TOR HAD NEVER thought of himself as being particularly brave. Not physically, and not in any other way. He’d avoided trouble whenever he could, had no taste for confrontations, and had quietly walked away from Hutch when she’d told him to. So he’d been surprised to hear himself take George’s side of the dispute. Right. Let’s go. I’ll do it with you, George. How can you be so cowardly, Hutch?

Utterly out of character. He was horrified when Hutch caved in. “Okay,” she’d said. “Do what you think best. If you get yourselves killed, I’m sure everybody will be impressed.” She’d looked directly at him, and he understood what she meant.

But that wasn’t the reason he’d done it. Well, maybe he had thought she’d lose respect for him if he backed away. But it was also true that he cringed at the thought of their all riding back with their tails between their legs. That certainly would have been the end of it with Hutch. Still, he told himself, it wasn’t why he’d gone front and center. George had devoted his life to this. He was a decent guy and he deserved his chance. If Tor hadn’t ridden in with the Marines, Hutch would have persisted, and George, remembering that he’d been fatally wrong before, would have caved in.

So now Tor was standing beside the lander, listening to Hutch lay out the ground rules, getting ready to do something he really didn’t want to do.

WHAT ABOUT WEAPONS? They had three laser cutters. Beyond that they were reduced to an assortment of knives and forks.

“We shouldn’t need them,” George maintained.

Somehow, Alyx managed to look down at him. “You said something like that once before.”

“Come on, Alyx. These people are in a starship. You really think they’ll behave like savages?”

“Still,” said Tor, “it’s not a bad idea to be prepared. Just in case.”

George looked at Hutch. Hutch shrugged. “Your call.”

“Okay,” he said. She gave him two of the cutters, keeping one for herself. “Are you coming?” he asked.

“Reluctantly.”

“I don’t want you doing anything you don’t want to do.”

Well, that was a laugher. “It’s best if I go.”

He looked relieved, and she wondered if, left to himself, he wouldn’t stay put.

“When we see them,” he said, “follow my lead.”

Nick and Tor nodded. George smiled at her. It was going to be okay. Have a little faith. And there was, as always, something in his manner that won her respect. Everything would be okay as long as Hockelmann was in charge. “What else,” he asked, “do we need to think about?”

“They might leave orbit,” said Hutch. “With us on board.”

“How great is the risk?”

“I’d say it’s substantial. But if they do decide to take off, we should get some warning. They’ll probably shut down whatever’s causing the blizzard. Although we might have a hard time detecting that in time for it to do us any good.”

“What about when they turn on their engines?” asked Nick. “It seems to me that would be an easy way to know—”

“The engines are running now,” she said. “They’ve been running since we got here. They’re just not generating any thrust at the moment. What I’d expect to happen when they get ready to leave is that we’ll see a spike in energy output.”

“And we can pick that up?” asked Tor.

“Oh, yes. Bill will read it right away. If it happens, if we hear Bill give us the warning, we break for the lander. Right?” She looked hard at George.

He nodded. They all nodded.

“It doesn’t matter what we’re doing, we clear out immediately.”

“Are you sure about the spike?” asked George. “After all, this is an alien ship.”

“Engines are engines. I don’t see anything down there that implies advanced technology. Other than that they don’t seem to have Hazeltine pods.”

“They’re probably concealed in the terrain,” said Tor.

“What are you suggesting about the pods?” asked Nick.

“That they may have something better. But there’s no point worrying about that.”

“What are Hazeltine pods?” asked Alyx. She was standing outside the launch bay.

“They focus the energy generated by the jump engines and make transdimensional flight possible. They’re located fore and aft on the Memphis.”

They buckled on the harnesses that would generate their e-suits, and picked up their air tanks. Hutch did a quick inspection. Satisfied, she opened the lander hatch, and they climbed in.

THERE WAS NO way they were going to talk Alyx into going over to the chindi, hammering on the door, and waiting around to see what would open up. She was glad to see Hutch had no enthusiasm for it either, but she wished that the captain had not agreed to join the landing party. She didn’t much like being left alone.

The three males all had their testosterone in gear, and it seemed as if they’d learned nothing from the deaths of their colleagues on the Condor, or at the hands of the savages at Paradise. Or for that matter from the death of the captain of the Wendy Jay. They were all talking about how they owed it to the victims to push ahead. But enough was enough. They had discovered the chindi, and the Retreat, and that was where the glory lay. There’d be no shortage of people who’d want in on this. And as far as she was concerned, that was fine. Let somebody else go knock on the door.

More infuriating still, she knew exactly what they thought about her. She was, after all, a woman. Keep your head down and let the menfolk take the chances. Wouldn’t want you in the line of fire, and all that. They were willing to make an exception for Hutch. After all, she was the captain. And even in her case, they thought she lacked courage. But they were willing to accept her because they felt more comfortable when she was there. And if the pieces didn’t quite fit together, that didn’t matter.

Damn.

Alyx was willing to put her life on the line in a good cause, if the odds were reasonable. But this, in her view, was just damned foolish. She could see both sides of the argument. And she knew George had expected more of her, had wanted her to go along with the game, to lend support. But life was sweet, and the fact that the chindi remained silent was ominous. They are not going to be waiting for us with the local chowder and marching society.

Scientific breakthroughs were nice, and especially one of this magnitude. But she had no interest in sacrificing herself on the altar of science or anything else. After dinner, when they’d been getting ready to go down to the cargo bay, she made it a point to take Hutch aside and tell her that she was absolutely right, that if George and the others wanted to throw their lives away, it was their call, but she should not let herself get talked into anything foolish.

Hutchins had given her a quick smile in return. It was perfunctory, and served to mask whatever she was feeling. Then Alyx had watched them troop out, the four of them, headed below. And she’d asked Bill to blink the Memphis’s lights again, and send over George’s greetings. Bill had complied, but the chindi remained distressingly nonresponsive.

“Hutch,” she said over her private channel, “I hate to bring this up…”

“It’s okay.” They were sitting in the lander, three Scouts and a reluctant den mother, waiting for the cargo bay to depressurize. “If something happens, Bill will take you home.”