“My God. If that’s the case, it’s not going to be easy to find them.”

“You know precisely when communication stopped. If they made the jump successfully, that will tell you approximately where they are. More or less.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Scramble anything you can find. And, Peter — ”

“Yes, Hutch?”

“Try not to let it get out. Keep me informed and let me know if you need anything.”

SHE ALERTED MICHAEL Asquith, the Academy’s commissioner. He listened patiently, commented that these things never seem to happen during business hours, and asked how serious she thought it was.

“They’re probably okay,” she said. “The ship’s old, but the drive system is well designed. It’s possible they got stranded in hyperspace, and it’s possible the engines could have exploded. But either of those eventualities is unlikely. They’re almost certainly adrift somewhere. But without communications.”

“They have radio?”

“Probably.”

“But the search area’s too big for radio?”

“It won’t be easy if that’s all they have.”

“Okay,” he said. “Stay on top of it. And keep me informed.” He signed off. At the moment, there was nothing more to do, so she went back to bed. But she didn’t sleep.

She gave up eventually and headed for the shower. She was covered with soap when Peter called back. They’d worked out the search area. It was big, but that was inevitable because of the vagaries associated with hyperflight, and the fact they didn’t have the precise moment when the Heffernan made its jump. “But we caught a break,” said Peter. “The Wildside is in the immediate area. They can be on the scene early Tuesday morning. We couldn’t have planned it better.

“The al-Jahani is also in the neighborhood, so I’ve diverted them as well.” The al-Jahani was an Academy ship, on its way back from Quraqua. It had passengers on board, but there’d be room for the Heffernan people if a pickup was necessary. As seemed likely.