'I've been as close as anyone. Yet.' Cosmic string had fascinated Victoria from the time she was a child. It drew her to astronomy, thence to physics.
Cosmic string, a remnant of creation, formed a network through the galaxy. The strings vibrated in a cycle measured in eons, a cycle now taking a strand past the solar system and within reach of earth's current technology.
The cosmic string made Starfarer possible. The starship would use the moon's gravity to catapult it toward the string. Then it would grasp the string with powerful magnetic fields, and tap the unlimited power of its strange properties. Starfarer would rotate around the strand, building up the transition energy that would squeeze it out of Einsteinian space-time and overwhelm the impossible distances between star systems. When it returned to the starting point of its rotation-
It would not return to its starting point. From the point of view of those left behind, the starship would vanish. It would reappear . . . somewhere else.
That was the theory. Victoria had spent the better part of her career working on that theory.
'It's incredible it could be so close and not affect the solar system,' J.D. said.
'We're lucky,' Victoria said. 'If it came close enough to cut through the sun, then we'd*ve seen some effects.' She touched her thumbs together, and her fingertips, forming a sphere with her hands. 'The string distorts space- time so thoroughly that a circle around it is less than three hundred sixty degrees. So if the string passes through a region that's full of mass . . .' She slid the fingers of her right hand beneath the fingers of her left. 'Double-density starstuff. Instant nova.' She snapped open her hands. 'Blooie.' She grinned, 'But that missing part of the circle gives us an opening out of the solar system.'
'What do you think of the idea that the string is a lifeline?'
Victoria chuckled. 'Thrown to us by a distant civilization?
I think it makes a great story.'
J.D. smiled, a bit embarrassed. 'I find the idea very attractive.'
36 vonda N. Mcintyre
'I'll admit that I do, too—though I might not admit it to anyone else. I'd need some evidence before I got serious about it. And let's face it, a civilization that could directly manipulate cosmic string—they'd think we were pretty small potatoes. Or maybe small bacteria.'
'Excuse me ... You are Victoria MacKenzie, aren't you?'
Victoria glanced around. The youth smiled at her hopefully.
'Yes,' Victoria said- 'And this is J.D. Sauvage.'
'J.D. Sauvage! I'm glad to meet you, too.'
'Thank you.'
'And you are—?' • '
'Feral Korzybski.' He offered Victoria a card.
'Really—!' She took the card and glanced at the printing: a sketch of a quill pen, his name, his numbers.
'I've seen your articles,' Victoria said. 'I think you do an excellent job.' Victoria had not expected to encounter the public-access journalist here.
He blushed at her exclamation. 'I just read your interview,' he said, 'and I wanted to tell you how much I admire your straightforwardness. I wonder . . . would you like to expand on what you said? I thought your comments made the beginning of a provocative piece.'
Despite his name, he looked quite domesticated. Victoria regarded him. He was not at all the way she would have imagined from his name and his articles. He had curly red-brown hair cut all the same length. In weightlessness it fluffed out around his head. His eyes were a gentle brown. His chin was round, his lips mobile and expressive.
'It wasn't exactly an interview, and I think I've said as much as I need to ... or want to.' Victoria smiled to take the sting out of turning him down. 'I mean .-. . I said what I meant. If I start explaining myself, it would sound like weaseling.'
'When I interview somebody,' he said,, 'they only sound like they're weaseling if they really are weaseling.'
'I don't have anything more to say right now. Maybe the opportunity will come up while you're visiting Starfarer, eh?
I'm sure you'll find most people happy to talk to you.'
Feral Korzybski wrote about the space program. He had resisted jumping on the new U.S. president's anti- tech band-
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wagon. As far as Victoria knew, all his articles appeared in public-access, not in sponsored news or feature information services.
'I really would like to talk to both of you about the alien contact team.'
'Have you been in space before?' Victoria said, changing the subject without much subtlety.
'No, first trip. First time I could afford it.'
'You've got a sponsor, then. Congratulations.'
'Sponsors are nothing but unfilled censors!' he said with startling vehemence. 'When you read sponsored stuff, you're paying extra for the privilege of reading work that's been gutted to make it acceptable. If I can't make my name as an independent, I don't want to do it at all.'
'How'd you get up here?'
'By saving for a ticket, like any other tourist.'
'But tourists can't come onto Starfarer anymore. We're too close to final maneuvers.' 'That took a lot of persuasion and a lot of calling in obligations. Including a few nobody owed me yet.' He looked away, obviously embarrassed by the admission of any flaw in his independence.
'*If I can help you find your way around,' Victoria said,
'I'd be glad to.'
He smiled shyly from beneath his heavy eyebrows. 'I'd appreciate that. A lot. Will you talk to me off the record? 'Deep background,' we call it in the trade.'
'Of course I'll talk to you,' Victoria said. 'I just like to be warned when somebody's about to start quoting me. All right?'
'Sure. What do you think about the Senate bill to transform Starfarer into a military base with remote sensing capabilities?'
'You don't ease into anything, do you?'
'No,' he said cheerfully. 'The argument is that we need more information about the Mideast Sweep, and more defenses against it.'
'I understand the argument, but the proposal has already damaged the expedition. You know about the recalls. I'm sure.'
38 vonda N. Mcfntyre
He nodded. 'It's last century's space station all over again.'
'That's right. We lost a couple of decades' worth of original research and intercultural cooperation right there. Now, as soon as we start to recover, as soon as there's hope for peaceful applications, your country is making the same damned mistake. You contributed more than half the funding and more than half the personnel, so your president thinks he can get away with this bullying.'
'He's not my president. I didn't vote for him.'
Victoria quirked her lips in a sardonic smile. 'Nobody did, it seems like. Nevertheless, he is your president and he is bullying us. He's violating several treaties. Unfortunately, your country is still sufficiently powerful that you can tell everybody else to take a high dive if we don't like your plans.'
'What about the Mideast Sweep?'
'What about it?'
'Don't you want to keep an eye on them?'
'JProm here? You con do remote sensing from very high orbits, but why would you want to? You might as well use the moon. You don't need something the size of Starfarer for spying. You don't even need it for a military base powerful enough to blow the whole world to a cinder. Starfarer as a military base—even as a suspected
