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“It’s…interesting Let me see what I can find”

“Just understand,” he said “I’m lead”

“Of course,” I said As if I could have forgotten

It tookwith the data and dredging up what I could remember of the experiments before Time had eaten some of my memory and likely falsified soh And the sense of wonder so deep it sucked s empty fro at the center What I thought of as the Queen Bee While a greatat were beyond —there were others that did make some sense Lattices that mimicked the beta sheets and expanded on the systenizable as brain tissues, two-stage pumps adapted fro led to A particle that both required and provided a y

When I realized that the physical dimensions of the structure-particle were hnetwork that could bring subquantunored the speed of light by shrugging off locality, or possibly a stable wormhole If I wept, I wept quietly No one could knohat I’d found Especially not Brown

Not until I had time to make my alternate

“There’s no doubt we’re seeing the ruins of Eros,” I said

“Obviously,” he said, ihtly so

“But look at these tertiary structures,” I said, pulling up the graphic I’d prepared “The connection between networks follows the saraph as embryonic profusion”

“It’s …”

“An egg,” I said

Brown snatched the hand ter back and forth as he coraphs It was a plausible lie, backed by fascinating and evocative correlations that didn’t share a shred of cause It built on his prejudices of biological structures being used for biological uses I watched his face as he followed along the arguments I’d constructed to mislead hiiven hi else I don’t knohether relief or awe set his hands to tre, only that they trembled

“This is it,” he said “This is what gets us out of here”

I appreciated his use of the plural, and I didn’t for a moment consider it sincere I clapped him on the shoulder, levered myself up, and left him to convince himself of what he already wanted to believe The others stood scattered about the rooroups of two and three and four Whatever they pretended, all attention focused on Brown, and because of him, on me I reached an open space and considered the observation s The Belters looked down on us On ated bodies Chromosomally, they were as human as I was What separated each of us—thees than the genetic I caught the eye of a greasy-haired nized as one who had taken Brown to and from his sessions I lifted my arms in a kind of boast I know your secret I solved your puzzle

Brown bonded with the wrong answer Quintana hadn’t so limpse of the dataset All I needed was for the Martian to ask me as well as Brown, and I would be the one they took The prisoner they exchanged