She looked amused. “Mac, I had no idea you were given to panic.”

“How would you state the odds?”

“Astronomical.”

“For or against?” She laughed, but she was beginning to look around. It would be just moments before she realized she had to be somewhere else. “Doesn’t it seem to you,” MacAllister continued, “that if there’s a potential for a catastrophe on that scale, we should stay clear of the experiment, no matter what?”

“Mac.” She looked up at him. “Don’t lose any sleep over it.”

HE CALLED HUTCH, but her AI told him she was in conference. She got back to him an hour or so later. He was home by then, working on a review of a new book by Zacarias Toomas. Toomas had done a series of brilliant introspective novels, analyzing the assorted misconceptions and hypocrisies of suburban life in modern America, but this latest one, Parlor Games, was a disaster. Despite his reputation, MacAllister took no pleasure in assaulting good people. He didn’t mind taking out after the assorted blockheads who consistently got themselves into the public eye. But somebody like Toomas…He was a MacAllister discovery. And a friend.

Ah well.

Then Hutch was sitting in front of him. “What can I do for you, Mac?”

She was cool and businesslike. He tried to soften the moment, commenting that he’d watched Asquith testify.

“We’ll survive it,” she said. “Eventually we survive everything.” He read the implication: Even our friends.

He refused to get annoyed. “I understand you have an April mission going out.”

“We have a couple missions in April. Which one were you referring to?”

“The moonrider flight.”

“Ah. Yes. I’m surprised you heard about that. We haven’t released the information yet.”

“Then it’s true?”

“Oh, it’s no big deal. We’re just going to take a look around.”

“When’s it leaving?”

“I’m not supposed to say anything.”

“Hutch.” His fatherly voice. “Between us. It’ll go no further.” When she hesitated: “I have a reason for asking.”

“I’m sure you do. We’ll be launching at the beginning of the month.”

“Why hasn’t there been an announcement?”

She hesitated. Lowered her voice. “I know how the moonriders play, Mac. I didn’t want people laughing at us.”

“You think they’re really spaceships?”

“No.” She tried to laugh it away.

“Then why are you running the mission at all?”

She took a deep breath. “Because there’s a chance, Mac.”

“It must be more than that, Hutch. What aren’t you telling me?”

“There’s been a wave of sightings. We can’t just dismiss them all.” She sat back and crossed her arms. “How’d you find out?”

He switched to his east European accent. “Ah, my dear, I have my methods.”

“I’m sure. Is there anything else you needed?”

She looked as if she were about to terminate the conversation. “How long will the mission run?” he asked.

“About a month. Maybe a bit longer.” She looked off to one side. “Mac, I have to go. I’m awfully busy right now.”

“Okay. Just give me a minute more, and I’ll get out of your way. Are they going to find something?”

“That’s not the purpose of the mission. They’re just going to be distributing monitors.”

“These recent encounters, the ones that haven’t been made public, can you describe some of them for me?”

“I’m just not free to do that, Mac.”

“You’re not a good liar, Hutch.” She stood quietly watching him, not reacting. And he knew exactly what she was up to. “If I were to ask to go along, you’d make room for me, wouldn’t you?”

“Reluctantly.”

“Reluctantly, hell. You want me to make the flight. That’s what this is all about, isn’t it?”

She sighed. “You got me.”

“Why?”

“Mac, we’re hoping to use the flight to create some public interest. Get people excited about the work we do.”

“I see. And you thought if I went along — ”

“The story would get bigger.”

“Why didn’t you just ask?”

“I didn’t think you’d do it.”

“Try me.”

She softened. Smiled. “Mac, it’s not as much fun that way.”

“You wanted to fox me, didn’t you?”

“I thought you’d have enjoyed the flight. You get a cabin to yourself and a tour of some of the loveliest places in the area.”

In fact, the mission might provide some material for Dark Mirror. At the very least, he saw no problem with giving the Academy space in The National. He expected, though, that she wouldn’t care for the result. “You still haven’t asked if I would go.”

“Mac, would you go? Do it for me?”

“Sure,” he said. “Wouldn’t miss it.”

The Martha Kingston Foundation, which donates millions every year for scientific research in a wide range of fields, today announced that Charles Dryden, an executive with Orion Tours, will receive this year’s coveted Kingston Prize, awarded annually to their most successful fund-raiser.

Mr. Dryden is a product of the University of Kansas. He started his career as a political aide….

Henry Beemer, charged with attacking a preacher in a bookstore last week, has been increasingly depressed and quarrelsome, according to coworkers and friends….

