“Not since long. When changes came, travel ended. No thing came, no thing went.”
“Do you have other powers? One of us is hurt.” Darya pointed to Ben Blesh. “He needs help.”
“We cannot help. We are Guardian of Travel.”
“Do you still have that power?”
“We do not know. Perhaps. No thing came, no thing went for long since.”
“You must try to help us. If we stay here, we will all die.”
“Die?”
“Cease to exist. Become inorganic. No longer possess sentience. If we stay here, we must die.”
“In how long time?”
“Too soon to measure, on your scale of things. We need help at once.”
“We cannot help. Perhaps we can send you. Perhaps not. But first we must know other information. Information that is important to us.”
Hans murmured, more to himself than to the others, “You see, it’s the same all over the galaxy. You never get something for nothing. It wants to trade us, information for help.”
“We’re not in a great bargaining position.” Darya turned again to the sphere. “What do you want to know?”
“We seek to know what happened to this world. To this stellar system. It was not planned this way. This was to be a—a connect point. We, Guardian of Travel, were to serve as a center of passage, to and from many, many places. Instead, we have become Guardian of Not-Travel. The ways from here are few. They have gone from many to one. The outside of this world has changed from passage to non-passage. Can you explain?”
“I don’t even understand the question. I’ll tell you what we know, but it isn’t much. Some other great force is at work in this arm of the galaxy. We know little about it, except that it seems separate from the Builders, and it works against the Builders. What they form, it destroys. What they build, it makes useless. This world is an example. It is possible to land here, but anything that does so will be, as we were, in danger of destruction. One member of our group already died. The rest of us were lucky to survive for as long as we have. Even if we knew a way to go out again to the surface of this world, we dare not do so. We would surely be killed.”
The sphere was silent for so long that Darya said at last, “Do you not understand me? Do you not believe me?”
“Believe you? Not believe you? We cannot say. The right word is . . . we do not comprehend you. It is not possible for a force to arise within this galaxy that could match the Builders, or threaten their works.”
“Until recently I would have agreed with you completely. Now I can only tell you how it seems to us. Will you help?”
“We can try to send you. That is all.”
“To a place of our choice? We would like to return to our ship, which orbits the star of this system.”
“That is not possible. We said already, the ways from here are gone from many to one. We can send you, but to only one place. One world.”
“Which world?”
“We have no name for it. It is a world.”
“Wait one moment.” Darya turned to the other two. “Not much of a choice. Either we stay here, or we go to some place we’ve never heard of and never been.”
“That’s a no-brainer.” Hans gestured at the bare walls surrounding them. “Stay here, and we die. Go somewhere else, anywhere else, maybe we live.” He said to Guardian of Travel, “This place you would send us to. What is it like?”
“Like? It is not like here.”
“That’s wonderful, just what we needed to know. Where will we be if we go? Do we arrive at a ship in orbit, on a world, at the middle of a star, what?”
“You would wish to go to the middle of a star?”
“No! Look, what sort of place would you send us to?”
“A world. A planet. A special place, of unique importance to those who made me.”
“Will we be able to breathe the air?” Darya turned to the other two. “The Principle of Convergence may not apply in the Sag Arm. We expect habitable planets to develop similar atmospheres, but suppose it isn’t true here?”
The sphere trembled and said, “Unless you need different from what was made here, you will be able to breathe the air of the other world. Do you wish us to try to transport you?”
“Not yet. Is this world inhabited?”
“We do not know.”
“Does it have life?”
“It did. But our information is old.”
“We have to take a chance. It looks like our best option. Our only option.” Darya looked to Hans and Ben for agreement, then said to the sphere, “Very well. If you can send us to this other world, do it.”
“We will attempt. One question: do you wish to be on the surface, or in orbit around that world, or elsewhere?”
Hans said, “Darya, are you sure we’re communicating with it?” And to the sphere, “The surface, of course. Why would we want to be in orbit?”
“We do not know. Your kind is alien to us. For the world where you are going, there are other choices. You could if you wish go to the world center, where a Builder super-vortex waits.”
“And does what?”
“It waits. When it is used, it changes the rotation speed of the world. It makes it slower, or faster. It was used, but not for long.”
“That’s not something we need or want. Thanks, but no thanks. The surface will be fine.”
“Then if you will prepare yourselves, we will seek to make necessary arrangement. One more question. Do you expect to return here?”
“We are not sure. Perhaps.”
“In case you do, a transfer field will be maintained for your use on the world of your arrival. It will be opened at regular intervals. It will not move. You should mark its exact location in case you wish to enter it.”
As the sphere sank slowly back into the floor, Darya said to Hans, “Why on earth did you tell Guardian of Travel we might return here? Do you think we will be coming back?”
“Not if I can help it. I wanted to keep all our options open.”
“If we return here, it will be to die.”
“I know. Maybe I felt kind of sorry for it. It sits here waiting for umpteen million years while nothing happens. Then we arrive, and after an hour of talk we’re off again. And it sits another zillion years by itself.”
“Hans, that’s ridiculous. It was in stasis all that time. It as good as said so. You don’t feel sorry for Builder constructs. If you’re going to feel sorry for anybody, feel sorry for us. At least Guardian of Travel knows what’s going to happen to it. We have no idea. Look at that.”
That was a funnel of blackness, rising at the center of the chamber.
Ben stared uneasily, and tried to back closer to the wall. “What is it? Are we going to die?”
Hans snorted. “Yes. Everybody does. But it won’t happen to us yet. That’s a Builder transport vortex, a fairly small one. We have to move into it if we want to escape from here. Don’t worry, it feels strange when you are inside, as though you are being torn in a hundred directions at once. But you’re not. You come out at the other end in one piece.”
“Come out where?”
“Ah, that’s the question of the year. Some world where we’ll be able to breathe the air, some special planet with a Builder super-vortex at its center. And that’s all we know. A place where we can find something to eat and drink would be nice. At the very least, I hope we find something like trees and sticks so we splint your arm.” Hans looked at Darya. “Are we ready?”
“Might as well. Waiting won’t do any good. I’ll go first.”
Darya stepped forward into the black funnel. A cloud like a spray of black oil rose to engulf her body, and she vanished.