They hurried through the connecting tube toward the nearest craft. Tasia was tempted to take Jess’s favorite, a faster and cleaner ship, but she didn’t want him to be more upset than he already would be, so she chose one of the two traditional vessels.

At the hatch, she removed an information module from one of the many pockets in her baggy trousers. “Here, EA, upload this. It’s navigation instructions and starship information. I might need you to do copilot duties if I get tired.” The journey to Earth would take some time, and she had slept little in the past few days.

“I have never piloted a ship before, Tasia. My memory core may not have enough space for all this information.”

“Then delete some of your childhood games—but not any memories. I want you to preserve every moment you spent with Ross. You can tell me stories during the long flight.”

“Of course, Tasia.” EA inserted the information module and accessed the enhanced programming. “I am ready if you need me. It seems so simple now.”

“It took me years to learn how to fly, and you can access it in a few seconds,” she said, shaking her head.

“It can be deleted just as quickly, Tasia.”

Tasia grunted as she strapped herself into the piloting chair. “Yeah, I can see how that would be a drawback.”

She powered up the heaters. No one had used this vessel for a month, and the interior air felt brittle and stagnant. She activated the electrical and life-support systems, then increased the temperature a bit more.

She called up the coordinates of the Earth system and plotted her course. Tasia disengaged from the docking tube and with a faint nudge from her attitude-control jets, she lifted away from the frozen surface. Plumas looked like a cracked white blister beneath her, its capped wellheads like metal buttons sealing the liquid water underneath. “All right, let’s follow the Guiding Star.”

The mist across her vision was either a blur in the cockpit windows or a thin sheen of tears. Tasia didn’t know which. She engaged the stardrive and shot away from Plumas toward her new future.

50: MARGARET COLICOS

50MARGARET COLICOS

For weeks, the Colicos team had uncovered an endless succession of wondrous discoveries, amazing and challenging relics … but few answers. Still, it was time for another report to be sent to Earth. Sitting inside her stuffy tent shelter, Margaret finished her latest log entry and smiled ironically to herself.

Unlike excavating Roman ruins or sunken Mediterranean cities on Earth, research into the Klikiss civilization involved more than simply adding a few obscure details to an already thorough understanding. With the Klikiss, even the fundamentals remained complete enigmas. Whenever Margaret or Louis discovered something profound—such as her realization that had led to the Klikiss Torch, or the conjecture that the presumably insectoid race could fly—all other aspects of Klikiss studies went through major reassessments.