— Derby (North Carolina) Star, Tuesday, February 24

There was a time when you could retreat from the mass of humanity simply by moving into the forest, or heading for an island. Then it became the back side of the moon. With the development of FTL, nowhere is safe. If history is a guide, we will not stop until every green patch in the Milky Way has a squatter.

— Gregory MacAllister, “Slower Than Light Is Fast Enough for Me”

Hutch’s exchange with MacAllister left her in a glorious mood. She had never thought of simply coming out and asking. Well, she had, but it would have seemed too much like an imposition, so she’d not seriously considered it.

She had not been exaggerating when she’d told him she was busy. A stack of documents a foot high waited on her desk, and a group of Israeli astrophysicists was due in the building at any moment.

“Hutch,” said the AI, “Amy Taylor is trying to reach you.”

Amy? “Put her through, Marla.”

The teenager wore khaki shorts and a University of Virginia pullover. She flashed a smile that was at once innocent, shy, and calculating. “Hi, Hutch,” she said. “I hope I’m not disturbing you.”

“Not at all, Amy. I’m a little rushed at the moment. But what can I do for you?”

“I just wanted to know if I could come over sometime and you could maybe show me around the Academy? If it’s not too much trouble.”

“Sure. When did you want to come?”

She was trying to say something else. Hutch waited while she found the words. “Hutch, the truth is, I’d love to go on an Academy mission. Go somewhere nobody’s ever been before.”

“Amy, those flights tend to be long ones. You’d be away a few months. I’m not sure that would work.”

Amy nodded. “You don’t have anything close by? I know we haven’t gone everywhere around here.”

“There are a lot of places that are only a couple of days out that we haven’t bothered with, Amy. But usually there’s a reason.”

“Okay.” She shrugged. “I just thought I’d ask.”

“There are tours.”

“I don’t think it would be the same. Anyhow, my father wouldn’t approve.”

“If he wouldn’t approve of a tour flight, why would you think he’d go along with something more exotic?”

“A flight in an Academy ship? How often does that come along? He might see a political advantage to it.”

The girl’s explanation sounded reasonable. “I’ll take a look around, Amy. See if we have anything.”

SHE WAS NEVER sure when the possibility first occurred to her to offer Amy a berth on the Salvator. Later, recalling the sequence of events, she thought she’d been toying with the idea before the call came in. The more she thought about it, the more promising it seemed. She’d only be gone a few weeks. There would be, for a teenager, a certain cachet about the mission. The ship’s AI could handle her schooling. She’d be in good company, and the trip would be something she’d remember for a lifetime.

She put through a call to the senator. He got back to her late that afternoon from his office. “Hello, Hutch,” he said. “It’s good to hear from you.”

“Senator, we have a flight going out in early April — ”

“The moonrider flight — ”

“I don’t guess we’ve had much luck keeping it quiet.”

“The commissioner mentioned it to me.” He shook his head. “These are crazy times we live in.”

“Yes, they are.”

“I hope you find something. It would be nice to know whether there’s anything to these stories.”

“I doubt there is,” she said.

“I take it this is Michael’s idea.”

“Pretty much.”

His standard smile widened. Became genuine. “He claimed you were behind it.”

“Ah,” she said. “He likes to give credit to the help.”

“Yes, I’m sure.” He held up a hand to stall the conversation, exchanged comments with someone at the other end, then turned back to her. “Sorry, Hutch. Now, what can I do for you?”

“Senator, I was thinking we might do something nice for Amy.”

“That’s very generous.” He looked wary. “What did you have in mind?”

“She’s mentioned that she’d enjoy making an Academy flight. Most of the missions go too far. They’re out too long. But the Salvator, which is doing the moonrider flight, is just going to be making a tour of local star systems. Anyhow, we have space if you’d approve, and I thought it would be something she’d enjoy.”

Taylor looked reluctant. “I don’t know,” he said.

“She’d get to see the Origins Project. And the Galactic Hotel at Capella, and the Hightower Museum. And Terranova, and — ”

“Hold on, Hutch. That sounds good. But I’m not comfortable having her away from school that long.”

“Once-in-a-lifetime experience, Senator.”

“Also, I’m not sure I can accept this kind of favor.”

“That’s a call you’d have to make, sir.”

“Yes. Hutch, let me get back to you.”

It took less than twenty-four hours. Hutch got a call from an excited Amy the next morning minutes after she’d arrived in her office. “Hutch,” she said, “thank you.”