- Prologue

'So there is custom.' Theo got the feeling that Kara was relieved, though her friend was still in Liaden face. 'This letter—does it seem that he assumes obligation of you?'

Theo felt her ears heat.

'Obligation—no. He specifically said that it was my choice whether or not to wear the gift. He was also clear that he had an interest in us being together to . . . enjoy each other again—and I'm interested in that, too.'

'Your courses align, then. I would say, in that case, that the gift is neither too much nor too little, but well given as a promise of desire and intent. But—' Kara stopped.

Theo considered her. 'But?'

Kara sighed. 'At the risk of telling you something you already know—remember that we—that Liadens— belong to our clans. This means that your Win Ton, Scout though he be, is bound by the order of his delm. Everything—promises, partnerships and plans—must be set aside, should the clan call one to duty. Remember that, about Liadens, Theo. It's just—it might help. Later.'

'I—'

A quick rap on the door was immediately followed by the entrance of Pilot yos'Senchul, two-armed still, data carrier in hand.

He bowed to the pair of them, his free hand describing the Liaden bow-sign for necessity.

'Pilots, you will forgive the intrusion. Pilot Waitley, I assume you have not been to your room, and thus have not seen my request. I am in need of someone to pilot me to Codrescu, leaving yesterday, if not sooner. Your class schedule being clear for forty-three hours, I wonder if you might do the honors?'

Twenty-Five

Codrescu Station

Eylot Nearspace

They got to orbit in a sprightly fashion, Cherpa's spot on a hotpad meaning Theo slotted the ship into a launch window quickly, even if that window wasn't optimum from a fuel viewpoint.

yos'Senchul gave her initial lift plan a vague glance, praising it as textbook perfect. Then he'd gone on:

'This is not an exercise for finding fuel efficient launches, Pilot. Consider your necessity as a PIC to be conserve time, rather than energy. Once lifted, please find us the fastest way to docking. Consider me your client and your payload for an express delivery.'

Pilot Waitley had followed those instructions implicitly, allowing the routing to include what was, as she considered it, an expensive burn from what would have been a higher elliptical orbit to arrive at the proper orbit more quickly.

Cherpa's boards felt more familiar than the shuttle's had last time she'd flown it—all the sim time she'd put in recently meant she expected a ship scan to include more than nearby space; expected it to have warning for Jump, expected what was in front of her. What she hadn't quite expected was how much of her scan was blocked by Eylot's presence, nor the sudden change in comm traffic when their destination rose above the horizon.

Theo spent some small time studying the scans to see if she could figure which ships were actually going somewhere in system and which were transiting to Jump points. Cherpa's navsystem was immensely helpful in this; she could, with the touch of a button, plot a dozen ships likely outbound and a few more than that likely inbound from Jump. As she watched the scan fill in, a ship seemed to fuzz into existence outside local space but—according to the scan grid—well inside regular Jump space. Experimentally she ran the scan back —yes. There was the place where the new ship wasn't—and, suddenly, without glare, flare, or warning, there it was.

'Second,' she said to yos'Senchul, 'is there a reason the ship that just showed up without Jump glare isn't tagged with a name or ID number?'

'Pilot, I will explore this. It does happen, from time to time, that what appears on screen is a 'ghost ship.'? '

She glanced from her screen to him quizzically,

The instructor gave her a wry grin. 'It is a bad name, I admit. I believe this term was coined by a Terran, many Standards ago.'

He adjusted something on his board, frowned momentarily.

'The Liaden phrase is ekly'teriva, which would translate as the ship unseen, perhaps, or shadow ship. Still, there are times—the math is intricate well beyond simple piloting equations, as I understand it. Basically, there are conditions that may occur in Jump that can cast an image of a ship ahead or behind itself; though it is very rare.'

Theo sighed, considering her threaded webwork, and wondering if that might enable her to conceivably get a handle on . . .

'Another, more likely, possibility is that there is a scan error, Pilot. A misplaced bit or byte in the computer memory, a flaw in the scan head, a tracking overlay retained. I have created an incident report and am scheduling the scanner for maintenance on our return.'

Theo looked at the screen with the numerous objects and projected courses . . .

'That one has no course? The ghost ship?' Her hands said explain explain.

'As I say, scanner error, Pilot. The object in question seems to have the same proper motion Cherpa enjoys. For this to be true of a ship just out of Jump would be . . . extremely unlikely.'

'Tag it,' she said finally, 'it annoys me.'

'Local scan will not show it,' yos'Senchul told her the obvious, politely.

'Good. Tag it Shadow Ship, then go to local scan.'