Their faces eased. Clewell saw Betha look up from the panel, covering other memories, other sorrows. “Yes, it is. Pappy”—her voice was even—“everything's secured, the sky is empty. Start charting our course; it's time to go home.” Wadie moved back to her side; Clewell saw his hand lift, hesitate, and drift away, still uncertain. He had been beside her for days: helping, learning … watching Betha Torgussen with an intentness that had nothing to do with starship technology. The man who would be a hero someday when their ship returned, MacWong had said; but who for now was still a traitor … and the only trade consultant who would satisfy both the Demarchy and the Rings. A good man, Clewell thought; the right man. Like another good man who had loved his wife and been his friend.
Clewell felt Betha's eyes touch him once more, as blue as field flowers, still shadowed by memory and pain. Time heals all things … and they would have the time they needed now. She changed the image on the screen. It showed him numberless stars; and one among the millions—shrunken, red, and constant—that would guide them home.
Laughter floated out of the room and down the stairwell as Bird Alyn and Shadow Jack, unknowing and unconcerned, put the past behind them forever.
Rusty settled onto his shoulders, purring in soft harmony with the memory of song:
Sharing brings us help for pain,
For nothing's easy, oh my child.
He saw the faces of his other children, who he hoped would live to see the better world that had cost so much and been so long in coming. “Rusty,” he said quietly, “it's about time.”
About the Author
Joan D. Vinge has had stories published in Analog, Orbit, Isaac Asimov's SF Magazine, and various anthologies, including The Crystal Ship (title novella) and Millennial Women. Two of her novellas have been published as a book entitled Fireship.
Joan has a degree in anthropology, which she feels is very similar to science fiction in many ways because both fields give you an opportunity to view human relationships from a fresh and revealing perspective. She's worked, among other things, as a salvage archeologist, enjoys horseback riding and needlecrafts, and is married to Vernor Vinge, who also writes science fiction.
Also by Joan D. Vinge
SNOW QUEEN
CATSPAW
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