"All right. But I wash my hands of it," Raynor One said angrily.
Bart told his story simply: his meeting with the elder Briscoe, his meeting with Raynor One—carefully not implicating Raynor One in the plot—Raynor Three's work in altering his appearance to that of a Lhari, and the major events of his cruise on the Swiftwing. When he came to the account of the shift into warp-drive, he saw the faces of the press reporters, and realized that for them this was the story of the year—or century: humans can endure star-drive! But he went on, not soft-pedaling Montano's attempted murder, his own choice, the trip to the Lhari world—
One of the board representatives interrupted testily, "What is the point of this lengthy narrative? You can give the story to the newsmen without our official sanction, if you want to make it a heroic epic, young Steele. We have heard sufficient to prove your guilt, and that of Raynor, in the violation of treaty—"
"Nevertheless, I want this official," Bart said. "I don't want to be mobbed when they hear that I have the secret of the star-drive."
The effect was electric. The four Lhari sat up; their white crests twitched. Vorongil stared, his gray eyes darkening with fear. One of the Lhari leaned forward, shooting the question at him harshly.
"You did not discover the coordinates of the Council Planet of Ke Lhiro! You did not discover—"
"I did not," Bart said quietly. "I don't know them and I have no intention of trying to find them. We don't need to go to the Lhari Galaxy to find the mineral that generates the warp-frequencies, that they call 'Catalyst A' and that the Mentorians call the 'Eighth Color.' There is a green star called Meristem, and a spectroscopic analysis of that star, I'm sure, will reveal what unknown elements it contains, and perhaps locate other stars with that element. There must be others in our galaxy, but the coordinates of the star Meristem are known to me."
Vorongil was staring at him, his mouth open. He leaped up and cried out, shaking, "But they assured us that among your memories—there was nothing of danger to us—"
Compassionately, gently, Bart said, "There wasn't—not that they knew about, Vorongil. I didn't realize it myself. I might never have remembered seeing a mineral that was of a color not found in the spectrum. Certainly, a memory like that meant nothing to the Lhari medics who emptied out my mind and turned over all my thoughts. You Lhari can't see color at all.
"So no one but I saw the color of the mineral in the cave; you Lhari yourselves don't know that your fuel looks unlike anything else in the universe. You never cared to find out how your world looked to your Mentorians. So your medics never questioned my memories of an eighth color. To you, it's just another shade of gray, but under a light strong enough to blind any but Mentorian eyes, it takes on a special color—"