“I’ve got one.”

“Who?”

“Matt.”

“Matt? Jon, Matt’s a real estate agent.”

“Yeah. Should make a little history.”

He let Jon see that he disapproved. Then he sighed. “Sirius? You’re really going to Sirius?”

“We don’t know yet. I’m just talking off the top of my head.”

“Of course.” He didn’t seem to know what to say.

“I’ve another question.”

“Yes?”

“Would you want to come along?”

He obviously hadn’t been expecting that. “Jon, it’s been years, decades since I’ve been outside the solar system.”

“Does that mean you don’t want to go?”

“No. Not at all. I’m just not sure what I could do to help.”

“You don’t have to help, Rudy. Just come along. For the ride.”

Rudy usually hid his emotions. But he broke into a gigantic grin. “Sure. Absolutely.” Then he frowned.

“What’s wrong?”

“We’ll have to get more money to overhaul the Preston and make the installation.”

“I don’t think money will be a problem. Let’s get together and work out the details.”

“Okay. Sure.” Rudy’s eyes glowed. “Sirius.” He drew the word out, tasting its flavor. “How long’s it going to take to make the flight? We leave in the morning, get there for lunch?”

JON, FEELING VERY much the man in charge, called Hutch and told her what they were planning. “We wanted to invite you to come with us. If you’d like.”

She smiled, a little wistfully, he thought. “No, thanks, Jon. You guys go ahead. Have a big time. Make it work.”

RUDY WASTED NO time getting the word out to the Foundation’s supporters. Contributions poured in. It became a tidal wave.

Meantime, Jon led a team of engineers onto the Preston, and they began replacing the drive unit. Rudy also arranged to upgrade the passenger quarters.

At Stern & Hopkins, Matt informed Emma that he would be piloting the Locarno mission, and arranged to take a leave of absence. She was not happy. “If this drive unit is going to take you out there, wherever that is, so quickly,” she asked, “why do you need a leave of absence? Just take a few vacation days.”

Normally, one did not embrace the boss. On this occasion, Matt made an exception. “Emma,” he said, “we may be gone a bit longer than that.”

“Oh.”

He didn’t put it in words, but she understood. Sirius would be just the beginning. Not much more than another test run.

And, finally, there was Reyna.

“After this is over,” she asked, “what do you plan to do?” They were having dinner at their favorite restaurant, Culbertson’s, on Massachusetts Avenue.

There was no way to soften it for her. “Don’t know,” he said. “But I suspect we’ll be going out again.”

She nodded. Smiled. Didn’t ask how long the follow-up voyage might take. Didn’t ask whether he wanted her to wait. Tried, not entirely successfully, to look like the good soldier. Good luck to you. See you when you get back. Take care of yourself.

Maybe her feelings for him were stronger than he’d realized.

At the end of the evening, when she kissed him, her cheek was wet.

And she let him go.

There were a couple of occasions after that for which he invited her to lunch or dinner, but she explained she was busy. Another time, Matt.

He didn’t see her again until the Preston was ready to go, and she showed up at the Foundation’s farewell luncheon. He didn’t even realize she was there until, when he was leaving with Priscilla Hutchins and one of the board members, she simply appeared standing off to one side. She smiled through the moment and formed the words Good luck with her lips. Then, before he could get to her, she was gone.

LIBRARY ENTRY

SUPERLUMINAL READIES FOR HISTORIC FLIGHT

Work has been completed to prepare the Phyllis Preston for a flight that may change the way we think about our place in the universe. The mission will employ the Locarno propulsion system, which is far more efficient than its predecessor. It’s scheduled for a mid-September departure. The destination has not yet been announced, but officials close to the Prometheus Foundation, which is underwriting the effort, are saying the ship will travel to Sirius.

Sirius is 8.6 light-years from Earth. A one-way flight, using the Hazeltine technology, would require slightly more than 20 hours. The Preston expects to make it in about 40 minutes.

—Worldwide News Service, Thursday, August 23

chapter 17

WHEN JON AND his collaborators started talking about a target for the first flight out of the solar system, they’d considered Alpha Centauri and Procyon as well as Sirius. Somewhere close. But as the work on the Preston neared completion, they began to think in terms of spectacle. Why settle for something on the tour routes?

“Let’s go deep.” Later, nobody could remember who’d originally said the words, but it became their mantra. Let’s go deep. Let’s not screw around.

Let’s head outside the bubble.

The deepest penetration to date had been 3,160 light-years by the Patrick Heffernan, three decades earlier. Nobody went out that far anymore. Nobody even went close.

When Rudy mentioned it to Hutch, she shook her head. “Not a good idea.”

“Why not? Why mess around?”

“What happens if you go for a record, and there’s a problem? Nobody would be able to reach you for nine or ten months.”

They were at Rudy’s town house, enjoying the pool with Matt, Jon, and a half dozen other friends. Rudy was always a bit more bombastic at the town house. “We used to make flights like that all the time,” he said.

“That was during an era when we had missions all over the place. If something broke down, there was always somebody reasonably close. That’s not the case anymore.”

Rudy went into his I-wish-you-had-a-little-more-faith-in-us mode. “There won’t be a problem,” he said.

Matt would have liked to sell the guy some property. “She’s right, Rudy. I mean, if she weren’t, why would we need to run a test at all?”

In the end, with everyone either showing or pretending disappointment, they settled for Alioth.

The third star in from the end of the Dipper’s handle, it was eighty-one light-years from Earth. It would make a fair test without putting them at unnecessary risk.

LATER THAT AFTERNOON, Rudy got a call from C. B. Williams, a Worldwide executive. “Rudy,” he said, “we’d like to send someone along on the flight. Give you some decent news coverage.”

Rudy thought about it and decided it seemed like a good idea. “Okay,” he said. “We can make room for him. Or her.”

“Good. We’re talking about Antonio Giannotti. He’ll represent the entire pool.”

Antonio Giannotti. Where had Rudy heard the name before?

“He’s our science reporter,” said Williams.

No. It wasn’t that. Rudy knew the name from somewhere else.

“Thirty years ago, on the Black Cat, he was Dr. Science. Did a show for kids.”

Yes! Dr. Science. Rudy had grown up watching Dr. Science explain how gravity worked, and what climatologists were trying to do to compensate for changing weather patterns. He’d radiated so much enthusiasm about his various topics that Rudy had known by the time he was eight that he would give his life to the sciences. “Yes,” he said. “We’d enjoy having him along.”

THEY WERE WELL past the era during which summer in the nation’s capital provided some cool days in September. Early fall remained hot in Virginia and Maryland, and Matt was happy to be getting away from it.