Samorset shook his head. "Too risky. To replace him would draw attention to the fact that we considered the museum expedition important."

"He could easily have an accident. You could then replace him with one of your own people. The crew would also have a number of loyal people added to it. Once on Earth, the scientists could dig wherever they wish while the naval personnel take care of the Titanians. If we arrange things properly, the scientists need never know."

Samorset looked thoughtful for a moment, then asked, "Any recommendations as to who should command this expedition?"

"Reluctantly, sir, I think I had better do it."

"I agree."

"What of Glasgow?"

"I'll send a replacement to take over your command, one who knows the importance of tracking down those renegade privateers."

"Then the only thing left is come up with a plausible explanation for why I am being put in charge."

The grand admiral thought for a moment, then laughed. "That will be the easiest of all. I'm afraid youwon't like what I have in mind, but it's still better than walking the plank."

Kelt Dalishaar sat on the couch in his living room and watched appreciatively as his favorite mistress poured a cup of tea. The supple way in which she moved almost made him forgive her for being in the pay of the grand admiral. He would have to do something about that someday, but not until the secret of the energy screen was his. And, he thought with a smile, it might not even be necessary then. Once he was in an unassailable position, Jasmine would quickly find that she had no employer to which to report her gossip.

Dalishaar was jarred out of his fantasy of revenge by the sound of an annunciator. Jasmine went to answer it and came back with Pierre Lamarque.

"What brings you here tonight, Pierre?" Dalishaar asked with more joviality than he felt. Something had to have gone wrong for his political assistant to disturb him at home.

"A matter has come up, First Councilor." Lamarque glanced significantly at the woman who had returned to her duties. "May we speak in your office?"

"Certainly."

Dalishaar got to his feet and led his political assistant to the office the pirates had violated so recently. He glanced at the desk with the concealed computer and shuddered as he thought about what had been risked when its memory was copied. He felt a momentary surge of anger that he moved immediately to bring under control. If he were to give vent to his emotions, his judgment would be affected.

Dalishaar flicked on the anti-eavesdropping circuits. The office walls began to buzz quietly in a pattern of white noise designed to defeat any electronic listening device. The noise would also do a good job on human ears. Next, he turned on the sound-canceling field that surrounded his desk. Only when he was encircled by a curious deadness did he allow himself to relax.

"All right, what is it?"

"Professor Garcia called from the museum. He was just notified that there will be a new operations leader for the expedition."

"A new leader? What happened to Captain Masters?"

"Masters had an accident. A cargo transporter suffered a malfunction inside Navy Headquarters. It raced out of control and pinned him against a corridor wall, breaking his leg and several ribs."

"Is he all right?"

"The doctors say he will have a long, difficult convalescence, but that there should be no permanent damage."

"Who is his replacement?"

"You know him," Lamarque deadpanned. "He's that bald headed admiral who commanded the assault on Glasgow."

"Blount? Impossible!"

"Why?""Because they would never replace a mere captain with a full admiral, for God's sake!"

"Impossible or not, they have named Blount to replace Masters."

"What reason do they give?"

"None ... officially. I have it from a confidential source on Samorset's staff that Blount is being disciplined for the sloppy way he handled the Glasgow envelopment, and for his inability to quell the resistance."

"It's a ploy! They suspect the real reason we are sending an expedition to Earth."

"How can they?"

"I don't know, but they must! It's too neat to be a coincidence."

"Theydo happen, you know."

Dalishaar shook his head violently. "Not this time. What are we to do?"

"We could have Garcia refuse to accept Blount."

"They would just replace him as chief archaeologist. He's the one person who knows the secret of the energy screen laboratory."

"Then we do nothing. If they are merely suspicious, perhaps Professor Garcia can still obtain the information we need under the pretext of a simple archaeology dig."

Dalishaar thought for a moment, then nodded. "If they don't know what we are looking for, it just might work. Still, I don't like it."

"Nor do I. However, it's the best I can think of at the moment."

"Get Professor Garcia up here. Let's see what he has to say about all of this."

Chapter 22: Preparations for a Homecoming.

Larson Sands stirred in his sleep and slowly became aware of the warm body next to his. Still on the edges of slumber, he turned over and wrapped his arms around Kimber, who fitted herself more closely to him in unconscious response to his presence. Sands luxuriated in her nearness for long minutes before he released her and opened his eyes. He stared at the far bulkhead for seconds before his droopy eyelids snapped wide as he remembered what day it was.

Today was the day they would reach Earth!

For four long months,Vixen had fallen sunward in a high velocity, hyperbolic orbit. They had left the cold darkness of the outer system behind to descend into the heat and sunlight nearer Sol. The ancient evacuation ships, burdened with their millions of refugees in cryogenic suspension, had taken six years to make the crossing. The difference in travel time was the result of advances in propulsion technology since those terrible years. Not that modern man could make the same claim in every field. Their mission to relearn the lost technology of energy screens was proof enough of that melancholy fact.

