A BLOCK. IT WAS A SINGLE, simple hexagonal block Toirien and Harrington had found next to the Galathea when they’d returned to the ship. No entrance or other break showed in its smooth gray surface. Harrington had paled at the sight of it, but she’d offered no comment. There seemed to be nothing for either of them to say. Whatever was living on the planet that had infected the officers, it seemed like they knew the ship was there, and they had plans for it. On the backs of the defense units, Toirien and Harrington had gone quickly into the ship and left it to the units to bring up the telepathic aliens. Toirien had secured the hatch tightly once everyone was inside.
Her experience of the telepathically relayed emotions of the aliens, which Harrington had unofficially named Paths, was such
