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such things; Herald did not, but it left him without adequate explanations.
    Smallbore mixed the cards inexpertly and flipped one down. ::What is this?::
    /The Universe./
    ::I don't understand.::
    /Certainly you do, Smallbore! There is a whole geography of stars and planets and galaxies and clusters in space out beyond these tunnels. That is the Universe. Everything. More than we can even imagine./
    ::You mean the Milky Way is not just another tunnel?:: she inquired facetiously. ::Have you traveled the Universe, Herald?::
    /The Universe, no. The Cluster, yes, but the Cluster is merely a rough ellipsoid in space, a sort of flattened ball, with Andromeda at one end and Milky Way at the other, each with its satellites or associated lesser galaxies. Andromeda has a couple of cute little spiral galaxies in attendance, and Milky Way has a couple of irregular blobs./
    Smallbore's laughter rattled her treads again. ::You're making that up!::
    /No, it is really true. The larger blob is ten parsecs through. And that's about thirty-three light-years—oops, multiply those figures by a thousand; I'm trying to make dwarfs of giants—over thirty thousand light-years through, called Cloud Nine. The sapients of Sphere $ reside there. The smaller one is Cloud Six, and it contains Sphere ¢. Both cultures are very sensitive about their status. They point out that superficial regularity has nothing to do with cultural merit, and that there are many remarkable constellations within their clouds, some quite beautiful. They say that if Milky Way had not thrown its weight about for the past few billion years, distorting its satellites, they would by now have formed into perfect elliptical galaxies, and not the smallest ones in the Cluster, either. I think they have a case./
    ::I'm sorry. When I knock out, I will Transfer over there and apologize to the two irregular blobs.::
    /That would be nice,/ Herald agreed gravely. /It is merely a matter of rotation. All galaxies start as blobs; those that have sufficient rotation evolve into more orderly disks in due course. Andromeda is one of the most scenic galaxies in the Universe, but we have our shame, too./
    ::I know. We lost the energy wars.::
    /Our shame is not that we lost, but that we instigated the wars. We tried to destroy our sister galaxy, the Milky Way./
    Now she argued the other side again, as he had thought she might. This was a good, positive, juvenile reaction. ::But we needed their energy to promote our civilization!::
    /Civilization promoted by such means would not be worthwhile. We must never again consider the horror of galacticide./
    ::You know, if we had tried it against a smaller galaxy, we might have won. There would still have been plenty of energy.::
    /Which galaxy? Pinwheel? It has two major sapient species, Sphere Pin and Sphere Wheel./
    ::Pin and Wheel!:: she exclaimed in delight ::No, we couldn't destroy that galaxy; it's too cute.::
    /Well, what about one of the dwarf ellipsoids or irregulars that fill in the volume of the Cluster? There is Sculp with its Sphere §, or Furnace with its Sphere #.../ he trailed off.
    ::Why are you silent, Herald? Have you traveled there? What do you know about them?::
    /Oh, Sculp and Furnace are very special in their way. They resemble globular clusters, which are little balls of stars perhaps eighty parsecs in diameter, very tightly packed with about a hundred thousand old red stars. But Sculp is two thousand parsecs in diameter, and Furnace four or five thousand parsecs. They are grossly oversized for globs, yet too small to be galaxies. They actually represent the 'missing link,' the intermediate stage between—/
    ::You are evading my question, Herald. I feel it in your marvelous healing aura. Would you lie to a dying child?::
    Herald paused, shaken. /Yes, child, I do evade. I have traveled to Sculp on business, but will never go to Furnace./
    ::Why not?:: She sensed a mystery here, and was excited.
    /I think this is not a