She was stuck here until someone got them out, to another city, another country, another continent.

At this moment Yahvi would have been happy to get back aboard Adventure and go home. There were many HBs, especially the yavaki, who would have been perfectly happy to keep on living aboard Keanu.

A third door opened behind her, and she was suddenly surrounded by bodies and voices. Four young women, none of them much older than Yahvi, all wearing bland smocklike garb in either light blue or green.

One of them smiled. Another one said, “Hi!”

But the other two, the ones wearing blue, reacted with alarm, grabbing the friendlier pair. “Don’t you know who she is?” one of them said.

Yahvi was puzzled. Why would anyone be afraid of her? If anyone should be nervous in social encounters, it should be her. “I’m Yahvi,” she said.

“We know.” So said the one in blue who had warned the others. “Aren’t you supposed to be locked up—?”

“No,” Yahvi said.

“Like that thing in the chamber?”

So that was the problem! “Don’t be afraid of Zeds,” she said.

“It’s not just him. We wish all of you would just leave!”

And she tried to tug the others along.

But one of the girls in green wasn’t ready to leave and began arguing with the girl in blue. Yahvi could barely follow the exchange, especially since she couldn’t help noticing the way the girls had enhanced their looks. They all wore makeup and jewelry—glittery things in their earlobes, bracelets, necklaces.

And their fragrance! There was a bit of a cooking air about them (the girls in green must work in the cafeteria), but what was most prominent was a floral scent. She wanted to ask them—even the one who didn’t like her—why they did this and what were the rules, and where did one obtain these substances.

But just like that the argument was over. The two girls in blue marched out. “They’re nurse assistants,” the girl in green said. “Stuck-up.”

“I’m sorry.” Yahvi knew what stuck-up meant.

“And Surina is very religious.”

Yahvi had been hearing that all day, that “religious” humans were among those most troubled by Adventure’s mission. It baffled her. There were a few religious people among the HBs, probably evenly split between Christians and Hindus. But, as far as Yahvi knew, none of the yavaki had ever expressed a belief in a supreme being or whatever it was religions were supposed to have. Maybe that was the problem. “We’re not here to make trouble.”

“I don’t think it’s you, but where you came from.”

“And what you might do,” the other girl in green said. “With your magic powers.” She made a spooky sound, which made the first girl laugh.

“But you’re not afraid of me.”

“Well, no. I mean, you seem to be just like us—”

“Well, taller,” the second girl said. That was true: Yahvi was a head taller than any of the four girls.

“Where are you going?”

“Out! It’s Saturday night!”

Yahvi smiled. “So . . .” She had barely gotten used to “days.” Yes, the HBs used the calendar they had grown up with . . . but there was nothing special about Saturday night, or Sunday morning.

“We have dates,” the first girl said. “Well, I do.” She nudged her friend. “Her boyfriend was deployed last week—”

“Deployed?”

“Sent to the coast on alert,” the second girl said. From the expression on her face, this wasn’t a good thing.

“In case we’re invaded,” the first girl said. Her giggles suggested that she didn’t really see the danger.

“By the Reivers?” Yahvi said.

The girls looked confused. Yahvi tried to explain. “The Aggregates. The ones who control most of Earth.”

“Yes. Everyone’s sick of it,” the first girl said. Then: “Does your alien friend speak English?”

“Or Hindi?” the second girl said.

“Both,” Yahvi said. “Go by and talk to him. Tell him I said hello.” As she said it, she realized she could have allayed some of her loneliness and sense of dislocation by visiting Zeds—who was almost certainly feeling the same thing.

Then the hallway door opened again. It was the two nursing assistants, now accompanied by the guards from the lobby. “There she is.”

“You shouldn’t be out here like this,” one of the guards said.

“What, I should be in a different hallway?” She was getting angry. She looked to her two acquaintances in green; they seemed intimidated by the guards and the two nursing assistants.

“Never mind,” Yahvi said. “I’m leaving.”

She turned away and went through the doors, deeper into the hospital.

She would find Zeds and wish him a good night, even as she pondered the encounter with girls her age—how strange they were, how different their lives were.

All the while realizing that, as far as they were concerned, Yahvi was just as alien as Zeds.

QUESTION: For Rachel . . . Why did you turn Keanu around and bring it back to Earth?

RACHEL: Because I was going to be a bit too old to really enjoy the next closest destination.

QUESTION: Which was—?

RACHEL: At least forty light-years distant, or as we calculated it, based on our highest possible speed . . . really, really far off.

INTERVIEW AT YELAHANKA,

APRIL 14, 2040

RACHEL

Just as the meal was ending, moments after Yahvi had slipped out, Rachel began to feel dizzy and nauseated. It reminded her of morning sickness—and the sudden possibility that she might be pregnant added a whole new layer of stress to the moment. She and Pav were still making love—though, for a variety of good reasons, not since leaving Keanu. They weren’t using birth control, either, since everyone wanted the HB population to expand . . . but not right this minute!

Then she realized it was Keanu calling.

She glanced at Pav, who showed no sign that he was being contacted. So she excused herself and went out into the hallway.

Where the connection proved to be almost useless. She managed to learn that Sasha was calling, and heard mention of Dale Scott and a “warning.”

She managed to respond with a confirmation and a status update—which was status quo, Sanjay still critical and not seen.

Then it was gone, a most unsatisfying few moments.

Before she could return to the conference room, Taj joined her. “It turns out, the Aggregates did try to kill you,” he said.

Rachel smiled bitterly. “You mean, our tail section didn’t just fall off?”

Taj looked unhappy, whether with Rachel’s flippant response or the fact that his news wasn’t really news. “No, you were the target of a submarine-launched missile.”

“Well, we assumed we might be shot at. It was one of the reasons we came here rather than the U.S.”

“Didn’t you consider equipping yourself with defensive missiles?”

Was this the “danger” Sasha had just tried to warn her about? “Taj, we were lucky to get Adventure flying, period. We just didn’t have the time to invent and install an anti-missile system. Besides, we were just as likely to have been hit by a laser. Or conventional weapons.”

“I understand.” He got a curious smile on his face. “During the Keanu landings—I don’t know if you knew or remember this—your father’s team thought we had put a missile on Brahma.” He shook his head at the memory.

Rachel had indeed heard that: At the time of the Destiny and Brahma missions there had been tension between the United States and India in particular, so much that some NASA people believed that Brahma’s crew would do anything to beat Destiny to the Keanu landing—even shoot at them.

“Have you told Pav about the attack?”

“Yes.” A simple answer, but it annoyed her. She was the leader of the crew, yet Taj persisted in giving key information to Pav! Because he was his son? Or because he was male?