"You're gonna hate me," she said, "but it's decision time, kids. Time for the laying of cards upon tables, for the revelation of hidden motives. Possibly you've wondered why I was willing to take you on this little jaunt."
"We have, some. Are you going to tell us?" Lilo glanced across the hall. Vaffa was at her door, leaning out over the drop-off, listening intently.
"Yeah. Well, insofar as I know myself. As to why I took you, I guess a lot of that was simple perversity. It's not what I might normally do, so I did it. You've got to watch yourself when you get as old as I am. You have to try new things, sometimes for no better reason than that they're new. Otherwise you rust."
"How do you know?" Cathay asked.
"I don't. But it's worked so far. I'd be a fool to change my tactics now. As to why I was willing to go, in the sense of with or without you, to the Hotline... I've become very interested in the Hotline in the last few months."
Lilo saw Vaffa step quickly onto the ladder, then into the room with them. She stood beside them, looking up at the screen.
"Why are you interested?" Vaffa asked.
"The same reason you are. Anyone would be, don't you think?"
"How would you know about that? It's restricted information, limited to a few..."
Javelin raised one eyebrow. "I might ask how you know about it. But I've got my own theories on that. How I know is the same way I know anything about the Line. At any given time there's always a couple holehunters in the path of the Hotline signal. There's not much else to do; they listen in. And we talk to each other. It may take a few years to finish a conversation, but we've got plenty of time; we're not in a hurry. The hunter community knew about the message before the StarLine board of directors did. We've been talking about it for months now. It's been a cause of some concern to us. So I'm going to check it out."
"You want to see if it really translates the way it seems to?"
"No, no," Javelin laughed. "It does. There's no doubt about that. It's a threat, all right. Listen, you're going out there to get the message in its original form; that's your only possible motive for wanting to go out there at all. Well, I've got it, in my computer. We've checked it six ways from Sunday. Now we're interested in finding out what the 'severe penalties' are all about. I've been... well, sort of elected, though that's a pretty formal way of describing it—to go out and see. If they've got the muscle to back up their threat, we hunters might need to look for some new customers."
The statement shocked Lilo, but it scandalized Vaffa.
"Just like that? You want to find out which way the wind is blowing?"
"More or less."
"Whom do you plan on selling to?" Vaffa snorted. "The Ophiuchites? The Invaders?"
"Either one if the price is right."
"Then I spit on you and all your kind. You're talking of treason to your race."
"Piss on your race, Free Earther."
Lilo quickly stepped in. "Are you expecting some kind of second message? Spelling out penalties, perhaps?"
"It's possible. But that's not why I'm going."
"Then I don't understand. What good is this trip to you?"
Javelin smiled again. "Here we come to the decision I spoke of. Our bargain said I'd deliver you to some point along the line of transmission of the Hotline. But it's a long line. You probably had in mind the closest point, but you didn't specify it, did you? What I propose to do is take all of us to a point half a light-year from the sun, and on that line. I have reason to believe it could be very interesting."
"Why?"
"For the purpose of meeting the Ophiuchites face to face."
Vaffa seemed puzzled by the idea. Cathay grinned, as if at some private joke, but when Lilo looked at him he shrugged. Lilo's neck was hurting from looking up. She followed Cathay's example by stretching out on the floor and folding her arms under her head. They waited.
"You're probably curious as to why I think they're out there." Javelin looked a little disappointed in their reaction.
"That's a fair statement," Cathay said. He seemed to be enjoying himself.
"Okay. Hunters have a different perspective on the Hotline than the StarLine company does. They sit in a station spang in the middle of the area of greatest signal strength. And why shouldn't they? The messages are garbled enough even there. But it limits their viewpoint. Essentially, they listen from one motionless point in space.
"Hunters criss-cross the Line in all directions, at various distances from the sun, and both closer and farther away from 70 Ophiuchi than the StarLine station. When we cross it, we listen in. Our computers note when we first receive the signals and when we finally lose them.
"About a hundred years ago, we began to notice a few things. It was only after many years that we were able to be sure of them. It's hard to get reliable time-checks at the speeds we operate at, and it takes a long time to cross-check all the data. But now we're sure.
"A laser signal is a cone. It's a very narrow one, but it does have an apex at the end of the laser, and it spreads very slowly the farther it goes. We began to notice a parallax shift. At one edge of the cone, the signal seemed to come from one side of 70 Ophiuchi, then when you got to the other side, it had shifted. We began to plot the lines that define the outer surface of the cone. Other evidence backed us up: the cross-section size of the cone at various points, and the rate of dropoff of signal strength. It all indicated one thing: The Hotline doesn't originate at 70 Ophiuchi at all, but from some place about one-half light-year from the sun, in the direction of 70 Ophiuchi. And that's not likely to be an accident. They wanted us to think they were that far away. Which brings up all sorts of interesting possibilities."
"I need to make a radio call," Vaffa said. She sounded subdued.
"I thought you might. Let's see if I have Boss Tweed's phone number here in my files...."
Vaffa looked down at Lilo and Cathay. Lilo was about to protest, but Javelin interrupted her.
"They didn't tell me anything. I checked your phone records before you came aboard, and you've made a lot of calls to Luna. I was sure you were a Free Earther, and you proved it a few minutes ago. Now you're slavering to have someone tell you what to do, so you don't have to think. Who else would you be calling but Boss Tweed?"
"That's none of your business," Vaffa yelled. "Now you put me through. We chartered this ship, and—"
"And has it occurred to you that you shouldn't talk to your captain that way? In case you hadn't noticed, I am in complete control of this ship. You can't even enter the bridge; your pointy head would make it, but not your shoulders. This ship goes where I want it to go, and you will watch your mouth if you want the oxygen ratio in your room to stay the same."
Lilo was on her feet now, and she dug Vaffa hard in the ribs. She got away with it, which was a measure of how much the other woman had learned in the last month.
"We really do have to check back, though," Cathay said, reasonably. "You're talking about vastly increased expenses, and none of us has the money for that. Tweed would have to authorize it."
"You're right, and you're wrong," Javelin said, calmly. "Understand that your situation has changed completely. I know why she is along." She made a face. "She's loyal to Tweed. You two don't seem to be, if my instincts are worth anything. I assume he has some hold over you. Well, that's over. I don't condone slavery, and I won't take orders from a man six billion kilometers away. You will call Tweed, but you won't ask him for anything. You will tell him this. Pay attention now; I don't want to repeat.
" 'The Cavorite is headed for the Hotline sending station.' Here you can insert the explanation I just gave you. He's bright; he should understand. 'Expenses for this trip will be about four hundred times the figure originally discussed. A drone tanker is now departing the catapult head on Pluto, and will soon start to accelerate at nine gees. As you know, these ships are not recoverable; hence the drastic increase in expenses. It will rendezvous with us in about twenty million seconds. Without it, of course, we would have fuel to reach the station, but not to return.