Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html ALAN DEAN FOSTERwas born in New York City in 1946 and raised in Los Angeles, California. After receiving a bachelor's degree in political science and a master of fine arts degree in motion pictures from UCLA in 1968-69, he worked for two years as a public relations copywriter in Studio City, California. He sold his first short story to August Derleth at Arkham Collector Magazine in 1968, and other sales of short fiction to other magazines followed. His first try at a novel, The Tar-Aiym Krang, was published by Ballantine Books in 1972. Since then, Foster has published many short stories, novels, and film novelizations. Foster has toured extensively around the world. Besides traveling, he enjoys classical and rock music, old films, basketball, body surfing, and weightlifting. He has taught screenwriting, literature, and film history at UCLA and Los Angeles City College. Currently he resides in Arizona. Chapter One "Watch whereyou're going,qwot,"" The merchant glared down at the slim, olive-skinned youth and made a show of readjusting his barely rumpled clothing. "Your pardon, noble sir," the youngster replied politely. "I did not see you in the press of the crowd." This was at once truth and lie. Flinx hadn'tseen the overbearing entrepreneur, but he had sensed the man's belligerence seconds before the latter had swerved intentionally to cause the collision. Although his still poorly understood talents had been immensely enriched several months ago by his en- counter with the Krang—that awesome semisentient weapon of the now-vanished masters of the galaxy, the Tar-Aiym—they were as inconsistent as ever. The experience of acting as an organic catalyst for the colossal device had almost killed both him and Pip. But they had survived and he, at least, had been changed in ways as yet uncomprehended. Lately he had found that at one moment he could detect the thoughts of the King himself off in Drallar's palace, while in the next even the minds of those standing in close proximity stayed shut tight as a miser's purse. This made for numerous uncertainties, and oftentimes Flinx found himself cursing the gift, as its capriciousness kept him in a constant state of mental imbalance. He was like a child clinging desperately Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html to the mane of a rampaging devilope, struggling to hang on at the same time he was fighting to master the bucking mount. He shifted to go around the lavishly clad bulk, but the man moved to block his path. "Children need to learn how to mind their betters," he smirked, obviously unwilling, like Flinx, to let the incident pass. Flinx could sense the frustration in the man's mind, and sought deeper. He detected fuzzy hints of a large business transaction that had failed just this morning. That would explain the man's frustration, and his apparent desire to find someone to take it out on. As Flinx considered this development, the man was making a great show of rolling up his sleeves to reveal massive arms. His frustration faded beneath the curious stares of the shifting crowd of traders, hawkers, beg- gars, and craftsmen who were slowing and beginning to form a small eddy of humanity in the round-the-clock hurricane of the Drallarian marketplace. "I said I was sorry," Flinx repeated tensely. A blocky fist started to rise. "Sorry indeed. I think I'm going to have to teach you ..." The merchant halted in his stride, the threatening fist abruptly frozen in midair. His face rapidly turned pale and his eyes seemed fixed on Flinx's far shoulder. A head had somehow emerged from beneath the loose folds of the youth's cape. Now it regarded the merchant with a steady, unblinking gaze that held the quality of otherworld death, the flavor of frozen methane and frostbite. In itself the skull was tiny and unimpressive, scaled and unabashedly reptilian. Then more of the creature emerged, revealing that the head was attached to a long cylindrical body. A set of pleated membranous wings opened, beat lazily at the air. "Sorry," the merchant found himself mumbling, "it was all a mistake ... my fault, really." He smiled sickly, looked from left to right. The eyes of the small gathering stared back dispassionately. It was interesting how the man seemed to shrink into the wall of watchers. They swallowed him up as neat and clean as a grouper would an ambling angelfish. That done, the motionless ranks blended back into the moving stream of humanity. Flinx relaxed and reached up to scratch the flying snake under its leathery snout. "Easy there, Pip," he whispered, thinking warm relaxing thoughts at his pet. "It's nothing, settle down now." Reassured, the minidrag hissed sibilantly and slid back beneath the cape folds, its pleated wings collapsing flat against its body. The merchant had quickly recognized the reptile. A well-traveled individual, he knew that there was no known antidote for the poison of the Alaspin miniature dragon. "Maybe he learned whatever lesson he had in mind to give us," Flinx said. "What say we go over to Small Symm's for a beer and some pretzels for you. Would you like that, summm?" The snake summmed back at him. Nearby buried within the mob, an obese, unlovely gentleman thanked a gratified goldsmith as he pocketed a purchase indifferently made. This transaction had served the purpose of occupying time and covering up his true focus of attention, which had not been the just-bought bauble. Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html Two men flanked him. One was short and sleek, with an expression like a wet weasel. The other showed a torso like a galvanized boiler, and half a face. His one eye twitched persistently as he stared after the retreating figure of Flinx, while his small companion eagerly addressed the purchaser of the tiny gold-and- pearl piano. "Did you see the look on that guy's face, Challis?" he asked the plump man. "That snake's a hot death. Nothin' was said to us about anything like that. That big idiot not only saved his own life, but mine and Nanger's too." The one-eye nodded. "Ya, you're goin' to have to find someone else for this bit of dirty stuff." His short companion looked adamant. The fat merchant remained calm, scratched' at oneof his many chins. "Have I been ungenerous? Since yon both ape on permanent retainer to me, I technically owe you nothing for this task." He shrugged. "But if it is a question of more money ..." The sleek weasel shook his head. "You can buy my service, Challis, but not my life. Do you know what happens if that snake's venom bits you in the eyes? No antivenom known will keep you alive for more than sixty seconds." He kicked at the gravel and dirt underfoot, still moist from the regular morning ram. "No, this isn't for me and not for Nanger neither." "Indeed," the .man with half a face agreed solemnly. He sniffed and nodded in the direction of the now de- parted youth. "What's your obsession with the boy, anyway? He's not strong, he's not rich, and he's not particularly pretty." "It's his head I'm interested in, not his body," sighed Challis, "though this is a matter of my pleasure." Puffing like a leaky pillow, he led them through the bustling, shouting crowd. Humans, thranx, and representatives of a dozen other commercial races slid easily around and past them as though oiled, all intent on errands of importance. "It's my Janus jewel. It bores me." The smaller man looked disgusted. "How can any- one rich enough to own a Janus jewel be bored?" "Oh, but I am, Nolly-dear, I am." Nanger made a half-smirk. "What's the trouble, Challis? Your imagination failing you?" He laughed, short, stentorian barks. Challis grinned back at him. "Hardly that, Nanger, but it seems that I have not the right type of mind to produce the kind of fine, detailed resolution the jewel is- capable of. I need help for that. So I've been at work these past months looking for a suitable mental adept, trying to find a surrogate mind of the proper type to aid in operating the jewel. I've paid a lot of money for the right information," he finished, nodding at a tall Osirian he knew. The avian clacked its beak back at him and made a gesture with its graceful, ostrichlike neck, its periscope form weaving confidently through the crowd. Nanger paused to buy a thisk cake, and Challis continued his explanation as they walked on. "So you see why I need that boy." Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html Nolly was irritated now. "Why not just hire him? See if he'll participate willingly?" Challis looked doubtful. "No, I don't think that would work out, Nolly-dear. You're familiar with some of my fantasies and likes?" His voice had turned inhumanly calm and empty. "Would you participate voluntarily?" Nolly looked away from suddenly frightening pupils. In spite of his background, he shuddered. "No," he barely whispered, "no, I don't guess that I would...." "Hello, lad," boomed Small Symm—the giant was incapable of conversing in less than a shout. "What of your life and what do you hear from Malaika?" Flinx sat on one of the stools lined up before the curving bar, ordered spiced beer for himself and a bowl of pretzels for Pip.The flying snake slid gracefully from Flinx's shoulder and worked his way into the wooden bowl of trapezoidal dough. This action was noted by a pair of wide-eyed unsavory types nearby, who promptly vacated their seats and hastily made for the rearmost booths. "I've had no contact with Malaika for quite a while, Symm. I've heard he's attending to business outsystem." Flinx's wealthy merchant friend had enabled him to quit performing his personal sideshow, having provided him with a substantial sum for his aid in exploring the Tar-Aiym world of the Krang. Much of the money had gone to set up Flinx's adoptive mother. Mother Mastiff, in a well-stocked shop in one of Drallar's better market districts. Muttering at her capriciousness, the old woman had rescued Flinx as a child from the slave-seller's block, and had raised him. She was the onlyparent he had ever known. She muttered still, but with affection. "As a matter of fact," he went on, sipping at the peppery brew, "Malaika wanted me to go with