Her known interests, club affiliations, and education influenced the selections available in the ship's library. Her dining partners for the first couple of meals were selected easily. It seemed that Joana Barker was bland enough to fit well with anyone. Her tastes even colored the selection of activities aboard the ship, and reservations were made in her name for those activities she was most likely to attend.

The computer wove all these threads back together into a profile of Joana Barker, then pumped the data to the Lyran Intelligence Corps computer. Though Joana Barker had been born within the LIC computer, the machines subjected the information to all the routine and rigorous searches for possible crime detection. Given the physical data, Joana Barker's name vanished into a Top Secret file of possible candidates to act as a double for Melissa Steiner. Beyond that, however, the LIC computer took no notice and sent the profile to Immigration.

The Immigration computer quickly rifled Joana Barker's medical history and determined that she'd had all the necessary innoculations for the worlds she'd be visiting. Then, while double-checking her medical history against the disease list for Skye, something odd occurred. A complete duplicate of the Joana Barker profile split off and traveled into a RAM trap while the original wandered merrily on its way. Immigration returned the file to the Monopole computer complete with visas and a note wishing Joana Barker a pleasant journey.

Joana Barker remained in her RAM cell for three hours. Then an electronic inquiry freed the data and dragged it along to another massive computer, which broke down the profile into all its component parts. Immediately and simultaneously, a massive bank of parallel processors tapped the computer's near infinite store of knowledge. Augmented by a hidden trapdoor into the Royal Tharkad Library system, the computer verified each and every bit of data.

Everything checked perfectly. All the records of her education confirmed Joana's personal profile. Computers confirmed the length of her current residence. Her credit history and her medical history matched, item for item, the masters that had produced them. Everything checked, Everything was in order.

Though all the little details of her life fell neatly together, Joana Barker's name actually taxed the computer. First, the computer checked the name against all the generations available for the Barker family. No one on mother Lucy or father Benjamin's sides had been named Joana, though a Joan showed up as a possible match. Eliminating the obvious link, and bearing in mind Joana's listed Catholicism, a quick check against a list of saints only produced another Joan.

Unsatisfied, the program jumped to the largest list it contained. Cross-indexing her year of birth, 3002, with her location of birth on Tharkad, it then organized, by order of popularity, holovid and music stars of that era. Most matches, while close, produced such low probability scores as to be discarded easily. Even so, Yohanna—a female porn queen—joined both Joans as a possible candidate.

Still unrequited, the program sorted through numerous other lists of famous people. Politicians and sports figures produced nothing noteworthy. Historical figures produced the same Joan as the saint list, but otherwise proved unsatisfactory. The names of famous ships and 'Mechs failed to offer any ready matches.

Finally, the program reached the most recently added database. Greedily, it devoured the complete survey of 18th-, 19th-, and 20th-century fiction and compared Joana Barker to a myriad of names. It found one perfect match for her first name: Joana, but that character had no last name. The program immediately traced back along the information tree concerning the mythical Joana. It was then that something else suddenly matched.

Father Benjamin and mother Lucy fitted exactly into Joana Barker's profile. The computer checked Benjamin and discovered that his last name had been Barker, though he was better known as Sweeney Todd. Joana, his daughter, had been lost to him as an infant, and thus had never known or taken the last name of "Barker." In the works that popularized the legend, the girl remained Joana, just Joana.

The program double- and triple-checked the data. The match satisfied all criteria for a perfect pairing. That tripped another piece of programming burrowed deep within the Monopole computer. It coaxed the entire passenger list for the Silver Eaglefrom the computer and retreated without leaving evidence that it had ever been there.

The computer bundled all the information, including statements about probabilities and error disclaimers, and sent it out. The data package coursed through a series of computers. Once the information had passed all along the chain, the machines erased all traces of the data. Twice the information had to be moved physically from one machine to another before it could continue its journey.

Finally, the report scrolled across the viewscreen built into a desktop. It paused at the end of each page so that the reader could catch up with it. Then, as the reader punched a button, a whole new page of text materialized. The overview, only three pages in length, contained all the pertinent information the reader would need.

Duke Aldo Lestrade sat back in his chair. He smiled coldly and licked his lips. "So, the Archon-Designate isbound out of the Commonwealth. Having her kidnapped from a Davion world ought to put a stop to this alliance nonsense." He smiled to himself.

Hunting and pecking with his right hand, Duke Lestrade edited the passenger list and itinerary from the document. Using an encryption program, he then scrambled the data. Packaging the data bundle once more, he started it off on its journey from Tharkad to Enrico Lestrade on Solaris.

Duke Lestrade dumped the file from the computer's buffer. "Bon Voyage, Melissa Steiner. Don't forget to write."

* * *

Andrew Redburn reached across the candlelit table and took Misha Auburn's hand. She smiled at him, and he returned the smile, but said nothing until the servant had finished stacking the dishes on a cart and left the suite. "Thank you for dining with me tonight."

Misha squeezed his hand. "Thank you for arranging it. Everything was perfect." She stood without relinquishing his hand and led Andrew to the sofa.

Simultaneously, both began to speak. "I. . ." each one began to say as they settled against the cushions. Embarrassment washed over the faces of the two young people and then they laughed. Andrew nodded to Misha, but she shook her head. "You first, Andrew."

Andrew hesitated, then smiled sheepishly. "You must know how much I've enjoyed being with you here. So much so that I don't look forward to leaving. Tomorrow's all filled up with making arrangements and briefings and another damned reception tomorrow night." Andrew's voice dropped off. "But I didn't want to leave without letting you know how I feel."

Misha smiled, and caressed the side of Andrew's face. "I've enjoyed our time together, too." Her hand drifted down to cover his.

Andrew shook his head sadly. "It feels so good to be with you that I don't want to leave." He shrugged. "But I have no choice. I know I don't like the idea of being on Kittery, which is over two hundred light years from you."

Misha laughed. "241.24 light years from here." She glanced

down at their intertwined hands, then back up at him. "I checked when I learned you were leaving on the Silver Eagle."

Andrew opened his arms to enfold her, and they kissed deeply. She matched his passion, then broke their kiss and clung to him tightly. "I know how you feel, Andrew Redburn, because I feel the same way," she whispered. "But all we can do is enjoy what we've got now . . .while we still can."