“Look like, from nebula. Transmission incoming,”

  Long John flipped switches.

  “Attention, unknown ship,” said a scratchy voice from the speaker. “This is the Impecunious Puzzle. Are you lost?”

  “This is the Don Quixote out of Danje system,” Long John said. “No, we’re not lost. We’re in search of the unknown entity that’s destroying everything in its path.”

  “You might want to rethink that,” said the speaker. “Do you want to be destroyed?”

  “No. We’re hoping to interfere with its progress. What have you been doing in its vicinity?”

  “We are a scientific team, doctors Whitlow, Summers and Crow, from the University of Mars at Tithonium. We were conducting experiments regarding black holes, and had some contact with the entity.”

  “Really!” Dr. Perthonogis leaned over Long John’s shoulder. “This is Dr. Perthonogis, xenoarcheologist. I too have been trying to study this phenomenon. What can you tell us about it?”

  “Well, we have tried to discover what constitutes it, what its habits and so on are. We haven’t had much luck. And I have to admit we disagree on what it’s like.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Perthonogis.

  “Dr. Summers thinks it resembles a lion in its predatory behavior, because it drifts, lies in wait, and seems to pounce. Dr. Crow compares it to a shark, since we believe that it’s incredibly ancient, and it’s constantly moving, seeking prey. And I, Dr. Whitlow, think it’s most like a dragon. I think that because it travels by sort of whiplashing, and it seems to fill more of space than you would expect, sort of like a dragon’s outspread wings. And it can emit fire to help with destroying planets.”

  “Fascinating,” said Perthonogis. “Were you actually able to visualize it?”

  “We picked it up with instruments,” said Dr. Whitlow. “It was heading straight for us, from a vast distance away of course, but then it was distracted and veered off. It headed toward a nearby solar system to swallow it. It was horrible to watch, even through instruments. That’s when we decided we had stayed long enough.”

  “So you are leaving your base now.”

  “Yes. It’s getting too close for comfort. We are hoping that if we travel far enough, to the edge of our galaxy, we may be able to live out our lives before it reaches us. But we’re not sure that’s a possibility.”

  Long John interjected, “Do you have any idea where it comes from? What caused it?”

  “All I can say, gentlemen, is that the universe is very large, and we can’t assume we know everything about it. There are bound to be things we have never encountered and cannot explain.

  “We hypothesize that millennia ago, this entity emerged from a supermassive black hole, the result of immense clouds of shocked and compressed gas collapsing in on themselves. As to what it wants, its goal seems to be to feed, rather like a shark. It devours everything in its path.”

  “That makes sense,” said Perthonogis. “A black hole sucks in everything surrounding it and lets nothing escape, not even light. This entity seems to be acting the same way, although on a slightly less enormous scale.”

  “That’s an interesting parallel,” said Whitlow. “A major difference seems to be that this entity is moving, seeking prey, rather than remaining in the center of a galaxy and engulfing whatever comes within reach.”

  “Would you consider it sentient?” asked Perthonogis.

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  “That’s hard to say. It may exhibit problem-solving abilities, we’re not sure. But I would have to say that if you are planning to appeal to its better nature, that would be a lost cause. Rather like trying to appeal to a shark’s ethical sense.”

  “So it’s like a force of nature,” Crystal said. “Like a tornado or earthquake.”

  “Ye-es.” Dr. Whitlow sounded hesitant. “You could say that it does not discriminate about the damage it inflicts, like a storm. But I have to add—and Dr. Crow disagrees with me—that I sense a maliciousness about it. I think it enjoys, in some sense, destroying planets inhabited by sentient life. I could be wrong, of course.”

  Crystal sank back in her seat, a hand over her mouth.

  “Thank you, doctor,” said Perthonogis. “We greatly appreciate your sharing this information with us.”

  “You’re welcome. But I cannot stress enough, I urge you to turn around and seek safety. You are heading into a danger that can’t even be measured.”

  “Thanks for the advice,” said Long John. “We’ll take it into account, for sure.”

  “Good luck.” The doctor’s voice grew fainter, and within a few minutes the signal was lost.

  Perthonogis backed away from the controls, and he and Long John looked at each other in silence.

  “Scary stuff,” said Limpet from behind.

  “Does anyone want to turn back?” asked Long John. He glanced around at Perthonogis, Crystal, Limpet, and the spiders who were gathered quietly around them. “There’s nothing to prove, you know. We don’t have to go on.”

  Crystal clenched her fist on the console, but said nothing.

  Dr. Perthonogis said, “I want to know more about this thing. But I don’t want to drag the rest of you into peril to satisfy my curiosity.”

  “If we can’t stop it,” Crystal said, “it will destroy my planet, my whole system. And it will go on to demolish everything in its path. We may not be able to stop it, but I hate turning my back on an enemy.” She turned to Long John. “But it’s your ship.”

  Long John glanced down at the spiders, who were jittering a little as if anxious or full of energy. All together, they raised their knives and yelled, “We fight! Fight! Fight!”

  “Seems like the ayes have it,” said Long John. “Let’s see if we can change the future, since it’s looking pretty bleak right now.”

  The spiders gave out a “Hurrah!”

  Crystal smiled at him, and he felt as if he’d made the right decision.

  “Anyway,” he said, “if I have to go out, I can’t think of any folks I’d rather go out with.”

  Crystal leaned over and gave him another kiss, and this time he reciprocated fully. Dr. Perthonogis coughed and turned back to his device.

  “Doctor,” said Long John, “how much confidence do you have in your Protector?”

  Twenty-five hours had passed since their conversation with the scientists on the Impecunious Puzzle, and they had still not run across anything suspicious. But the tension was getting to them. Crystal kept fidgeting in her seat, and Long John found himself drumming his fingers on the console again and again. The spiders had begun bickering among themselves. Only Dr. Perthonogis seemed able to maintain his calm.

  “How much confidence?” said Perthonogis. “A fair amount, in fact. But it hasn’t been tested, as I mentioned. We won’t know for sure until it has been.”

  “And there’s no way to test it in advance?”

  “I’m afraid not.”

  Crystal sat down in the co-pilot’s seat next to Long John and handed him a mug of coffee. “We may as well relax while we can. Do we have a plan?”

  “A plan.” He stared at the lights in the viewscreen. “First the doctor turns on his device. Then we start searching for weak spots in the entity.”

  “How would we recognize weak spots?”

  “We can fire at it. See if that affects its behavior.”

  “Since its primary behavior seems to be destroying anything in its path, how would we know? After we’ve been destroyed, that is?”

  He grinned at her. “Probably we wouldn’t, now that you mention it. Do you have any ideas?”

  “Not really. You have onboard weapons, right?”

  “A battery with six launchers on each side. Plenty of torpedoes, plus a couple of laser cannons. It’s not that much, really, considering what we’re up against.”

  “I’m not convinced it would have made a difference to have brought the Victorious.”

  “True. Any ship might be too small for it to notice.”

  “But,” said Crystal, “That scientist did say he thinks it targets lifeforms. So it must be able to sense them somehow, even inside a ship.”

  “Look! Look!” Limpet’s voice was nervous. “Something coming.”