She frowned. “How do you mean, Frank?”
“You’re going to find out about this anyhow, so I might as well tell you now. You weren’t our first choice. We needed someone with more experience. Don’t think we don’t have the utmost confidence in you, but if we sent someone out there who’d just gotten her license, and anything went wrong—”
“Who is it?”
“We called Jake. And asked him to go.”
“Oh.” She shrugged. “Okay. So we’re both going?”
“Yes.”
“And he said that he’d go if I was included?”
He raised a hand in defense. “Don’t get me wrong. We were going to offer you a spot as well. And do me a favor: Don’t tell him I told you.”
“Where is he now?”
“On his way. He’ll be here on the evening shuttle out of DC. So, all we need is for you to be ready when he gets in.”
* * *
SHE MOVED HER gear down to the ship and called Ops. Yoshie answered. “Have we heard yet from the Vincenti?”
“Negative, Priscilla. They’re still quiet.”
“Let me know if anything comes in. Okay?”
“Absolutely. I understand they’re sending you on the mission.”
“Looks like.”
“Well, good luck.”
Then she called her mother. “Heading out on a flight, Mom.”
“Good for you,” she said, pretending to be enthusiastic. “Where to?”
“A runaway planet. It’s not far. We’ll only be gone a few days.”
Mom’s breathing changed. “What’s a runaway planet, dear?”
Priscilla explained. “Sounds cold,” Mom said.
“I’ll take a sweater.”
“Okay. Just be careful, all right?”
“Sure, Mom.”
“Well, enjoy yourself. When are you leaving?”
“In a few hours.”
“Call me when you get back. Okay?”
* * *
THERE WAS A better than fair chance that the people on the Vincenti would fix the problem and announce that everything was okay. And the mission would be scrubbed. She desperately didn’t want that to happen. But what kind of human being am I that I’m hoping they don’t call in? That a potentially lethal situation doesn’t turn out to be minor because I don’t want to spend the next few days in my office?
She stowed her gear and tied her link into the ship’s comm system. Then she ran a systems check. When she’d finished, she reviewed everything that was known about Orfano.
There wasn’t much. The wandering world had been discovered several years earlier when it got between the Marcellus Cloud and the L2 Space Telescope. Nobody paid any attention to the shadow until a researcher going over the records noticed it. They went back to the L2 and, although the operational staff thought the effort a waste of time, instituted a search and relocated the object. It was, they realized, a planet that had become detached from its parent sun and was now headed gradually outward toward the galactic rim.
A mission had been dispatched last summer to take a look. They’d spent several days in orbit. The surface temperature was somewhat warmer than they’d expected, reaching, in some places, -170 degrees Celsius. The atmosphere was about 10 percent oxygen, but otherwise they found nothing out of the ordinary. After they’d returned, however, analysts at the Academy detected surface features they found hard to account for. Ridges curved across the landscape with near-geometric precision, almost as if they’d been carved from the rock. Mountains in many places were smoothed, rounded, generally shaped like domes. In other areas, they resembled turrets. The mission reports indicated that the crew had taken a close look but had dismissed the configuration as natural surface features. “No sign of life,” they’d concluded. “Life not possible under these conditions.”
Nevertheless, there were doubts. So, eventually, a second mission had been dispatched. That was the one that had missed its most recent position report. The Vincenti.
* * *
PRISCILLA’S JOURNAL
Ready to go.
—February 4, 2196
Chapter 36
FRANK WAS WAITING at the terminal with a tentative smile. He offered Jake his hand. “Good to see you. We hated to disrupt your retirement, but we really needed someone we could rely on.”
“You still haven’t heard from them?”
“Nothing.”
“Okay.”
“Does the terminal know to deliver your bags directly to the Baumbachner?”
“Yes.”
“All right. We want you to get going as soon as you’re able. We’ll have a room waiting at the Starlight when you get back.”
“Thanks.” They walked out onto the concourse.
“Jake,” said Frank, “I know you blame us for what happened with the Gremlin. But—”
“I don’t blame anybody, Frank. The system is what it is. It’s what we signed up for. Is Priscilla waiting in the ship?”
“Yes.”
“Okay.” They stopped in front of the elevators. “I assume you guys did a thorough check of the Baumbachner?”
“Yes. It’s in good shape.”
“I hope so.”
They reached the elevators. Frank pushed the button. But he never took his eyes from Jake. “Have you been in touch with Priscilla since you left here?”
“A couple of times, Frank. Why?”
“I don’t think she’s been very happy working for us. I just wanted to let you know so you go easy on her. She tends to get a little emotional sometimes.”
The elevator opened. Jake got in. A woman in a station uniform joined him. “I never noticed a problem,” Jake said.
“When she was with you”—Frank held the door open—“when she was with you, she was doing what she cared about. But she’s had to make some adjustments here. Anyhow, just in case, you may want to cut her some slack.”
“All right, Frank. And we’ll let you know as soon as we have something.”
* * *
PRISCILLA WAS WAITING on the bridge. She broke into a big smile as he came through the hatch, got up, and threw her arms around him. “Jake,” she said, “you have no idea how glad I am to see you again.”
“Just like old times, huh?”
“Umm—I wanted to thank you.”
“For what?”
“Well, Frank asked me not to say anything. But I know you put pressure on him to let me go along.”
“My pleasure, Priscilla. I figured you were probably tired putting together payrolls.”
“I don’t have much to do with payrolls.”
“Well, making sure they have a decent supply of lubricants, then. Whatever. How’s it been going?”
“Okay,” she said.
“How’s Tawny?”
“Tawny’s fine. She likes Princeton.” She sat back down, and he climbed in beside her.
“It won’t go like this forever, babe. Just stay with it. Eventually, they’ll figure it out.”
“I don’t really have any complaints, Jake. I don’t guess I’ve made it easy for them.”
“They mean well, Priscilla. Just try not to alienate them, okay?”
“Sure.”
He studied the panel. “You run the check-off yet?”
“We’re primed and ready to go.”
The bridge was retro. It looked like something out of an old movie. “Is this thing really safe?” he asked.