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isn’t it? Dr. Baskin asked me the same question when she last checked in on me, thirteen hours ago.”
    “And did you give her any more direct an answer than you’re giving me?”
    “Finding ways to bypass the access programming on this ship’s mini-Library is the reason I was put aboard in the first place. I would tell you if I had succeeded.” The machine’s disembodied voice was dry enough to desiccate melons. “The Tymbrimi have long suspected that the Library Institute is less than neutral—that the branch Libraries sold by them are programmed to be deficient in very subtle ways, to put troublesome races at a disadvantage.
    “The Tymbrimi have been working on this problem since days when your ancestors wore animal skins, Thomas Orley. It was never expected we would achieve anything more on this trip than a gathering of a few shards of new data, and perhaps elimination of a few minor barriers.”
    Orley understood how the long-lived machine could take such a patient perspective. Still, he found he resented it. It would be nice to think something had come of all the grief Streaker and her crew had fallen into. “After all the surprises we’ve encountered, this voyage must have served up more than just a few new bits for you to crunch,” he suggested.
    “The propensity of Earthlings to get into trouble, and to learn thereby, was the reason my owners agreed to this mad venture in the first place—although no one ever expected such a chain of unusual calamities as have befallen this ship. Your talents were under-rated.”
    There was no way to answer that. Tom’s arms had begun to hurt. “Well, I’d better get back. In an emergency I’ll contact you via ship’s comm.”
    “Of course.”
    Orley let go and landed in a crouch by the closed doorway, a rectangle high on one steeply sloping wall.
    “Dr. Baskin has just passed on word to me that Takkata-Jim has ordered the survey party to return to the ship,” the Niss spoke abruptly. “She thought you would want to know.”
    Orley cursed. Metz might have had a hand in that. How were they to repair the ship if the crew weren’t allowed to go looking for the raw materials they needed? Creideiki’s strongest reason for coming to Kithrup had been the abundance of pre-refined metals in an oceanic environment accessible to dolphins. If Hikahi’s prospectors were called back the danger had to be severe … or someone was panicking.
    Tom turned to go, but paused and looked up. “Niss, we must know what it is the Galactics think we found.”
    The sparkles were muted. “I have done a thorough search of the open files in this ship’s onboard micro-branch Library for any record that might shed light on the mystery of the derelict fleet, Thomas Orley. Aside from a few vague similarities between the patterns we saw on those gigantic hulls and some ancient cult symbols, I can find no support for a hypothesis that the ships we found are in any way connected to the fabled Progenitors.”
    “But you found nothing to contradict it, either?”
    “Correct. The derelicts might or might not be linked with the one legend which binds all oxygen-breathing races in the five galaxies.”
    “It could be we found huge bits of flotsam of almost no historical significance, then.”
    “True. At the other extreme, you may have made the biggest archaeological and religious find of the age. The mere possibility helps to explain the battle that is shaping up in this solar system. The refusal of the ship’s mini-Library to give more details is indicative of how many of the Galactic cultures feel about events so long ago. So long as this ship is the sole repository of information about the derelict fleet, the survey vessel Streaker remains a great prize, valued by every brand of fanatic.”
    Orley had hoped the Niss would find evidence to make their discovery innocuous. Such proof might have been used to get the ETs to leave them alone. But if the derelict fleet was really as important