The century before Earth's abandonment had been one of the most scientifically prolific in history. Fullytwenty percent of the human race's gross product had gone into pure research, reaping dividends in every field. Much that had been learned had subsequently been lost during the evacuation, however. The struggle to establish humanity on Saturn had been all encompassing, and had not left much time for research. As a result, entire branches of learning had died almost as they were born.

For the last week or so, the twin crescents of Earth and Luna had grown perceptibly larger and brighter.

Since they were approaching Earth from above and behind, there was not a great deal to see. Nor would there be. The boiling of the home planet's oceans had covered the globe in a thick layer of perpetual cloud, turning it into a virtual twin of Venus.

Sands sat up to remove his sleeping straps. As he did so, Kimber stirred and opened her eyes. Like him, she wore a sleep harness that kept her from floating away in the zero gravity of the cabin. Each night, they literally hung themselves from an anchor point on the bulkhead.

"What's the matter?" Kimber mumbled.

"Time to get up, sleepyhead! Today's the day we reach Earth."

She glanced at the chronometer inset in the bulkhead across from them. "It's barely 06:00. They will not retrofire for several hours yet. Go back to sleep."

"You can sleep if you want to. I'm going up to the dome."

He finished removing the sleep harness. After four months, he was bothered by none of the symptoms that had marred his first space journey. If anything, he found weightlessness to be highly restful.

Sands performed his morning chores in the small head adjoining the cabin, then dressed quietly. As he let himself out, he noticed that Kimber's arms were bent upward at the elbow, floating free in front of her. It was the position a weightless human body assumes naturally in repose. Kimber had gone back to sleep.

Sands made his way via corridor handholds to the crew wardroom, where he discovered Professor Paolo Renzi eating breakfast. Renzi was a small, nervous man with a bullet shaped head and a nose too large for his face. He was Titan's leading expert on electromagnetism. The factor had drafted him from Titania University to head the expedition. Despite Renzi's initial reluctance to leave the experiments he had in progress, once convinced of the importance of the job, he had proved a dynamo in organizing the rest of the scientists.

"Good morning, Lars. What's the matter, couldn't sleep?" Renzi asked around the edges of a piece of toast.

Sands shook his head. "Too excited, I guess. I thought I would take a look at Earth."

"A good idea! What say we take our food forward to the observation compartment?" Renzi did not pause for a response. He picked up a drinking bulb of tea and his toast, and then kicked off toward the hatch. Sands stopped at the meal dispenser and dialed for a piece of fruit and a bulb of coffee.

Vixenwas a winged spacecraft of the sort that plied the Saturn-Titan run. As such, it had a cargo hold designed to transport bulk materials. The unpressurized hold was covered by two doors similar to those used on the first space shuttles. For the trip to Earth, the bay doors had been opened and a series of habitat modules installed for added living space. The modules extended beyond the limits of the bay, givingVixen a curious humpbacked look.

The extra living quarters prevented the doors from being closed, which made it impossible for the ship to enter atmosphere. That was not a problem sinceVixen 's captain did not intend to subject his vessel tothe rigors of Earth's current environment. For that a specially designed landing craft was needed. They carried such a craft tight againstVixen 's flattened belly, further distorting the freighter's sleek aerodynamic lines.

One of the habitat modules in the cargo bay was topped by a clear dome. On launch, the module had been filled solid with foodstuffs. The last of these had been eaten the month before, allowingVixen 's passengers and crew to obtain a panoramic view of the black sky overhead. For all of that time, Vixen's captain had oriented the ship with the dome facing the Earth-Moon system.

Renzi and Sands pulled themselves through the pressurized tube leading to the observation compartment.

Once inside, they strapped down to the low circle of benches in the compartment's center. They continued eating as they gazed at the world that had once been the Mother of Men.

Earth had grown considerably since it first began to show a perceptible disk. It now covered a full five degrees of arc. Luna, which was on the far side of the planet, looked tiny in comparison, although much larger than Titan does when compared to Saturn. Actually, Luna was only half the size of Titan. Despite this, the gravitational pull of the two moons was practically the same. The difference was due to Titan's lower density.

The same comparison could be made for Saturn and Earth. The ringed world was a hundred times more massive than its smaller counterpart was; yet, the two had comparable surface gravities. Once again, the culprit was density. Saturn's average density was only one-eighth that of the home world. Had it been possible to drop Saturn into water, it would have floated. The combination of large diameter and low density gave Saturn a much lower gravitational pull than would have been expected for such a big planet.

"What a beautiful world," Renzi said with awe in his voice as he craned his neck to gaze up at the silver crescent. The sunlit section was bright enough to be painful. Nor was the dark hemisphere totally invisible. The flood of energetic particles from the sun caused both polar regions to be wreathed in auroras. The high level of solar energy also caused perpetual storms. These in turn produced displays of lightning that lit up the night hemisphere.

"It was more beautiful before the sun flared."

