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establishment and operation of the station is held in storage. Why?"
"Just a thought. If you could direct us by interpreting these written codes,
we might be able to fix what is bro-ken." A brace of cilia indicated the
blackened console nearby.
"I don't know," Martine said slowly. "That's an awfully complicated piece of
equipment."
"More complicated than you? Or Evan? There is no diference. Only in design.
Let us try. I will need the help of other libraries, of many gatherers and
processors."
"Here's your chance to start a silicate uprising." Evan grinned sideways at
Martine. "Go to it."
Once the crisis was explained to there, members of the many Associatives
volunteered to help. By the next day there was no room in the communications
building for Evan or Martine, so full was it with busy libraries and
processors.
They moved to the nearest dormitory and tried to relax. There was little else
for them to do anyhow and they could interpret designs and images for the
librar-ies just as easily using the dorm terminal as any other. Besides which
the dorm was full of stockpiled supplies which Frazier's personnel had
abandoned in their rush to escape. For the first time in weeks, Evan and
Martine ate properly.
None of which had the impact on Evan that a small blue shape did on the
morning when it came waddling into their temporary abode. There was no
mistaking that outline, even taking into account the chunk that was miss-ing
from its dorsal side.
"Azure!" He rose from his seat, then halted himself. The mental greeting would
have to suffice. Azure's shape made him impossible to embrace. Then Evan
frowned slightly. There was something wrong with that quaint wad-dle. "You're
limping."
"Damaged motor control, here." He tapped the top of his head. "Impossible to
repair it properly without risking injury to more sensitive areas. I will live
with the disa-bility, though it will limit my effectiveness. A scout who
cannot run must perforce limit its activities."
"I'm sorry. It's my fault, for involving you in our prob-lems."
"Nonsense. As we have discussed already, your prob-lems are ours. Besides, it
has been decided that it is more important for me to continue to scout you at
close range than to return to my former duties. I am also to act as
intermediary between you, your people, and the Asso-ciatives when necessary.
Have you been outside recently?"
"No." Evan glanced over at Martine, who was lying on her cot balancing a
portable tridee viewer on her stom-ach.
"Come. There is something you should see."
They followed him outside. Their pace was restricted because the paths between
buildings were full. Evan counted warriors, gatherers, walls, and flects, even
slowly moving towers picking their way carefully through the crowd of their
lesser relations. He also noticed a pair of huge, massively built creatures
holding enormous hands and tentacles out in front of their bodies.
"Those are builders," Azure explained in response to their query. "They've
come here from far away. Only Associatives who cannot make use of walls employ
build-ers to raise artificial walls to protect their members." He pointed out
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something that looked like an ambling explod-ing star. "That is a distributor,
who works in tandem with the talkers of the largest Associatives. And those
over there are excavators, who are close cousins of the gath-erers and
diggers."
The ground trembled underfoot as the silicate horde surged busily back and
forth. Evan took Martine's arm.
"I think we'd better have a talk with library. Things are getting out of
hand."
"Which library?" Azure asked. "There are ,dozens at work here."
"Our library."
That individual was lying prone on the desk where Martine had introduced him
to the station computer many days ago. The two humans had to pick their way
carefully through the herd of newly arrived libraries who were busy exchanging
information with one another. Nearby, several of the recently glimpsed
exploding stars were juggling dozens of private conversations simultaneously,
sorting them out of the extraordinary mental babble.
Beyond the library, the rear wall of the admin building had been torn out.
Builders and processors and physicians swarmed over something vast and barely
visible. What little Evan could see of this oversized mystery gleamed and
glistened like moonstone.
He managed to reach library's table. "What's going on?" He nodded toward the
hivelike activity which dom-inated the missing end of the building. "Just
because you can't fix the transmitter controls doesn't mean you have to
demolish everything else trying."
"You know, it's strange." Library spoke absently and without shifting his
attention from the flashing computer terminal.
Evan did his best not to sound exasperated. "What's strange?"
"How unnecessarily complex superior technology can be."
The heavily armed woman put down her high‑powered monocular and turned
away from the shuttlecraft port. "Looks deserted to me. If they're still alive
they probably heard us coming down and ducked into the woods."
Frazier leaned over to look past her. "Doesn't matter. We don't have to find
them‑though I have personal rea-sons for wanting to. But it isn't
critical. All we have to do is burn the place down. Isolating them's the same
as killing them.
Oh, and we don't refer to the local flora here as `woods.' Forest is more
accurate. You'll see why after we disembark." He straightened, called out to
the man standing near the rear of the cabin. "Everything ready?"
"All set back here, sir."
Frazier spoke into an intercom pickup. "Cannon?"
"Heated and ready, sir."
"All right. Unless something shows itself, keep it aimed at that tall
observation platform in the middle of the camp." He glanced back to the man
standing by the exit. "Open up&
Twenty armed and armored men and women charged down the self extending ramp to
take up defensive posi-tions around the ship while the big,
turret‑mounted laser' on top swung silently toward the center of the
research compound. There was no visible reaction to the hostile display.
"There's nothing here to worry about, sir. I don't see what all the fuss is
about." The middle‑aged woman stand-ing next to Frazier held her rifle
cradled loosely beneath her right arm.
"You weren't here last time or you wouldn't be saying that." Frazier darkened
his suit visor manually, scanned the grounds as he led the landing party out
of the ship and toward the station.
No one challenged their approach as they crossed the inoperative fence. They
halted and waited for reinforce-ments to join them. Among this second group
was the tall woman who had been Frazier's second in command dur-ing their
previous sojourn on Prism.
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Her gaze swept over the buildings with interest. "They did a lot while we were
away. A lot of the mess has been cleaned up. Maybe we shouldn't raze this site
and start over elsewhere. Maybe we'll just set up here again. It would save a
lot of time and company money."
"If those two freaks are still around and planning some kind of ambush, that
might be just what they're hoping we'll do."
"Then let's oblige them." The tall woman didn't smile often, and she didn't
smile then.
They marched toward the old administration building, turned a comer, and came
to an abrupt halt. "What's that?" the woman asked, sharply. "I don't remember
that being here when we left."
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