Robert felt the honor deeply and was eager to announce
the good news.
Wulf found his way to his own private sanctum, saying he wanted to take
a nap. He set a "do not disturb" code on his communication system. Then
he prepared another audiodisk, making a brief report of the luncheon
meeting at Starlight Enterprise. He played it through twice, making
changes until he felt comfortable with the message. Then he speeded it
up so that the complete message lasted 0.027 seconds, encrypted it,
inserted the disk into his personal computer, and transmitted it. After
the message had been sent, he destroyed the disk and removed all signs
on his computer that the action had occurred.
He stared out the window at the third planet, a beautiful blue and
white globe, thinking nothing in particular. After a moment he
stretched out and tried to take a nap. But he couldn't sleep.
A red light pulsed rapidly on the console near Lurton Zimbardo's chair.
Seeing the flash from the corner of his eye, he jerked his head around
and stared at it as if he couldn't believe that it was lit.
"What's this?" he thought. "There's no message due now." He pressed the
button that deactivated the light, placed headphones on, dialed a few
knobs on the console, and pressed "Play."
Fifteen seconds later he leaped up from his chair and bellowed.
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