Scotty's comments about Ford's ship closely resembled Sabrina's, and it was Sabrina who supplied the answers as Ford pointedly busied himself with the controls.
"So, what's all this about?" Scotty asked, getting down to business.
"I don't know, but I've got our orders," Sabrina replied. She picked up and opened her briefcase, pulling out the disk Ford had given her. After a moment's hesitation, she inserted it into a secondary console. Rassir's image appeared on one of the wallscreens, dignified as ever, hardly different at all from her last memory of him.
"Lady Sabrina, Captain Devon, I give you greetings on behalf of the Council of Ministers, and my personal greetings as well. I hope that your memories of us are as fond as ours of you." He tried to smile, but it didn't reach his worried eyes. "The government of Praxatillus needs your help. Queen Maratobia has vanished without trace, as have the Tirqwin and Wayship Khediva. Our own efforts to locate and retrieve them have been in vain, and therefore we are asking you to attempt the task. The two of you have unique knowledge of the perils a Wayship can encounter, combined with firsthand knowledge of the Guardian's powers and limitations as well as tactical training and experience. It is our desperate hope that you can succeed where we have failed. I have appended all relevant information, and you may consider the Prince of Bathir and his ship at your disposal until this crisis is finished." He paused, then added, "May the hand of Miah guide you on a safe and successful journey."
The message ended, and Sabrina stared at the screen for a few moments. Hearing Rassir's voice and seeing the anxiety in his eyes had brought back a rush of memory and a strange homesickness. She really had missed them all more than she realized. With a sigh, she asked Ford, "Do you have a recent picture of Mara? Maybe a family portrait?"
Ford looked at her curiously, then shrugged. He touched a control, and the wallscreen displayed a picture of Mara, hardly aged at all from how Sabrina remembered her. The Queen was seated on a plush, comfortable chair, with Tirqwin standing behind her. They were smiling contentedly, surrounded by children ranging from the plump toddler on Mara's lap to a group of adults off to one side, among whom Sabrina recognized Ford. I missed it all, she thought in amazement and chagrin, counting. "Fifteen?" she exclaimed in amazement. "There are fifteen of you?"
Ford couldn't help grinning at her tone. "A pretty poor showing by Miahn standards, I grant you, but poor Mother's so busy, and the Wayfarer clans aren't known for their prolific tendencies."
"Fifteen!" Sabrina said again.
"In fact," Ford continued, enjoying himself, "there's a noticeable decrease in the fertility of most races as they get older and more technologically advanced, so you'd expect the Wayfarers and Lthosyennes and Deltarrans to produce fewer children than the Miahns do. Why, in comparison, Prince Zav and Princess Rndara were married shortly after I was born, and they have some thirty children. I believe the Rischlovs have nearly forty. They're relatives of yours, aren't they? Miosh nar Löar zu Rischlov was my uncle Rayland's blood heir, I believe."
"Yes—forty—but—how long has it been?" Sabrina gasped.
"Well, I'm ninety-two—"
"Ninety-two!" Sabrina's jaw dropped as she looked at him. She would have guessed him to be her own age at most.
"—and you left about three months before I was born," Ford told her, his bright blue eyes sparkling with his amusement at her shock.
"Ninety-two years?" Her voice was nearly a whisper. She suddenly felt an urge to sit down but was too stunned to move. Instead she reached for the console to steady herself. Tassan, my God, I'm so sorry....
"Do you know," Ford said, "I've always rather held it against you that you didn't stay to meet me. I'm sure you would have made a much nicer sponsor than Aunt Imari. Certainly you would have—"
Sabrina tried to breathe deeply and get herself under control. "And I never came back, in your past? Not at all? Ever? Are you sure?"
The shock and grief in her voice brought his gaze up from the console to her. "Yes," he said, puzzled. "Why?"
Scotty was looking from Ford to Sabrina, his own shock fading in concern at Sabrina's pale horror. "Rina?"
"He must be dead by now," Sabrina whispered.
Scotty swallowed. "A lot of them must be dead by now," he agreed.
Ford looked taken aback, then rather ashamed of himself. "I'm sorry," he said. "It should have occurred to me. You had friends who weren't Miahn. Of course. But no, Lady Sabrina, I'm afraid there is no record of you returning at any time during my life."
"I promised him—" Sabrina broke off, putting a hand over her mouth.
Scotty laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Um," he said, clearing his throat, "did you know Sehrian Haaron and his wife Éllina? Are they, um—"
"Ambassador Haaron." Ford hesitated. "He's been dead for nearly ten years." Seeing the grief in Scotty's eyes and hearing Sabrina choke back a sob, he hurried on. "It was a huge state funeral. He was one of the most honored of our statesmen. Mother herself sang for him."
"I would have liked to see him again." Scotty cleared his throat.
"Éllina Haaron is still alive," Ford offered eagerly. "I saw her a few months ago. She came to have lunch with Mother. They were both Mother's great friends."
