Sixty four - IN SPACE

The streams Sam hoped to find were smaller than that, more like threads - thin, almost insubstantial fibers that wound themselves in and around the big stuff, and went along for the ride. That was were the input from millions of "dumb" sensors flowed, where reports from the maintenance robots stuttered along, and where the quarry might be mentioned.

The better part of five minutes passed as the robot clung to its electronic perch, Jyro paced back and forth, and the Hoon talked along themselves.

Then, just as one of the Hoon's long, wormlike virus hunters flashed past, braked, and rerouted itself back upstream, Sam "heard" what it had been waiting for.

Assuming the reports were true, it sounded as if one of the general purpose units had not only assaulted a lesser entity, but confiscated one of its tools.

Sam wanted to learn more, and could have learned more, except that the hunter unit had looped through a side circuit, entered the upstream flow, and was on its w