He stubbed out his cigarette and watched her; on the TV screen, ignored, Captain Kirk was facing another crisis. “You’re a crazy woman, Natalie York.”

“Maybe so. What do you say?”

“Why now? I mean, it’s not going to make a damn piece of difference to the way we live our lives, the extent to which we see each other. You’re not going to give up your career.”

“Of course not, and neither are you.” She pulled at his fingers. “But that’s not the point.”

Then what is, Natalie? What primeval instinct has dragged this up, after all this time? And right at this moment, when you’re thinking of getting on a road that could take you off the Earth altogether…

She surely hadn’t come to terms with what had happened last night, yet.

Maybe this — tonight, with Mike — was all just some kind of way of dealing with Ben, she thought bleakly.

But if that was true, where did it leave her and Mike?…

Christ. What a mess.

The phone rang, its sharp tone startling her.

“Jesus.” He reached out and took the receiver. “Hello?… All right, I’ll be there.” He put the phone down.

“Mike—”

He was already halfway out of bed; he scrabbled over the floor, looking for his pants. “The burn was another failure. Sustained for less than half a second. Shit.” He touched her hair. “I’ve got to be there, Natalie. You go back to sleep.”

“I haven’t been asleep.” She kicked away the sheets and stood up; the air in the room was distinctly cold. “I’ll come, too.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I’d prefer it. Anyway, we have a conversation to finish.”

Mike had already pulled on his shirt; he was muttering to himself, as his mind started to whirl around the problems of the engine.

He’s probably already forgotten what we were talking about.

They set off for me test facility a little after 3 A.M. It was going to take half an hour to drive out to Santa Susana from downtown L.A.

Mike drove out of the San Fernando Valley, and York could see streetlights glowing down there, neat rectangular blocks of light plastered over the valley floor and walls.

Mike drove anxiously, too quickly, without speaking to her.

The test facility was nestled in a rough, boulder-strewn depression in the Santa Susana Mountains. When Mike stopped the car, she was struck by the chill of the air.

She walked with Mike to the center of the facility.

The stars were out overhead, though the young Moon had long set.