He actually smiled. ‘I’ve been anticipating this since the Torch came into port. Haven’t you?’

My mouth opened and closed, as if I was a swordtail fish in the belly of a Spline. ‘Call me unimaginative,’ I said. ‘How can you accept this assignment, knowing it’s going to kill you?’

He seemed puzzled. ‘What else would I do?’

‘Yes,’ the captain said. ‘It is your duty. Can’t you see how noble this is, Dakk? Isn’t it right that he should know - that he should live his life with full foreknowledge of the circumstances of his death, and do his duty even so, right up to the final foretold instant?’

Tarco grabbed my hand. ‘Hey. It’s years off. We’ll see our baby grow.’

I said dismally, ‘Some love story this is turning out to be.’

‘Yes.’

Commissary Varcin’s Virtual head coalesced in the air. Without preamble he said, ‘Change of plan. Ensign, it’s becoming clear that the evidence to hand will not be sufficient to establish the charges. Specifically it’s impossible to say whether Dakk’s actions hindered the overall war aims. To establish that we’ll have to go to the Libraries, at the Commission’s central headquarters.’

I did a double-take. ‘Sir, that’s on Earth.’

The disembodied head snapped, ‘I’m aware of that.’

I had no idea how bookworm Commissaries on Earth, ten thousand light years away, could possibly have evidence to bear on this front-line incident. But the Commissary explained, and I learned there was more to this messages-from-the-future industry than I had yet imagined. On Earth, the Commission for Historical Truth had been mapping the future. For fifteen thousand years.

I said, ‘Things weren’t weird enough already.’

My future self murmured, ‘You get used to it.’

Varcin’s expression softened a little. ‘Think of it as an opportunity. Every Expansion citizen should see the home world before she dies.’

‘Come with me,’ I said impulsively to Tarco. ‘Come with me to Earth.’

‘All right.’

Dakk put her hands on our shoulders. ‘Lethe, but this is a magnificent enterprise.’

I hated her; I loved her; I wanted her out of my life.

III

It was all very well for Varcin to order us to Earth. The Navy wasn’t about to release one of its own to the Commission for Historical Truth without a fight, and there was lengthy wrangling over the propriety and even the legality of transferring the court of inquiry to Earth. In the end a team of Navy lawyers was assigned to the case.

We were a strange crew, I guess: two star-crossed lovers, court members, Navy lawyers, serving officers, Commissaries and all. Not to mention another version of me. The atmosphere was tense all the way from Base 592.

But at journey’s end all our differences and politics and emotional tangles were put aside, as we crowded to the hull to sightsee our destination.

Earth!