"Is she all right?"
Stephen Thomas shrugged, mystified and upset.
"Maybe I'd belter go stay at the visitor's house," Feral said. "I've really thrown a monkey wrench into this . . ."
"No," Satoshi said. "You're our guest. Victoria and Stephen Thomas and I obviously have some misunderstandings to clear up between us, but we shouldn't inflict them on you."
"Come sit down," Stephen Thomas said. "I want to tell you about the meeting."
Feral hesitated, tempted.
"Go ahead," Satoshi said. "I'll talk to Victoria."
In her bed, Victoria curled around her pillow and thought about going back into the main room, behaving the way Stephen Thomas always did, acting as though she had said nothing for which she needed to apologize. But she did need to apologize. And she could not quite face it tonight.
"Victoria?"
Satoshi tapped lightly on her door. Victoria remained silent. He slid the door a handsbreadth open. He knew she was awake; she never went to sleep this fast, even when she was exhausted. Especially when she was exhausted.
"Can I come in?"
"Yes."
224 Voncfa N. Mdntyre
He slid into bed beside her, kissed her on the forehead, and held her till she fell asleep.
J.D. lay in bed in the darkness, unable to relax.
I might as well have stayed with the divers and never even
come to Starfarer, she thought. Damn! Why is this happening?
Staying with the expedition tempted her with such force that she had to stop thinking about the possibility, the good reasons, the rationalizations. She would return to earth with the reputation of being a troublemaker. She might be barred from her adopted profession. She might fail to find Zev; she might be arrested and put in jail as soon as she touched down.
If she stayed here, she would be an alien contact specialist.
And Victoria would not be angry with her . . .
She put aside the tempting thoughts and tried to sleep.
When she left, everyone would think she was running away, afraid to continue on the expedition. But for once in her life she was not running away.
Trying to sleep was hopeless. She took her notebook and pen into bed with her, and tried and failed to work on her novel.
At least I won't have to get used to writing electronically, she thought. Now I will be able to just go out and buy another notebook.
The thought gave her no comfort.
As he often did, Infinity went into the garden to sleep.
Carrying his blanket past the rosebush, he smelled the smoke of a cigarette near the battered lunar rock where Kolya liked to sit. The cosmonaut was nowhere to be seen; his footprints led away across dewy grass.
Infinity went farther around the edge of the garden, beyond the lingering cigarette smoke. He spread his blanket between some juniper bushes, where the smell was clean and pungent.
He wrapped himself up in the peace of the garden.
He did not mind the chill. Dewdrops formed on his blanket, glowing silver on the black leaves of the rosebush, which had hardly wilted despite being transplanted when it was wide awake. Though it would have been better to wait till Starfarer's mild winter, during the bush's dormant season. Infinity
STARFARERS 22 5
had decided to risk the rose rather than risking Florrie's age. He had wanted her to have her roses.
But of course she would leave the expedition now—she would have to. She had nothing to do with Infinity and the other renegades, and she would not want to remain on board Starfarer now that everything had changed.
Though the meeting had chosen the path he desired, he still felt uncomfortable with his part in it. He was not used to speaking up, using the force of his past to influence events. The expedition had to make the change. Without it, they were lost.
But if they failed in their attempt . . .
Hearing footsteps, he rolled onto his chest. The silence of the garden amplified the stealthy sound.
Griffith walked into the garden and stood in the starlight, looking up at the hill. Looking for Kolya. But the cosmonaut had walked away in the other direction.
You don't need to worry about Kolya, Infinity thought. Even if Griffith stops us, he can't have Kolya Cherenkov taken off Starfarer.
Or can he?
For anyone else up here, the plan's failure would mean the loss of job and ambitions and hope. It might even mean prison. But if Kolya went back to earth, it would mean his life.
Infinity lay without moving for an hour, watching Griffith watch and wait, wondering what he could do, how he could guard against the danger his outburst had caused.
After Griffith cursed softly to the night and walked away, Infinity lay thinking and worrying for a long time.
Victoria woke alone. She lay in bed, trying to enjoy the sunlight streaming through her open, uncurtained window.
For someone who achieved the impossible last night, she said to herself, you are surely in a terrible mood.
She had to apologize to Stephen Thomas for snapping at him. Maybe she should also apologize to J.D., but that was harder. She understood prior commitments and responsibilities ... it would be difficult to tell Grangrana that she might have to leave the house, and Greg was sure to grind Stephen Thomas through another emotional wringer. But the expedi-
226 vonda N. Mclntyre
tion members were putting their commitment to Starfarer first.
A
Victoria did not feel up to talking to J.D. Sauvagejust now. Every way she imagined the conversation, she ended up angrier than before, and J.D. ended up hurt and confused.
She burrowed deep under the covers and tried to go back to sleep.
Arachne's signal chilled her fully awake. She sat up and let the web display Starfarer's new orders.
When she finished reading the display, she gasped. She had been holding her breath with disbelief. She threw off her blankets and ran into the main room.
A
A
Stephen Thomas lounged in the sunlight like a cat. He rose abruptly when Victoria stormed in.
"Victoria, good lord, if you're still mad—'" ;
"Look at this." She formed a display so they could look at it together.
Stephen Thomas read the message, frowning. "Jesus H. i
Christ." -f-
A
Satoshi wandered in, blinking, blank with sleep. "If you've got to fight, why don't you fight quietly?"
"We aren't fighting. Look at this."
He, too, read the message.
It woke him up even better than coffee.
Griffith sat on the balcony of his room in the empty guesthouse. Small puffy clouds drifted between him and the sun tubes. He was as oblivious to the shadows they cast over him as he had been to the bright sunlight shining on him a few minutes before. He had not slept, he had not eaten. All he had done, all he could do, was think about Nikolai Petrovich Cherenkov, and the Mideast Sweep, and the plans he himself had so carefully brought into being.
"Marion."
Griffith froze. He would not have believed anyone could come up behind him without his knowledge. He was fast and he was well trained, but he knew Cherenkov would be more than ready for anything he tried.
Maybe he deserved whatever Cherenkov chose for him.
"Are you responsible for the new order?"
"It was perfect," Griffith said. "It would alienate the STARFARERS 22 7
EarthSpace associates and convert the ship to military purposes, all at the same time."
"You are such a fool."
Griffith turned, carefully, slowly. Cherenkov faced him, empty-handed.
"All I ever wanted was to be like you," Griffith said. "As good as you—"
"You prove me right," Cherenkov said. "As good as me?
My country was destroyed! I had no little part in its enslavement. Is that what you want for yourself?"
"That isn't what I meant. I didn't know ... I didn't think . . ."