Clayton shrugged.

Standing, Susan paced before the bunk. Again she thought about telling him how little she knew about her assignment, and again decided against it. The less he knew about her ignorance, the better.

After a few seconds, she turned to Clayton and asked, "Have you learned anything about my first two attackers?"

"Nothing about the one you say attacked you outside the curio shop. We couldn't even find anyone who experienced that sudden change in atmospheric pressure you described."

It had been a mistake to tell him about that one, she thought. She should have followed her instincts, telling him only what she knew he could accept.

"What about the one who got into my quarters on Fleet Base?" Clayton had at least acknowledged the existence of that attacker.

"There we've made some progress." He struggled out of the chair and stepped to the phone, then took a memory chip from his breast pocket and placed it in the appropriate slot at eye level below the screen. "Activate display," he said.

Instantly the flat image of a short man looking off to his left appeared on the screen. Instead of the black Base Security uniform Susan had last seen him in, he wore a civilian jumpsuit of gleaming white. His skin was tanned nearly black, and the livid scar stood out on the left sided of his face.

"Is that him?" Clayton asked.

Susan nodded. "Who is he?"

"Just as you thought, he's a belter. Fourth generation. Name's Haxton-Raul Haxton."

"Any ties to Aldebaran?"

"None that we could uncover, but he's been in and out of trouble most of his life."

"You think he was paid to come after me?"

"I would say so, yes."

Susan didn't say anything for a few seconds. Finally she asked, "You don't have him yet?"

Clayton shook his head. "That's the strange part. According to our people on Ceres, Haxton is in prison there, serving a thirty year term for attempted murder. They say he's been in prison for the better part of a year."

"But I saw him only three days ago, here on Luna. He tried to kill me."

Clayton remained silent. Susan couldn't read the large man's expression.

"Where did you get that chip?" she asked.

"The image was recorded less than two weeks ago, as Haxton got off a ship here in Luna City from Ceres Colony."

"Then you're saying he's in two places at once?"

"I'm saying no such thing; I'm merely repeating what I've been told."

Susan nodded. He didn't believe it, just as he refused to believe her when she told him her attacker had disappeared. But she couldn't blame him for that. She wasn't sure she believed any of it herself.

"Anyway," Clayton continued, "he fits the description of a man observed stealing a Base Security uniform a bit more than a week ago." He stepped to the phone and pulled the memory chip. The image disappeared.

Susan felt a few seconds of uneasiness. What was this all about? How could this Haxton fellow be in jail on Ceres, and here on Luna at the same time? It made as much sense as…

As any of this had made so far.

Clayton went to the door and it irised open. For an instant Susan thought she should tell him what had happened with Bill Darcy, about her not remembering him as mayor of Luna City and her remembering the destruction of the solar power satellite. Then she decided against it. How could she possibly convince him that the satellite that gave power to the city he was now in did not exist in her memories, and that the man who was that same city's mayor should not be? She had no proof. And, strange as it seemed, her LIN/C's memory did not agree with her own.

"How can I get in touch with you?" she asked instead, stepping over the clutter to follow him to the door.

"You can't," he answered, without turning. "I'll be in touch with you." He stepped out into the corridor, and the door irised closed behind him.

Susan stood unmoving, just outside the door's sensing field, her mind and body paralyzed with shock. Clayton had hit her with too much all at once. The identity of the dark man and the fact that he seemed to exist in two places. Her assignment's destination. But the most shattering item had been his statement that Admiral Renford might be behind the attempts on her life. That was something she simply could not believe.

That night, in the guest room in Darcy's apartment, only three hours into her fitful sleep, the phone awakened her from the nightmare. It was Fredrik Hyatt.

"Meet me in hangar four," he said, then clicked off.

His technicians were finished with the ship!

Hyatt waved Susan through the ship's outer hatch. She stepped into the airlock. The inner hatch stood open and she continued through, onto the small bridge. Hyatt followed.

Walls, ceiling, floor-everything was painted a light blue, and there were no sharp angles or edges. An acceleration web hung before a conspicuously bare control panel. There was no view screen, and none of the myriad push-buttons and slide-bars Susan was accustomed to seeing on the bridges of Fleet ships. Gone, too, were the indicators and status lights that traditionally displayed ship's functions.

"This is it?" she asked, unable to hide her disappointment.

"You don't seem to understand, Captain. Photon is different than any ship you have ever been aboard."

"I can see that. How am I supposed to pilot it?"

"Through your LIN/C."

"What?"

Again he used the feminine pronoun: "You will control her through your LIN/C." He stepped past Susan to indicate a narrow slot cut into the panel before the acceleration web. "You will insert your LIN/C here, and instantly you'll be tied into Photon's main computer."

"You're serious, aren't you?"

Hyatt nodded. "While tied into the computer, for all intents and purposes, you are Photon. And you can forget everything you thought you knew about astrogation, insertion points, and tensor math. If you know your destination, Photon's computer will see to it you get there-without prior acquisition of an insertion point."

Susan couldn't believe what she was hearing. Although travel through hyperspace was nearly instantaneous, it was necessary for a ship to travel to a specific insertion point in normal space in order to arrive at a desired destination at the other end. That journey through normal space to the hyperspace insertion point was what consumed so much time in hyperspace travel. If the point of entry into hyperspace was not calculated precisely, a ship could not achieve its desired exit point. It might re-enter normal space anywhere-even within the heart of a star.

"You're saying I won't have to figure for insertion?"

"That's precisely what I am saying. With Photon, you may enter hyperspace at any point to achieve any desired destination. Photon actually maneuvers while in hyperspace!"

"That's impossible."

"It was until now. With this ship we are opening up an entirely new era. Finally, Man's dream of an interstellar empire might actually be within his grasp!"

Susan was silent for a few seconds; she didn't know what to say. Hyatt's attempt at Lunar independence was only the first step in what she now saw as a far grander bid for power.

But that wasn't her problem. Right now, her sole concern was the ship, and what it would take for her to pilot it.

"Is my LIN/C compatible with the ship's computer?" she asked.

"It will be made so before you leave Luna. It requires only a minor adjustment to the standard Fleet LIN/C."

"When will I leave?"

"In three days."

"Three days! But that can't possibly allow sufficient time for me to become familiar with this ship. I've never before piloted anything like it."