A moment later they were standing on the planet. Sabrina blinked, her first impression being that something was wrong with her eyes; the foliage all had a blue-green tint that was hard to accept after being back on Earth for so long.
"Your highness!" called a voice in Praxatillian, and they spun around to find a tall, red-haired woman in a Praxatillian uniform hurrying toward them. She stopped, eyeing Ford's Earth suit curiously, then said, "Major Ilyanan, sir. I was sent to discover what happened to the Queen."
"And have you?" Ford asked.
"No, sir," the Major reported unhappily.
Ford sighed. "I don't think it's going to be easy, Major. But I've brought you some help. These are my cousins, Lady Sabrina ya Tassan nar Hamilton-Devon and Captain Scott ya Tassan nar Hamilton-Devon."
"Captain Devon!" Ilyanan exclaimed, looking at Scotty in astonishment. "Not the Captain Devon?"
Scotty and Sabrina exchanged wryly amused glances. "Yes, ma'am," Scotty responded, saluting.
"Welcome back, Captain!" Ilyanan said. "Do you have any idea what's happening here?"
"Well, it's something to do with being out of phase," Scotty began.
Sabrina stepped aside, looking around as the two officers conferred. Ford came over to her.
"That was an enthusiastic greeting," he remarked softly.
Sabrina grinned a little. "Obviously whatever she's heard about him hasn't come from the Commander, or she'd be terrified of commanding him." She paused, her attention drawn back to the scenery. "It looks peaceful enough."
Ford was gazing down at the palm-sized scanner in his hand. "Nothing out of the ordinary," he agreed. "We should get to the part of the planet that actually vanished and take some readings."
Scotty had evidently finished his explanation, for Ilyanan said, "Your highness, my lady, if you'll come with me, the Governor would like to welcome you."
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The Governor's reception was brief and, Sabrina felt, rather bizarre. There was a ceremonial offering of some sort of nectar in ornately carved bowls, followed by introductions. But when Sabrina began to ask questions, the Governor hastily excused himself, leaving them alone in the reception hall.
"Don't worry," Ilyanan said. "They're not good at long conversations. Either he'll be back, or he'll send someone. Ah, here's my lieutenant. Did you find anything?"
The lieutenant, a young man with light brown hair and dark eyes, shook his head. "No, ma'am. I overflew the entire area. I thought I saw a lifesign, but I couldn't locate it in the underbrush. It must have been an animal of some kind."
The Major pursed her lips, nodding. "Your highness, Lady Sabrina, Captain Devon, this is Lieutenant Lndor."
"Gantol nar Lndor, isn't it?" Ford said.
"Yes, your highness. I'm surprised you remember me," Lndor said.
Ford said, for Sabrina and Scotty's benefit, "Gantol was at the Academy at Bathir at the same time I was. For a brief time, he was my lab partner."
"A brief but memorable time," Lndor agreed.
"Now I feel like I'm back on Praxatillus," Sabrina said. "Everybody knows each other except for me. Can we go investigate the area that shifted out of phase?"
"I'd like to report back to Control first," Ilyanan said. "I'll catch up with you. Lieutenant, escort the prince, her ladyship, and the captain to the investigation area."
"Yes, ma'am."
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They squeezed into a flyer built for Rrzzhn, since the ship Lndor and Ilyanan had flown was more suited for space flight than atmospheric maneuvering and landing. Scotty claimed the co-pilot's seat as a right, and he and Lndor spent the flight engrossed in piloting talk, leaving Sabrina and Ford to share the tiny passenger compartment mostly in silence. The air supply in the flyer was a little warmer than was comfortable for either of them, and soon Ford was removing his tie with a sigh of relief.
"No civilization can achieve anything truly great while half-strangled," he announced. "Dressing like one of you explains a great deal I never understood about your society."
Sabrina, determined to remain pleasant, replied, "Well, more women are coming into positions of power, and we don't wear ties as a rule."
