STARFARERS 197
'If the diver is being held,' Feral said, 'if Chandra saw something she wasn't supposed to . . .'
'Where are they?' J.D. cried. 'How am I going to find them?'
'If your friend wanted to join the expedition,' Stephen Thomas said, 'why the heil didn't he wait till he got asylum in Canada, and apply from there?'
'I don't know. He probably didn't realize there was any danger. It's a long swim to Canada, and he was probably in a hurry. Maybe he came ashore to catch the bus into town!
And somebody was waiting for him.'
She looked at Feral for confirmation. He shrugged unhappily.
'It could have happened that way.'
J.D. rose.
'What are you going to do?'
'Find him, of course. Feral, will you help me?'
'I'll try,' he said. He looked troubled.
'What?'
'Nothing. Nothing that hasn't happened before. But never on this scale.'
'What?'
'My communication budget is running low.'
'You can use my credit. Come on.'
'You're going to try to find this guy from way out here?' Stephen Thomas said.
'From way down there, if necessary.'
J.D. left the office.
Stephen Thomas followed. 'J.D. ! If you go to earth now, you might not be able to get back!'
'I know it. I can't help it.'
'But—'
She swung angrily around. He stopped short.
'If he's in trouble, it's my fault! If he's in trouble and Lykos finds out where he is before I do, she and the other divers will leave whatever haven they've found to go and get him.'
'Why?' His voice was full of skepticism and amazed disbelief.
'Because he's part of their family. Because that's how divers are.'
198 vonda N. Mdntyre
The derision vanished from his expression. 'I wish—' he said. 'Never mind. But if there's any way I can help you, I will.'
'Thank you,' she said, startled into curtness.
'Iphigenie!'
The sailmaster turned and waited for Victoria.
'Are you going back out?'
'Mm-hmm. I feel more comfortable watching the sail.'
'Would you take a look at this?' Victoria handed Iphigenie the module that held her new string calculations.
'What is it?'
'Results out of a new symbolic manipulation. Usable results.'
'Why do you want me to look at them?' she said. 'I'm in charge of intrasystem navigation. Not transition.'
' 'I ran some other numbers. If you use the sail during lunar passage, we could take this approach ... '
Iphigenie looked at Victoria, looked at the module, and gave it back.
'I don't think so,' she said.
'But it's faster, more efficient, and . . . sooner.' The module lay cool in Victoria's hand. 'Just take a look. Please.'
'But transition's already planned! And I'm not finished testing the sails.' Iphigenie did not take the module. 'It's too risky!'
Victoria laughed. 'Riskier than what we're already planning?'
'I suppose not,' Iphigenie said, nonplussed. 'But why do you want to change things?'
'Have you figured out whether Starfarer can outrun a transport if it has to?'
'No.'
'It can't,' Victoria said. 'And we won't be out of range for weeks.'
'Of course not. We planned it that way. We have a lot of supplies still to take on.'
'So if... what Professor Thanthavong said, happens, we'd have no way to stop it, eh?'
STARFARERS 199
Iphigenie pushed her hands across the tight braids of her black hair.
'It won't come to that. It can 'r.'
'Don't be naive.'
'Victoria, if we're called back, I'm the one who has to take the order. I'm the one who has to reverse the sail and decelerate ... I don't want to do that.'
'I know you don't. But everything that's happened makes me think that's what's next. No matter what we do.'
Iphigenie pointed with her chin toward Victoria's hand, toward the module carrying the new calculations.
'Sooner, you said?'
'Much sooner. The string section we're aiming for now is way to hell and gone out by the orbit of Mars. If you change the sails as we go around the moon, if we use the new solution . . . we'd only need one pass around the moon.'
'One!'
'Yes. We'd be aiming for the nearest point on the string.'
Iphigenie frowned. Victoria could imagine her setting up the problem in her mind, solving it. The sailmaster rocked back on her heels, astonished.
'Tomorrow! We'd encounter the string late tomorrow! But we're not ready. We're not supplied, half our people are gone.'
'We're being set up to be stopped!'
'What about the people who are planning to stay behind?
What about the rest of us? Everyone has agreed to a certain plan. If we do this secretly, the expedition members will be people who have been lied to and abducted. They'd rebel, and I couldn't blame them.'
'I don't intend to do this in secret. A transport docks tomorrow, just before lunar passage.' Victoria discussed outrageous possibility with deliberate calm. 'After passage it can leave again, right on schedule. Anybody who wants to can go.'
Iphigenie gazed blankly through her.
'The alternative,' Victoria said, 'is getting slapped down to low earth orbit.'
'Are you sure of your solution?'
'Yes.'
2 00 vonda N. Mdntyre
Victoria held out her hand and opened her fingers. As if in stow motion, Iphigenie reached out and took the module.
'That is,' Victoria said, 'I'm as sure of those numbers as I was of the others.'
Iphigenie snorted. She, like everyone on board, was aware of the inherent uncertainty in cosmic string solutions. The uncertainty was small . . . but it existed.
'I'll look at it,' Iphigenie said.
'Thank you.'
Iphigenie started away. A few paces on, she turned back.
'You know, Victoria, if I agree to this, we'll be at Tau Ceti without a complete test of the sails. Navigating will
