“Ship, did you ever get the thing on radar or visual?”
“Negative,” came the reply from the bracelet. “There are no video recorders in the Hawking-drive accumulator.…”
“How did you know it was there?” I asked.
“I have a mass sensor in every compartment,” said the ship. “For flight purposes I must know precisely how much mass is displaced in every section of the ship.”
“How much mass did it displace?” I said.
“One-point-oh-six-three metric tons,” said the ship.
I froze in the act of straightening up. “What? Over a thousand kilos? That’s ridiculous.” I looked at the two footprints again. “No way.”
“Way,” said the ship. “During the creature’s stay in the Hawking-drive accumulator ring, I measured a precise displacement of one-point-oh-six-three-thousand kilos and …”
“Jesus wept,” I said, turning to A. Bettik. “I wonder if anyone’s ever weighed this bastard before.”
“The Shrike is almost three meters tall,” said the android. “And it may be very dense. It may also vary its mass as required.”
Endymion Chapter 30