Beth made it clear she thought of the mission as a vacation. “Now that we’ve replaced the passenger cabin with a virtual tour, it would be ridiculous to waste the opportunity.” At home she had a private practice, worked on call for the WSA, and also had a hospital connection. “It’s at least sixty hours a week,” she said. “I hope none of you guys get sick while we’re out here, at least nothing we can’t fix with a few pills.” She especially enjoyed looking out across rivers, lakes, and oceans, and when it was her turn to choose, Hutch knew they were going to someplace wet.

Derek preferred forest scenes filled with deer, squirrels, moose, and ravens. Ken enjoyed historical sites, battlefields, museums, locations where famous events had occurred, especially anything connected with World War II and the American Revolution.

Hutch was all over the map. She enjoyed tourist sites, mountaintops, and places where she could watch skiers gliding past. To provide some variation, Wally arranged to convert the front porch into a virtual vehicle that moved along country roads in New Hampshire. It didn’t quite work, though, because he couldn’t insert the wind and the bounces of an actual ride.

But they all missed the news reports. They were cut off from the world. They wondered how the country was reacting to the WSA’s failure to stop the mission. There was no question in Hutch’s mind that MacAllister was raising hell. He was not a guy you wanted on the other side of an argument.

Derek insisted he wasn’t losing any sleep over the matter. “By the time we get back,” he told her, “it will have cooled off. Nothing lasts more than five days in the headlines unless more issues show up. That’s obviously not happening with us.”

“What we did,” said Hutch, “is going to be perceived as pretty heavy-handed, Derek. Will you be able to salvage your career?”

“The WSA’s not my career, Priscilla. I’m an astronomer. I’ve had a good run, and if they terminate me, I’ll have no problem landing somewhere else. And I think you’ll be okay too. You’re the face of the program these days. And even if they did decide they weren’t going to use you anymore, any of the interstellar corporations would love to have you. Or you might talk to Ken about writing an autobiography. You’re bulletproof, kid.”

Hutch wasn’t so sure.