“Where did he go?”

“He hasn’t gone anywhere — yet. But he’s going to, as soon as he can get his hands on a ship and recruit the crew he needs. Meanwhile, he’s going to tell anyone who will listen about the Zardalu, and about how dangerous they are. And then he’s going to look for the Zardalu. He and E.C. Tally feel sure that if the Zardalu came back anywhere in the spiral arm, they will have tried to return to their cladeworld, Genizee.”

“But no one has any idea where Genizee is. The location was lost in the Great Rising.”

“So we’re going to have to look for it.”

“We? You mean that you’ll be going with Graves and E.C. Tally?”

“Yes.” Rebka sat upright. “I’m going. In fact, I’ll have to leave in just a few hours. I want to make the Council eat their words as much as Graves does. But more than that, I don’t want the Zardalu to breed themselves back to power. I don’t frighten easily, but they scare me. If they’re anywhere in the spiral arm, I want to find them.”

Darya stood up abruptly and moved across to the open window. “So you’re leaving.” It was a warm, breezy night, and the sound of rustling palm leaves blurred the hurt in her words. “You travel four days and nine light-years to get here, you’ve been with me only a couple of hours, and already you want to say good-bye.”

“If that’s all I can say.” Hans Rebka had risen quietly to his feet and moved silently across the thick pile of the carpet. “And if that’s all you can say, too.” He put his arms around Darya’s waist. “But that’s not my first choice. I’m not just visiting, love. I’m recruiting. Julian Graves and I are going a long way; no one knows how far, and no one knows if we’ll make it back. Can you come with us? Will you come with us?”

Darya glanced across to her terminal, where the remaining entries for the fifth edition were awaiting their final proofreading; and at her diary on the desk, with its heading Important Events — seminars and colloquia, publication due dates and the arrival of visiting academics, birthdays and vacations and picnics and galas and dinner parties. She went across to her desk, switched off the terminal, and closed her diary.