"Kara," Iain said, his voice tense, "stand by for maneuver. Program a blink and stand by."
"Got it," Kara said, obeying without question.
"You wanted a response, boss," Iain said. "Take a look at screen two."
No less than half a dozen ships were lifting from the surface of the planet from different locations.
"Life search, Kara," Iain ordered.
"Negative, negative," Kara said, a few seconds later. "You're not going to believe this. Those ships have hydrogen fusion engines."
"Damned small plants, then," Vinn said. "They must take up most of the room aboard."
"Room for a few of those," Iain said, as a shower of missiles were launched from the climbing ships.
"Can you handle all of those?" Vinn asked nervously.
"Sure. It's just a matter of whether we want to blast them or evade them," Iain said. "If that's all our friend down there has, its weaponry doesn't match the feat of deep freezing a whole world. I can take the missiles out or blink away and let them blast on into empty space."
"And the ships?" Pete asked.
"I think that we can safely assume that they're hostile," Iain said.
"I think so," Pete said.
"I'm going to take one out," Iain said.
The long-range saffer beam exploded into brilliance as it entered the planet's thin atmosphere, but the flare of destruction as it contacted the leading attacker was brighter.
"I think that it's time you gave your attention to the missiles," Kara said. "If they carry nuclear warheads—and that seems logical since they're using a fusion power plant—we don't need to have them being detonated anywhere nearby."
"Got you," Iain said, and for the next forty seconds the ship shivered and rocked with the launching of counter missiles. Below, in the thin atmosphere, flowers of destruction blossomed.
"Shields up," Kara said, as a glow of light came from a ship that was still climbing out of the planet's gravity well.
"Laser?" Vinn asked.
"Limited range," Iain said. "I'm going to have to take out the other ships before they get closer. The shields would hold, I'm sure, but I'm not in the mood to take chances."
"I agree," Vinn said.
The saffer beam glowed. One by one the small vessels flared and disintegrated.
"Did anyone pinpoint the launch sites?" Vinn asked.
"All launch sites recorded," Kara said.
"Let's have a look at one."
The optics showed a rapidly closing hole in the surface ice. "Iain," Vinn asked, "can you use the saffer on lower power to melt a neat hole through to the surface just where that missile rested?"
"Consider it done," Iain said.
When the ice was melted and the water evaporated away, a closed, circular hatch was exposed.
"Want a look inside?" Iain asked.
"If you please, sir," Vinn said.
"Takes a delicate touch," Iain said, adjusting the saffer beam.
Metal went molten, sparkled away into the thin air. There was a flare of fire.
"Oxygen atmosphere inside," Iain said.
"Curious," Vinn said. "The spacecraft was unmanned, but came from an oxygen environment."
"We will talk," Sarah said.
"What?" Pete asked.
"Now we will talk," Sarah repeated, her voice flat and unemotional.
"Sarah?" Vinn asked, leaping up to put his hand on her arm.
She looked at Vinn and nodded. "It wants to talk," she said.
A soft gong rang and the computer's monitor came to life. Words formed quickly on the screen.
"Further destruction is not desirable."
Kara's fingers flew. "Who are you?"
"It is not necessary."
"What?" Kara asked.
"It is not necessary."
"It is not necessary for me to use the keyboard?" Kara asked.
"Affirmative."
"Who are you?" Vinn asked.
"I am that which was created."
"By whom?" Vinn asked.
"By the Creators."
"Why have you killed?" Sarah asked. She leaned forward, waiting for the answer to appear on the computer's screen.
"Let them sleep, for when they awaken the universe will tremble."
"You didn't answer my question, damn you," Sarah said. "Why did you kill my family?"
"I watch."
"And murder," Sarah whispered.
"Now we will talk."
"We are ready to talk," Vinn said. "Tell us why it was necessary for you to kill."
"I did not yet know that the time had come."
"What time has come?" Pete asked sharply.
"The time to talk."
The screen flickered. An image of the surface formed and as they watched ice shattered, cracked, parted to reveal a gray metal surface. Like a lens opening a circular cavity appeared. Words were superimposed over the image.
"You will come."
"What happened to the vessel called the Erin Kenner?" Vinn asked.
The image of the local sun, showing a series of flares reaching hungrily into space, appeared on the screen.
"A woman was aboard, a woman with long blonde hair and green eyes."
Vinn's heart pounded as an image of Sheba came to the screen to be consumed instantly by a blast of white.
"Why?" Sarah cried.
The images were in their minds. Among a field of closely crowded starsswam planets that, from a distance, showed the most wonderful color ever seen from the emptiness of space, the blue of a water world. A closer view of one planet showed the brown and green of continents, the feathery pattern of weather systems, the wide blue of oceans. With dizzying swiftness the viewpoint closed to show the graceful towers of a city.
Vehicles crawled along the streets, soared through the sky. It was not possible to distinguish the details of tiny figures on the walks and the streets, but it was apparent that they walked on two legs. The towers were painted in bright, complementary colors, and the architectural styling was delicate.
Suddenly the spires that reached into the sky trembled, crumbled.
Structures twisted, imploded. The crawling vehicles and the tiny figures were buried by falling debris. Flying vehicles fell from the sky to smash into the chaos. A longer view showed a storm of fire consuming the green forests. A pall of dust and smoke hid the world for long seconds and then, events having been obviously accelerated, they saw a barren globe. Even the atmosphere had been burned away. Everything on the surface had been reduced to rubble so small that no tiny piece could give a clue as to its origin.
There were other dead worlds. They were displayed one by one and then there was a moment of silence in the control room of the Crimson Rose.
The computer screen glowed. "I watch to assure that it will never happen again."
"You're right, it's time for us to talk," Vinn said.
"Come, then."
"When our friends came to you, you killed them," Vinn said.
"I did not know then that you were they who will come."
"We'll talk as we are talking," Vinn said. "At least for a while. What you've shown us happened long ago. You are old. Things are not as they once were. We are a peaceful people."
"You go armed."
"Yes, because we've seen the dead worlds," Vinn said. "Yes, because theuniverse is so vast and we know only a miniscule portion of our own galaxy. If we didn't go armed, we'd be dead now at your hands."
"You are not dead. You are they who have come."
"And you are—" Vinn did not put the concept into words. He pictured a core, a regularly spaced grid, and into his mind came corrections. The central storage areas of the Watcher were compact, occupying no more than three cubic yards of space inside a shell of force constructed of shaped gravitational waves. The ganglia of the Watcher's nervous system extended around the globe and were connected not only to the icing units but to hundreds of launch sites occupied by small ships, to an array of sensor and detection instruments. One large area was a blank in the image projected by the Watcher.
"You still have something to hide from us," Vinn said.