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couldn’t think of a plausible reason to refuse the request.
He gave in, “Very well. I appreciate your position.”
    “Thank you
Doctor.” Then to Noreen, “Have you reached Ms. Jorl’sn?”
    “On her way
up Sir.”
    “Good. I’m going to the conference room.” Mirikami raised his
console arm and moved toward the lifts.
    Pressing his own seat release, Dillon followed, his thoughts
racing. The last operational instructions to his First Officer reinforced a sense
he had that the Captain was considerably more concerned than he wished an outsider
to know. There was no apparent risk for the ship, yet Mirikami’s actions seemed
to indicate otherwise. He had alerted the entire crew and arranged for two officers
to be on the Bridge, despite the fact that Jake could essentially run the ship unassisted.
    The more telling item to him however, had been the order to reduce
acceleration and shift the excess tachyons in the secondary field into the primary
Trap. The one used for making a Jump.
    One possible answer had been haunting Dillon. Had Mirikami reached
the same conclusion? He decided to confront the Captain directly, but not on the
bridge, not in the presence of a female subordinate. Mirikami was already in a socially
awkward position of direct command over a number of women. A man simply didn’t undermine
another man’s status in public, not if it could be avoided.
    When the lift doors closed, Dillon began bluntly. “Captain, you
appear to think that something more is wrong here than you choose to admit to me
back there. If there’s been a disaster at Midwife, it can’t affect us here and now,
and would seem to require us to make the utmost speed to bring assistance. Instead,
you reduced speed and saved the excess tachyon energy for an emergency Jump. You
seem to be preparing for a threat against this ship, and I want to know what you
think it is.”
    Mirikami listened patiently, concealing his surprise with a practiced
poker face. He had again underestimated the man. He would try not to let it happen
again.
    “You have an astute mind, Doctor Martin,” reverting to a more
formal mode. “But you are only partially correct. I did effectively place
the ship on alert. Noreen understood my intent, of course, and like the good officer
she is, didn’t ask me to elaborate with you present. However I have kept nothing
from you, I give you my word. My sole motive for concealment was to avoid spreading
alarm, through you, to my other passengers.”
    He made a half bow to Dillon. “Allow me to offer my apology for
the deception, and more so for having underestimated your perception.”
    Dillon was
still grim faced. “I’ll condition my acceptance on your telling me your reasons. ”
    “Agreed. In addition, I will repeat them for your Board members
in a few minutes. They can then decide if my concern should be conveyed to everyone.
Though my experience would recommend against that action, at least until we know
more.”
    “Fair enough.” Dillon’s face lost some of its hardness. “Why
did you take those precautions? We are still well out from Midwife.”
    “Several reasons, all tenuous. The total radio silence can hardly
be accidental. The lack of communications is almost certainly an indication of some
sort of problem or trouble. Then, three of five radar stations have gone dead
since we arrived. Another reason is based on several scattered news reports circulating
around this general side of the Rim, of missing or overdue ships, and of a number
of mysteriously deserted small mining outposts in remote systems.
    “An unexplained loss of twenty or thirty ships in a couple
of years is an anomaly, but not a great one. Despite our technology, over two thousand
ships are lost to accidents every year. There are a hundred and fifty million Jump
ships of all classes in space, and some are going to meet disaster no matter how
fail-safe we try to make them. What drew my attention was the fact that many of
the ships lost in