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“And as Captain Godheir said, he’d’ve heard something if the ARCT-10 was known to be lost.”

“Hmmmm.”

“Scant reassurances, I know, but this is a time when no news can be good news. Say, I haven’t had a chance to tell you, but Sassinak is Lunzie’s great-great-great-granddaughter!”

“No!”

“That was Sassinak’s parting remark to me yesterday. Took me the entire flight back to get over the shock. To cushion the shock she sent Lunzie a bottle of Sverulan brandy.” Varian gave Kai a very gentle nudge in the ribs. “Now, I know you don’t appreciate planetary brews, but this stuff is gorgeous. Get on Lunzie’s good side and she might just give you a sip—if she hasn’t already finished the bottle on the sly. No, she couldn’t have—no one could drink that much Sverulan brandy and function the next day!”

“I just can’t imagine Lunzie as a mother.”

“I can. She mothers us in her fashion. It’s the ancestor part that stuns me. That original child is probably long since dead, and the next four generations as well, and here is Lunzie, motoring along in fine shape. And younger than Sassinak.”

“Ship-breds like me don’t usually run into this sort of anomaly.”

“Ireta’s full of them! All kinds, why not a human paradox! I wonder if Lunzie will ever tell us how long she’s cold slept. One thing, it hasn’t affected her wits at all.”

The patch of clear sky abruptly gave way to a fast-moving heavy squall and managing the sled took all Varian’s attention. They rode it out, and the weather cleared to lowering clouds scudding across the sky just as they reached the plateau, so Kai had a good view of the area. Varian came in above the grid so that Kai got the full effect of the two space vehicles, the smaller one, lean and dangerous, the other gross and brooding. From that vantage, Kai could also see the settlement, the foundry, and the unoccupied length of the grid.

“They meant to have more than one transport land here, didn’t they?”

“It would appear so,” she replied. “Krims! Aygar took Sassinak at her word.” She pointed to the three sleds parked at the edge of the settlement and the people busy loading them. “They aren’t wasting any time. I wonder where they’re going.”

Kai scowled. “They’ve been given transport?”

“They’re just as entitled to replacement equipment as we are—”

“Mutineers may not profit—”

“Only Tanegli qualifies as a mutineer—”

“Those people are accessories to a conspiracy against FSP.” Kai pointed agitatedly at the transport vessel.

“Yes, they are. They are the real criminals, Kai, not Aygar and his group.”

“I don’t understand your reasoning, Varian.” Kai’s face was strained. “How can you possibly take their side?”

“I’m not taking their side, Kai, but I can’t help respecting people who’ve managed to survive Ireta and achieve that grid!” She banked the sled to land it close to the open port of the Zaid-Dayan. “If only the ARCT had stripped the beacon, or kept its schedule with us.”

“ ‘If,’ ” Kai said contemptuously.

“I’d cheerfully settle for a lousy ‘when,’ when we get you operational again. When we find out what the Thek are doing. When we find out what the tribunal thinks of all this . . .”

They landed, and very cautiously Kai eased himself out of the sled. Varian made a show of checking the records in her shoulder bag. She couldn’t watch the once agile, active young man reduced to the slow motion of the invalid. Then she picked up the container with the fringe samples Lunzie had frozen.

They were met at the portal by a very dark-skinned officer, lean and bouncy. This one wore the rank device of a lieutenant commander and the fourragère of an adjutant. He gave them a white-toothed smile before gesturing urgently over his shoulder for someone to hurry up. “Fordeliton, Leaders Varian, Kai. Very pleased to meet you and at your service. We saw your sled approaching. And here is Mayerd.”

The chief medic came bustling up, her eyes narrowing as she greeted Kai. Then she turned to Varian. “How’s Portegin?”

“Constructing a core screen from that wealth of space matrices and units