Ford was engrossed in the wallscreen display, extended out in a three-dimensional hologram this time, showing a mess of colored lines and equations. Sabrina recognized some of the notations from her long-ago, mostly unsuccessful study of temporal mechanics, and after she contemplated the decidedly non-Euclidean geometry, she guessed Ford was looking at a survey of the Pharon system. "It would help if you looked at it right-side-up," she remarked.
He shot her a startled glance before getting the joke. "Cute. Are you implying you understand what it is, then?"
"Some kind of temporal survey of the Pharon system. Possibly a mapping of the boundaries of crystal influence? Did Homeworld forward that to you?"
"Yes." He was trying not to be impressed, she could tell. "Why? Do you still think they mean for me to be exposed?"
"I know better than to assume I know what Homeworld is thinking," she replied. "Anyway, their intentions don't have all that much bearing on what we do. We have to proceed with caution in any case. I was just wondering how they ever got close enough to make a map. Sacrificial robot probes? It can't have been a Wayship."
"The notations were all made by one person. Someone named...mm..." Ford scrolled down a few screens. "Tirqwin Nllata A'Patel."
"Nllata! Of course." Sabrina had to smile. "So she did make Tirqwin! I'm glad. She was wonderful. She's the one who went with Scotty and me to rescue your father."
"They sent a Tirqwin with you? But how—"
"No. She was Deltarran, but a throwback to some of the Pharon characteristics. She built and manipulated a Pharon crystal matrix so we could find Malvarak. After she was clear of the contamination she was going to try for the Wayfarer Candidacy Program. I guess in the meantime she must have worked on mapping out Pharo's sphere of influence." Sabrina thought for a moment. "Did anyone ever make a map like that for the Great Crystal?"
"Not that I know of. I'd think that would be pretty dangerous information for anyone but us to have," Ford said. "We know roughly how far it extends, of course. But I don't think the two cases are exactly parallel. The Great Crystal was made to be used under the direction of one person and to be an expression of the will and intent of that person and the rest of the Miahn race. Pharo is just the remnants of a dead civilization, slowly decaying, without intent or direction."
"But possessed of millennia of evil intent and action," Sabrina said. "Don't underestimate it. Once you're in its influence, you can be directed just as surely as Mara directs the Great Crystal. The old patterns are still there, and they're...they're seductive. They get into your mind without your even knowing it. Do you know, Scotty and I thought we'd escaped untouched until we landed on Allyria. Then it all started to come out. I don't remember our first month there. They kept us sedated and restrained. Then enough of our true identities revived that we recognized the nightmares and hallucinations for what they were. That was worse, for us." She hugged herself. "I don't...I don't want you to delude yourself that you'll be able to resist it, if you're exposed. The Great Crystal doesn't operate in that space. And all Tirqwin's training didn't help him."
"You don't have to drive home the danger to me, Sabrina. I got it, already," Ford said, in an imitation of Scotty protesting a study session. Then he sobered. "I am wondering, though, if your previous exposure doesn't make you more susceptible than you think."
"I don't see how. They checked me for cellular changes when I got back to Praxatillus. And Homeworld examined me at the micro-cellular level on our way to help Scotty. Everybody told me I matched the scans they'd taken years ago, allowing for aging. Nobody said anything about increased crystal sensitivity. And they knew to look for it."
"Mm," Ford said, in a tone that Sabrina interpreted as meaning he wasn't convinced but didn't think it worth further argument at the moment.
"We have to come out of the Way well outside that outer boundary," she remarked. "How are you going to keep your matrix from being contaminated while we try to get further in?"
He grimaced. "I'm going to jettison it. I just don't see what other choice I have. We can operate with just the real space engines."
"Unless Malvarak decides to go on a temporal joyride."
"I can't use that matrix within Pharon space," Ford pointed out. "I suppose...."
"Don't you dare," Sabrina said. "You can't manipulate Pharon crystal, Ford."
"No," he sighed. "I don't know what we'll do, then, Sabrina. Hope to take him by surprise, I guess. No wonder Homeworld hasn't been able to catch him, all this time."
"They thought he was dead for most of it," Sabrina sighed. "When do we emerge?"
"We've got another hour or so." Ford turned to face her. "I think you ought to tell me everything, Sabrina, from the very beginning. Every detail you can think of."
"I tried to forget most of it," she grumbled. "All right. That's why I came, after all." She took a deep breath, and began.