Perhaps it will be that way again."

"Do you really think so?"

Renzi shrugged. "The current storm should pass in another few centuries. When it does, the Earth will cool off again, causing the atmospheric steam to condense. Once that happens, the reversion process will go to fruition rather quickly, I should think. There's a good chance humanity can reseed the planet and reclaim it in another thousand years, or so."

"We can only hope," Sands replied. The dream of reclaiming Earth was one that nearly every Saturnian shared. Gazing up at the lighted crescent etched against an obsidian sky, it was easy to believe in the dream.

"Two minutes until retrofire. All hands report status!"

Kimber Crawford glanced up at the overhead speaker from which the voice ofVixen 's captain issued, then back at Lars. He was fidgeting with the straps that held him atop the acceleration pad the two of them shared. Around them, the other six members of the Titanian expedition -- five scientists from TitaniaUniversity and Halley Trevanon -- were similarly tied down.Vixen 's crew of four were all at their stations in other parts of the ship.

"Relax," Kimber told Lars. "It won't be long now."

He grinned at her. "Sorry. It is just that I cannot wait to get on with it. This space travel would be all right if it didn't take so long to get anywhere."

"I know what you mean," she replied. Actually, the outbound trip had been a busy one for SparrowHawk 's three survivors. To make a place for them on the expedition, Envon Crawford had ordered three university research assistants left behind. That meant that Kimber, Lars, and Halley had had to learn the assistants' jobs. Professor Renzi had accepted them readily enough, but some of the other scientists had been resentful.

They waited in silence until the captain came on the intercom and began to count off the seconds until retrofire. His words were paralleled by the countdown display in one corner of the bulkhead holoscreen in front of them. When the numerals reached 00:00:00, a soft roaring noise suffused the ship.

Simultaneously, an invisible hand reached out to push the waiting expedition members into their acceleration pads.

Kimber felt a moment of panic when she thought something had gone wrong. The flight plan called for half an hour of deceleration at one-quarter gee. Yet, to judge by the difficulty with which she was breathing, the acceleration level must be several times that!

"Are you all right?" Lars asked in a strained voice.

She reached out and sought his comforting hand. The runaway rockets continued their steady hum while no one around them seemed overly concerned. After a few seconds, she smiled sheepishly. "I guess I got more used to zero gravity than I realized."

Nothing changed for the next twenty minutes, except that Kimber found it a little easier to breath as her body adjusted to the return of gravity. Then, when the countdown clock indicated another two minutes to go until engine cutoff, something large enough to block their view of the Earth filled the screen. The apparition was gone as quickly as it had appeared, leaving her with an impression of a round shape adorned by row after row of empty windows.

Her sudden yelp was not the only one in the compartment. Somewhere nearby, a male voice issued forth with a high-pitched, nervous giggle. It took a few seconds before the captain's voice flooded from the intercom once again.

"Sorry about that, people! What you just witnessed was our passing close abeam of an abandoned orbital station. There was never any danger. It appeared closer than it was because of the magnification we are using to show you the Earth. Do not be alarmed! We will remain comfortably clear of all objects on or near our flight path. Captain out!"

"He could have warned us first!" Kimber grumbled as she attempted to gain control of her racing heart.

In that moment, she had felt all of the legends generated by half a thousand years of space flight come boiling up out of her subconscious. There had been stories of strange lights in the sky since before humanity first climbed above atmosphere. For just an instant Kimber's brain was filled with visions of alien spacecraft.

Far from being an alien construct, the object on the screen was a relic of the distant past. Evacuating the race had been a colossal job that had taken most of a century to accomplish. Thousands of orbitalinstallations had been constructed to aid in the task. Some had been orbital shipyards to build the giant evacuation craft. Others had been used as way stations for the transfer of human cargoes from the ground-to-orbit ferries to the ships of deep space. These latter had been several kilometers in diameter and had held populations numbering in the millions while the big evacuation ships were loaded.

The evacuation ships were no more. Most had been broken up, their materials used in the construction of the oldest cloud cities. The orbital stations, however, were too far from humanity's new home for economical salvage. Thus, the Earth was surrounded by these jumping off points to deep space. They circled the dead planet in silence, waiting a time when humanity might again need them.

Vixen's engines shut down on schedule, causing Kimber to rebound into the restraining straps. Her stomach, newly acclimated to gravity, gave a quiet flip-flop. She turned her head to look at Lars. He was already reaching to unhook his restraining straps.

"Where are you going?"

"Observation compartment. I want to look out."

Kimber began to unhook herself. As she worked, she became aware that everyone else seemed to have come independently to the same idea. Suddenly, the holographic image was not enough. The urge to gaze upon the home world with one's own eyes had become overpowering.

Vixen's wardroom was crowded. Nearly the entire expedition had managed to stuff themselves into the small compartment. They were anchored in a large globular formation, with everyone's head pointed down toward the table where Professor Renzi was unfolding an ancient map.