Gerard cocked his head at the man. "Jas, do you really think we

haven't thought of all that in the past five days? I assure you, Kylara is not about to talk to any press, and they are unlikely to locate her." It was bad luck to claim an absolute, but by now she should be well out of reach of any Slotter Key news agency. Even within the company, only a few knew which Vatta was aboard the Glennys Jones.

Eventually, the news agencies figured that out, too, and the press of eager reporters at the Vatta offices dwindled, finally disappearing after juicier game. Gerard no longer saw even mid-news "updates"

on the mess. He congratulated himself-by the time Ky got back, the whole thing would have died down completely.

When the arrival report came from Belinta, he breathed a sigh of relief. Just as planned, nothing had happened. That wouldn't last, if he knew his daughter, but she had weathered the first voyage. Gary Tobai's report suggested she had done all the predictable things, and made the right adjustments. After all, what did Vatta really need with a military connection in the family? They were all basically traders, not warriors. Ky was cut out to be a trader captain, and now

she was on the right path.

A few days later, the next message from Gary brought a grin to his face, and he called Stavros' office.

"Well, she took the bait," Stavros said.

"Vatta to the core," Gerard said. "I take it you got the tightbeam

from Quincy or Gary."

"Both. You can practically hear their gleeful cackling."

"What kind of scheme has she cooked up? They didn't send me the

details."

"I'll send it to you, but it's classic trader. A bit risky financially- she's agreed to go on spec, buy the cargo, and trust the buyer to pay up on delivery. On the other hand, the customer's a government bureau, the parameters of acceptable cargo are clearly defined, and the Slotter Key consul told her they were good for it. The profit

from this will cover some of the repairs... If she scraps that ship, I'll be very surprised."

"I hope we gave her a big enough letter of credit," Gerard said.

"It never hurts to have to scrimp a bit," Stavros said. "Remember

our first venture?"

"Of course..." It had been wilder than this, and they'd nearly lost

the ship, playing tag with a planetary militia they hadn't known about, but it had, in the end, paid for the repairs on Matilda C."She'll do fine. The ship's sound enough for that much, anyway. If something major doesn't go wrong-and if it does, I'm sure she'll have the sense to get in contact."

"I hope so."

"And if she doesn't, the others will."

"I wonder when she'll break out the fruitcake," Gerard said. Theirs

hadn't been fruitcake by Auntie Grace, but sausage by Uncle Evers.

Hard as a rock-they'd actually bashed one would-be sneak thief with it-and deemed inedible by all but the starving.

"I'd like a picture when she does," Stavros said. "She really hates

that stuff."

"It is vile," Gerard said. He shook his head. "The things we do to our younglings."

Time passed. Gerard tried not to fret. Ky would be making a sensible, reasonable passage to Sabine, which was the closest source of ag equipment. Or she had chosen another place, for a good reason. She would not report in when she arrived, because she would not want to tell headquarters she was playing a lone game.

He remembered what that felt like-going out of bounds for the first time, being alone-with a ship full of crew-where no one in the family knew the location. Heady excitement, stomach-churning responsibility. And he'd had Stavros along.

She had good crew along. He knew that. They would take care of her, and she was not an idiot anyway. She might make a profit or not, but she would be fine. He would not, absolutely not, spy on her via the Sabine ansible. He could of course ask someone to get the list of ships in system, but that was... not fair. You gave the young ones rope to see how far they could swing... You did not hover, or it wasn't a real test. They needed to know later that they really had

been out there on their own.

"Gerry, have you seen this?" That was Stavros, leaning on the doorframe, waving a printout of something.

"Probably not," Gerard said. "Though I'm not sure what it is..."

"News bulletin from Sabine system," Stavros said.

Gerard's heart stopped; his vision blurred. "Ky-"

"Gerry! No! I'm sorry-there's nothing-but there's political

trouble. I'm wondering if we should break cover and order her out."

Vision came back, red-hazed, and Gerard drew a shuddering breath.

"She's... not... ?"

"No. But Prime and Secundus are moving toward war this time,

apparently. It's a slice off the WarWatch page, and they're pretty solid..."

He knew that. But now he had to know more.

"Who's on watch?" he asked.

"I already checked. The ship's there, at the station. Captain Vatta is planetside, has been several days. She'll be at the Captains' Guild, no doubt. I haven't made a call yet, but I was wondering..."

"Let's see." Gerard could focus his eyes now, and he scanned the news item quickly. Probability high, with an analysis of forces on both sides sufficient to worry about. "Secundus is crazy," he said.

"If this is all they've got."

"They've got those shipkillers," Stavros pointed out. "And speculation that at least four of them could take out an orbital station."

"Um. What's the projected timeline... Yes, I think we should get her out of there. How can we... oh, I know. Ky knows we have an ansible watch, and a news item like this would be reason to check and see if any Vatta ships are in the area. If we send it to the Captains' Guild for 'Any Vatta Transport, Ltd., captain' she won't know we know where she is."

"Good. I'll do it, general alert. We need to put out the word to our regular route captains as well." Stavros got the blank look common to those accessing multiple implant links at once, and then smiled.

"Done. We should have acknowledgment in a few hours. It'll be interesting to see what she does."

Less than an hour later, Gerard's implant shrilled at him the news that the Sabine system ansibles were out, presumed destroyed. He stared out his office window at the evening, the city lights beginning to twinkle through the dusk. Without thinking about it, he found himself staring far across the city to the Academy, visible only as a gap in the regular lines of light. If that miserable lying little fox of a Miznarii had caused his daughter to end up dead in a war... He shook himself. That was no way to think, not now.

"Gerry." Stavros had come to his door. "Are you all right?"

Gerard tried to laugh; it came out a croak. "I'm... not," he said. "If Ky-"

"She's not Stella," Stavros said, coming into the office. "Stella

wouldn't make it. Ky-I'd bet on Ky. She's smart, she's got some military training, enough to recognize the signs-"

"What if they blew the station at the same time as the ansibles?"

Gerard said.

"She was on the planet, she'll be fine," Stavros said.

"No..." Gerard worked through it as he spoke. "If she sees trouble

coming, she'll go back to her ship. She'll try to get it away. But there wasn't time-we had that report the ship was docked only a few hours ago." He could not help but picture the station exploding, the ships docked there flung wide, losing atmosphere through the docking tubes, other explosions, Ky's body flung into space, her last agonized breath a cry for help that never came.

"And maybe she's fine," Stavros said. "We can't know until ISC gets ansibles up and running, so the best we can do is stay sane until she shows up wondering why we worried. Say she did go back to the ship. She knows trouble's coming; she buttons the ship up; she asks permission to undock; she breaks away if she has to. She's smart, Gerry. She'll survive."

She's not your daughter, Gerard wanted to say, but this was his brother, who had already been remarkably forbearing. And it was all the comfort he had, or was going to get, until the ansibles were back up.

"We'd better not tell the others," Gerard said.

"You're right about that," Stavros said. He sighed. "It was easier in the olden times, when our ancestors believed there were magical beings in the sky who could intervene. Our modern religions are

fine for destressing from the everyday, but it would be nice to have a real lightning-throwing god to pray to about now."