The little knot of seniors closed ranks behind her. Ashili held her breath.

A tentacle waved artfully. “You misinterpret. I am directed to return home. I have a responsibility.”

“You have a responsibility to the world which sheltered you and this ship for a thousand millennia. If it hadn’t been such a safe haven, you might not be in a position to return home. Where are your ethics?”

“Section twenty-four, level six,” the Drex replied. “My ship sheltered me; not you, not your world.”

“It won’t trouble your conscience that you could maybe have prevented the deaths of thousands of innocent intelligent beings? You can just fly off into tachyspace knowing that will always be in the back of your mind, to trouble your waking hours and torment your sleep? What would your mother-equivalent say?”

The Drex stared at Ashili. “Your physical technology may be primitive, but your mental weaponry is distressingly advanced. How does anyone stand it?”

“Time has inured us.” Shimoda regarded the alien placidly.

Tentacles twitched. Two became entangled and the Drex had to spend a minute sorting them out. “It is true that this vessel was designed to combat large enemy forces, but even if under my guidance it were to turn that which approaches, there is still the suggestion of a much larger force beyond. The military science of the Drex is more advanced than you can imagine, but it is not omnipotent. If you think I rested for a million years only to get my ship and myself vaporized on behalf of a bunch of primitive, swarming non-Drex, then it is your logic which is very much at fault.”

It was all so very circular, Victor Iranaputra realized with a start. Like the wheel of life. Like lives, arguments, and solutions were continually being reincarnated. He took a hesitant step forward.

“Tell me: Have your people ever met any other intelligent species, besides this enemy?”

“No.”

“You are wrong. You have now met us. Is that not something worth protecting?”

“Why? What could your kind possibly do for the great and all-powerful Drex? You are minuscule in stature, your science is primitive, and I venture to say that your other accomplishments, such as they may be, are of comparable worth.”

“Do not judge our entire species by the six of us. What we lack in size we make up in numbers, and we have weapons which could eventually destroy this ship as well as those of the enemy. Not only could we be your allies, we may be the only ones you ever find.”

Seeing where Iranaputra was leading, an excited Ashili took up the refrain. “The universe is a vast and lonely place, even for such as the Drex. Where else are you going to find others to amuse you? Where else are you going to find another intelligence to talk with? We’re good at conversation.”

The alien let out a vast, sonorous exhalation. “That I could not deny even if I wished. You trouble me like fungus.”

“It’s not good for anyone to be alone, especially an entire species,” Gelmann said. “I know. I’ve seen the results. It’s just one foolish tribal argument after another.”

“You mean you haven’t been asked to settle them all?”

The alien’s sarcasm went right past her, just like that of her male companions had for years. “Not yet.”

“We can offer you friendship, amusement, military assistance, and … differentness,” Ashili deposed hopefully.

“Certainly the last.” The Drex was having trouble with its tentacles again. “A species so utterly given over to endless verbal expostulation could not in maddest meditation be imagined. Are you bred for argumentation?”

“Only a select few,” Shimoda ventured helpfully.

“You speak of Drex strength,” Gelmann went on. “Of the power of this great ship. Are you saying now that it wouldn’t have a chance against this enemy, you should excuse any personal implications?”

“Of course it would have a chance.” Red pupils widened and contracted. “Why am I even wasting waking time talking to you like this?”

“Because it’s nice to have someone to talk to, isn’t it?” Gelmann persisted. “Even if that someone is puny and primitive. Because from what I’ve seen and heard of you so far, you should pardon the foolish presumption of an insignificant creature, the Drex were as gregarious as humankind. For all you know, we may be all you have left to talk to.”

“We may be small in stature,” commented Shimoda incongruously, “but we have great ideas and considerable ambitions.”

“All right, enough!” Everyone but Gelmann flinched as the alien roared. “There are systems which could usefully be rechecked before the main drive is engaged. I will delay long enough to conduct further analysis. On one condition.” Baleful alien eyes glared down at the little knot of humans.

“What would that be?” Iranaputra piped up.

A tentacle quivered as it singled out the defiant Gelmann. “Get that one to shut up, or I will most surely silence her myself! She pricks at my mind like a surgeon.” Muttering to itself as the battlelith pivoted on the film of blue energy, the Drex turned away from them. “And the Great Old Ones thought the Enemy was all there would be to confront. They did not foresee the apes become eloquent.”

As the Drex chose to ignore them, there was nothing for the humans to do but wait. Wait for the Enemy to arrive. The Enemy that could muster a thousand warships as a scouting force.

Iranaputra and Shimoda took it upon themselves to restrain the agitated Gelmann, who had they allowed it would have continued to harangue the alien.

“Be sensible, Mina.” Iranaputra tried to be firm. “It has agreed to what we wanted. Why do you wish to risk upsetting everything?”

“Well,” she said, “I just think that if this ship was built to fight this Enemy, that’s what it ought to be doing. It can’t belong to a very moral civilization if it can even think of running off and leaving us defenseless.”

“Dear Mina,” Shimoda murmured uneasily, “do try to keep your voice down.”

“Given our proximity, Earth could still be at risk.”

Heath had been thinking hard. Now he stepped forward.

“I say there, old thing.”

The Drex swiveled around. “Now what?”

“Well, if it’s all the same to you, we’d rather like to spare the old Homeworld any incidental harm from the forthcoming cataclysm, like the sinking of a continent or two, what? Besides, this doesn’t strike me as an especially defensible position.”

“Really?” The Drex’s circular mouth flexed. “What would you, in your expansive wisdom, suggest?”

“Our system boasts a couple of good-sized gas giants a hop, skip, and a tachyspace jump farther out from the sun. The largest is escorted by some satellites as big as the one we’re currently orbiting. Maybe confuse the Enemy’s long-range detectors, what? It puts out a good bit of active distorting energy.”

“You little creatures really are the soul of presumption.” The Drex paused. “I note the world you mention. Repositioning there could be potentially efficacious. Perhaps the opportunity will arise for you to again offer additional advice of a local military nature.”

The starfield outside pitched extravagantly. Iranaputra put a hand on Heath’s arm.

“Are you all right, my friend?”

The librarian was sweating profusely. “Listen, Vic, bluffing you and the others was one thing. I do think I may be getting in over my head here.”

Iranaputra smiled reassuringly. “Just go with who you wanted to be. It may help all of us keep our heads.”

Heath nodded and essayed a wan smile, using a handkerchief to mop at his brow and dry his monocle.

“Anything we can do to help?” Shimoda cupped his hands to his mouth as he shouted upward.

Hawkins grabbed his friend. “Hey, speak for yourself. I’m retired.”

The Drex glanced down at him. “What?”