"Two questions," Seever spoke slowly, choosing his words carefully. "First, why would they have moved the shield? It seems to me you're passing over that question very casually, and you admit you haven't an answer. Second, why do you have to find the ships, or one of them, to leave a message? I could see it as a problem when your friends might have been anywhere on Earth, but you now seem sure they're on Ell at least some of the time, why not paint a message un-obtrusively under the dock?"
Bob sighed. "The second answer is the same as it always was. We still have to avoid attracting human attention. A message with any usable detail will be regular and complex enough to get not just attention but real curiosity. Both the Hunter and I feel we can't afford that. For the other point, granted it may be important but we don't see how it can affect our plans. We'd love to figure out the answer, or have someone ' else come up with a convincing one. Until someone does, we'll have to wonder."
The doctor was silent for at least a minute. "I still don't like it," he said last. "I was hoping the Hunter might recognize it as some sort of standard procedure with his police. Maybe it's not important, but I don't like jigsaw puzzles with big gaps in them, especially when there are no pieces lying around. However, we'll have to live with the situation, I guess. You really can't think of a reason, Hunter?"
"I can think of several," the alien relayed through Bob. "It isn't just a matter of police procedure, which is not itself just a matter of following rules. There are dozens or hundreds of situations in which moving the shield would be the obvious thing to do. I was going to do it myself if we had found it on Apu, in an attempt to backtrack to the other ship. Clearly, whoever did it this time was not backtracking.''
"Why not?" asked Jenny. "Do you really know the other ship didn't land in the lagoon?"
"Of course not," the alien replied, but backtracking on the comparatively open and smooth lagoon floor would be pointless; from what I've seen, one could go anywhere with equal ease. I was hoping, though not very strongly, that there would be only a few lines of possible travel outside the reef. Anyway, Doctor, I have little doubt that when we do find out why the thing was moved we'll agree it was a good, sound reason, but I don't think I'll be embarrassed for not guessing beforehand what it was. There are just too many good possibilities."
Seever nodded acceptance of the point, and went on talking.
"All right. That leaves us with straight procedure-, problems. We've made the diagnosis; we have to plan the operation. It seems to consist of hanging this, gadget over the side of a boat in all the reasonable places we can think of. These unfortunately include the ocean to the west of the reef, which means we have to keep the machine from getting tangled in bottom coral, and also keep the boat off the reef itself. If you think the crash may have occurred within the reef, I'm completely stumped on what you can do. Bluntly, I very much dislike the idea of taking Jenny's boat outside to windward, and the west side is windward most of the time. You'll have to be careful. I won't forbid it, but I hope you'll use common sense.
"Personally, I'd strongly advise getting a better boat-no reflection on yours, Daughter, but I'd be much happier if you had power available. Since I think it would be silly to trail the detector overside blindly, you should wait for the diving gear that Arthur has ordered; and I'd spend the interval finding a powered craft and arranging to borrow it. You'll also have to try tying your work schedule with those of the people helping you; remember, you won't have as much free time as you like. You do start work shortly, I assume?"
"I'd almost forgotten," Bob admitted. "You haven't come up with any excuse, I take it."
"None that would hold up if you're going to be seen, diving several hours a day. Of course, you could take Old Toke into the secret and have him put you to work looking for spaceships."
"We've been through all that. No, thanks."
"Well, we've been through this too, but here it comes again. I think we're going to need more people to get the job done. Your father and I won't be able to help much, on simple time criteria. Your mother may be free a little more of the day, but she has Daphne to take care of at unpredictable times. I can let Jenny off, of course, to suit the needs of the situation, but neither she nor anyone else should be out there alone."
"She wouldn't be alone. I'll be there."
"And if one of your interesting medical problems rears its head-especially if you're under water?"
"Well-" Bob fell silent.
"Remember, if I do the recruiting no one will doubt your sanity. I'm willing to let them doubt mine."
"You shouldn't be. You're the only doctor on Ell, if they lose confidence in you, you won't be here long."
"I can prove what I say."
"So could I," retorted Bob, "if anyone would pay attention. The trouble is talking to someone who's walking off shaking his head." "Have you ever had that happen?"
"No. I'm going by what I'd do myself. Be honest Doc. When I first told you about the Hunter, what would you have done if you hadn't considered it your medical duty to humor me?" It was Seever's turn to be silent.
"All right," he said at last. "But there are people who would normally humor me."
"Your wife, of course," admitted Bob. "But who else?"
"She'll do to start with. In addition, I'd take a chance on the Teroa girl you've already set wondering about you. She's known to be extremely competent in the water. I'll bet she could cover a good deal of the area you want to search, even before the diving equipment arrives."
The Hunter had already considered this point and added his voice to the argument, but Bob was still under the pressure of over seven years' conditioning, He had not been able to bring himself to veto Seever's request to tell his wife, and had even managed to tell Jennyhimself, for reasons which were still not clear to him; but that was as far as he wanted to go for the moment. He didn't phrase it just that way, but both the doctor and the symbiont could see the situation. They gave up for the time being, and the group went back to the logistics problem of planning a way which would give Bob a full day's work without his troubles' being spotted. This seemed to be Seever's business.
"I still haven't found an argument which will get you entirely off work and yet let you go diving, except the one you reject,' the doctor said slowly. "I may, though, beable to come up with something which will keep you away from heavy muscle work.
"There were enough peculiar results in your blood tests to write a good monograph. There is something odd about your calcium. The Hunter isn't doing a perfect job with your sugar. I don't think you'd clot even a pinprick without him, and you don't seem to have any adrenaline at all. He must be doing something or supplying something that does an equivalent job or you'd be pretty dead, but it isn't adrenaline. I can honestly report that your tests are peculiar, but. .."
Seever let his voice trail off.