"Ah." Hsiu shrugged, apparently dismissing it as none of his business. "Well, anyway, I've already begun making the arrangements with the various departments involved. Why don't you check back with my office tomorrow for the final schedule?"

Danae's jaw clenched momentarily; but there was nothing of her father's casual arrogance in either Hsiu's face or voice. He's just trying to help, she told herself, sitting hard on the automatic rebellion the other had inadvertently triggered. Not trying to take over; not treating me like a child who can't handle her own life. Just offering assistance and common courtesy. It helped a little. "That would be fine, sir," she told him, managing to keep her voice civil. "Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule."

"Oh, no problem at all, Ms. Panya. Well, I'll let you go now. Once again, congratulations."

"Thank you, Dean Hsiu."

Hsiu's image smiled and vanished. Danae leaned back in her chair, eyes gazing unseeingly around the room as she tried to absorb the magnitude of her triumph. Permits to visit either of the Hidden Worlds of Triplet were as scarce as honest men... and or her—for her—to actually have been awarded one of them was—

Was suspicious in the extreme.

She bit at her lip, the glow within her fading before the sudden doubt. If he had traced her here—and if he had, he would certainly have learned of her application to Triplet....

All right, Danae—stop emoting and think. She'd sent in the application... when? Three months ago?

About that. Okay: one-way spaceflight to Triplet would have been perhaps a week; evaluation would have included a check with Earth's master records for possible psychological, political, or legal problems. Another four to five weeks' round trip for that one, with handling and all; and of course at the very end there would be another week to get the approval back here to Autaris. Which left... six or seven weeks at the most. Six weeks for them to shuffle her application out of the sacks and sacks of similar requests; to study it, evaluate it, pass it around to everyone in sight and up the decisionmaking hierarchy, and to approve it.