until you got there, and then it would have been too late. You don't use faster-than-light drives.»

«We knew from the puppeteers that the Core had exploded. They were not able to go into detail because they had not seen it for themselves.»

«Oh. Ah, well. I think the explosion must have started at the back side of the Core from here. Otherwise it would have seemed to go much more slowly.»

«Many thanks. We will waive your ferry fee. Now, there is one more item. Gregory Pelton, for an additional two hundred thousand stars we will tell you exactly what is peculiar about the planet you intend to visit.»

«Can I find out for myself?»

«It is likely.»

«Then I will.»

Silence followed. The Outsider hadn't expected that. I said, «I'm curious. Your galaxy is rapidly becoming a death trap. What will you do now?»

«That information will cost you —»

«Forget it.»

Outside, Elephant said, «Thanks.»

«Forget it. I wonder what they will do.»

«Maybe they can shield themselves against the radiation.»

«Maybe. But they won't have any starseeds to follow.»

«Do they need them?»

Finagle only knew. The starseeds followed a highly rigid migratory mating pattern out from the Core of the galaxy and into the arms, almost to the rim, before turning back down to the Core. They were doomed. As they returned to the Core, the expanding wave of radiation from the multiple novas would snuff out the species one by one. What would the Outsiders do without them? What the hell did they do with them? Why did they follow them? Did they need starseeds? Did starseeds need Outsiders? The Outsiders would answer these and related questions for one trillion stars apiece. Personal questions cost high with the Outsiders.