'I'm here, Zev. I understood what you said. Me, too. Hi, Victoria.'
'I'm so glad you're all right. What . . . what about Nemo?'
'Nerno's dead.'
'J.D. . . . I'm so sorry.' Victoria wished she were near enough to hug her friend.
'It's strange. . . . I'm sad, but I-is that Europa with you?'
'Hello, J.D.,' Europa said. 'You've lost a friend? I'm sorry.'
'Thank you,' J.D. said.
'How did you persuade the squidmoth to bring you here?' Europa asked.
'I didn't. The squidmoth-Nemo-died.'
Androgeos swung around from the riverbank, his kilt swinging around his powerful legs. His feet were muddy to the ankles.
'I claim salvage!' he shouted.
'Salvage?' J.D. said. 'What are you talking about?'
'The ship's abandoned. I claim salvage.'
'My ffiend died and left the ship to me,' J.D. said coldly. 'It is not abandoned.'
'Don't be selfish!' Androgeos pleaded. 'It's useless to you,'
His usual tone of disdain vanished in his desperation; he spoke in the same tone as when he begged Victoria to give him her new algorithm.
'I'll come over and pith it, so we can harness it,' he said. 'Otherwise the Four Worlds will send out a salvage crew. What good can it do you?
You have to go back to Earth!'
'If I have to go back to Earth,' J.D. said, 'I'll take Nerno's ship with me.'
'And just how do you propose to do that? Tow it with your pathetic sail?' The sailhouse trembled. A touch to Arachne showed that Europa's ship was moving again, curving its path in such a way as to fling Starfarer none too gently out of orbit.
'Hey, be careful!' Infinity said.
'Why should IT' Androgeos snarled. 'You don't care enough about your ship to keep it clean of squidmoth spawn!'
J.D. looked confused. Victoria forwarded the silver slug's transmission to the Ch4 so J.D. could see it.
'We don't quite know what to do about it.'
J.D.'s smile was radiant. 'Don't do anything! Victoria, please-Nerno's other children are stranded back at Sirius.'
'Don't worry. We won't hurt it.'
'Prepare to receive me,' Androgeos said to J.D.
'If you try to land here,' J.D. said, deadly serious, 'I'll spin you off into space, and you can walk home!'
Androgeos laughed. 'It's easy to make threats. Not so easy to carry them out.'
'Andro,' Europa said slowly, 'you are the one making empty threats. J.D. has learned squidmoth tactics already. Look.'
'She can't-' Androgeos fell silent.
Slowly, deliberately, Nemo's starship began to rotate.
J.D. gave Nerno's shell a gentle spin. It was more than a demonstration to Androgeos; it was a first stage in terraforming. Rotation would gradually even out the temperature extremes that Nemo had preferred, frozen darkness giving way abruptly to a star's searing radiation.
J.D. moved the shell gently toward Starfarer. The transmission lag shortened to imperceptibility. She stayed distant, to moderate the gravitational stresses. Europa's craft had shaken Starfarer more than enough for one day.
Androgeos and Europa remained uncharacteristically silent. J.D. watched their images, amused by their surprise.
So you can still be surprised, even after four thousand years, she thought. That's some comfort.
Androgeos composed himself. When he spoke, he replaced his querulous tone with one of friendly, helpful persuasion.
'J.D.,' Andro said, 'Europa and I know how to refit an abandoned ship so you can navigate it.'
'Don't beg, Andro,' Europa said.
'But we could be partners-' 'Listen to her! Look at it! She controls it, Andro!' J.D. turned toward Victoria. 'Thank you,' she said, without mentioning the transition algorithm aloud. Europa and Androgeos saw Nemo's shell as a valuable prize. No telling what they might do if they knew it possessed Victoria's transition algorithm as well.
'I'm so glad to see you,' Zev said. 'When can you come home?'
'I don't know,' J.D. said. 'All things considered . . . I don't think I'd better leave Nerno's ship just yet.,~
'It's your ship now,' Zev said. 'Nautilus.
Nautilus, J.D. thought. Of course. How could it be anything but Nautilus? She grinned at Zev.
'It's a relief to have you back,' Victoria said. 'I had second thoughts about leaving you behind as soon as it was too late. . . .' She said less than she might have, if Europa were not listening.
They had all become secretive around the alien humans. That troubled J.D., but she refused to let her concern overcome her excitement: Her first successful flight of Nautilus, the discovery of the last egg case, and a system of inhabited planets . . .
'I've had a pretty amazing time over here,' J.D. said. 'I'm looking forward to telling you all about it.'
She wondered how long Starfarer could safely stay in the system, and whether the cosmic string would flee from her as well. She touched the knowledge surface-'Victoria . . . the cosmic string is staying stable!'
Twice before, the cosmic string had begun to withdraw as soon as Starfarer entered a star system. This time, it remained steady. Excited conversation burst up around her.
'But how do you know?' Victoria asked, amazed. 'Arachne's still surveying-' 'From Nautilus,' J.D. said.
Victoria's eyelids flickered closed, then open, as she touched her link to the computer web. 'I think you're right. . . .' 'Are we forgiven?' J.D. asked Europa. 'Is this our second chance?'
'I . . . I don't know.' Europa sounded shaken and confused. 'This is . .
. very unusual.'
J.D. picked out the two predominant strands of discussion among her colleagues:
We can go home now.
Now we can stay.
'You had better follow us,' Europa said. 'To meet representatives of the Four Worlds. We have a great deal to talk about.'
J.D. smiled, trying not to burst into tears.
'I'm sure that's true,' J.D. said. 'But you'll have to wait while we all discuss what to do next.'
J.D. glanced at the members of the deep space expedition: Victoria and Satoshi and Stephen Thomas, Infinity and Esther, Crimson and Jenny, Chandra and Florrie Brown and Avvaiyar, Professor Thanthavong and Nikolai Petrovich and Griffith, Fox and Mitch and Lehua and Bay, Senator Derjaguin and Senator Orazio and Gerald Hemminge.
And finally, Zev. She ached for him to be with her. Their gazes touched. 'I'm sorry about Nemo,' Zev said. 'But I want to tell you properly.'
'I want that, too,' she said.
She imagined an ocean, a small ocean with mysterious depths, a place where she and Zev could talk together in the language of the divers, the language of true speech.
VONDA N. MCINTYRE has been writing and publishing science fiction since she was 20. Her novels include Dreamsnake (winner of the Hugo Award, presented by the World Science Fiction Convention, and the Nebula Award, presented by the Science Fiction Writers of America), The Exile Waiting, and Superlurninal. She has written one children's book, Barbary. Her books and short stories have been translated into more than a dozen languages. Transition and Metaphase follow the alien contact team and the other characters introduced in Starfarers, one of the few novels ever to inspire a fan club before being written. She is currently working on Nautilus, which continues the story.
