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impossible to see any expression in their faces, other than an enigmatic smile. The one named Sid looked at Pete and swam a few feet closer to Alex. When he reached shallow water he examined the shoreline, then looked at Alex again. “We e seee insiiide. Marrryy nott siiick, but sheee should seee a doctorrr. What wrong not forrr meee to saaay.”
    Alex thought for a second. “Is it life threatening? Is it ... urgent?”
    The dolphin approximated a laugh. “Not for meee to saaay.”
    Alex frowned and looked in the direction of his house. It wasn’t visible at all. He guessed he’d walked a kilometer or so, maybe more, but he knew the network of tubeways could provide ready transport if he needed it.
    Neither dolphin seemed too concerned about Mary, yet they were advocating that she see a physician. Sid leapt in the water and resurfaced quickly. Seeing it had Alex’s attention again, it spoke: “Caan I asssk yooou a quessstionn?”
    Alex nodded. He had no idea if he should be running to a tubecar or playing diplomat with a dolphin. His only aim had been a brief walk.
    “Whaaat dooo yooou think iss down therrre?” The dolphin said. “Onnn Bubbaaa.”
    “It’s an old civilization. Stubbs suspects they’re beyond space travel.”
    “Arrre they cliiickerrr mennn?”
    “We saw spiders. Worms. Something like Jupiter’s reef ... with gas bags and all. But no clicks.” He remembered the pair of clicker men taken along on the rescue mission and felt somehow guilty that they had been lost. Alex looked at Sid. “No,” he said. “Not like the clicker men.”
    In the sky to his left Alex saw a flash. Then a streak of yellow light, followed by a shower of debris. Something cut a straight line though the core of the cylinder, moving fast. Alex saw it smash into his side of the cylinder. Moments later he heard the crash and the roar of the impact.
    “Dingers!” He began to run in the direction of the impact. His eyes were in the sky but his mind was on Mary, afraid that she was somewhere near the impact site.
    4 Alex wasn’t really conscious of running. Nor did he ever look back to see the reactions of the dolphins to what had happened.
    He could see that the core and its lights were still intact, and in its glow the debris left by the object did a curious dance. A cloud was forming at the core and debris rained down on both sides of the cylinder.
    At first Alex thought it was a dinger, a slang expression for a spacer’s greatest fear – meteorites, but he knew that only a large meteor could penetrate the tough polyceramic hide of the Goddard and then plow through seven decks of polycarbonate web and aerogel matting. Anything that could get through all that should have destroyed the ship or at least caused major decompression. But neither had occurred.
    Alex was growing exhausted. By the time he could see smoke rising from where the projectile had impacted, his gait had slowed to a trot. He asked his wrist monitor for a status check, but it was as dead as any ordinary bracelet. He considered using the tubeway system, but without his communicator he couldn’t call for a cab. All he could do was keep moving toward home and the safety of the bedroom pod. He wondered if Mary was already there.
    It took several more minutes to reach a place where he could see where the projectile had landed. The crater lay in the park across from his house. Covering an area of a dozen meters or so, long slabs of material lay twisted off kilter, sloping down to a common point. At the center sat a pitch black sphere.
    People were already milling about the edge of the crater, cautiously stepping over felled saplings and ruined shrubbery.
    Blue suited security officers had arrived wearing helmets. Alex noticed that they were carrying weapons, but their job, it seemed, was merely to keep people away from the hole. Several vehicles appeared from the direction of the command center, full of personnel wearing the same headgear as the officers