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The outer asteroid belt where the Krang-given coordinates lay was far enough from its sun so that it might as well have been in interstellar space. A visitor happening upon that circumstellar ring of rock and mineral, compacted dust and water ice, would have been forgiven for thinking that was exactly where he was, save for the dominating presence of a Jovian-sized gas giant nearby. Nearby in the interplanetary sense, that is. The enormous planet lay far enough away so that, while its roiling storms and double rings were clearly visible from the section of the asteroid belt where the Teacher came to a stop, its radiation, powerful magnetic field, and gravity well would not pose any danger.

“We have arrived.” The Teacher was not much given to excessive celebration even in the best of times.

Orbiting in concert with the majority of rocks and boulders and planetoids that comprised the outer asteroid belt, the ship continuously monitored its surroundings lest something small, solid, and moving faster than its fellows threatened to pose a danger to it and its fragile organic inhabitants. During the following first week of searching it had to use its weaponry to reduce several such minor course-crossing hazards to powder. By the second week Flinx almost hoped something (small and essentially harmless but noisy) would slip past the Teacher's sensors and strike the ship. It could hardly pose less of a danger than the ennui that was threatening to overcome them all.

“It would help if we knew more precisely what we were looking for,” Clarity pointed out to him on the last day of the second week of searching the coordinates the Krang had provided.

“We're looking for a link.” Flinx was standing by the forward console, staring out the main port. At the far end of the Teacher, its Caplis generator was dark. They could not use the KK-drive field this close to so many sizable solid objects, nor was there any need to do so.

“Like I said,” Clarity reiterated with uncharacteristic exasperation, “it would help if we knew more precisely what we were looking for.”

His retort was sharp. “I am so sorry. I had this perfect tridee image of a four-hundred-million-year-old Xunca alarm-weapons link in my pocket, but I seem to have dropped it somewhere.” Her reaction left him immediately contrite.

“I'm sorry, Clarity. I apologize.” As he started toward her, she put up a hand to forestall him.

“Forget it. Weeks of searching and finding nothing have left us all frustrated and on edge.” She looked around to make sure they were still alone. “Have you seen Syl lately? She's so wound up she's chewed a couple of centimeters off the ends of each of her ovipositors.”

The Teacher was doing its best, Flinx knew. But like any AI, even one equipped with symbolic logic, it remained at its core a literal device. It could and would search diligently for anything—if they could just tell it what to look for. On that note the Tar-Aiym Krang had been lamentably uninformative.

Surely they would find something, eventually. It was simply a matter of scanning and analyzing the objects that comprised the asteroid belt until they came upon—what?

“We will know it when we see it,” an optimistic Truzenzuzex insisted. “The complex on Horseye would not continue sending, however intermittently, a composite signal to a corner of empty space.”

At least they did not have to circle the distant sun and search the entire asteroid belt. They only had to examine the portion facing the outer gas giant, in the vicinity of the coordinates the Krang had provided. But visually, at least, there seemed nothing to differentiate one square kilometer of drifting dead rock from the next.

As the third week of searching crept toward its end, the Teacher continued its relentless examination. The less patient organic life-forms on board, however, were approaching terminal boredom.

“This isn't working.” Truzenzuzex clicked impatiently as his four opposing mandibles finished masticating the last of the early meal.

“An unassailable observation.” Tilting her head back slightly,