He paused. How could he explain in calm, logical words the sense of apartness, of alienness, he had received? How could he describe that shock, that experience which contradicted all he accepted with every sense he possessed, something that struck at the id, the ego, the emotions - everything?
He opened his mouth, trying to find words. But the words did not exist. The nearest way of expressing what he felt was to give vent to a shout of horror, agony - triumph. He didn't feel inclined to try.
So he shut his mouth and continued to pace the cabin, running his ugly hand over the firing arm of the big anti-neutron gun which had never been used. It was a savage weapon and he hoped there would never be need to use it.
Nuclear weapons of any sort made him uncomfortable. His strange sixth sense was as aware of the disruption of atoms as it was of their presence in natural state. It was an experience close to agony to sense the disruptive blast of atomic weapons. The anti-neutron cannon, beaming particles of anti-matter, was an even more terrible experience for him.
Once, as a child, he had been close to the area of a multi-megaton bomb explosion and his whole mind had blanked out under the strain of the experience. It had taken doctors a year to pull him back to sanity. Now he was stronger, better co-ordinated - but it was still not pleasant to be in a space flight.
Also, he loathed violence, considering it was the easy way out and, like many easy ways out, not a way out at all but only continuation of a vicious circle. So whenever possible he avoided it.
However, he was prepared, in this case, to use it - if it meant using it against anything in the Shifter which attempted to stop him in his avowed objective.
Renark had geared himself to drive towards one aim, and one only. Already he was driving towards it and nothing - nobody - would stop him. He was dedicated, he was fanatical - but he was going to get results if that was possible. If it wasn't possible, then he'd die trying to make it possible.
Soon, now - very soon - the Shifter would enter their area of space. He was going there. The Shifter offered the only chance in the universe of supplying him with the information he needed.
He glanced back at Talfryn, who was still studying the records.
'Any clearer?' he asked.
Talfryn shook his head and grinned.
'I can just understand how the Shifter orbits through dimensions hitherto unknown to us, in the same way as we orbit through time and space, but the implications are too big for me. I'm bewildered. I'm no physicist.'
'Neither am I,' Renark pointed out. 'If I were I might not be so affected by the Shifter. For instance, there's something peculiar about any system comprised of a G-type binary star and eleven planets all equidistant from it - something almost artificial. If it is artificial - how did it happen?'
'Maybe it's the other way about,' Talfryn suggested vaguely. 'Maybe the planets all being the same distance away from the parent suns has something to do with the peculiar nature of the system. If they area natural freak, could this have caused the Shifter's orbit?'
Renark nodded. He thought for a moment before he said:
'If you take for granted that Time is cyclic in accordance with the other known laws of the universe - although, as you well know, my own experiments seem to prove that there is more than one particular time flow operating in our own universe - if you take that for granted, however, we can describe the rest by means of circles.'
He walked to the chair where he had left his stylus and pad, picked them up and moved over the chart table.
'The Shifter orbits this way' - he drew a circle - 'whereas we progress this way.' He drew a half-circle cutting horizontally through the first circle.
'Imagine that we have a finite number of space-time continua each with some mutually shared laws.' He drew a number of other half-circles below and above the first. They're all, like us, travelling this way. There is no contact between us but we exist side by side without being aware of each other's presence, all revolving in different sets of dimensions.'
Talfryn nodded.
'Imagine that the normal continua, as we understand the word normal, are orbiting horizontally, as it were. Then imagine that the Shifter is orbiting vertically. Therefore, instead of going its way without ever touching other alternate universes, its course takes it through them.'
'But wouldn't it take millions of years to complete a cycle like that?'
'Not necessarily. We know it doesn't, because we can't use temporal and spatial values and apply them to something as different as the Shifter. It has rules of its own which seem erratic to us but are probably as ordered in relation to itself as ours are to us.'
'You've got to take quite a bit for granted,' Talfryn sighed.
'Our scientists have been doing extensive research into the "multiverse" theory. They're pretty convinced.'
'Life and the universe,' said Talfryn, seating himself in a chair, 'are getting too complicated.'
Renark laughed shortly. 'One thing's clear, Talfryn - there 'are going to be a lot of mysteries solved and a lot of new ones started when we reach the Shifter. No one has ever returned from it.'
He glanced up suddenly. A light was blinking on the control panel.
'That's the intercom,' he said. 'Might be Asquiol or one of the engineers. Could you deal with it, Paul?'
Talfryn walked over and picked up the instrument He flipped a switch but no picture appeared on the screen. He listened briefly and then turned back to regard Renark.
'Asquiol's here - and he's brought that girl with him.'
'What?' Renark for a moment lost his equilibrium. 'Why?'
'That's the other thing - that's why they came here so fast. The Geepees have arrived - they're looking for you!'
Renark pursed his lips. He should have been ready for a police raid but he had been so busy explaining the Shifter to Talfryn that he hadn't been on the look out for them.
Asquiol and Willow Kovacs stepped out of the elevator.
Asquiol said nervously: 'Sorry about this, Renark - but these are my terms.'
Renark shrugged. 'Terms?' He leant over the control panel adjusting dials. 'What's happening out there?'
'The Geepees are scouring Migaa asking if you're there. I got out as fast as I could. They'd be likely to recognise me and connect me with you.'
'Good.'
'You're willing to have Willow along on the trip?'
'You've told her the risks?'
'Yes.'
Renark sighed. 'I thought this might happen - knowing you. But I want you with us - and even if she's included in your conditions, I'm willing to concede to them.'
Renark forced away his irritation. There was no room for petty emotions in his plans. Only he knew what hung on his reaching the Shifter and discovering its nature and its cause.
Matters of personalities could not be considered. Action, not argument, was required of him now.
He had to pray that the Geepees wouldn't discover him before the Shifter materialised. They'd have to sit tight and wait it out. With any luck the Geepees wouldn't make a search of the ships on the pads until after they had scoured the town.
Renark beamed a message to the engineers, telling them to clear away their equipment and leave the ship in readiness for take-off.
Then he sat in his chair and waited.
An hour passed.
Willow seemed uncomfortable, sitting there in her immaculate sheath dress, listening to the men talking and going over the equations Renark had made, the records of the Shifter, theories which had been put forward.
Renark said: 'Rumour has it that this planet has a large human colony. I think we should head for that - number eight by my reckoning. You can see I've marked it.'