She saw no reason to sit on the bridge for extended periods, although that was where she felt most at home. But it separated her from everyone and would have suggested she was antisocial. That wasn’t at all true. There was, however, no way the others could have understood. In fact, it made no sense to her. Except that it was her station, and even though she could have easily controlled the Eiferman from the galley or the workout area, the bridge was her assigned post. The technology had changed over the years, and she had no doubt that pilot training was different now. She suspected the instructors were no longer especially concerned about where the command officer was located.

The most numbing effect, as far as Hutch was concerned, was the utter lack of movement. When you rode the Locarno, you went nowhere. The drive put out a barely audible murmur. And you were in a vehicle that simply floated in the dark. In fact, it didn’t even float. Rather, it was fixed on a foundation. The Hazeltine system, which the Locarno had replaced, which they’d been using for the better part of a century, had at least provided a sense of going somewhere. You drifted through starless skies, but you passed through mist. And you knew you were in a ship. It had been no big deal, but now it seemed like a much better way to travel. She could have been sitting in an office building. The Locarno would never appeal to tourists. Except that it gave the flights a radically shorter duration.

After about twenty minutes she joined the others in the passenger cabin. They’d released the chairs from their magnetic clamps since there was no longer a concern about movement, and put them in a circle. They were talking mostly about the mission, discussing what they should do if they arrived at Calliope and found a fleet of interstellars filling the sky. Turn around? Try to talk to them? “Invite them in for dinner,” said Beth, with no indication she was joking.

“Lots of interstellars?” said Derek. “These people, whoever they are, whatever they are, had lights in the sky when we were still living in caves. I’d be surprised if we don’t find them with a Dyson sphere around their sun, scooping off all that energy instead of just watching it get wasted the way ours does at home.”

“You actually think,” said Wally, “that’s possible?”

“I’m not aware that it would violate any of the basic laws of physics.”

Hutch couldn’t imagine it would ever be possible to erect that kind of structure, but physics wasn’t her strong suit. She was reacting strictly from her gut. And she knew how much she could trust that.

“I was sorry we had to leave Clay behind,” said Wally. “He was pretty excited about the mission.”