"There's only one thing that might work," Jason said, his voice growing desperate again. "I have to hide myself. I have to find a place on this world where I can hide and keep the drive hidden until the ship is forced to leave. They'll look for me. They'll use every tool they've got. They can find me using the same biometrics, if they get sensors close enough to me. That's why I need to find some place a long way from here to hide, where they wouldn't think to look. That's why I need you. I'll probably have a little trouble blending in. I need some quick tips on how to talk and act and…everything. Oh, and where to go. And how to get there."

She stared at him. "Quick tips? How long do we have?"

"Maybe a couple of hours."

"A couple of hours. Jason, if I had a couple of years I might be able to teach you enough for you to blend in here. What you're suggesting is impossible. You wouldn't last half a day. Everybody you interacted with would immediately know you were…very different."

"But I have to," Jason insisted, now despairing. "It's the only way to keep this information away from them. If I don't, ULS will build those weapons and sell lots of them, and those weapons will get used and… You were right, Kira. This stuff is a huge danger to Earth. Kira, please. You're so smart and…and…awesome. You must know a way I can make this work."

"You must have me confused with my mother," Kira said. "Jason, there isn't any way you can do it. You'd need—"

She suddenly realized that there was a way.

Kira gazed out the window into the darkness behind Jason, thinking.

Thinking about how she had spent most of her life feeling sorry for herself because she wouldn't have the chance to do anything important. About all of the people who might die back on Urth if the greedy, selfish crew of the ship brought back the secret for weapons that no one could stop. About her mother simply saying I had a job to do.

Her mother couldn't get involved in this. Lady Mari had to be neutral, the fair and disinterested person everyone could look to. Mari couldn't draw the world, any part of it, into a conflict with Urth. Especially not when she'd be trying to keep an object stolen from the Urth ship away from its legal owners.

And her father was the same. Master of Mages. Lady Mari's Mage. He had to avoid directly confronting the Urth people as well.