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Each page was divided into about forty vertical columns. Over at the left, the widest column gave the name of a system, and below it the names of planets in that system. From left to right in the columns followed every movement of the system such as its speed of travel and direction, precession, torque, and the weight and quality of the sun or suns if double or treble.
In the columns beside every planet of that system were noted that planet's own weight, rotation period, atmosphere, surface temperatures, races, city coordinates, relative mineral estimate by symbols and value in Galactic credits, and the location of its minesites, if any.
All speeds and directions of travel were based on the zero center of that universe and three-dimensional compass coordinates, using the inevitable Psychlo numeral eleven, and parts of eleven and powers of eleven.
Terl had sat there, day after day, turning pages of it, one by one, ru
“Except page one,” said Du
Jo
“That's what I’m trying to tell you. That was part of the delay. I didn't want to put you in the frying pan waiting for the key to the symbols. So we did the waiting. Look at the last disc.”
Jo
“We've got all the positions and firing coordinates of sixteen universes!” said Jo
Terl had thrown the book down in disgust, that was plain. Jo
For those whole two days a blank piece of paper had been lying there with not a mark on it. Now Terl almost ruined his pen as he wrote a figure on it.
Jo
So, if Terl didn't want to collide with somebody else's ore arriving or smelted metal going out to some buyers or maybe military hardware, he had to be careful to find an open period.
If one fired ore or machinery one could be quick about it. But live perso
The figure he so disgustedly wrote, almost breaking his pen, was “Day 92”!
He had been forced to choose a time more than five months from now. It was quite evident from the amount of kerbango he then consumed that the thought of spending all that additional time on “this accursed planet,” as the sonic recorded him saying, was upsetting.
He had had to choose Earth's next scheduled semia
Expecting the next discs would show the begi
Terl had gone to another cabinet and opened up its back. Using both paws he removed a package. It appeared to be a bit heavy.
He opened up the wrappings and then got a big pair of tongs, big enough to lift a huge boulder. He screwed the gap down to about a quarter of an inch and reached into the package.
The picture didn't show what he was lifting out at first. Then he dropped it and it hit the floor. Terl's curse was very sharp.
He got down with the tongs and lifted a gray something about the size of a pea. For an instant the spot on the floor showed. Jo
Terl managed to pick up the small object again with the tongs, a hard job because it had sunk in the floor. He lifted it back up to lay on the side of the table. Jo
Jo
For the next three hours they tried to find that trace. It wasn't there! The Psychlos didn't list it or any composite trace of it in any of their code books. They were dealing with a metal the Psychlos had but didn't list.
Jo
The Earth tables were of no value at all. This thing would be way off the bottom of them.
He looked over the Psychlo periodic tables, so different from the old Earth ones. There were a lot of elements that would have atomic numbers as high as this one, maybe even higher, but if they didn't have its name...?
Jo
“I wish I were some good at this,” said Jo
“But, laddie,” said Du
Jo
“But ancient man here on Earth constructed his tables on oxygen and carbon, I think, because those were important to him. He is a carbon-oxygen engine. But a Psychlo has a different metabolism and burns different elements for energy so the
Psychlo table is different. Also, Psychlos had a lot more universes to work in and they had metals and gases Earth's old scientists never heard of.
“The ancients here on Earth also omitted distances of spacing between the core and the ring and between ring and ring, as a variable. So they didn't realize that one core and one ring at one spacing could be quite something else when the spacing changed. Got it?”