He signed off and gave Alicia a shrug.
“What’s a nomad?” she asked.
“It’s a planet with no sun.”
“No sun? How does that happen? Does it burn out, or what?”
He was suddenly aware he was gulping down the cheesecake. “Something happens that pulls the world out of orbit. Most likely it would be a passing star.”
“Is the mission dangerous?”
“No. There shouldn’t be a problem.”
“How can you say that when that other ship is missing?”
“It’s not missing. It just didn’t file its position report on time.”
“How does that happen? Aside from maybe that it crashed? Or got attacked by aliens?”
“Come on, Alicia, relax. There are no aliens. At least none that would be dangerous to us.”
“So what’s the routine? Does the captain file the report?”
“The captain’s responsible, but the report is normally transmitted by the AI. Automatically, every twenty-four hours.”
“You ever hear of this happening before, Jake?”
“Yes.”
“And what caused it?”
He would have preferred not to respond. “We never found the ship.”
“Oh.”
And there’d been three other cases. One ship had exploded when the star drive apparently let go. The other two also had never been heard from again. But he said nothing. Oh for four didn’t sound good. “Everything okay, Alicia?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” She shook her head.
“Alicia, I trust Priscilla. I know her. If there is a problem, she’s the one to have on board.”
She looked at him for a long minute. “Okay,” she said.
* * *
NEWSDESK
NORMAN LOSING GROUND WITH VOTERS
Campaigns Continue Smear Tactics
Belmar: President Looks Other Way as Corruption Mounts
EASTPOINT POWER COLLECTOR DRIFTING
Central Europe Bears Brunt of Outage
Stabilization Mission to Leave Tomorrow
LAST ELEPHANT DIES
Bobo Passes in West African Care Center
BAILEY CHARGED WITH SEXUAL HARASSMENT
Ontario Governor Claims Accuser “Deranged”
SHUTTLE HIT BY GEESE OVER REAGAN
Third Incident This Month at Washington Port
Migrations Taking Place Early
ECHO HARPER DEAD AFTER HEART ATTACK
Olympic Swim Champion “Just Working Out”
No Previous Indication of Problem
DOG RESCUES THREE CHILDREN FROM BURNING BUILDING
“Turbo Led the Way”
MAN KILLS EX-WIFE, BOYFRIEND, TWO BYSTANDERS,
IN NEW YORK BAR
Statewide Hunt on for Burke Caldwell
Had Long Record of Spousal Abuse
PHYSICISTS CLAIM NEW EVIDENCE UNIVERSE IS ILLUSION
Kay Clemens on Tonight Show: “It’s All in Your Head”
Chapter 35
WHEN THE GROSVENOR surfaced a quarter million kilometers beyond the Moon, the media came out in force. The intensity of the coverage didn’t quite match what the schoolgirls received when they came back on the Copperhead, but it was close. Quinn and his people and their family members had been on HV daily during the rescue effort, and consequently a wide audience had gotten to know them. The ship docked at Union, where Easy Barnicle and the five people he’d rescued transferred to a special shuttle, which they rode into DC. A large crowd was waiting for them, and a band played “The Green Hills of Earth” as they filed into the waiting area. Later that day, parades marched in Shanghai, Boston, and in Barnicle’s hometown, Baltimore. They were greeted at the New White House by President Norman and the First Lady. They made the rounds of the talk shows, where Quinn announced that he’d sold a book to Bartram Publishing, and a rumor began to spread that a movie was already in the works.
During an appearance on Live With Lennie, Barnicle described his feelings when he’d handed out the food and water and watched everybody dive in. “We’d warned them not to wolf down the chow. Not to eat too much. But I don’t think anybody was worrying much about that. I’ll tell you, Lennie, I watched those folks go after those meatballs, and I don’t think I’ve ever felt that good in my life.”
* * *
THE FOLLOWING MORNING, a summons came in from Frank. Patricia was also in his office when Priscilla arrived. They were talking, but the conversation stopped when she came through the door. Frank pointed to a chair, and the director delivered a wary smile. “Good morning, Priscilla,” she said. She smiled again, checked the time, and got up. “I have to go, guys. Frank, it’s all yours.” And she strode out of the office.
He closed the door. “Priscilla,” he said, “you’ve made it pretty clear you want to get back on the bridge.”
“Absolutely,” she said.
“Are you familiar with Orfano?”
“Sure. That’s the world they found adrift a few years ago.”
“That’s correct. The Academy wanted to trace as much of its history as they could. So they sent a team out there three or four weeks ago.”
“The Vincenti.”
“Yes.” He nodded. “They reached the place five days ago and went into orbit. But they missed their position report this morning.”
“It could just be a communication breakdown,” she said. “The AI might have malfunctioned. Or maybe a temporary loss of power.”
“Of course. Or it could be something serious. We don’t know. And the Academy is not happy. After this Teegarden business, everybody’s a bit jumpy.”
“I assume the Academy’s sending somebody out to see what happened?”
“They don’t have anybody in position to react.”
“They want us to help.”
“Correct.”
Priscilla couldn’t resist. “Is the Grosvenor available?”
“There’s nothing funny about this, young lady.”
“Sorry, Frank. You have more experience with this kind of thing than I do.”
“I’m glad you recognize that, Priscilla.” He was trying to be patient and to let her see that it wasn’t easy. “We’re taking a lot of heat right now.”
“So what—?”
“Fortunately, Orfano is pretty close. It’s only a little more than four light-years. There’s nobody even remotely closer to it than we are.”
“Frank, I’m ready to go. I assume we’ll be using the Baumbachner.”
“It’s all we have.”
“Okay. It’s going to need a quick maintenance check. And refueling.”
“We’ve started the process, Priscilla.”
“What about the tours?”
“This is more important. We’re replacing them with the virtual tour that we used to use. It won’t be quite as lively as you’ve been, but—”
“Good enough. I’ll be ready to go in a half hour.”
The creases in Irasco’s face deepened. “I knew we could count on you. But we don’t know what you might run into out there. So we don’t want you going alone.”
“That’s not a problem. I can take somebody to help out. One of the technicians. Maybe Ursula—”
“Actually, you’re the person going along to help out, Priscilla.”