He managed a pained smile. “It’s an election year.”

•  •  •

The Data Collection Center was almost filled when he arrived twenty minutes early. Linda DuBreuil, the director, was standing guard by the group of seats reserved for the faculty. They were in front of the main screen. An additional eighty chairs were there to accommodate students and a few instructors not connected with the astronomy department. They were filling up as he walked in. The event had gotten coverage in the media, and he expected it to be picked up by the Science Channel.

Linda saw him and got out of her chair. “Hello, Derek. You ready to go?”

“Oh, yes.” He loved each new development in telescopes. Loved being part of the process, even when he was merely serving as a PR guy.

They sat down and she handed him a microphone and an ear pod. “You want to do the intro?”

“Sure,” he said. “If you like.”

Linda had a smile that could light up the entire room. “It’s your party, Derek.”

“Good enough.” He put the pod in his right ear so he could hear Ben, the AI, and turned the microphone on. “Ben, you there?”

“I’m here, Professor. We’re on schedule.”

Linda looked to their right, where a couple of people he didn’t know were getting seated with the science faculty. “We have some media,” she said.

•  •  •

The center filled and they had to bring in extra chairs, and finally just leave the doors open for any who wanted to stand in the rear. At five after eleven Derek got to his feet, turned to face the audience, and made some introductory comments about the Kellerman Cluster and the capabilities of the Van Entel. He was almost finished when Ben cut in. “Professor, we’ve received another alert from the Coordination Office.” The Coordination Office was located on the Union Space Station. “Control system will be transferred to us in one minute.”

“Ladies and gentlemen, we’re apparently ready to go.” Derek lowered his voice. “Okay, Ben. Activate the display.” The screen lit up, as did a couple of smaller displays around the room. Derek looked out over his audience. “We’ll be handling the operation from here. You’ll notice, incidentally, when we tell the control system what to do, there’ll be a delay before it responds. You know why that is, of course?”

Hands went up all over the room. Everybody knew the Van Entel was approximately five million kilometers away, so the radio signal would need about eighteen seconds to reach it. And consequently thirty-six seconds before there could be a response.

One of his students, Bobby Dexter, raised his hand. “Really? Only half a minute?”

“It’s pretty close right now, Bobby. Sometimes the process would take close to a half hour.”