Odyssey

“That hasn’t changed. She thinks I’m pushing the panic button.”

“Okay.”

“It doesn’t make any difference. She’ll do the job.”

Eric hesitated. Destiny was waiting.

“Did you have something else?”

Valya was going to go out there, spot a pair of incoming asteroids, give the alarm, and save one or two hundred lives. “Yes. I’d like to go along.”

ORIGINS WAS TWENTY-FOUR light-years away. Fifty-five hours flight time to get into the area, plus whatever it would take to get to the facility.

It was time for Hutch to decide whether she was willing to go the whole route with Amy. There was no safe way to play it.

She called Operations and got Peter. “We may want to get some resources over to Origins in a hurry. Do we have anything at all available if the need arises?”

“Nothing close by.”

“What about the Rehling?” It would be carrying two VIPs home from Nok. But it would be within range of Origins. It could only accommodate eight or nine people, but it would be something.

“It hasn’t left Nok yet.”

She stared at Peter’s image. He was a

“You’re sure about this? They’re supposed to bring Autry and Cullen home. Those guys will not be happy.”

“Do it anyhow. We have anything else?”

“Nothing closer than a couple weeks.”

“Okay. Take care of it, Peter. And let me know what the TOA looks like.”

“Will do.”

“Something else. I’m going to want a summary of everything that’s going to be at Union during the next twenty-four hours. I don’t suppose one of the Stars is in port?”

“Negative. They wouldn’t send one of those anyhow. Wouldn’t matter what sort of emergency was going on.”

“Sure they would. It all depends how you ask.”

He laughed. “Okay. You’ll have the summary in a few minutes.”

SHE CALLED ASQUITH. “Michael, I’m diverting the Rehling. Sending it to Origins.”

“What?” He looked baffled. “Why? Haven’t you already sent the Salvator out there? Isn’t that enough?”

“It’s a precaution. If there’s an event at Origins, we wouldn’t be in a position to do much for them.”

“For God’s sake, Priscilla, it’s none of our business. Origins isn’t our operation. Let Allard worry about it. We’ve warned him. We’re covered.”

“It’s done, Michael.”

“Who’s on it? Anybody who’s going to give us trouble?”

“Cullen and Autry.”

“That’s just great. They’ll scream to high heaven.”

“Michael, if an attack happens, we don’t want to be in a position where we know we might have done something about it but just sat here.”

“Have it your own way, Priscilla. But I think it’s crazy.” He was at the capitol, supposedly conferring with a congressional work group. He looked a bit rumpled.

“I want you to do something for me, Michael.”

“What is it now?”

“Call Dryden. Explain what we’ve got, and ask him if Orion can send a couple ships to Origins.”

He pressed his fingertips against his temples, a man with a headache. “I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Look.” Father to daughter. “You want to put your reputation on the line because this kid has wet dreams, go ahead. But I’m not going any further with this. You’re that hot about it, you take care of it. You can tell him you’re speaking for me, if you want.”

“Okay.”

“Let’s not make it sound like an emergency, though. Right? This is something that isn’t going to happen. We know that. He’ll know it. It’s just a precaution. Or maybe a public relations move. But if something goes wrong, you’re out there by yourself. Understand?” He was about to disco

Hutch knew the symptoms. Asquith thought the whole thing would blow up, and he was getting as far from the fallout as he could.

“WHY?” DRYDEN ASKED. “What’s the problem?”

“There’s a chance there might be an attack at Origins.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“That sounds a trifle odd, considering what Orion’s just been through.”

“Is there another asteroid coming in?”

“Not that we know of, but we have reason to believe a strike may be imminent.”

“Hutch, look, I can’t just grab some liners and send them off on a wild goose chase. What’s your evidence?”

“I’m not free to say.”

“Then I really can’t help. I’m sure you understand. We’d be happy to do what we can, but you’ll have to take us into your confidence.”

“Let it go,” she said.

She also needed to warn Origins. There was no indication Allard was likely to pass the Academy’s concerns on. She knew a few people at the facility. But if she communicated directly with them, it would constitute defying the director. If nothing happened, the Academy would be seriously embarrassed, and she would be making profuse apologies. Maybe there was a better way. She asked Marla to get Mac back on the circuit.

“Hi, Beautiful,” he said. “What do you need?”

“You have any contacts at Origins?”

“I know a few people there. What did you need?”

“Can you get a warning to them? Without involving the Academy?”

“What did you want them to hear?”

PETER SENT A schedule listing everything that was currently at Union, or that was expected within the next twenty-four hours.

A lot of people on the orbiter owed Hutch favors. Over the years, the Academy had supplied ships and information to virtually every off-world corporate entity. They’d provided training, and even occasionally gone to their rescue. She’d included their VIPs on survey runs, when it was feasible, and had encouraged Academy technicians to help where they could.

She looked over the list of ships, their current status, and their capacities. Then she made her first call to Franz Hoffer, at Thor Transport, which specialized in servicing the deep-space stations. “Probably not going to be a problem,” she said, “but if you can arrange things so a ship is available in the event we need it, I’d be grateful.”

“We can let you have the Carolyn Ray,” Franz said. “It’ll only hold twenty people. But it’s all we’ve got.”

“We’ll take it, Franz. And thanks.”

Franz was a small, thin man. Blond hair. Mustache. Always perfectly pressed and combed. “We’ll have to do some preps.”

“Okay.”

“Bring in a pilot. It can be out of here Friday.”

Two days. “Okay,” she said. “Thanks.”

Nova Industries moved capital equipment to interstellar construction sites. Lately business had been slow, and they’d officially mothballed the Rikart Bloomberg. But it could be made ready to go in a couple of days. “It will accommodate thirteen,” they said.

Maracaibo would send an executive yacht, the Alice Bergen. They apologized. It could only carry five, but it was all they had. They’d bring in a pilot immediately. Get it under way late Thursday.

Beijing FTL agreed to send the Zheng Shaiming as soon as they could refuel and run systems checks. Probably Friday night. No later than Saturday morning. It had a capacity of twenty-six. Mitsubishi donated the Aiko Tanaka, an experimental craft that had been undergoing testing. That gave her sixteen more.

WhiteStar, which operated the big cruise liners, could have settled the issue had any of its three mainline ships been available. But they weren’t. They could however provide two service vehicles. “Not comfortable,” Meaty Hogan, their maintenance boss told her, “but they’ll each hold four passengers, and they can leave as soon as we get the pilots over to them.”

“How many in an emergency?”

Meaty thought about it. “Five. But not for an extended period.”

The French government had a vehicle in transit. The Christophe Granville. “It can accommodate twenty-two, and be at the site in a few days, Priscilla,” said their operations chief. “You wish us to divert?”

“Please.”

“It is done.”

The Norwegians contributed the Co

“We’ll try to hurry things along.”

When she got home that evening and told Tor what she’d done, he was as supportive as he could manage, considering he believed she’d committed a major-league blunder. Thrown away her reputation and her career. As she lay beside him on that darkest of nights, she suspected in her heart he was right.

Our preliminary review of the global defense posture indicates that arming vehicles operated by the Academy, the Alliance for Interstellar Development, and the European Deep Space Commission will constitute, at best, a temporary fix. The hard truth is that we ca

— Joint House/Senate Report, Wednesday, May 6

The rush to arms is just one more glorious boondoggle. We’ve been on this planet for a million years or so, and nobody’s bothered us yet. The last thing we need is battle cruisers in space. If there are really intelligent aliens out there, surely we can talk to them. We haven’t even tried. In any case, there are plenty of empty worlds. Why would they bother us?

— Epiphany, Wednesday, May 6