The battle with "X" had occupied approximately two milliseconds of actual time. The expansion had been progressing for a second or two when Karen lowered her shield.
"Well, that finishes that," she commented. "I'd better get back on the job. Did you find out what you want to know, Cam, or not?"
"I got a little in the moment before the explosion. Not much." Camilla was deep in study. "It is going to be quite a job of reconstruction. One thing of interest to you, though, is that this 'X' had quit sabotage temporarily and was on his way to Lyrane IX, where he had some kind of important—"
"Nine?" Karen asked, sharply. "Not Eight? I've been watching Eight, you know—I haven't even thought of Nine."
"Nine, definitely. The thought was clear. You might give it a scan once in a while. How is mother doing?"
"She's doing a grand job, and that Helen is quite an operator, too. I'm not doing much—just a touch here and there—I'll see what I can see on Nine. I'm not the scanner or detector that you are, though, you know—maybe you'd better come over here too, in person. Suppose?"
"I think so—don't you, Uncle Trig?" Tregonsee did. "We can do some exploring as we come, but since I have no definite patterns for web work, we may not be able to do much until we get close. Clear ether, Kay!"
"The fine structure is there, and I can resolve it and analyze it," Camilla informed Tregonsee, after a few hours of intense concentration. "There are quite a few clear extraneous sequences, instead of the blurred latent images we had before, but there is still no indication whatever of the location of his home planet. I can see his physical classification to ten places instead of four, more detail as to the sun's variation, the seasons, their habits, and so on. Things that seem mostly to be of very little importance, as far as we are concerned. I found one fact, though, that is new and important. According to my reconstruction, his business of Lyrane IX was the induction of Boskonian Lensmen—Black Lensmen, Tregonsee, just as father suspected!"
"In that case, he must have been the Boskonian counterpart of an Arisian, and hence one of the highest echelon. I am very glad indeed that you and Karen relieved me of the necessity of trying to handle him myself. Kinnison will be very glad to know that we have at last and in fact reached the top—"