“Some. But first things first.” Atvar H’sial unfolded her legs and rose to her full height. “If profit is to be maximized, this must be treated as a multistage endeavor. We will need great capital to exploit this planetoid, and we must plan to return here when we have suitable financing. To obtain that, before we leave we must select a few items of machinery and equipment, small and light enough to take with us for trade to the richest worlds of the spiral arm. I could do that, but you are more experienced. And as soon as we have decided what to take, we must evade Julius Graves and his group, and leave.”

“Then we’d better get a move on, before they come looking.” Nenda reached out to grasp one of the Cecropian’s forelimbs, hoisting himself to his feet. “You’re right, I do like to price goodies. ’Specially when I know I won’t be paying for ’em. Let’s go to it, At, and pick ’em out.”

After the first few minutes Louis Nenda was willing to admit Cecropian superiority for the exploration of Glister. He could see dead ends easily enough, when the light level permitted. But Atvar H’sial, with her sensitive sonar and echolocation, could “see” around bends in corridors, and know ahead of time when she was approaching a large open area. And she did so just as well in total darkness.

Nenda did not bother after a while to peer ahead. He focused on what he was best at, walking behind Atvar H’sial and making a mental catalog of novel equipment and artifacts as they came to them. There was plenty of choice. In less than half an hour he reached forward and tapped her carapace.

“I think we’re done. I’ve tagged a dozen portable items, an’ I don’t think we can handle more than that.”

Atvar H’sial halted and the white head turned. “You are the expert on salable commodities; but I would like to hear your list.”

“All right. I’ll give ’em in order, top choice first. That little water-maker in the second room we looked at. Remember it? No sign of a power source, no sign of a supply. But five hundred cubic meters a minute of clean water production. You could name your own price for a few of them on Xerarchos or Siccity, or any of the dust worlds.”

“I agree. It was also a leading item on my own list. Do you know its mass?”

“I can lift it, that’s all I care about. Then for number-two choice, I liked that cubical box on gimbals three chambers back, the one with the open top and a blue haze over it.”

“Indeed? I observed that object. But I found nothing remarkable about it.”

“That’s because you don’t see using light. When I looked down into the open top I could see stars. But when I turned the box on the gimbals, I was looking at Gargantua, right through the planetoid. It’s an all-direction see-through — let’s you look at distant objects and not be bothered by near ones. It’d be marvelous for ship navigation in dust clouds.

“My number-three choice is harder to justify. The sphere, the one that was floating, not attached to anything, in the room we just left.”

“To my viewing it appeared entirely featureless.”

“To me, too. But it was a lot cooler than everything around it.”

“Which should be physically impossible.”

“That’s why we want it. Impossible gadgets are always the most valuable. I’ve no idea how it works, an’ I don’t care. But I can tell you a dozen places that would pay a lot for it, looking to maybe find a closed infinite heat sink. Number four—”

“Enough. I am persuaded. I accept your list. but there is one more thing that I would like to do, before we collect the items of choice and seek egress from the planetoid.” Atvar H’sial motioned in front of her with one forelimb. The yellow horns faced ahead, open as wide as they would go and scanning slowly from side to side. “There is another chamber ahead; a huge, open one, possessing anomalous acoustical properties. At certain frequencies, it appears completely empty. At others, I detect a spherical object at its center.”

“You think we might find something specially valuable? No point taking risks, just to be nosy.”

“I cannot estimate the value. I will only say that an object transparent at certain acoustic frequencies is as potentially valuable to Cecropian society as glass, transparent to certain frequencies of light, is to humans. I know exactly where we could sell such a discovery. To me, it might be the most precious thing on this world.”

Atvar H’sial was advancing slowly as she spoke, to a place where the tunnel ended in a blind drop. Nenda moved to her side and took a look down. After one startled glance he swore and stepped back. She had an indifference to heights that came from her remote flying ancestors, but he did not share it. They were on the brink of a twenty-meter drop, slowly curving away below to a bowl-shaped floor.

Atvar H’sial was pointing to the middle of the chamber. “There. Do you sense anything with your eyes?”

“Yeah. It’s a silver sphere.” Nenda took another step back. “I don’t like this, At. We oughta get out of here.”

“In one moment. To my senses, that sphere is changing. Do you observe it, also?”

Nenda, set to retreat, stood and stared in spite of himself.

Atvar H’sial was right. The sphere was changing while he watched. And in a way that tricked the eye. The whole surface began to ripple, like oscillations on a ball of mercury. Those vibrations became a pattern of standing waves, growing in amplitude until they changed the whole shape. A five-sided flowerlike head was sprouting above, while a slender barbed tail extended down toward the floor of the chamber.

Ahh. A sighing voice echoed through the whole chamber. Ahhh. At last.

A green light flickered from an aperture in the deformed sphere’s center. It shone on Atvar H’sial, lighting up the crouched, insectile form and the great blind head. Louis hid away behind her.

At last, the voice said again. It sounded as old as time itself. A strange, pungent aroma came drifting across the room. At last… we can begin. You are here. The testing is complete. The duties of The-One-Who-Waits are ending, and the selection process can begin. Are you ready?

The creature poised in the center of the chamber was unlike anything that Louis Nenda had met in thirty years of travel around the spiral arm. But what was Atvar H’sial seeing? The Cecropian seemed frozen, her long antennas unfurled and bristling. The being in the middle of the chamber had been partially invisible to her sonar. Did she see it at all now, and recognize the danger?

“At!” Nenda sent the pheromonal signal with maximum urgency. “I don’t know if you’re getting the same message as I am from that thing, but believe me, we’re in trouble. It wants us. Don’t reply to me, just back up.”

You are the form, the voice was saying, and the green light had focused on the Cecropian. The third awaited form. Do not move — Atvar H’sial had finally taken a step backward, bumping into Louis Nenda — the transition is ready to begin.

Louis Nenda reached forward, grabbing one of the Cecropian’s forelimbs. “At! No messing about. Let’s get out of here!” He turned and took one step.

Too late.

Before his second step the floor vanished. He was falling freely, plummeting down a vertical shaft. He looked down. Nothing, only darkness that baffled the eye. He looked up. Above him was Atvar H’sial, wing cases fully extended, vestigial wings wide open, all six legs tensed. She was poised for a hard landing — on top of Louis Nenda.

He looked down again, seeking the bottom of the shaft. He could not see a thing, but given the small size of the planetoid, the end of the fall had to be no more than a second or two away.

And then what? Nothing pleasant, that was for sure.

Nenda fell and swore. Hindsight was wonderful. They had been a little bit too greedy. He and Atvar H’sial should have left when they could, as soon as they had picked out all they needed.