“...When the distance from the star gave way to a slow approach to it, Fenrir, once known in narrow circles as Hallkel the Elephant Skull, began to drift. Its armor shone dully, its side numbers, coats of arms, and a blue-red stripe along the sharp edge of the flattened head of the hull glowed with phosphorescence. Space scanning systems scanned the space, robots for repairing seams between armor plates repaired seams between armor plates, cryogenerators cooled superconducting circuits, and all sorts of things began to freeze and stink in the middle part of the hull. There were a few more units left to start.” “...The base of the skull is an ass. Proved by induction on the number of vertebrae."