"No," Ford said, "you only wedge your feet into those ridiculous stilt-like shoes and totter precariously around."
"Not all of us," she sighed. "Anyway, I meant to compliment you on your taste. Did you study late twentieth-century fashion before coming?"
"Rudolf did the research for me, but I chose the final outfit," he replied. "And I already knew a fair bit about late twentieth-century Earth. It's been rather a hobby of mine."
"Yes, all that sneaking around in my library," she recalled. "Except that most of that was nineteenth-century literature."
"I found," Ford said, in a serious tone but with twinkling eyes, "that Douglas Adams' novels quite adequately prepared me for your culture."
"Mm," Sabrina said, weighing the comment. "Thus your sudden adoption of an Earth alias?"
"It wasn't sudden. I adopted it when I first started to explore off-planet. It isn't always convenient to be identified when you're who I am."
"Yes, poor thing, all that toadying and kow-towing," Sabrina said wryly.
"It's the hostage-taking and political agendas I really object to," he replied. "It can get to be rather a bore."
"Yes, I can see how that might be," Sabrina said.
Ford looked askance at her, then smiled. "Yes, you may be one of the few people in the universe who has also experienced the more extreme inconveniences of being part of my family. Did you ever wish to disown us, Cousin?"
"On the whole, no. I'll never be sure how much good it did to claim kinship with Tirqwin when I was with the Homeworld delegation, but it made me feel a little better. Though when there were Reissians roaming through Dansestari at will, sticking knives in me every other time I turned around, I did occasionally masquerade as a lieutenant. But it wasn't my idea, and I never thought of it as disowning my adopted family."
"How many times did they try to assassinate you?" Ford asked curiously. "That's another thing that got left out of the histories, for the most part."
"I didn't count," Sabrina said. "They were also after me when they killed my father Rayland, of course. There were a couple of attempts that never got near me. And then there was the dinner party." She smiled a little. "I tried to hide how bad it was, and scared them all half to death, I'm afraid. Scotty came tearing back from Deltarr, convinced I was dying. Rassir and Mukryilla thought I was nuts. And Tassan was furious." Her smile faded as she thought of her lover. She had always assumed she would go back to him, but now he was nearly a century older than she was, at the end of his life. She closed her eyes for a moment and tried to steel herself against the ache in her heart. "I have so much to make up to him," she said, very quietly.
"I didn't realize you two were so close."
"He served as my second bodyguard after Captain Mireth was killed in the Battle for Dansestari," Sabrina said. "Even Darice couldn't do it all herself. Do you...did you know her?"
"I don't think I know anyone by that name. I'm sorry," Ford said, sounding as though he meant it.
The flyer did a sudden dip, then swung around in a wide curve. Sabrina grabbed for a handhold and looked into the cockpit. As she suspected, Scotty had taken the controls. Ford followed her gaze and grinned. "Well, the Reissians didn't get you, and Homeworld didn't get you, but I'm not placing any bets your brother won't manage it."
"He's supposed to be a good pilot," Sabrina said, loudly enough for Scotty to hear the skepticism in her tone.
"Wrong!" he flung over his shoulder with a lopsided grin. "I'm a great pilot!"
"Prove it and land this thing, if we're there already," Sabrina challenged.
"They say landing's the hard part," Ford remarked nonchalantly.
"Oh, don't worry," Scotty said. "I haven't crashed anything for days now." He threw another mischievous grin over his shoulder and turned back to the controls.
True to his word, he set the flyer down gently in the small clearing Lndor pointed out. They climbed out, looking around the ancient forest that nearly blocked out the sun. Ford immediately became engrossed in his scanner.
Scotty looked around and chose a direction at random. "Lieutenant, let's have a look around. Rina, Ford, you stay with the flyer and yell if you see anything."
