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Bending down, he kissed her gently on the forehead and ran a hand down the back of her hair. “Clarity. Clarity, charity, emotional parity, if there's one thing you should know about me by now, it's that I was born older.”

As soon as Tse-Mallory set the skimmer down close to the dais, Truzenzuzex disembarked and hurried over to help Clarity. Sylzenzuzex was right behind her Eighth, and Tse-Mallory joined them moments later. The philosoph looked up at his visibly fatigued young friend.

“You've been chatting with the eons again, I see. I'm curious to know why and what for.”

As a weary Flinx proceeded to explain, the two scientists and Sylzenzuzex soon found themselves enthralled. When he finally finished it was left to Tse-Mallory to restate the obvious; something humans were more inclined to do than thranx.

“A functioning Xunca defense!” The sociologist-soldier's eyes glittered as he considered the potential ramifications. “Is it the Great Attractor?”

“No,” Flinx had to tell him. “It might lie in that area, but it's not the Attractor itself.”

Tse-Mallory was staring at the ground while thinking out loud. “No reason for some kind of defensive weapon to be located so far away unless there's some kind of connection.” He looked up. “The Krang did not describe one, I take it?”

Flinx shook his head. “‘Go there,’ it said. It mentioned a possible means of doing so.” He eyed his friends hopefully. “I know enough to be sure that the coordinates for this hypothetical link lie within the borders of the Commonwealth, but it's a locality I've never visited myself, not in all my travels.”

“You are about to, I think.” Turning, a gleeful Tse-Mallory slapped his longtime companion hard on the back of his thorax. The sound of flesh striking chitin was percussive. “It would appear, my old friend, that the annihilation of civilization is not yet a certainty!”

“My mobility will be, kral!l!l, if you keep hitting me like that,” Truzenzuzex clicked sharply. Given the number of friendly smacks the philosoph had absorbed from his friend over the years, the complaint rang hollow.

As they were breaking down the temporary camp near the entrance and preparing to leave the Krang and its age-weathered world of Booster behind, Tse-Mallory paused in the packing to confront a busy Flinx. The younger man stopped what he was doing and looked up.

“Bran?”

“Those coordinates.” Tse-Mallory looked almost expectant. “If you can remember them without having to check your communit, could you recite them to me again?” Flinx did so. When he was finished, the soldier-sociologist nodded slowly to himself. “I could swear—I'm almost certain that I know that place.”

“I haven't done an overlay yet myself. Is it Horseye?” Flinx was hopeful. After all he had heard about that multitiered world and its three native intelligences he would have been glad to pay it a visit and see the excavated part of the Xunca warning system for himself.

Tse-Mallory disappointed him. “Not Horseye. There was a report filed with Science Central on Denpasar a little over a year ago by a couple of second-level xenologists. In addition to the expected material it came with a very strange supplementary attachment. Knowing of our interest in such matters, one of our contacts in the Church passed it along to Tru and me. Preoccupied as we were keeping watch over a recovering Clarity and awaiting your return, we weren't able to go over it in depth or request a follow-up. Those coordinates, though…” His words trailed away as he struggled to remember.

Ten minutes later everyone's work was interrupted by a violent exclamation from Tse-Mallory. By the time Flinx arrived at his side, Pip having to tighten her grip on his shoulder to keep from being jounced off, the two scientists were deep in excited conversation the details of which Flinx could follow only slightly.

Clarity jogged up alongside him. “What are they jabbering about this time?”

“I don't know.” Risking impertinence, he raised