Hex by Allen Steele

wrong. The physicist who came up with it in the first place—Freeman Dyson, one of the foremost visionaries of his time—never intended for such an object to be a solid sphere, but rather a series of individual habitats in orbit around a star.”
    He paused to study the screen. “But that doesn’t quite appear to be what’s happening here,” he added, a little less confidently. “From the looks of things, this appears to be a linked network of hexes.”
    â€œHexes?” Cayce shook his head, not quite understanding what he meant.
    â€œPlural for hex.” D’Anguilo reflected upon this for a moment, then looked at Andromeda again. “Come to think of it, that’s not such a bad name... Hex.”
    â€œWhatever.” At that particular moment, she was less interested in what they called the place than in what she and her people would do once they got there. “Mel, how long will it take for us to get there?”
    â€œAt our projected velocity”—the helmsman paused to enter numbers into her console and study the readout on one of her screens—“about seven days.”
    â€œGood. That gives us plenty of time to study . . . um, Hex . . . before we arrive. Maybe we can make sense out of the thing by then.” She turned to Cayce. “In the meantime, I want your team to prepare for a reconnaissance mission. Before I commit my ship to anything, I’d like to make a flyby, to see what we’re getting into, and maybe send down a survey team.”
    â€œNot a problem, Captain,” Cayce said. “That’s what we’re here for.”
    D’Anguilo coughed into his fist. “Captain, with all due respect . . . I don’t think the danui would’ve deliberately given us permission to visit their system if they thought the environment was hostile for us.”
    â€œI understand that.” Andromeda gestured at the screen. “But I’m also keeping in mind the fact that the danui aren’t exactly the most forthcoming race we’ve met. They didn’t tell us that this wasn’t a normal planet. There must be a reason for that, and until we know what it is, I’m not going to make any assumptions. So we’re going to treat Hex as if it’s potentially dangerous and study it before we jump into anything.”
    D’Anguilo looked as if he wanted to argue with her, but he wisely kept his mouth shut. Andromeda looked at Cayce again. “Do I remember correctly that one of your crew is a trained biologist?”
    â€œCorporal Wright, ma’am.” Cayce hesitated. “She’s not actually a scientist. She just had scientific training before she joined the Corps. Her degree is in xenobiology, though, and she studied under Dr. D’Anguilo while she was at the university.”
    Kyra Wright. Andromeda wondered if she was the same young woman who’d been with Sean in the wardroom. Her maternal intuition told her that there was something between the two of them; at the very least, she certainly looked like Sean’s type. “That’s fine. We could use another hand up here once we get closer to that thing . . . That is, if it’s all right with you, Tom.”
    D’Anguilo nodded. “Ms. Wright was one of my better students. I wouldn’t mind having her help at all.”
    â€œI’ll send her up here as soon as possible.” Cayce started to turn toward the hatch again, then stopped. “Just one more thing, Captain. What do I tell my people?”
    Andromeda blinked. “Come again?”
    â€œThey were expecting a planet, ma’am. Instead, we got... well, that .” The lieutenant paused. “It’s spooked a couple of them, to tell the truth.”
    Andromeda doubted that Sean could be made nervous by anything besides his own mother; she wondered if Cayce wasn’t really speaking for himself. Yet she was aware of the uncomfortable silence that