"Thank you, sir." Carey touched an intercom button and gave Captain Mahendra the search order.

There was a lot of traffic in mankind's home system, but the Peacekeepers' duties included monitoring such activity, and it was only a few minutes before Mahendra was back on the intercom. "There's only one really good choice," he reported. "A big passenger liner, the Origami, almost a hundred thousand tons. She's between Titan and Ceres at present and has a eighty-four percent probability of making an intercept point on time; seventy-nine if she drops her passengers first. One other liner and three freighters of comparable size have probabilities of fifteen percent or lower."

"I see," Carey said through suddenly dry lips. "Thank you, Captain. Stand by."

He looked back up at Nordli. The Executor nodded. "No choice. Have that liner drop its passengers and get moving."

"Yes, sir." Turning to the intercom, Carey began to give the orders. He was vaguely surprised at the self-control in his voice.

—

"Well, Shipmaster?" Lassarr asked.

Orofan kept his expression neutral. "I have no suggestion other than the one I offered an aarn ago, Voyagemaster: that we change course and continue at reduced speed."

"For six lifetimes?" Lassarr snorted. "That's unacceptable."

"It won't be that bad." Orofan consulted his calculations. "We could penetrate the outer atmosphere of the star without causing significant damage to the system. We'd collect enough fuel that way to shorten the trip to barely two lifetimes."

"That's still not good enough. I have no wish to join the ancestors before our people are safely to their new home."

"That can be arranged," Orofan said stiffly. "You and any of the Dawnsent's crew who wished could be put in the spare sleep tanks. If necessary, I could run the ship alone."

For a moment Orofan thought Lassarr was going to take offense at his suggestion.