- Belkov: Look, d'you realize the problems I had setting up this entire mining operation? Theirs is a very ancient civilization, you know.
- Commissioner Sleer: I didn't come here for a history lesson.
- Belkov: It is relevant!
- [Belkov shows Sleer a crystal necklace in a glass case]
- Belkov: The Mecronian high priests used these as a symbol of their power. Now there is a legend about the feldon necklaces. A chief once stole one, the gods became angry and struck him down. Of course, the gods' anger was merely an electrical storm in which a hunk of polished feldon crystals that size would absorb enough energy to blow holes in any number of recalcitrant chiefs.
- Commissioner Sleer: [impatient] How fascinating.
- Belkov: Yes, but you see, the priests have been cashing in on this piece of luck for generations, so I decided to join them. I said their gods had sent me to collect the crystals. Well, not unnaturally, they were not particularly impressed, well not at first anyway.
- Commissioner Sleer: I can imagine.
- Belkov: So I borrowed a necklace. All it needed then was a well-placed remote-controlled laser rifle to ensure that only the chosen one could wear it. After six of them had died in the attempt, they found my survival quite miraculous.
- Commissioner Sleer: Your survival is becoming more miraculous by the moment.
- Guard: This is a restricted area.
- Gerren: I am Academician Gerren doing geological survey work for the Planetary Resources Commission.
- Guard: Papers?
- [Gerren hands them over]
- Guard: That seems to be order.
- Guard: [to Vila and Tarrant] You?
- Gerren: They are part of my survey team.
- Guard: I still need to see their papers.
- Vila Restal: I seem to have left mine behind.
- Guard: Then I'm sure you won't object to being searched. Search him!
- [the other guard frisks Vila and finds the Mecronian knife]
- Guard: Four of our men have been killed with a knife like that.
- Vila Restal: You don't think - I mean, I'm not the violent type, really I'm not.
- Guard: Then why do you carry that?
- Vila Restal: I found it.
- Guard: Where?
- Vila Restal: It was stuck in one of your men.
- Kerr Avon: [into communicator] Dayna, we're down safe in Orbiter and proceeding.
- Gambit, Orac: [in unison] Countdown twelve minutes, twenty seconds, and running.
- Vila Restal: What does that mean?
- Kerr Avon: I imagine that if we're not out of here by the time it hits zero, we might regret it.
- [Soolin presses the button to reveal the screen and start the game. She picks up the electronic pistol]
- Gambit, Orac: Control system feedback is through the weapon. The game adjusts to meet, and on the last shot, exceed the proficiency of the players.
- Soolin: You have to outshoot yourself.
- Del Tarrant: Stupid game.
- Soolin: Not really. Finally a game worth playing.
- Orac: A computer must, by definition, be logical. But it can also mirror the logic of its creator.
- Soolin: You mean it's an extension of his mind.
- Orac: [testily] No, that is *not* what I mean.
- Soolin: His personality, then.
- Orac: [more considerate] A better definition, but still not quite accurate.
- Kerr Avon: Would it know how the booby traps on the orbiter are programmed?
- Orac: As yet, I don't have enough data to answer that question.
- Kerr Avon: [growing impatient] *If* it knew, could you extract the information from it?
- [Orac doesn't respond immediately. Avon gives Orac a whack out of pique]
- Kerr Avon: Come on! That's a simple enough question.
- Orac: There might be problems.
- Kerr Avon: Why? You have extracted information from Federation computers before now. This is just a hodgepodge of three or four of them. You have already said that it is inferior to you.
- Orac: The difficulty is not technical. It's more one of, uh, attitude.
- Kerr Avon: Ah. You mean the *logic* of its creator.
- Orac: Exactly. Let me remind you of ancient Earth mythology: the Delphic Oracle would answer questions truthfully without giving a true answer.
- Kerr Avon: So what we need is not the right answer, but the right question.
- Soolin: And in circumstances where any mistake would prove fatal?
- Orac, Gambit: [in unison] The orbiter is preprogrammed. Flight power depends on the distance and intensity of each star the feldon panels are locked into. The successful completion of a game continues the sequence. To regain control, you must complete the coded sequence of star sources.
- Vila Restal: What about the feldon crystals?
- Kerr Avon: Gambit?
- Orac, Gambit: This game will reveal the entrance.
- Soolin: All we have to do is lock on to the right star.
- Orac: It is possible that we've just received the right answer to the wrong question.
- Vila Restal: [after Tarrant throws a guard into a rock crusher] Nasty way to go.All that dust.Very bad for the chest.
- Del Tarrant: So, why should this middle-aged Federation professor want to help you with?
- Kerr Avon: Because apart from being a brilliant geologist and an expert in mining, he is also greedy, avaricious, and a crook.
- Vila Restal: Has he got any faults?