Bulvenorg sighed deeply. "So," he said sweetly, "the dispatch of eighteen ships to such a distance, and their deployment over such a period of time, has demonstrated one thing, clearly, at least: that instrumentation is a waste of time. For, if a vice-admiral knows so handily which instrument recordings are valid and which invalid--even though the instruments have been very carefully chosen by experts for the particular conditions of that time and place--why do we not simply let vice-admirals, or perhaps even second helpers to ja