him. But while I respect the old hedonist, he'd eventually get ideas about putting me in a starched suit, slicking my hair back, and teaching me diction." Flinx shuddered visibly. "I couldn't stand that. I'd go back to juggling and audience guessing games first. What about you, father of oafs? I've heard that the municipal troops have been harassing you again." The owner of the bar leaned his two-and-a-half-rneter-tall, one-hundred-seventy-five-kilo frame onto the absorbent wood-plastic counter, which creaked in protest. "Apparently the marketplace commissioner took it as a personal affront when I ejected the first group of officious do-gooders he sent round to close you down. Maybe I shouldn't have broken their vehicle. Now they are trying to be more subtle. I had one in just this week, who claimed to have observed me serving borderline minors certain hallucinogenic liquids." "Obviously you deserve to be strung up by your extremities," commented Flinx with mock solemnity. He, too, was underage for much of what Symm served him. "Anyway," the giant went on, "this heckster flies out of a back booth, flashes his municipal peace card, and tries to tell me I'm under arrest. He was going to take me in, and I had best come along quietly." Small Symm shook his massive head mournfully as Flinx downed several swallows. "What did you do?" He licked liquid from the corners of his mouth. "I really don't want any more trouble, certainly not another assault charge. I thought an inferential demonstration of a mildly physical nature might be effective in persuading the gentleman to change his Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html opinion. It was, and be left quietly." Symm gestured at Flinx's now empty mug. "Refill?" "Sure. What did you do?" he repeated. "I ate his peace card. Here's your beer." He slid a second mug alongside the first. Flinx understood Small Syrnm's gratification. He had his reputation to uphold. His was one of the few places in Drallar where a person could go at night with a guarantee of not being assaulted or otherwise set upon by rambunctious rovers. This was because Small Symm dealt impartially with all such disturbers of the peace. "Be back in a minute," Flinx told his friend. He slid off the stool and headed for the one room whose design and function had changed little in the past several hundred years. As soon as he stepped inside he was overwhelmed by a plethora of rich smells and sensations: stale beer, hard liquor, anxiety, tension, old water, dampness, fearful expectation. The combination of thick thoughts and airborne odors nearly overpowered him. Looking to his left, where the combination was strongest, he noticed a small twitch of a man watching him anxiously. Flinx observed the man's outward calm and felt his internal panic. He was holding an osmotic syringe in one hand, his finger coiled about it as-if it were a weapon. As Flinx started to yell for help, his rising cry was blanketed by the descent of something dark and heavy over his head. A mental cry was aborted by the cool efficiency of the syringe.... He awoke to find himself staring at a tumbled panoply of lights. They were spread out before and below him, viewed as they were through a wall and floor of transparent plastic. Slowly he struggled to a sitting position, which was accomplished with some difficulty since his wrists were manacled together by two chromed metal cuffs. A long tube of flexible metal ran off from them and disappeared among rich furniture. The chain meandered through the thick transparent carpet like a mirror- backed worm. Looking out, Flinx could see the lights that were the city-pulse of Drallar, dominated by the glowing spires of the King's palace off to the left. The view enabledhim to orient himself. Combining the position of the palace with the pattern of lower lights and the knowledge that he was several stories above ground indicated that he was being held captive in one of the four sealed inurbs of the city. These guarded, restrictive enclaves held the homes of the upper classes, of those native to Drallar and those off-worlders who had commerce here. His assailants, then, were more than gutter thieves. He was unable to pick tip any impressions nearby. At the moment the only alien sensation he could detect was a slight throbbing in the muscles of his upper right arm, where the syringe had struck home. A different kind of sensation was inspired by his own anger, anger directed at himself for not detecting the inimical emanations his attackers must have been putting out before he entered the bathroom. Suddenly he noticed another sensation missing, too. The comfortable weight of Pip was absent from his shoulders. "Hello," ventured a tiny, silvery voice. Spinning, Flinx found himself eye-to-eye with an angel. He relaxed, swung his feet off the couch, and regarded her in surprise. She could not have been more than nine or ten years old, was clad .in a powder blue- and-green fringed pantsuit with long sleeves of some transparent lacy material. Long blond hair fell Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html