Scotty paused, looking at Sabrina. She had turned away from them, struggling for control of herself. "Um," Scotty said, "and did you—do you know a guy named Tassan? I can't remember his last name, but he was an artist, and he was on the Citizens Council."
"Citizen Nikolar?" Ford inquired. "Yes. Not one of Mother's favorites, I'm afraid. I think he's still alive, but retired, of course."
"Alive?" Sabrina whirled back around, her wet gaze imploring. "Are you sure?"
"I think so. I'm not personally acquainted with him, but I didn't hear anything about a state funeral, and his would have been. He was the longest serving member of the Citizens Council."
Sabrina breathed a sigh of agonized relief. At least she would get to explain to him.
"Yeah, hey," Scotty said, "Praxatillians live longer than we do, don't they? All that advanced medicine and stuff."
"The average non-Miahn lifespan, barring accidents or war, is about a hundred and twenty years," Ford said. "I think Citizen Nikolar must be above that, but not by a very great deal."
Sabrina took a deep breath. "Yes. Thank you. It's just—I must see him. To redeem a promise I made. When this is over."
"Yeah," Scotty said awkwardly. "So are we going to Praxatillus, or what?"
"I've put us on course for a planet in the Outer Rim. It's a colony of one of the Realm member worlds—after your time. I doubt you've heard of it. Part of the planet disappeared suddenly. Mother went to investigate and vanished as well. So naturally Father and Khediva went after her, and no one has seen them since."
"Well, that's gotta be a trap," Scotty grunted. "Did Rassir say he'd given us the analysis? C'mon, let's see it."
Ford moved to the secondary console and hit a control. A lush green and blue planet appeared on the screen, obviously shot from orbit. "This is a satellite record," Ford explained.
There was a momentary ripple effect, so brief Sabrina thought she might have imagined it; then the upper right quarter of the planet vanished.
"Boy, when you said gone, you meant gone!" Scotty whistled. "No fadeout at all."
"Did they have time for any distress calls? Anything out of the ordinary?" Sabrina asked Ford.
"No. No transmissions at all," Ford said. "There's no indication at all that they had any warning anything was wrong. But then, that's not where the main colony is. Mother evidently sensed something shortly afterward. But there were people in Giandrah at the time, and they didn't get anything from the Crystal until she disappeared." He paused. "Not that you'd expect them to. Without an Inheritor, Mother is really the only one who can do much with the Crystal. Without her, it's not much help."
"Tell me about it," Sabrina sighed.
"Well, you see, the Great Crystal is—"
"No, I didn't mean literally. It's an expression. It means, I can identify with that sentiment," Sabrina explained hastily, dismayed at the prospect of a lecture on the Great Crystal.
"So it's sarcastic?" Ford asked curiously.
"Yes. That's it exactly," Sabrina said.
"Humans," Ford said, rolling his eyes. Then he grinned at Sabrina. "I should have remembered: the Lady Regent was famous for her sarcasm."
"As I recall, it's not a Praxatillian trait," Sabrina said, grinning back despite herself. "The Wayfarers, on the other hand—"
Scotty gave a shout of laugher. "Khediva makes Sabrina sound like a talking teddy bear!" He turned back to the screen and frowned. "Have you got Khediva's disappearance too?"
"Yes." A few moments later, the starfield showed the golden ripple effect of emergence, and the Wayship appeared. Khediva made half an orbit, and then, with breathtaking abruptness, she disappeared.
"It's—it's too fast even for 'vanishing'," Sabrina said. "It's almost like somebody editing the tape. One frame she's there, one she's not. It's unnatural."
"You can bet it is," Scotty said. "Anybody else notice anything unusual since then?"
"No. All traffic in the system has been grounded," Ford said. "We're the only ones with clearance to enter." He frowned at the console. "It will take us approximately two hours to arrive."
"Got a food dispenser, then?" Scotty asked.
"Oh, I can do better than that. Rudolf!" Ford called.
A small silver android, about as high as Scotty's elbow, came into the room. "Yes, Master?"
"Refreshments, Rudolf." He looked at them. "What would you prefer?"
"Piyeri fruit," Sabrina said. "And maybe some strakarth?"
"Praxatillian ale!" Scotty said with enthusiasm.
Ford nodded at Rudolf, who vanished.
"Rudolf? That's an Earth name," Sabrina said.
"Yes. I named him after a character in my favorite book as a child."
"Oh? What book?"
"The Prisoner of Zenda." Ford grinned. "I spent a lot of time hiding from my tutor in the Regent's library."
"My library! You mentioned it before. It's still there?" Sabrina exclaimed.
"Oh, yes. All your things are still there. Your apartment is just the way you left it. Mother always said you'd return someday." Ford sobered. "She often knows things... but if she could foresee this crisis, why couldn't she prevent it?"
"Try not to worry too much," Sabrina said. "Tirqwin once told me that Mara will see her death coming. And Mara once told me we would meet again, too. I believe that. I believe we are both going to live long enough to see each other again."
"I hope so," Ford said.