“Damn. What the hell’s happening?”

“I suspect we haven’t left the solar system.”

Okay. Whatever. Under the circumstances, that might be a good thing. But the priority at the moment was to make a safe exit. He went through the check-off list with Bill, the readings on both sets of engines, fuel levels, pile temperature, probable entry vector, external mass indicator. If necessary, he could abort the jump. But everything was within the guidelines.

“One minute,” Abdul told his passengers. “Everybody belted in? Please let me hear it.” He did not have the warning lamps of the tour ships.

One by one, they replied. All set. But their voices betrayed a degree of nervousness. “How far out are we?” asked Carroll.

“We should be a bit over ninety light-years.” Except that the response from ops had come back too quickly.

“Will they be able to find us?” asked Mike.

“Sure,” he said. No reason why not. Abdul left the channel open. Heard Carroll comment that jump engines could be dangerous. “My uncle was on a flight once — ”

“Ten seconds,” said Abdul. He thought his voice sounded relaxed. Professional. Utterly confident.

There is no safer method of transport than superluminal. Since the passage of the Kern-Warburton Act, almost thirty years ago, there has not been a single documented case of catastrophic loss due to malfunction.

— The Engineering Annual, XXVII

chapter 3

…So we have progressed to the point where we can move politicians around faster than light. I’m not sure I see the advantage.

— Gregory MacAllister, Notes from Babylon

They woke Priscilla Hutchins before dawn with word that the Heffernan was missing. Lost. We don’t know where it is.