He was, Canyon thought, the sort of person to have on your side if war broke out, but not someone you'd routinely invite for dinner. He had never been able to get close to the captain on the long voyage from Earth.

Emma had complained that Wilfrid, the AI, was better company. Certainly he was friendlier. Her attitude suggested the absurdity of his earlier suspicion that an affair of the heart was being conducted in the midnight corridors of the Zwick.

The captain spent most of his time in the cockpit or in his private quarters. He never initiated conversation unless business called for it. And once they arrived in orbit around Deepsix, there was really little for him to do except await the collision.

His commlink vibrated. It was Emma. "August," she said, "I just overheard an odd conversation between Kellie Collier and Clairveau."

"Really? What about?"

"Clairveau was wondering why they were late getting started.

Kellie Collier told him that Hutchins was resting. That she'd been attacked by a plant."

"By a plant?"

"That's what she said."

Put men and women in the same room and everyone's IQ drops thirty-six points. Psychologists have recorded it, tests have shown it, studies leave no doubt. Passion doth make fools of us alt.

— Gregory MacAllister, "Love and Chocolate," Targets of Opportunity

Hours to breakup (est): 140

Lori's matronly image appeared on Nicholson's command screen. The AI was wearing a formal black suit with a white scarf. That was designed to impress him that the business she wished to transact was quite serious. Of course, he knew what it was.

7 think it's a mistake to refuse to help," she said.

"My first duty is the safety of my passengers, Lori."

"The regulations are a bit murky in this situation. In any case, one of your passengers is in extremis. In addition, you have instructions from Corporate to cooperate with any rescue effort."

"That transmission won't be worth a damn if somebody volunteers and gets killed."

"/ quite agree, Captain. But I have to point out that if the current situation does not change, and Mr. MacAllister loses his life, you will be in severe difficulty for having withheld assistance."

"I know."

The only course that might get you through undamaged is to help where you can and hope no one is injured. If that happens…"

Nicholson ran his fingers through his hair. He could not see which course was safer.

"It is not my decision, Captain," she said. "But it is my responsi-

bility to offer counsel. Do you wish me to contact Captain Clairveau?"

Marcel had instructed Beekman to continue working on the extraction plan. He intended to have another try at persuading Nichol-son to help. But he needed to give him time to think about the decision he'd made. Time to fret.

The auxiliary screen began to blink. CAPTAIN NICHOLSON WANTS TO SPEAK WITH YOU.

It was quicker than he'd expected.

"We also need somebody who can rig a remote pump."

"A remote pump?"

"Listen, Erik, I know how all this sounds. But I don't have time to go over everything at the moment. We started late and we've got a lot of ground to cover. Please just trust me for now."

"All right, Marcel. I'll make an announcement at dinner this evening."

"No. Not this evening. That'll be too late. Round up whatever volunteers you can get now. I'll want to talk to them, too. The ones who will help, and that we can use, will come over forthwith."

"My God, Marcel, that's pressing it a bit, isn't it? Are we talking this minute?"

"Yes, we are."

"At least tell me what you're planning to do?"

" We are going to make a skyhook, Erik."

"Bill."

"Yes, Marcel."

"Tomorrow morning we'll take all four ships out to the assembly. Coordinate with the other AIs."

Nicholson got on the Star's public address system, informed his passengers and crew that he knew everyone was aware of the difficulties that had been encountered extracting the landing party from Maleiva HI, but went on to describe them anyway. "We are still endeavoring," he said, "to mount a rescue." He gazed steadily into the lens, imagining himself as an old warrior rallying the troops to victory. "To provide insurance that we succeed," he continued, "we need your help.

"Let me now introduce Captain Clairveau of the Wendy jay, who'll explain what we hope to be able to do. I urge you to listen carefully, and if you feel you can assist, please volunteer.

"Captain Clairveau."

Marcel explained the general plan and made an emotional plea for passengers and crew to come forward, even those who possessed no special skills. "We're going to have to train people, and we have only a couple of days to get it done. Most of the volunteers may be asked to go outside. That will depend on what happens on the ground.

"I'd like to underscore the fact that while going outside entails a degree of risk, it is not innately dangerous. The suits are safe. But I wanted you to know that up front. And I'd like to thank you in advance for listening."

Within ten minutes after he signed off, Nicholson found himself awash with volunteers.

"There's one more thing, Erik."

My God. What else could the man want?

"We both know this operation is going to require extremely close coordination among the four vessels. There is simply no margin for error."

"I understand that. What do you need?"

Marcel looked down from the overhead screen. It struck Nicholson that the man was aging before his eyes. "During the operation, I'll want you to turn control of the Star over to us. We'll run everything from here."

"I can't do that, Marcel. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't. It's against the regs."

Marcel took a moment before responding. "If we don't do it this way, we can't possibly succeed."

Nicholson shook his head. "There's no way I can comply. That's too much. No matter how the operation turned out, they'd hang me."

Marcel stared at him a few moments. "Tell you what," he said. "How about if we come over there? And run the operation from the Star?"

An hour seldom passed that Embry didn't thank her good sense for passing on Hutch's offer to go on the mission. She had mourned Toni's death, and she wished she could do something for the others.

But if she'd learned anything from this experience, it was that you didn't undertake potentially lethal assignments on the fly. These things required adequate preparation and planning. The sober truth was that a few people at the Academy hadn't done their jobs, they'd tried to compensate by rushing Hutchins in, and now poor Hutch was stuck with paying the price.

During the first couple of days, before things went wrong, both she and Tom had simply been annoyed at the delay. She'd sent messages off to people at home, complaining about having to spend an extra month or so floating around in the middle of nowhere. She'd even told several of her friends that she was considering legal action against Hutchins and the Academy.

Tom had been more tolerant. He was apparently accustomed to Academy mismanagement and didn't seem to expect them to be organized. He was not at all surprised that the original survey had missed the presence of ruins on Deepsix. "A planet's a big place," he'd told her. If the civilization had been in an early stage of development when the ice age hit, as was apparently the case, there would have been few cities to find. It was no wonder, he argued, that they hadn't realized what they had. He'd have been impressed, he said, if they had detected it.

The turmoil on the ground was reflected in the apprehension onboard Wildside. Embry had experienced pangs of guilt when she realized the implication of the lost landers. She could not see how she was in any way responsible for any of this, and yet she was trying to take it on her own shoulders. Ridiculous.