reserves

concern about

. .difficulty absorbing the data. It included not just communications from the shadow-people—"
"The shadow-people!"
"—but also Copernicus's own perceptions and thoughts. It was as if I could almost touch Copernicus. But he was not there, and he would not respond. I found it most disconcerting. I apologize."
"The danger!" Bandicut shouted. "What is the danger?"
"Captain, if these communications are genuine—and I believe they are—this entire continent is in peril. The boojum's interest has focused on a massive storage-tank farm, containing roughly a planet's worth of atmospheric reserves."
"Atmospheric reserves? Explain."
"It is a supply of oxygen, nitrogen, and other reserves in solid, liquid, and gaseous form needed for maintaining atmospheric equilibrium throughout the continent. The shadow-people believe that the boojum intends to destroy that depot." Napoleon's sensor-eyes seemed to probe them each in turn, as he swiveled. "They say they cannot protect it without our help."
"This is extraordinary!" growled Ik. "Is there no defensive guard for this tank farm?"
"There is," said Napoleon. "But the boojum may have discovered a way to neutralize it."
Li-Jared's eyes were pulsing with fire. "What can we do that the shadow-people cannot?"
Bandicut squinted. "That's a good point, Nappy. Do the shadow-people maintain the tank farm?"
"Negative," said the robot. "It is outside their territory. The shadow-people can work only within critical range of the n-space activators that join the shipworld continents. They cannot exist far from the open space-time interstices created by the activators. They can guide us toward the endangered area, but they cannot get to it themselves."
"Just like the factory floor," Ik muttered darkly.
"Christ, Nappy! You mean we're supposed to fly off on some wild posse-chase with no more evidence than that?" /This is weird, even for the shadow-people./
/// But you did something like it once before. ///
Bandicut thought of a spacecraft rocketing toward collision with a comet. The memory made him shudder.
"I believe we must go," insisted the robot.
Bandicut swallowed. t