With nothing to show for the hour, he headed for Kylyd.

From early in his post-doctoral years, he had learned the only way to keep up on the branches of a complex project was with frequent personal appearances. The other department heads did the same, so he was not at all conspicuous.

Having legitimate business on the ship, he donned his suit openly and accompanied a group of workers on the ride out. While the sun had been up, he had dreaded his open trips, but now they were in shadow again.

He wandered about the ship, unsure if he’d recognize Abbot’s Mark on a suited human. The life-presence was blocked by the suit, but he had Influenced suited humans. Something wasn’t blocked by the insulation. Fractured particles dancing in the moonlight, speeding to oblivion.

Poetry stirred in his soul, poetry and magic, magic and Inea. There’s no such thing as magic. There’s a rational explanation for everything. Sure. He clomped up a slanted floor through a mangled airlock with an arch cut in it.

He squatted to peer at it. The last time he’d been here, they’d despaired of cutting that metal. Progress.

“Something wrong, Dr. Shiddehara?”

The suit beside him bore a familiar technician’s name. He rose and asked about the cutting while he studied the man.

“Oh, Dr. Gold did that yesterday with the magnetic scissors he made in the Biomed lab. You apply a shear planar magnetic field and the stuff falls apart. I guess it’s not exactly a metal– well, that’s not my field.”

He bore no trace of Abbot’s touch, but Titus’s neck prickled. Biomed. That was one place he couldn’t wander freely, but Abbot could. “Magnetic scissors. Fascinating.” Next thing you know, they’ll make a sonic screwdriver!

“I saw Dr. Gold going that way,” the technician said, Pointing. “He loves to explain it, but I don’t think he’s found anyone who understands what he’s talking about yet.”

Titus followed the man’s directions and climbed into a wide Place where bulkheads had been wrenched open on impact. Two technicians were wrestling a device that looked like a scissors large enough to snip down a maple tree. When they had it positioned, the scissors sliced through the twisted bulkhead, and cautiously removed the large panel.

Through the new opening, Titus saw Abner Gold’s and Carol Colby’s suits, and a smaller suit with a Biomed blazon.

Gold gesticulated so emphatically his feet left the deck, and he stumbled. Titus picked his way toward them, mindful that sharp edges could damage his suit, and searched the communications channels until he found Abner’s voice.

“. Sisi, that’s not what you told me! Colby, she’s lying, but I know what I know. You owe me answers. There are certain things I won’t be a party to!”

“Calm down, Dr. Gold,” admonished the Director. “We are all under a lot of pressure, and it’s going to get worse, if we’re forced to work in a spotlight. In a few days-”

“Few days! Now or I quit! Think about that, Colby! Can you afford to have me quit after what I’ve accomplished?”

“Abner, no one is indispensable. And your attitude displays a certain lack of loyalty which-”

“Loyalty to what? Or doesn’t that matter to you? You just do what you get paid to do and never think about-”

“Dr. Gold, you are hereby terminated, your security clearances revoked. Your final pay and-”

“Terminated? You can’t fire me. I just quit.” He whirled and stalked away, coming toward Titus.

Titus stopped him. He was burning with curiosity about what had ticked Gold off, but he only asked, “Abner, are you sure you want to do this? Think! I didn’t hear what it’s about, but this Project is history in the making.”

Gold took a deep breath and straightened, looking at Titus with a strained smile. “Thank you, Titus, but I stayed up all night considering it all.”

“Well, I want a copy of your paper on the magnetic scissors. Brilliant work.”

Gold beamed. “I’ll see you get one.”

“After the reporters get through with my lab, I’ll come see you off. I assume you’ll be leaving with them.” Maybe then hell tell me what’s so terrible he can’t countenance it.

His face fell. “I suppose.” Abstracted, he pulled loose. “Good luck, Titus. You’re a good man.”

The offhand compliment made Titus feel inexplicably good as he turned toward the group watching them. Interestingly, he could perceive the misting pattern of Abbot’s Influence around Colby, despite her lack of a Mark. The same signature appeared in the aura around the Biomed tech.

He went up to them. “I’m sorry, Carol, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop.”

“That isn’t the first time I’ve fired someone, but-damn, I wish I hadn’t had to do that!” Deeply disturbed, she grasped at formalities. “Oh, I’m sorry, Titus, have you met Sisi Mintraub? She runs the Biomed maintenance shop. Sisi, this is the famous Dr. Shiddehara.”

“Honored,” she offered in a sweet soprano.

“Likewise,” replied Titus. “Medical hardware, huh? Would you happen to know where the chemists’ tank is now?”

“It’s not my jurisdiction, but I saw it yesterday. Why?”

He told Carol about the demonstration idea, and she nodded. “Sounds good. Sisi, tell whoever has the tank that if they’re not using it, astrophysics needs it for the demo.”

“I’ll tell them.” She flashed a dazzling smile at Titus. “But chemists are a possessive lot.”

Colby added, “If necessary, tell them to call me.”

When Mintraub had gone, Colby prompted, “Fill me in on this brilliant idea. I think it’s the best any department’s come up with so far.”

“It’s from Inea and Shimon, really,” he protested, and elaborated on Inea’s visuals. “What worries me is that it’s not relevant to our work.”

“It does look relevant, though. On the other hand, you’re right, some of the reporters know some science. Could you come up with something they’d appreciate?”

“Well, that’s what I came out here for. To see if there’s anything new on the lighting system. With the system up, I could use a standard star catalogue to pick out some stars with the correct spectrum, at least show them how it’s going to be done when I have all the data.”

“There was nothing new as of yesterday. But it’s worth checking. Lindholm, Rubens, and that Dutch woman whose name I can never remember were down by what we think is the drive chamber. They found a light panel they suspect is still operative, but they won’t admit to knowing anything.”

“Can’t fault them for being cautious. Nothing about this ship follows expectations. Magnetic scissors! Where did Abner ever get that idea?”

“Titus, forgive me, but I don’t want to talk about Abner now. And I’m late for an engineers’ meeting. If they can solve just one of the power-supply mysteries, we can energize that light panel and discover its output spectrum. Our power just burns them out.”

As she walked off, Titus went to chase down the intact light panel and see what could be learned from it.

Hours later, Titus returned to the lab, with very little to show for his afternoon but the appearance of the chemists’ tank. Shimon had ordered pizza brought in. People ate while monitoring screens as the test programs ran.

Inea waved Titus over. “I got my pizza. But I’ve no idea when we’ll be finished. There’re a million glitches.”

“Well, look, I’m glad you volunteered to stick with this tonight. Afterwards, well, we’ll reschedule afterwards.”

“I hope so,” she replied firmly.

He was already hungry, but he had to keep his mind off it. “Carol is pleased with your demo.” He related his encounter with the Director. “I didn’t get any new spectral data, but I’m going to go work up something using ”best guess’ data based on the work done decades ago on the first orbital telescope and some of the guesses based on clues found in the ship. I can run a simulation for the reporters using that, and just show how we’ll plug in the actual data when we get it.“ He had most of it set up on his calculator.