Fate of Worlds by Larry Niven

Author:Larry Niven
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2014-10-26T16:00:00+00:00

27

Sigmund picked at his dinner, the little he had managed to eat burning in his gut like molten lead. There were only so many ways to convey, “I don’t know,” and “Sorry, I can’t tell you that.” He had used them all.

“It’s not fair, Dad,” Hermes said. His face was weathered and tanned from years of farming. “I spent my childhood wondering if you would make it back home. I grew up watching Mom struggling to put on a brave face for Athena and me. Now my daughter is the one out … somewhere, the one out of contact.”

And she’s my granddaughter. I do understand, son. “I can only tell you that Julia is well, that she’s doing work you can be proud of. I’m sorry, but I can’t say more.”

“You won’t say more,” Amelia chided.

His daughter-in-law normally had a wicked sense of humor. She was a communications engineer and twice as smart as Sigmund—just ask her. Amelia didn’t very much like Sigmund and the feeling was mutual. But she loved Hermes and his son loved her, and together they had raised one heck of a fine bunch of children. Sigmund’s dislike of Amelia did not matter.

Today she was one hundred percent an aggrieved mom, and Sigmund was as close as she could get to the people who had put her child at risk. Had Amelia only known, he was one of them. Her dinner also looked stirred and untasted.

“Well?” she prodded.

“I won’t say more,” Sigmund conceded.

“Will she come home soon?” Amelia tried again. “Is she in danger, Sigmund?”

She’s in a war zone, far, far away. If he could answer truthfully, it wouldn’t help. “She’ll be fine,” Sigmund said, knowing the words were hollow.

His pocket buzzed. “Excuse me.” He retrieved his comp.

Come now. The text was from Norquist-Ng.

“Is that about Julia?” Amelia asked.

Certain that it was, Sigmund said, “I don’t know,” once more. “I have to go, though. Thanks for dinner.”

From a stepping disc just outside Hermes and Amelia’s front door, he flicked to the Ministry.

* * *

“IT’S MY FAULT,” Julia said. She looked drained, beaten. “I take full responsibility.”

Norquist-Ng paused the playback. “What do you think?”

Sigmund looked around the private office, glad to be rid of the usual hangers-on. I think that Alice took matters into her own hands, Minister, because you took matters into yours. And that had I gone aboard Endurance, Alice would be here, alive.

On whose hands was the blood thickest?

“I’d like to speak with Julia,” Sigmund said.

“The news won’t get any better, but all right.” Changing tone, Norquist-Ng directed, “Jeeves, hail Koala and ask for a secure link to our captain.”

Though it took only minutes, the wait seemed interminable. Finally, a holo opened: Julia, in a nondescript, closet-sized cabin, looking even more dejected than in her message. Something about her surroundings—proportions? furnishings? the wall color?—shouted that this wasn’t any New Terran vessel.

“We have your report,” Norquist-Ng said abruptly. “We have questions.”

“Yes, Minister.” She swallowed. “Grandpa. It isn’t good.”

“Start at the beginning,” Sigmund suggested.

“Yes, sir. Endurance was fueled up for the trip home, but low on feedstock for the synthesizer.

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