TAGII: Commander, the falling rock has afforded me an opportunity to take some soundings.
Oisri's lithosphere is ringing like a bell, but everything below about sixty-two hundred meters is a completely reflective, non-propagatory mystery.
KEVYN: Brilliant work. Now we have data.
TAGII: Also, the most distant nodes of the V.D.A. are reporting odd station-keeping requirements.
KEVYN: Interesting. You and I can look into that as soon as I field this call. Tagon looks angry and confused. Again.
TAGON: Kevyn, there's something wrong with my handbrain.
Gus said Oisri has the mass of one-point-two Earths, but this thing insists that means we'd be pulling around sixteen gees.
TAGON: The suit tells me I'm only pulling about point-nine-three, so I'm pretty sure Gus didn't give me the gravity and call it the mass.
KEVYN: That calculation is correct. Assuming a mass of Earth times one-point-two inside a radius of only point-two-seven-five Earth's, you should be pulling sixteen gees and change.
TAGON: Double-check my suit's measurements, Kevyn. This is kind of important.
KEVYN: Sure thing. Hang on a moment.
TAGII: It is more important than you think, sirs. On a related note, I solved the mystery of the V.D.A. station-keeping problems.
Osiri's gravitational field appears natural, but only to a distance of three-point-three-one million kilometers.
TAGII: At that distance her mass appears to "jump" from point-oh-seven to one-point-two Earths.
TAGON: Tagii! Less "math," more "important."
TAGII: You appear to be standing on a gravitational anomaly that is masking most of its mass.
If you find the button that turns it off, do not push that button.