The Voyage of the Joyous Venture

Part 3

Whose side is Robert on; watch out for yellow; the good thing about a firewall; talking to Telstar

Once shown to their quarters there is a long discussion on whether the Bheekhu holy book can be scanned into digital form and kept for study. Only belatedly does it cross the crew's minds to search for bugs. A search is made and none detected but Antonio points out that there are several places bugs could be hidden where they are undetectable without removing fixtures and fittings that would be noticed.

Robert meets with Agr'kre Ing'shrr and warns her obliquely to keep an eye on the crew. He then warns the rest of the crew not to attempt scanning in the holy book. As a result they decide not to bring the appropriate machinery down to the planet from the Joyous Venture. They discuss how the Holy City was destroyed through hubris. Parallels are drawn to the fate of the Ancients site on Asterion.

Miho asks if they might meet and talk to one of the Bheekhu historian/theologians. Sadly the one she would most like to meet, Ng'ssaan Kah'glukh, is rabidly anti-human but it is suggested it might be possible to meet one of the lesser Divine Scholars. Miho pesters Robert to translate some of this scholar's work in between all the other general translation he's doing.

In discussing Antonio's upcoming fight it is decided that it is important he take some offensive action, while trying to remain standing as long as possible. He is warned to be wary of yellow colours in the Bheekhu crest.

Andi returns to the Joyous Venture and collects the First Aid kit, Miho's artists' materials, the geological surveying equipment, trowels, spades, pickaxes and performance drugs. The crew hope they may be able to excavate other sites near the Bheekhu Holy City even if they can not excavate the city itself.

Andi then conceals most of the recently created computer files behind a firewall and contacts the Kurita ships for navigational hazards update. Both Andi and an unknown hacker from the Kurita ship search each others' file systems - Andi is looking for geographical survey information at Miho's request, particularly flyover images of the Holy City. Andi severs the link when she detects that the Kurita hacker has found the walled off files. She finds two Trojan horses he left behind and disables them. She then attempts unsuccessfully to break into Komiko's room.

She is accosted by Telstar as she leaves who probes her for information about Trilon's interest. Andi suggests that Trilon may be intending to set up a mining venture on the Bheekhu homeworld. In return Telstar gives her a chip containing the geographical information she was looking for. Telstar mentions that the unknown hacker may have left three (not two) Trojan horses behind. Andi has no time to check and suspects it may be an attempt to psyche her out. Telstar also offers her a job which Andi turns down.

When the survey chip is checked it turns out there is no data on the Holy City. The scanning equipment was presumably switched off at that point. The planet's poles are also poorly covered.