Finally the interpretive bank reluctantly admitted, “We can’t arrive at a positive answer. Too many unknown elements are present. We don’t know for sure what caused the flame, when it might start again, or what, if anything, is inside.”

“But you said it was a work of intelligence. Doesn’t that mean Rell would be inside?”

“Not necessarily. They could have constructed the thing to operate itself.”

It was just then that the observing banks reported, “It’s opening.”

The speculative bank quickly responded, “This is an emergency. We must be able to observe from close up. We’ll have to approach it.”

“The entire mind?” enquired the disciplinary corps.

The speculative bank hesitated. “No, we’ll need to split up. One-fifth of us will go, the rest remain here. It’s a short distance and we’ll still be able to continue in complete contact.”

Those who were to go were quickly sorted out and Raeillo/ee13 was quite thrilled to find he and Raellu//2 were included in the scouting party.

The group set off briskly toward their objective but had moved hardly one hundred yards when a vertigo seemed to overtake them. Raeillo/ee13 found himself swimming helplessly in a vortex of darkness and isolation, blanked off from not only the group-mind and his bank but also from Raellu//2. Frantically he grasped for some sort of stasis, but dependence on the group-mind was too ingrained and he was unable to stir his [92]  long-dormant powers of sight and education.

[

92

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Then the isolation cleared to be replaced by a brief impression of chaos with perhaps a tinge of alienness. Another instant of vertigo followed and then everything was normal once more as the comfortable familiar mesh took hold.

“What was that?” Even the speculative bank sounded frightened.

“Sorry.” The usually silent meshing bank sounded abashed. “We weren’t prepared for that. Some sort of thought wave is issuing from the opening and it disrupted the group mesh till we were able to take it into calculation and rebuild the mesh around it.”

“Thought wave? Then there are Rell in that thing.”

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