It was two bells before lunch, and Sister Seika was at loose ends. The research was all focused on spectral data at this point, about which she knew nothing. So she decided to prowl the lounge. The CHRISTOS was not a large ship, and without meaningful work, cabin fever was quick to set in. She was pleased to see Arlyis taking tea at one of the small tables. The promise of some company lightened her mood. Arlyis stirred her tea, poking at the bag and frowning out the lounge view port as the nun entered.

"It scares me sometimes, looking out at all of that," Seika noted, nodding at the endless vista of glitter-scattered blackness beyond the port.

"Oh! Sister Seika, I'm sorry, just lost in my own inner space, I guess. Pull up a chair. We can contemplate the unfathomable together."

Sister Seika pulled at her habit and sat. "Something must be chewing on you. You're the last person I'd expect to see pulling a long face in this dour bunch."

Arlyis waved her hand in dismissal. "No Victoria, not really. Well, yes, in a way."

"Something with the work here?"

"Oh, the work is bad enough, I suppose. I've had my share of problems." Arlyis sighed. "It's Sir Colmer. He's been such a gentleman around me. I, I feel pressed, you know?"

"Has that man...he's been forcing his attentions on you?"

"No, that's not it. It's me. I kind of like Fredric. He's been very proper. I really would like to get to know him better, but with my career and all, I'd just be wasting his time. I don't want to lead him on. He is a really nice guy, and only ten years older than me, you know? Underneath that military attitude, he's a very laid back, pleasant person to be with. But when all this is over, I'm going back to a full professorship at the university and my dissertation. I don't want to start up a shipboard romance. Not now. But we run into each other every day, and I really do like the man. It makes me tighten up, nervous, you know?"

Sister Seika sat back, poker faced. "Oh, nothing much then; I see...well," Sister Seika paused, looking out the view port. A few near bodies were visible enough to discern as disks, rather than just as bright points of light. A planet, possibly a gas giant, towing a moon with it, fronted the prickled curtain of stars. So many stars, she thought, so near they seem, and yet so far away.

"Have you talked to him about this?"

"Oh no, I mean, we talk together at meals and on and off about work, and things. I get a strong feeling from him, that's all. It's like he is waiting for me to, to decide something. Maybe it's just my imagination."

"Or maybe you need to work through those feelings of yours a bit more. If you have come to the point where this is occupying your time, you still may want to bring up some things with the man."

"I don't know. I would feel funny broaching a thing like that. What if it is just me?"

Sister Seika shook her head. "Are you sure you haven't encouraged this? Pah!" Victoria threw her hands up. "Would you listen to Me? Ask me something about herd behavior. Or migration patterns, now there, I can help you! I can't claim any expertise dealin' with the boys. This," she plucked at her habit, "pretty much puts me at a safe distance from all of that."

Arlyis laughed. "Yes, I can see that it would."

"The armor of Faith, honey."

Both women tittered.

"Now, my mama would have a two hour lecture all prepared for you. Always an answer for everything, she had!"

Victoria composed herself, taking on a more serious expression. "It's not good to leave this up in the air. Couldn't be that hard to draw the man out, discover what his intentions really are. Like any other big dog, Colmer doesn't impress me as being the shy type."

Arlyis sighed. "I just don't want to end up acting like I'm holding him off, but I don't think I should be encouraging him right now, either. Oh, I don't know what to think!"

The nun's eyes seemed to focus inward for a moment. "I haven't been on an expedition vessel since my Master's days, but I can tell you this much. This ship," Sister Seika gestured, taking in the surroundings, "is a small, small space, and you need to keep focused. Don't go leaving issues trailing around behind you, girl. You have to maintain a working relationship with him, just like with everyone else aboard, preferably in ways you are comfortable about."

"I know - you're right, of course." Arlyis inspected the cooling contents of her cup.

"Maybe," continued Sister Seika, "you could just tell him, oh, you might be open for an outing or two once the mission is over. That would at least let you put it out of mind till things finish up here, free of all this tension ."

Arlyis wrinkled her brows and returned to staring into her cup.

"On the other hand, If you like the man and he's not pressing you, why don't you just go ahead and get to know him better? He seems an upright kind of man. You could do worse, and he's a full growed man. He can just put up with it."

Arlyis nodded. "Well, I will have to think on it. You're right of course; I have to come up with something, for the sake of work, if nothing else. This," Arlyis moved her head, seeming to take in the ship, "is too good to mess with."

Victoria reached out fussily and brushed back Arlyis' hair. "At least consider bringing it up to him."

"I'll consider it." Arlyis pulled the right side of her lips up in a wry half-smile. "Thanks Victoria".

***

With the signal collector horn now remounted to the mast outside the CHRISTOS, Arlyis found herself busy once more assisting father Logan, who had began collecting and recording emissions patterns.

Arlyis handed recorder tracings off to Father Logan as her equipment finished interpreting them. The priest scanned them without a break in his continuous and unconscious whistling. Arlyis winced. Many people whistled as they worked, but usually they picked a tune more interesting than a Gregorian chant. Probably, she thought, an accurate rendition, but sure loses one hell of a lot in the transposition to a whistle - Irritating habit.

Blithely, Father Logan scrolled through the tape, blue marker dashing and circling away. "Well, well! Here's our old friend again, eight seven, eight twelve, see?" Father Logan directed Arlyis' attention to a sequence of frequencies he was scrutinizing. "I recognize the formation. I, ahem, I have a good location for Joshua on that one. He'll be glad to know it, but these others I don't recognize. What do you make of this?"

Arlyis bent forward, searching out the blue highlighted sections of the tape "Bands forty two and forty seven? Not electromagnetic. Quantum level vibrations." She shrugged. "You're the emissions specialist. If it wasn't for the quanta frequency," she ran one hand through her hair, thinking, "I'd guess a commercial broadcast signal, demodulated, you know; with the carrier stripped out, maybe. But at that low a level, in the quantum bands? I don't know - some sort of singularity turbulence?" Arlyis squinted, flicking back and forth between the circled areas.

She reached around with her left hand to rub at her back and straightened up. "Not enough Pseudo-Doppler indicated, too near in astronomical terms for a broadcast, I think."

Father Logan brightened. "Quite so my dear, quite so; no inhabited systems near enough...reminds me of something." Father Logan frowned. "I can't place it though. This looks very familiar somehow. Let's run a simulation of it through the oscilloscope. Leave the speaker output on. Very familiar."

Arlyis reset the data recorder to the right segment, and patched signal bands forty-two and forty-eight through, to create a audible pattern analogy. They listened quietly for a few minutes. Ephemeral cadences filled the small room. Father Logan's features evolved from puzzled through wonderment to grim concern. There was no mistaking the Song Weaver's strange recordings for anything else. "Arlyis, please get Bishop Wile and Cardinal Joshua," Logan husked. "Get them now."

****

A loud rapping at the door-frame brought Joshua to his feet. It was Brother Luke with a summons from Father Logan.

"Your Grace! Pardon the intrusion. Father Logan says there is something to show you, right away. Something of Importance. Oh, also, a location he has determined for the transmissions."

"The transmissions! Did he say where the origin was? Is it close?"

Brother Luke frowned in thought. "No, he did mention something in passing, but anxious he was to tell you of his other discovery."

Good Grief, what could be more important than pinning down the origin of the doomsday message?" Tell Father Lo...never mind, I'll see Leslie myself, right now. Thank you, Brother Luke."