'Let's say he's got a strong suspicion about it.'
'He never did say why Clarion is so important. I've never even heard of the place. It would help if we knew what he really wants.'
'That should be obvious. He wants to find Clarion. He thinks Mr. Avery knows the planet's stream coordinates.'
'He wants to ... find it?'
Frakes's eyes flicked to Dorland, then back to Paul. 'Sabre's not a bad guy, but you're right about one thing. He's too hung up on secrecy.' He got out of the flyer and came around to Paul's side. He glanced around the parking area, then leaned back against the craft with his arms folded across his broad chest. 'Clarion was landed about two hundred years ago. Beautiful place from what I've heard—a clear ninety-nine.'
'I'm going in,' Dorland said abruptly, and turned to walk toward the building's entrance. Paul started to call after him, but Frakes was talking again.
'Five hundred colonists set out for the planet on the sector ship Vanguard. That was back in the early years, when everyone was bailing out of Terra. Clarion should have been a great world. But it got lost.'
'Lost?'
'The planet. Vanguard, five hundred colonists—
the whole bunch.'
A vague memory surfaced—a story Paul had
heard a long time ago. The early years, Frakes had called them, and Paul knew he meant the Expansion Era—the first century after the stream was
CLARION 41
discovered by Andrei Kohlmann. The k-stream opened an infinite array of pathways to the stars, and the cheap and instantaneous travel had resulted in explosive growth of colonies on dozens of worlds. Many stories had come from that era. Explorer ships had vanished with alarming regularity, and at least one sector ship had been lost in the void of the stream.
But an entire planet?
'How did it happen?'
'Somebody erased the planet's navigation coordinates,' Frakes answered. 'We've never figured out how.'
'It was done on purpose?'
'Presumably.'
'Why?'
'Good question.'
Five hundred colonists. The concept was staggering: a planet colonized, then cut off from the rest of humanspace.
'The colony—do you think it survived?' Then he realized the answer was obvious. 'Bekman . . .' Frakes nodded. 'This isn't the first time we found someone from Clarion. A couple of years ago a guy by the name of Callifer tried to land one of Vanguard's old scouts on Giant Forest.' Giant Forest. Paul felt a chill. Frakes's eyes were on him, and it was clear he hadn't missed the significance.
'Yeah. Anyway, he didn't make it. Callifer wasn't much of a pilot. He hit the ground too hard and pushed a stabilizer strut up through the stasis engine housing. The engine blew. By the time they dragged Callifer out he was pretty crispy, but still alive. The Guard called Security when they realized what they had. That's how me and Sabre got
involved. We managed to get a few answers out of Callifer before he croaked. But not many.' Paul took a moment to absorb what Frakes had 42 William Greenleaf CLARION 43
told him. 'That man Callifer—you said he was flying one of Vanguard's scoutships?'