in manicured ripples to the backs of her thighs. Baby-blue eyes looked out at him from the high-boned face of a sophisticated cherub. "My name's Mahnahmi," she informed him softly, her voice running up and down like a piccolo trill, "what's yours?" "Everybody calls me Flinx." "Flinx." She was sucking on the knuckle of her big finger. "That's a funny name, but nice." A smile showed perfect pearly teeth. "Want to see what my daddy brought me?" "Daddy," Flinx echoed, looking around the room. It was dominated by the great curve of the transparent wall and balcony and the sparkling panorama laid out below. It was night outside ... but was it that same night? How long had he lain unconscious? No way to tell ... yet. The room was furnished in late Siberade: lush cushions, chairs and divan mounted on pencil-thin struts of duralloy, with everything else suspended from the ceiling by duralloy wires so thin that the rest of the furniture appeared to be floating in air. A massive spray of luminescent spodumene and kunzite crystals dominated the domed roof. They were surrounded by circular skylights now open to the star-filled night sky. Climatic adjusters kept the evening rain from falling into the room. His captor was a very wealthy person, Petulant-rich with nonattention, the girlish voice interrupted his inspection. "Do you want to see it or not?" Flinx wished the throb in his upper arm would sub- side. "Sure," he said absently. The smile returned as the girl reached into a suit pocket. She moved closer, proudly opened her fist to reveal something in the palm of her hand. Flinx saw that it was a miniature piano, fashioned entirely from filigree gold and real pearls. "It really plays," she told him excitedly. She touched the tiny keys and Flittx listened to the almost invisible notes. "It's for my dolly." "It's very pretty," Flinx complimented, remembering when such a toy would have cost him more credit than he ever thought he would possess. He glanced anxiously past her, "Where is your daddy right now?" "Over here." Flinx turned to the source of those simple, yet some- how threatening words. "No, I already know you're called Flinx," the man said, with a wave of one ring-laden hand. "I already know a good deal about you." Two men emerged from the globular shadow. One had a sunk-in skull half melted away by some tremendous heat and only crudely reconstructed by medicalengineers. His smaller companion exhibited more composure now than he had when he'd held the syringe on Flinx in the bathroom at Symm's. The merchant was talking again. "My name is' Conda Challis. You have perhaps heard of me?" Flinx nodded slowly. "I know of your company." Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html "Good,"" Challis replied. "It's always gratifying to be recognized, and it saves certain explanations." The uncomfortable pulsing in Flinx's shoulder was begin- ning to subside as the man settled his bulk in a waiting chair. A round, flat table of metal and plastic separated him from Flinx. The half-faced man and his stunted shadow made themselves comfortable—but not too comfortable, Flinx noted—nearby. "Mahnahmi, I see you've been entertaining oar guest," Challis said to the girl. "Now go somewhere and play like a good child." "No. I want to stay and watch." "Watch?" Flmx tensed. "Watch what?" "He's going to use the jewel. I know he is!" She turned to Challis. "Please let me stay and watch, Daddy! I won't say a word, I promise." "Sorry, child. Not this time." "Not this time, not this time," she repeated. "Yon never let me watch. Never, never, never!" As quick as a sun shower turns bright, her face broke into a wide smile. "Oh, all right, but at least let me say good-bye." When Challis impatiently nodded his approval she all but jumped into Flinx's arms. Much to his distress, she wrapped herself around him, gave him a wet smack on one cheek, and whispered into his right ear in a lilting, immature soprano, "Better do what he tells yon to, Flinx, or he'll rip out your guts." Somehow he managed to keep a neutral expression on his face as she pulled away with a disarmingly innocent smile. "Bye-bye. Maybe Daddy will let us play later." Turning, she skipped from the room, exiting through a doorway in the far wall. "An ... interesting little girl," Filax commented, swallowing. "Isn't she charming," Challis agreed. "Her mother was exceptionally beautiful." "You're married, then? You don't strike me as the type." The merchant appeared truly shocked. "Me, life- mated? My dear boy! Her mother was purchased right here in Drallar, a number of years ago. Her pedigree claimed she possessed exceptional talents. They turned out to be of a very minor nature, suitable for parlor tricks but little else. "However, she could perform certain other functions, so I didn't feel the money wholly wasted. The only drawback was the birth of that infant, resulting from my failure to report on time for a standard debiojection. I didn't think the delay would be significant." He shrugged. "But I was wrong. The mother pleased me, so I permitted her to have the child.... I tend to be hard on my property, however. The mother did not live long thereafter. At times I feel the child has inherited her mother's minuscule talents, but every attempt to prove so has met with failure." "Yet despite this, you keep her," Flinx noted curiously. For a second Challis appeared almost confused, a sensation which passed rapidly. Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html "It is not so puzzling, really. Considering the manner of the mother's death, of which the child is unaware, I feel some small sense of responsibility for her. While I have no particular love for infants, she obeys with an alacrity her older counterparts could emulate." He grinned broadly and Flinx had the impression of a naked white skull filled with broken icicles. "She's old enough to know that if she doesn't, I'll simply sell her." Challis leaned forward, wheezing with the effort of folding his chest over his protruding belly. "However, you were not brought here to discuss the details of my domestic life." "Then why was I brought here? I heard somethingabout a jewel. I know a little about good stones, but I'm certainly no expert." "A jewel, yes." Challis declined further oral explanation; instead, he manipulated several switches concealed by the far overhang of the table between them. The lights dimmed and Challis' pair of ominous attendants disappeared, though Flinx could sense their alert presence nearby. They were between him and the only clearly defined door. Flinx's attention was quickly diverted by a soft humming. As the top of the table slid to one side, he could see the construction involved. The table was a thick safe. Something rose from the central hollow, a sculpture of glowing components encircled by a spiderweb of thin wiring. At the sculpture's center was a transparent globe of glassalloy. It contained something that looked like a clear natural crystal about the size of a man's head. It glowed with a strange inner light. At first glance it resembled quartz, but longer inspection showed that here was a most unique silicate. The center of the crystal was hollow and irregular in outline. It was filled with maroon and green particles which drifted with dreamy slowness in a clear viscous fluid. The particles were fine as dust motes. In places they nearly reached to the edges of the crystal walls, though they tended to remain compacted near its middle. Occasionally the velvety motes would jerk and dart about sharply, as if prodded by some unseen force. Flinx stared into its shifting depths as if mesmerized. ... On Earth lived a wealthy man named Endrickson, who recently seemed to be walking about m o daze. His family was fond of him and he was well liked by his friends. He also held the grudging admiration of his competitors. En drickson, though he looked anything but sharp at the moment, was one of those peculiar geniuses who possesses no creative ability of his own, but who instead exhibits the rare power to marshal and direct the talents of those more gifted than himself. At 5:30 on the evening of the 25th of Fifth Month, Endrickson moved more slowly than usual through the heavily guarded corridors of The Plant. The Plant had no name—a precaution insisted on by nervous men whose occupation it was to worry about such things—and was built into the western slope of the Andes. As he passed the men and women and insectoid thranx who labored in The Plant, Endrickson nodded his greetings and was always gratified with respectful replies. They were all moving in the opposite direction, since the work day had ended for them. They were on their way—these many, many talented beings—to their homes in Santiago and Lima and New Delhi and New York, as well as to the Terran thranx colonies in the Amazon basin. One who was not yet off duty came stiffly to attention as Endrickson turned a corner in a last, shielded passage- way. On seeing that the visitor was not his immediate superior—a gentleman who wore Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html irritation, like his under- wear, outside his trousers—the well-armed guard relaxed. Endrickson, he knew, was everyone's friend. "Hello . . . Dav'is," the boss said slowly. The man saluted, then studied him intently, disturbed at his appearance. "Good evening, sir. Are you sure you're all right?" "Yes, thank you, Davis," Endrickson replied. "I had a last-minute thought ... won't be long." He seemed to be staring at something irregular and shiny that he held cupped in one palm. "Do you want to see my identity card?" The guard smiled, processed the necessary slip of treated plastic, and admitted Endrickson to the chamber beyond which contained the shop, a vast cavern made even vaster by precision engineering and necessity. This was the heart of The Plant. Moving with assurance, Endrickson walked down the ramp to the sealed floor of the enlarged cavern, passing enormous machines, long benches, and great constructs of metal and other materials. The workshop was deserted now. It would remain so until the early-morning shift come on five hours later. One-third of the way across the floor he halted before