Asimov's Science Fiction Read Online Free PDF Page B

patrolling the area as if they expected the
Ivoire
to return.
    Most ships with strong sensors left a fighting region shortly after a Fleet ship disappeared. The sensors would show that the Fleet ship had left somehow and was not cloaked. Even ships that had poor sensors would get the message after eleven hours.
    Either these small ships knew how the Fleet used their
anacapa
drives or the commanders of those ships were extremely stubborn, holding that small region of space as proof that they had conquered it.
    Cho ordered the entire front line to remain just outside of standard sensor range—close enough to join any fight should the
Ivoire
return suddenly, but far enough away for a battle to be a struggle for any ships with planetside bases.
    Finally, after eighteen hours, the small ships gathered into a V-shaped pattern and headed back toward Ukhanda. The entire front line tracked them, but did not see the ships go back to a base on the planet. Instead, they went past Ukhanda toward a small satellite that looked like it was part of an uninhabited sister planet.
    Cho should have sent a ship to investigate, but he didn't. He believed their mission was to rescue the
Ivoire,
not to pursue the
Ivoire's
attackers.
    Sabin couldn't argue with him. She might have made the same call herself, had she had command of the front line. It seemed as if Cho was as leery of getting involved in any diplomatic incident as she had been.
    Finally, thirty minutes from the twenty-hour mark, he ordered the front line to prepare to defend the
Ivoire.
The front line would move slowly forward, not enough to attract attention from Ukhanda, but enough to get them in better range of the
Ivoire.
    They had covered half the distance to the
Ivoire's
last location when twenty hours came.
    And went.
    No one panicked. The
anacapa
drive could be finicky, and all the captains had miscommunicated or misestimated their time in foldspace at one point or another.
    Twenty-one hours passed.
    Then twenty-two.
    And finally, the front line got nervous.
    Cho gave the standard search orders. A standard three-dimensional search pattern should have used twenty-four ships, but the front line didn't have that many. Besides, a few had to remain in position, in case the
Ivoire
returned later.
    Cho assigned sixteen ships to the grid search, and left three ships in a waiting position. The fourth ship would go to an area not too far from the
Ivoire's
return site—close enough to be a bit dangerous, but far enough to prevent most collisions from happening.
    That ship would be the most vulnerable: if the
Ivoire
returned to slightly different coordinates and the other ship's failsafes did not work, the ships might collide. But it was a standard risk at this point in delayed
anacapa
response.
    Cho contacted Sabin before making the assignment. He used a private channel so that the other ships couldn't hear their conversation, even though the bridge crew could.
    He turned up on her screen, tall and stately in his uniform. He had zoomed out the image so that she could see his entire bridge crew, who looked as busy and focused as hers.
    "I want to assign you to the on-site investigation spot," he said. "You have the most experience. However, General Zeller told me that you might not want the task. I don't believe in taking one person's word for another's possible reaction, especially when the other person is available. You're the best person for the job, Tory. Do you want it?"
    "Of course I do," she said, keeping her voice calm. The momentary flash of annoyance at Zeller's name and remark had already faded. Zeller was a problem for another day. "Do you want me to do a grid search or an area search?"
    "See if you can find traces of the
Ivoire,"
Cho said. "Barring that, see if you can figure out exactly what they did."
    Something in his phrasing seemed strange to her.
    "Don't you think they used their
anacapa
drive?" she asked.
    "I do, but I've never seen one take so long to engage, and I've