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minutes before the scheduled time of the briefing was an indication of their excitement at recent events. It
was an excitement Mark felt himself. After months when nothing seemed to have been happening,
suddenly there was activity aplenty. Their long delayed mission to a Broan-held star was about to get
underway.
It had been more than two months since the gravity wave observatory had first detected a
stargate-induced gravity wave. That had come from a star system some three hundred light-years farther
from the galaxy s center than Hideout. The position vector had not been near Sar-Say and Lisa s
estimate as to the direction to the Zzumer sun, but it had been in a direction generally opposite the vector
to Earth.
That was potentially good news. It was their second indication that the bulk of the Broan Sovereignty lay
outboard of the Crab Nebula. If true, it meant that humanity had no reason to fear that a Broan listening
post would one day pick up Earth s expanding bubble of radio noise. The first radio waves from Earth
would not arrive in this vicinity for a span of time longer than the one in which humans had inhabited
cities.
On the other hand, one detected system and another presumed one were insufficient data to justify any
sweeping generalizations as to the location and extent of the Broan Sovereignty. The location of the
Broan stars was one of the most important things they had come to discover.
As he finished distributing the briefing books, Mark noted that the auditorium was filling faster than he
had realized. More than half the seats had filled while he concentrated on his task. Up on the dais --
another shipping container, this one for some unidentified piece of oversize equipment -- Captain
Landon, Captain Heinrich ofMagellan , and Captain Erickson ofColumbus , were conferring with Dr.
Thompson, Mark s boss.
Mark turned to retrace his steps to the front of the artificial cavern and noticed Sar-Say enter the
auditorium. The pseudo-simian moved through the door in his space-eating knuckle walk. Lisa followed
closely behind her charge and directed him toward the dais. She answered Mark s wave with a broad
smile. The two of them had not seen much of each other sinceMagellan andColumbus returned from
their scouting expedition. Both had been too busy at their respective jobs -- Mark assisting the
expedition s astronomers reduce the two ships long range observations, Lisa helping Sar-Say transcribe
some of their communications intercepts.
Lisa and Sar-Say took their places on the dais at one minute before 10:00 hours, with Mark 15 seconds
behind them. Then, precisely on schedule, Captain Landon rose and strode to the lectern, which looked
oddly out of place amid the ad hoc collection of boxes and crates. It had been acquired from one of the
starships and was constructed of polished mahogany, with built-in lamp and holoscreen controls. The
holoscreen was suspended from the rock ceiling. It currently showed a misty cloud of static within its
vue-space.
 Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, Dan Landon began in a quiet, conversational tone.  We are here
to review the results of the scouting mission just completed byMagellan andColumbus . To start off, I
give you Dr. Thompson of the astronomy department. He will set the scene by discussing the target star
and its planetary system. Dr. Thompson& 
Willem Thompson was a small, balding man with a facial tic that had become more pronounced over the
last three days. The nervous habit was evidence of the strain he had been under since the two starships
dropped several terabytes of astronomical observations on his department. Despite the fact that he had
been up all night preparing the briefing, he moved to the podium with a spring in his step -- a natural
consequence of Brinks s one-third gravity. As quickly as Dan Landon vacated the lectern, Will
Thompson punched up the first holograph. It showed a view of the Crab Nebula and surrounding space
out to five hundred light-years. One particular point of light was blinking a bright crimson.
 Here you see the star we have dubbed Orpheus. We detected it some 58 days ago when a gravity
wave from its stargate passed through this system. It is currently the only unambiguous jump wave we
have identified, although the instruments may have had indications of two others.
Dr. Thompson paused a moment to gaze at the audience.  Before we go any further, I would like to
impress upon each of you the significance of that gravity wave that rolled through this system two months
ago. The distance between Hideout and Orpheus is 287 light-years. Like all other wave phenomena in
normal space, gravity waves propagate at the speed of light. That means that the jump wave we detected
came from a ship that transited the Orpheus system almost three centuries ago!
 Never forget that the Broa had stargates before we humans invented steam engines. It is possible that
the first Broan conquerors were contemporaries of Julius Caesar. I hope that thought will give you pause
when it comes time to make contact with these aliens. No matter what you think of them, it would be
disastrous for our race to underestimate their knowledge and power.
Thompson touched the holoscreen control. The view changed to show a small, yellow star with six
planets around it. A violet-tinged stargate symbol flashed not too far from the third world out from the
yellow star.
 This, ladies and gentlemen, is the Orpheus system. There may be more planets than we have displayed [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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