——————————
Sabrina was composing herself over her third cup of tea in the ship's tiny dining area when she felt them emerge into normal space. She quickly drank the rest of the rapidly cooling liquid, trying to convince herself that her throat was sore from all the talking she'd done rather than any emotional cause. "We're there?" she asked as she reached the control deck.
"Yes. I'm going down to pack the matrix for jettison," he said, clearly unhappy about this part of the plan. "Keep an eye on things up here, will you? I need Rudolf with me."
Sabrina drew a breath to suggest she change places with the android, but then decided that if Ford was going to be grumpy about yanking the heart from his ship, she was better off on the control deck. "Okay." She could finagle a tour of The Adventure's inner workings later, she thought. She was curious to know how much the ship really did resemble Khediva, but they had a job to do.
Ford and Rudolf vanished down the corridor; Sabrina wondered if there was a hidden room giving access, like Tirqwin's private sanctuary aboard Khediva. And if so, she wondered if Ford would ever acknowledge it. Tirqwin certainly hadn't been forthcoming; she'd found out about his hiding place on one of those occasions when Khediva had sent her in to pick him up, dust him off, and talk him into going back out to face the universe. She'd done that a lot, back in the early days.
Well, at least Ford wasn't in any need of a pep talk. It was actually a case of role reversal, she realized; Ford was the one who usually took it upon himself to straighten her out when she indulged in self-pity or listlessness.
She smiled a little at the thought as she scanned the controls, thinking she would have to share that observation with Tirqwin. He'd appreciate the symmetry.
A crisp chime sounded, and Sabrina saw that the ship's computer was in the first stage of a proximity alert. It was nothing to worry about, usually, but she had to wonder what another ship was doing out here. Pharon space was avoided by all spacefaring races, for good reasons. So she turned the long-range sensors to those coordinates and fiddled for a moment with the calibration, trying to get an identification. It took longer than it should have; Sabrina's Praxatillian was fluent, but not particularly technical, and the translation abilities that Mara usually extended to her through the Great Crystal did not seem to be operating. This far out, they were probably beyond the reach of the Crystal; at any rate, she supposed the influence of Pharo would have cut her off as they progressed. She suddenly realized why Ford's mood had taken a turn for the worse. No Miahn liked being out of touch with the Crystal.
The ship's computer was having a hard time placing the approaching ship, but Sabrina could already see enough to tell her it was not Sribarak. Something about its general shape did look vaguely familiar, though. She shrugged; there were certain basic design constraints common to most of the spacefaring races she knew. It was nothing to be uneasy about, certainly nothing to justify the sudden clenching of her stomach. She firmly told herself to calm down and act rationally, but it had no effect on the part of her brain that was screaming in alarm.
She'd learned to trust her intuition generally, but in cases like this, where her knowledge was limited, it was all too easy to make a fool of herself. Still, she reasoned, there was no harm in reporting the situation to Ford. "Ford?" she said, activating the ship's intercom. "Proximity alert. The computer's having some trouble identifying the ship."
"This far out, it could be a race we've never encountered," came his response. "As long as it's not Sribarak, I'm not concerned with it."
"Okay. How's it going?" She felt an odd reluctance to cut the com and leave herself in silence, with no company but the approaching ship.
A grunt answered her, followed by, "Make sure the Way engines are switched off, will you, Sabrina? I think I did, but we'd better be sure."
She hunted around until she found the readout. "They're off." Another indicator caught her eye. "Ford, the defense screens just came up."
"That's the default for a level two proximity alert," he said. "Do you have an ID on that ship yet?"
"No. The computer has no definite match. It's compiling percentages for partial matches."
"I don't want to jettison this where anybody can see it," Ford complained. "I'd better come up and move us away a little." He switched off his end of the com.
Sabrina made herself look at the wallscreen display again. The ship was growing larger, though of course it was much farther away than the magnified view made it seem. She was edging closer to panic with every second, and she still didn't know why.
It occurred to her suddenly to try identifying the life forms within the ship instead of the ship itself. It might be Malvarak, after all, she thought, resetting the long-range sensors.
The distance, and a slight spatial disturbance she attributed to their proximity to Pharon space, made bioscanning difficult. Sabrina adjusted the settings almost at random, learning as she went—this was the kind of thing she'd never had to know how to do aboard Khediva. When the computer flashed a positive match at her, she stared at it in disbelief for a moment. Then she read the identification. The blood drained from her face, and she fell into her chair, eyes fixed on the wallscreen in horror.
Ford's swift steps rang on the deckplates, hesitating for a moment as he read her expression. "Sabrina? Who are they?"
She swallowed hard. "Reissians."