"That hardly seems likely."

"Why? We know the Alliance has its various factions, some of which are opposed to everything Kelt Dalishaar stands for. If I were one of those people, I would consider it a coup to have the man who maintains the first councilor's private computer on my payroll."

Taggart held up the tile once more. "If true, this could be the greatest treasure stolen from Cloudcroft that night. It would also explain the incident in Captain Sands's quarters."

"That's what we've been telling you!"

Taggart turned back to Halley. "What did you expect to do with this, Miss Trevanon? Surely you must have known that breaking a computer security code is a massive undertaking."

"I don't think we'd thought it through. Lars had this idea that we might be able to sell the tile to Micah Bolin's employers. Mostly, though, I guess we were just trying to make Dalishaar nervous. We figured the more worried he was, the less efficient he would be at tracking us down. Considering the knot on my head, we may have been wrong about that last part."

Taggart looked up to where Sands was listening to the exchange. "And you've been carrying this tile around ever since?"

"As sort of a souvenir. Can you break it?"

"We can try."

Envon Crawford was as skeptical of the tile as Taggart had been. He insisted on hearing the story himself (this time from Sands) and questioning why Dalishaar would have something so sensitive lying about his office. Kimber once again made the point that the first councilor's machine might have been a secret, even from those whose job it was to maintain such equipment. The factor agreed to order tests on the tile before authorizing an attempt to break its security code.

The tests took three days. They consisted of various analyses to determine the probability that the record tile contained more than randomly generated numbers. On the third day, Titania's chief computer scientist made his report. Larson Sands was invited to the meeting.

"What say you, Doctor Palanquin?" Crawford asked Eugene Palanquin, a small nervous man with a pinched face gazed at the half dozen expectant faces clustered around the table in the factor's conference room. "Er, the structure of the tile is consistent witha security coded data base, Factor. The probability that the tile has been randomized is less than fifteen percent, perhaps significantly less."

"How do you know that?" Sands asked.

"Human language has certain statistical characteristics. While any number of coding methods can easily disguise meaning, the underlying characteristics of that information are not easily disguised. The same can be said for computer programming. Our analysis indicates that whatever information this tile contains, it is not ordered randomly."

"What coding method did they use?" Crawford asked from the head of the table.

"Er, probably a cipher based on an easily remembered phrase."

"How long to break it?"

"Hmmm ... on the order of one month. We will need the undivided attention of a full module of the city computer.

"What will be the effect on city services?"

"Er, minimal, I should think. None, in fact, so long as we are not called upon to perform some computer intensive task or suffer a malfunction elsewhere in the system."

"And the cost?"

The specialist quoted a number that seemed inordinately high to Sands. However, it did not seem to bother anyone else.

"Very well," Crawford said, nodding. "We can't ignore the possibility that we have Alliance state secrets here. Go ahead."

"Yes, sir," the specialist replied. "There is one other thing you should know."

"What is that?"

"The quantity of information recorded in the tile is not especially large. When we decipher it, we may find nothing more than a copy of the original computer's operating system."

"You mean Dalishaar may not have had anything stored in that machine in his desk?"

"Correct. As I said, our analysis shows ordered information scrambled via a sophisticated coding mechanism. If Miss Trevanon followed the technique she describes, she definitely recorded the machine's operating routines. Whether she recorded anything else remains to be seen."

"Proceed anyway."

"Very well, Factor. I will keep you informed as to our progress."

The intruder incident turned out to significantly affect Larson Sands's life. Since the Alliance was aware thatSparrowHawk 's three survivors were on Titan, it no longer made sense to hide out. Kimber celebrated their release by changing her hair back to its natural jet-black color and inviting Sands to a night at the theater. They dined at the most exclusive restaurant on The Promenade, then attended aperformance of Shakespeare'sAs You Like It . The next night they toured the extensive collection of Lunarian art in Titania's Art Museum.

A week later, they saw an ancient Earth movie in a large auditorium. It was the first time Sands had seen a movie on a big screen. He found the experience a moving one. The film was a western, with horses. He had seen pictures of horses often enough, but never on a scale that approximated their true size. That human beings had once perched atop those massive animals was nearly beyond belief. As Sands watched the awkward, yet curiously graceful motion, he felt a sudden pang of sadness. All across Saturn thousands of terrestrial species slumbered in life banks, their genetic material stored against the day when the sun loosed its grip on the home world. It was depressing to think that the raceEquus caballas might never again grace the universe.

Halley joined Sands and Kimber on two of their evening excursions. Each time she was on the arm of a different young doctor. Halley, it seemed, had made the best of her stay in the hospital.

If the Northern Alliance had any reaction to the news that Kimber and two of her rescuers had survived, they showed no outward sign. Reports from Ganther Bartlett were that the Alliance was being surprisingly docile. Despite the good news, Envon Crawford's face seemed to blossom new worry lines almost daily.

Nor was Sands entirely happy. He had begun to chafe under the burden of idleness. As far as Lars was concerned, work was as necessary to living as breathing air. He resolved to speak to Kimber's father about it. Envon Crawford preempted the subject by summoning Lars to his office.

"Good of you to come," Crawford said as he crossed the office to shake hands. "May I get you something? Coffee, tea, possibly a soft drink?"

"No thank you, sir. It hasn't been that long since breakfast."

"My daughter tells me that you two have been seeing the sights of Titania. How do you like them?"

"I'm impressed. I always thought of Titan as an outpost culture. I had no idea you had so much nightlife."