"Sure, I'll just pick a few wildflowers, shall I, and make myself useful?" Sabrina called after them. They didn't acknowledge her comment, vanishing into the forest, and Ford continued his distracted pacing, eyes focused on his scanner. Sabrina folded her arms and leaned against the flyer, looking around. The scenery would have been awe-inspiring if she weren't preoccupied with her irritation.
Suddenly Ford stopped cold, staring at his scanner in disbelief. Then he took off running in the opposite direction from the one Scotty and Lndor had taken.
"Ford!" Sabrina exclaimed, startled. He gave no sign of hearing her, so she shouted, "Scotty, we've got something!" and took off after him.
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Ford was a much faster runner than she was, and she soon lost sight of him. He was remarkably quiet, too; she couldn't hear his progress over the noise of her own. Pausing for breath, Sabrina cursed herself for getting so out of shape behind a desk the past few years. She wondered if yelling for one or another of her companions would be dangerous. Then she heard a shrill, bird-like noise and sprinted in its direction. Pushing through a tangle of dead branches, she plowed into Ford, who barely managed to keep them both on their feet.
"Quiet!" he hissed. "It would make less noise to move the entire forest!"
"Don't take off like that!" she hissed back. "You don't know what's out here!"
He held the scanner out to her. "I know more than you!"
"A lifesign?"
"Humanoid, by the look of it. The residual disruption from the shift is making it hard to pinpoint anything." Ford frowned at the scanner, which had gone blank again.
"Then how you do know it's not a great big prince-eating bear or something?" Sabrina demanded. "Come on. Back to the flyer."
The scanner bleeped before they could move. "There it is again!" Ford exclaimed. "Coming toward us, moving fast. Get back!" He pulled her away from the tanglewood as they heard running steps crashing through the underbrush, and Sabrina grabbed the stunner hanging at her belt.
A moment later they were startled, then relieved, to recognize Scotty and Lndor. "What are you two doin'?" Scotty demanded angrily. "I told you to stay put!"
"I'd like to know what authority you think you have over me," Ford snapped. "Or your sister, for that matter."
"Somebody's got to be in charge here, and since this is a military expedition, I—"
"Since when?" Sabrina interrupted. "Nobody said anything about the military. Rassir asked us both to come!"
"Rina, be reasonable. You're not qualified to command a mission like this—"
"What? I commanded our mission to rescue Tirqwin!"
"That was different!"
"How?"
"Ssh!" Ford hissed. "That lifesign. It's back."
Everybody crowded around to look at Ford's scanner. "Okay," Scotty whispered, "Lndor and I will circle around. Rina, Ford, you two stay put this time, dammit!"
"Yes, sir, Captain, sir," Sabrina replied.
Ford only huffed impatiently, still focused on the scanner as Scotty and Lndor moved off in opposite directions. When they were gone, he said, "There's something very odd."
"What?"
"I'm not sure. The scanner's not able to register accurately, but—I get the feeling I ought to know what it is out there."
Sabrina grabbed his arm in sudden excitement. "Could it be Mara?"
"No." He shook his head. "I couldn't mistake Mother's presence. No matter how much interference there was."
"Tirqwin, then?"
Ford frowned. "No...I don't think so. Besides, Khediva would have been able to spot him if he were here."
"Even though there's all this interference and she's not up to full power?"
"Yes. Their link doesn't require power, you know."
"Yes, I do know, as a matter of fact. I was just hoping," Sabrina sighed.
In the silence that followed, they heard a brief, cut-off cry. Sabrina stiffened in alarm. "That's Scotty!"
They listened intently for further sounds but heard none. The forest had gone very quiet.
Sabrina started forward, but Ford grabbed her arm to stop her. "What are you doing?"
"That's my brother out there," she hissed, her eyes flashing.
"Then we'll both go."
"No. At least I'm in armor and have a stunner. You stay here."
"Sorry, Miss Devon, but you can't even pretend to outrank me," Ford told her. "We'll both go."