inherent

Top Secret

Top Secret dispatch which had been handed to him five minutes earlier by his staff signal major.
"It looks as though this is no ordinary boatload of privateers." He looked soberly at the elderly communicator. "They're reported to be carrying a new weapon of unassessed power, and a cargo of spore racks that will knock Containment into the next continuum."
"It doesn't look good, sir," the major wagged his head.
"I note that the commodore has taken action according to the manual." The admiral's voice was noncommittal.
The major frowned. "Let's hope that's sufficient, Admiral."
"It should be. The bogie's only a converted tender. She couldn't be packing much in the way of firepower in that space, secret weapon or no secret weapon."
"Have you mentioned this aspect to the commodore, sir?"
"Would it change anything, Ben?"
"Nooo. I suppose not."
"Then we'll let him carry on without any more cause for jumpiness than the presence of a vice admiral on board is already providing."



8

Crouched in his fitted acceleration cradle aboard the Djann vessel, the One-Who-Commands studied the motion of the charged molecules in the sensory tank before him.
"Now the death-watcher dispatches his messengers," he communed with the three link brothers who formed the Chosen Crew. "Now is the hour of the testing of Djann."
"Profound is the rhythm of our epic," the One-Who-Records sang out. "We are the chosen-to-be-heroic, and in our tiny cargo, Djann lives still, his future glory inherent in the convoluted spores!"
"It was a grave risk to put the destiny of Djann at hazard in this wild gamble," the One-Who-Refutes reminded his link brothers. "If we fail, the generations yet unborn will slumber on in darkness or perish in ice or fire."
"Yet if we succeed—if the New Thing we have learned serves well its function—then will