They spent five days on Utopia, taking ground, air, and water samples. It was Beth’s idea because it would allow analysts to draw some conclusions about how safe the world actually was. The Volarians examined trees, pulled out shrubbery, looked down into valleys, and watched whatever animals they could get close to, although they didn’t kill anything. Hutch knew there was no way they were going to be happy about leaving the home world. But she got the impression they felt they could live with this one. To that extent, at least, they were taking good news home.

Droo had been reserved and uncomfortable throughout the mission. When Hutch asked if he was okay, he tried to reassure her. “Oh, yes. This is a stressful time. But I shudder to think what our situation would be without you and your friends.”

“I understand. You guys have held up pretty well. But despite everything, I think we can save the situation.”

“Please do not be offended. I hope desperately that your calculations about the star are inaccurate. But I am terrified. I understand I have no reason to doubt you. I wish I did.”

“Droo, what do you expect will happen when you get home?”

“We’ll speak with the governor. I can’t be certain as to her reaction. We have pictures to show her. But we honestly can’t confirm that we are in the path of the thing. We can’t even be certain it’s moving.” He looked frustrated. “The real problem here is that people are going to resist all this. Close up their homes and move to another world? They may simply refuse to accept what we say.” He delivered a modest smile. Almost impossible, she would have thought, from someone who so closely resembled a dolphin. “We’ll have to see how it goes.”

•  •  •

“I have to admit,” Derek told her, “that I’ve thought about where we’d be if we succeed in persuading the WSA to build twenty interstellars and bring them out here, and discover these guys just aren’t buying it.” He closed his eyes. “You don’t think there’s a chance that could actually happen, do you?”

“There’s just not much we can do about that. We can take more of them out to look at it, but there’s no way to demonstrate that it’s bearing down on them.”

Later, Arin came onto the bridge. “Just so you know,” he said, “Korsek tells me he’d be surprised if the story hasn’t gotten out already. The governor’s office is not good at guarding confidential information. And something like this? He says it would be almost impossible for them to keep it quiet.”

“How are your people going to respond?”