“Some billionaires sent out messages two centuries back. Risky—just look at the ferocious, ancient alien messages we’ve deciphered aplenty!—but yes, we got Fraq. Apparently his star is a few hundred light-years away.” Give away nothing you discovered…

“Perhaps,” Chen said quietly.

Rachel raised an eyebrow.

“Fraq’s society may have a sentinel radio telescope near a wormhole—maybe even our wormhole, wherever it is out there. Then they would get relayed messages, much faster than light speed. So he could come from anywhere.”

Rachel nodded. That possibility had gotten around the Library quite quickly. But not what Rachel had found, no. “From anywhere, right,” she said. “And a humanoid, though we know from some of the most ancient messages that many aliens are not. Um. So—Ythri turn out to be humanoid riskers. Did you know Fraq wants to do an ocean descent by himself, all the way to the bottom?”

Chen carefully crossed her legs. “Yes. The Prefect said we had no idea how to do that, technically, without… risk.”

Rachel laughed. “They’ll find something!”

Chen seemed startled. “How?”

“No idea. But with resources, in time, they might. There’s momentum behind giving Fraq and his flock what he wants, hoping he’ll reveal more.” Chen’s eyes took on a veiled look. Ambition lurked in her manner. Rachel leaned forward. “Look—this is big. Big! Some think he’s putting us through tests, see what we’re really like. Maybe he wants to see us prove we’re earnest in some alien way. And the deep thinkers link up with the politicos. They have the resources, and they like the media buzz we get from these stunts. Believe me, I know—after the Plunge, I had to seal myself off, to avoid being interviewed to death. The Prefect isn’t going to miss a chance to get on the front minute of every ’cast in the world.”

Chen gave a sly smile. “So… will you come with me?”

“On the flight?”

“Fraq says he wants you as a companion. It won’t happen without you.”

“Ah.”

Chen sat straight, beaming, eyes agleam. “But I’ll do the flight.”

Now Rachel watched them get into their harnesses, Chen snugged into one, Fraq standing in the tight harness they wrapped him solidly in. His feathers flickered their excited colors, red and blue, as they started the trials.

“They make it look easy,” Rachel said.

The engineer beside her snorted. “Now it does, yeah. Took us two months, workin’ three shifts, to get ’em together.”

“I’m sure this is all quite safe.”

“Ma’am, I tried ’em, we all did. I tell you, with the startling power of those twin rotors and the engine behind my shoulder blades screaming like a million leaf blowers, it’s great. Felt almost like I was doin’ the lifting myself, with muscles I didn’t know I had.”

Rachel shivered, and not from the cold. This was May, the vast mountains were warming, but the chill in her was from fear. She had felt that just before diving off the platform for the Plunge, but this was different. Then, she had gazed in awe at the curve of a beautiful Earth. Here, the sharp air seemed tinged with dark dread. “How does it… steer?”