Okay. So it was a joke and they got it. Cosmic wanted to know if she had anything serious to add. “There’s just not enough data right now,” she said. “But there’s certainly nothing that should alarm anyone.” She got to her front door and was about to turn back to the reporters, wave, and ask them to “wish us luck.” But she’d been around too long to make that mistake. “Hope you got what you need,” she said. “Take care.”

•  •  •

An hour later she got a surprise: Jack Crispee called.

“Hello, Jack,” she said. “I see you left the Black Cat. Where are you headed now?”

“That wasn’t voluntary, Priscilla.” He was seated on a sofa, with a couple of cushions behind him. “They terminated me.”

“Oh. I’m sorry. That’s not exactly the way it was reported.”

“The Cat was being polite.”

“I hope it wasn’t connected with my interview.”

“They didn’t want to go into details. They just said that I’d run my course.”

“You had pretty good ratings.”

“That was another world. But you’ve got this interstellar thing exactly right, Priscilla. Don’t change your mind.”

“Sorry, Jack. I should have kept my mouth shut.”

“You’re not listening to me. We did exactly what needed to be done.”

“What are you going to do now?”

“I’m doing an interview with Cosmic Monday. They sound interested.”

“Good luck, Jack. Let me know if I can be of any help.” She stopped and laughed. “Well, maybe that wouldn’t be a good idea.”

•  •  •

President Emma Proctor, beginning the final year of what she hoped would be her first term, had lost none of the charm and credibility that had carried her into the White House. She sat in her chair in the Oval Office, which was now projected into Hutch’s living room, and looked directly into her eyes. “We can’t continue,” she said, “with the WSA and even private entrepreneurs sending vehicles out to unknown territories. They like to pretend that we’ve visited the vast majority of stars in this section of the Orion Arm. That, of course, is nonsense. There are millions of stars out there, and at the moment, anyone with a ship is free to go take a look. And maybe bring back a disease, a horde of toxic aliens, or perhaps some other lethal surprises.”

She took a deep breath but kept her focus on her viewers. “Letting the Academy go under was a serious mistake. It’s true it wasn’t a government operation, but it provided a degree of control that we no longer have. There’s no serious need to worry about the several interstellar corporations. Their enterprises have always been aimed at developing revenues. And that derives from transportation of tourists or colonists. There’s no risk there. They aren’t going anywhere we haven’t been to before. The sole area of concern is exploration.