Ken looked to Derek for support. But Derek didn’t have sufficient command of the language to respond. So, the historian continued: “We understand this comes as a major shock. And a painful one. Beyond words. We’d like to help. And we will try to. To start, we need to know the world population.”

Arin’s gaze had shifted from Ken to the floor while Kwylla, seeing him at a loss, responded. “Captain,” said Tasha, translating, “the number is at about three million.”

Hutch did the math. TransGalactic had three interstellars, each with accommodations for about fifteen hundred passengers. Other than the three ships, there wasn’t much available. If they could build a fleet of, say, twenty interstellars like those, each would have to carry a total of 150,000. That would mean a hundred flights between Volaria and Utopia. It wouldn’t be easy, but given half a century or more, it could be done. And of course, they’d need ships to help bring in the Tarkans. What were the chances of persuading Emma Proctor and the other world leaders to turn around and invest in a large fleet after all the posturing of the last few years about keeping our heads down? She caught Derek’s eye. “What about the derelict transport? You think there’s any way we could incorporate that into the general effort?”

He frowned, shook his head, thought about it some more, and finally nodded. “No reason we can’t try.”

“Arin,” said Ken, “there’s a possibility we could take you somewhere else. Take everybody. But we would need your help.”

“What do you mean, ‘somewhere else’? Where else could there be?”

“We might be able to take you to another world. But as I said, we would need your assistance.”

“Why did you wait so long to tell us?”

Ken froze for a moment. “It was not a message we wanted to deliver. Arin, if we are to help, you need to trust us.”

“What do you want us to do?”

“First, we can take you out to look at the dead star, if you wish. So you can see what’s coming. It would probably be a good idea if you and a few leaders went to look at it. Then we would try to construct enough ships to take you to a new world where you and your people would be safe.”

“What kind of world, Ken?”

“We’ve found a world like yours. It’s not predominantly oceans, like this one. But otherwise it’s similar. It has the same kind of atmosphere. The climate appears to be similar to this one. Gravity’s about the same. We may have gotten lucky.”

Arin looked at Kwylla, who was seated at his right hand, her large round eyes filled with pain. There was a brief exchange between them. “Sorry, Captain,” said Tasha, “I was unable to understand.”