“Certainly not!” Elaine Descroix seconded enthusiastically. “This is the greatest discovery in decades—no, centuries! The Junction’s been the biggest single factor in the Star Kingdom’s prosperity; if its capacity increases, it will be the biggest boost our economy’s had in almost a hundred T-years. And it’s an agency we created which found a new terminus to make that possible.”

“Of course,” New Kiev said in a somewhat more down-to-earth tone, as if she found Descroix’s complacent contemplation of political advantage distasteful, “we don’t know where this terminus leads. The odds are against its connecting to any settled regions.”

“The ‘odds’ were against the original Junction termini connecting to places like Beowulf or Trevor’s Star,” Descroix replied crisply.

“And even if it connects to completely unexplored space,” North Hollow pointed out, “that’s exactly what Basilisk was when we first discovered it. The opportunity for additional exploration and survey work alone would constitute a significant economic impetus.”

“I’m certainly not trying to suggest that this isn’t an enormously important discovery.” New Kiev sounded just a bit defensive, High Ridge thought. “I’m only saying that until we know more—until we’ve actually sent a ship through and brought it home again after taking a look at the other end—no one can know just how important it will be. Especially in the short term.”

“Agreed,” High Ridge said, nodding sagely. “At the same time, Marisa, I’m sure you’ll agree that news of this magnitude must be announced as promptly as possible?”

“Oh, of course. I didn’t mean to suggest that it shouldn’t. I’m only cautioning against making the news public in a way which feeds expectations we may be unable to satisfy in the long term.”

“Of course not,” High Ridge soothed. After all, there’d be no need to feed any expectations with official pronouncements. Private sector speculation would do the job just fine, and if it didn’t do it on its own, there were enough think tanks which owed his Government favors. He was confident he could prime the pump without leaving any fingerprints if he had to.

“How soon will we be able to send a ship through?” Descroix asked.

“We’re not positive,” High Ridge admitted. “The reports from Admiral Reynaud and Dr. Kare are filled with a lot of qualifications. It’s obvious to me that there’s an element of covering their backsides to it, but I suppose that’s to be expected, and it would be unwise to try to override them. They’ve both stressed that no one could have predicted—or, at least, that no one did predict—a fundamental discovery of such magnitude. According to their reports, they more or less stumbled onto the critical observational data, and they both insist that it’s going to take some time to refine their current rough figures. Apparently, they have the approach vector for this end of the new terminus fairly well defined, but they say they’re going to have to send quite a few probes in to test their data to be sure there are no glitches in their numbers. And they also want to study telemetry from the probes on the transit itself. According to Reynaud, without that, and especially without the transit readings, they can’t project a survey ship’s required helm data with sufficient accuracy to assure a safe transit. Until they can do that, they’re both on record as opposing the dispatch of any manned vessel.”