“You’re saying we can’t make any adjustment in our position that would put us in line with all the markers?”

“That is correct, sir.” Hutch couldn’t recall having heard Barry sound freaked out before, but there was no mistaking his tone.

“The markers are obviously screwed up,” said Derek. “Start running Calliope’s spectrogram against them, Barry. One of those stars out there has to be the one we’re looking for.”

Beth shook her head. “Why don’t we contact Union? Check with them?”

“We’re too far out,” said Derek. “Even the hypercomm can’t help at this range.”

Beth looked frustrated. Everybody did. How could a star just disappear?

“Okay, look,” said Derek, “we know some part of our data is wrong. But if Calliope’s spectrogram is correct, we can still find it. Let’s run the spectrogram ID against every star we can see. I’m willing to bet the damned thing’s out there. We just need a little patience.” He was staring out at the sky, biting his lower lip, his eyes empty. “I wonder if somebody connected with the Save the Earth Foundation didn’t deliberately arrange this?”

“Hutch,” said Barry, “one of the other marker stars is astray.”

“You mean not where it should be?”

“That is correct. I’ve now checked all of them and two are out of position. I’ve run Calliope’s spectrum against both. Neither is a match.”

They sat for several minutes, no one saying much. Eventually, Barry came back. “I’ve checked each of the markers. None of them fits Calliope’s spectrogram. I am now proceeding to check every other visible star. Be advised it will take a while.”

Ken appeared in the doorway. “How could something like this happen?”

“Captain,” Barry said, “do you wish I check only those visible in the sense of what can be seen by the naked eye, or should I employ the telescope? If we do that, the number to be examined will increase astronomically.” He delivered the line without any suggestion of humor.

“It has to be out there somewhere.”

“Of course it does,” said Derek. “But we don’t have the supplies to maintain a mission of indefinite length.”

•  •  •

That evening, they brought their dinners onto the front porch and sat looking out at a branch of the Rocky Mountains. But Derek barely touched his food. “I don’t understand how we could have screwed up the data for the markers. The people who put it together have been with us a long time, and they had the assignment completed well before we left. They weren’t under the kind of pressure the maintenance people were. And I just don’t believe any of them would have done something like this deliberately. Mandy Evans runs the unit, and I’d trust her with my life.”