an imposing door of dun-colored metal, the only break in o solid wall of the same material that closed off a spacious section of the cavern. Using his tree hand while still staring at the thing in his other hand, he pulled out a small ring that held several metal cylinders. He selected a cylinder, pressed his thumb into the recessed area at one end of it, then inserted the other into a small hole in the door and shoved forward. A complex series of radiations was produced and absorbed by the doorway mechanism. These passed judgment on both the cylinder and the person holding it. Satisfied that the cylinder was coded properly and that ifs owner was of a stable frame of mind, the door sang soft acquiescence and shrank info the floor. Endrickson 'passed through and the door noted his passage, then rose to close the gap behind him. A not quite finished device loomed ahead, nearly filling this part of the cavern. It was surrounded by an attending army of instruments: monitoring devices, tools in repose, checkout panels and endless crates of assorted com- ponents. Endrickson ignored this familiar collage as he headed purposefully for a single black panel. He thoughtfully eyed the switches and controls thereon, then used another of his ring cylinders to bring the board to life. Lights came on obediently and gauges registered for his inspection. The vast bulk of the unfinished KK-drive starship engine loomed above him. Final completion would and could take place only in free space, since the activated posigrovity field of the drive interacting with a planet's gravitational field would produce a series of quakes and tectonic adjustments of cataclysmic proportions. But that fact didn't concern Endrickson just now. A far more intriguing thought had overwhelmed him. Was the drive unit complete enough to function? he wondered. Why not observe the interesting possibilities firsthand? He glanced at the beauty in his palm, then used a second cylinder to unlock a tightly sealed box at one Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html end of the block beard. Beneath the box were several switches, all enameled' a bright crimson. Endrickson heard a klaxon yell shrilly somewhere, but he ignored the alarm as he pressed switches in proper order. His anticipation was enormous. With the fluid-state switches activated, instructions began flowing through the glass-plastic-metal monoIith. For off on the other side of the locked door, Endrickson cou!d hear people shouting, running. Meanwhile the drive's thermomdear spark was activated and Endrickson saw full engagement register on the appropriate monitors. He nodded with satisfaction. Final relays interlocked, communicated with the computermind built into the engine. For a brief second the Kurita-Kita field was brought into existence. Momentarily the thought flashed through Endrickson's mind that this was something that should never be done except in the deep reaches of free space. But his last thoughts were reserved for the exquisite loveliness and strange words locked within the object he held in his hand. ... Had the unit been finished there might have been a major disaster. But it was not complete, and so the Field collapsed quickly, unable to sustain itself and to expand to its full, propulsive diameter. So, although windows were shattered and a few older buildings toppled and the Church of Santa Avila de Seville's ancient steeple cracked six hundred kilometers away in downtown Valparaiso, only a few things in the immediate vicinity showed any significant alteration, However, Endrickson, The Plant, and the nearby technologic community of Santa Rosa de Cristobal (pop. 3,200) vanished. The 13,352-meter-high mountain at whose base the town had risen and in whose bowels The Plant had been carved was replaced by a 7,200-mefer-deep crater fined with molten glass. But since logic insisted the event could have been nothing other than on accident, it was so ruled by the experts called upon to produce an explanation—experts who did not have access to the same beauty which had so totally bedazzled the now-vaporized Endrickson. ... Flinx blinked, awakening from the Janus jewel's tantalizing loveliness. It continued to pulse with its steady, natural yellow luminescence. "Did yon ever see one before?" Challis inquired. "No. I've heard of them, though. I know enough to recognize one." Challis must have touched another concealed switch because a low-intensity light sprang to life at the table's edge. Fumbling with a drawer built into the table, the merchant then produced a small boxy affair which resembled an abstract carving of a bird in flight, its wings on the downbeat. It was designed to fit on a human head. A few exposed wires and modules broke the device's otherwise smooth lines. "Do you know what this is?" the merchant asked, Flinx confessed he did not. "It's the operator's headset," Challis explained slowly, placing it over his stringy hair. "The headset and the machinery encapsulated in that table transcribe the thoughts of the human mind and convey them to the jewel. The jewel has a certain property."