Pitt looked up and smiled as Eugenia Insigna entered, but felt the usual small surge of uneasiness. There was something always uneasy-making about Eugenia, even wearying. She had these Causes (capital C) that were hard to deal with.

‘Thank you for seeing me, Janus,’ she said, ‘on such short notice.’

Pitt placed his computer on hold, and leaned back in his chair, deliberately producing an air of relaxation.

‘Come,’ he said, ‘there's no formality between us. We go back a long way.’

‘And have shared a great deal,’ said Insigna.

‘So we have,’ said Pitt. ‘And how is your daughter?’

‘It's about her I wish to speak, as a matter of fact. Are we shielded?’

Pitt's eyebrows arched. ‘Why shielded? What is there to shield and from whom?’

The very question activated Pitt's realization of the odd position in which Rotor found itself. To all practical purposes, it was alone in the Universe. The Solar System was more than two light-years away, and no other intelligence-bearing worlds might exist within hundreds of light-years or, for all anyone knew, billions of light-years in any direction.

Rotorians might have fits of loneliness and uncertainty, but they were free of any fear of outside interference. Well, almost any fear, thought Pitt.

Insigna said, ‘You know what there is to shield. It was you who have always insisted on secrecy.’

Pitt activated the shield and said, ‘Are we to take that up again? Please, Eugenia, it's all settled. It was settled when we left fourteen years ago. I know that you brood about it now and then-’

‘Brood about it? Why not? It's my star,’ and her arm flailed outward as if in the direction of Nemesis. ‘It's my responsibility.’

Pitt's jaw tightened. Do we have to go through all this again? he thought.

Aloud, he said, ‘We're shielded. Now, what's bothering you?’