"It's the Lunarian influence. The people who settled here came from an environment where going outside was a major undertaking. You Saturnians are lucky. Even though your cities are every bit as enclosed as ours, you have all those lovely vistas to stare at. I've always thought there was something in the human psyche that responds to unlimited horizons."

"Yes, sir. I was thinking the same thing at the movie Kimber and I saw last week."

"That's right! You went to that John Ford western, didn't you? How did you like it?"

"I found the motives a bit difficult to follow, but the scenery was beautiful." Sands told him of his reaction to seeing the horses.

The factor laughed. "We breed cattle over in Dome Three. It's a shame that we can't breed horses as well."

"Why can't you?"

"I understand they don't do well in low gravity. The lack of traction causes them to fall down." Crawford leaned back in his chair and regarded Sands through steepled fingers. "Lars, may I ask you a personal question?""Depends on the question."

"I want to know how things are between you and Kimber."

"Why, I love her, of course!"

"Do you plan to marry her?"

"We haven't really discussed it."

"Pardon my intrusion into your personal life, but I must know what you intend. You saved my daughter's life and lost your ship in the process. I can never repay you for saving Kimber's life. I can, however, help with the ship."

"I beg your pardon."

Crawford gazed at him intently. "If you would like to return to Saturn, I can help get you another ship.

I'm not especially wealthy, but I can provide you with a down payment and arrange a low interest loan with a Titanian bank."

"You would help me buy a new ship?"

"If that is what you want. You would have to be careful to avoid the Alliance, of course. Still, Saturn is a very large place and you should be safe if you remain in the southern hemisphere. That is your home, I believe."

"I don't know what to say, Factor."

"Take your time to think about it. I can also arrange a commission for you in the Titanian merchant fleet.

You would have your own freighter in a few years if you're as good as I think."

"I know nothing of spaceships, and I was spacesick all the way here."

"You could learn what you have to know, and spacesickness is seldom permanent. As I said, you do not have to decide just now. I will consider the subject pending until you get back to me. Now then, let's discuss another matter." Crawford reached into his desk and pulled out a record tile. It was not the original tile from Dalishaar's office. This one was a different color. "My geniuses broke the Alliance cipher in only 18 days. I am told that is a new record. The trigger phrase is fromThe Bible :'His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.' "

"And the information inside?"

"You were right. The tile contains information sufficient to hang Kelt Dalishaar if only we can get it into the right hands. The most important thing we've found so far is the Alliance timetable for taking over the North Temperate Belt."

"The whole belt?"

"Just about. Several of my best customers are on their list."

"What are you going to do about it?" Sands asked.

"We'll see that the information gets to the proper people."

"Too bad we couldn't save New Philadelphia or Glasgow in time."Crawford frowned. "The funny thing is that neither city was supposed to be conquered just yet. New Philadelphia was not supposed to fall for another six years. Glasgow isn't mentioned at all."

"Perhaps someone else is working from their own timetable."

Crawford pushed the tile in Sands's direction. "I'd like you to read through this information and tell me what you think of it."

Sands took the tile from Crawford and slipped it into a pocket. "I'll try to have a report within the week."

"That will be fine. As for that other matter, please think about it. I will abide by whatever you and my daughter decide. She's the only family I have left, and I want her to be happy."

"That is what I want as well."

Chapter 18: Energy Screen.

Kimber found Sands sitting in front of the work screen in her living room. He was so intent on what he was reading that he did not hear her come in. She moved up behind him, leaned forward and slipped her arms around his neck. When he started at the unexpected contact, she laughed and asked, "What are you doing, my love?"

He turned his head to regard her too close features. "If you are trying to give me a heart attack, you very nearly succeeded just now."

"You wound me, sir!" she said with mock formality. "I plan to induce your heart attack by totally different means."

"Sounds interesting. Too bad I have to work."

"Which brings me back to my original question. What, in a frozen Titanian hell, are you doing?"

He turned back to the screen and gestured at the glowing letters. "I'm reading Kelt Dalishaar's private mail. Your father's wizards came through earlier than expected."

"They broke the security code."

He nodded. "Smashed it into a million pieces." He told her about the code phrase and added, "Funny, I would never have guessed Dalishaar was religious."

Kimber laughed. "Some of the worst butchers in history were upstanding church goers. What have you learned?"

He sighed. "I wish I knew. The more I read, the less I understand. Here, let me take you through it!"

Kimber watched as he keyed for the main menu. Among other things, Dr. Palanquin's computerists had provided an index to the recovered information. Each file was annotated with its creation date, the dates and times when it had been accessed, and its level of classification. By analyzing this information, it was possible to assign a relative importance to each file. Palanquin's people had made such assignments.

Whether they were correct in their assessments, only Kelt Dalishaar could say."Your father was most interested in this item," Sands said. He touched a control and caused the Northern Alliance's timetable for conquest of the North Temperate Belt to appear. Kimber gasped as the list of cities appeared next to the dates when they were expected to fall.

"Shin Su Fong, the Corwin Confederation, the Moskvan Free State, the Harvard Cluster!" Kimber muttered. "No wonder they tried to take over our distribution network. Those are four of our largest customers."

"That's hardly surprising. Nearly every independent cluster in the North Temperate Belt is on this list.

Look at the dates. See anything odd?"

Kimber pursed her lips as she scanned down the dates on the right side of the screen. Finally, she shook her head.

"What will happen if the Northern Alliance begins absorbing cities at the rate listed?"

"You mean against their will?"

"Is there another way someone joins the Alliance?"

"I suppose it could precipitate a war."