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Tory said and stood up, arms crossed. "He's overdue by five hours. That's all, Mom. You can go back to whatever thing you're designing. I won't be mad at you.
I'm
not worried. Daddy's good at his job."
    Her mother stood, and this time, wrapped her arms around Tory. Tory thought of elbowing her mother hard and viciously so that her mother would never hug her again, then suppressed the response and squirmed out of the older woman's embrace.
    "They don't remove a child from school or contact her remaining parent because they think this is routine," her mother said—so not comfortingly.
    "I'm smart enough to know that, Mother," Tory said.
    "They think you need me."
    "They're wrong." Tory stepped closer to the observation window. "Daddy will be just fine. The
Sikkerhet
will return, and he and I will get on with our lives.
Without you."
    Her mother tilted her head just a little, a dismissive
you can't mean that
look she had used as long as Tory could remember.
    "I divorced him, not you," her mother said.
    "Funny," Tory said, "I couldn't tell."
    "I contacted your father about a visitation schedule. He never responded," her mother said.
    On purpose,
Tory almost said but didn't. He wanted to see if Tory's mother would push the visitation, wanted to see if she would make contact, if she would hire a lawyer to enforce the terms of the shared custody.
    Her mother had done none of those things. In fact, she hadn't even done what was on her schedule—a series of intership calls that were supposed to happen every Friday night. Instead, she'd send apologies, usually about work-related distractions, and finally, she stopped apologizing altogether.
    Tory's father had been surprised; he had thought Tory's mother was a different person, maybe from the beginning. Tory attributed his blindness to both love and to the fact that he hadn't spent much time with his wife once he got on a career track. It was only after he kept finding Tory on her own, in the engineering and maintenance areas of the ship, at an age when the crew would report Tory's appearance (because it was dangerous) that he finally realized his family couldn't stay on the ship when he had an actual mission.
    When he broke that news to Tory and her mother, her mother had shrugged and said they would move to the
Krásný.
Tory had burst into tears, begging to stay, and her father, for once, had listened. Not that he could have missed the campaign. Because others on the ship said that Tory shouldn't—couldn't—stay with her mother. Not and have actual parental care.
    "What happened between you and Daddy isn't my business," Tory said. "I—"
    "It is your business, darling," her mother said. "If your father had—"
    "I don't want to discuss it. In fact, I don't want you here. Daddy will return, and I'll be fine, and even if I'm not fine, you're not the kind of person who can take care of anyone. If you don't leave right now, I will."
    Her mother stared at her as if Tory had betrayed her.
    "You need me right now," her mother said. "I thought you were smart. No one misses an
anacapa
window without a reason, a serious reason. In the history of the Fleet, those who miss the window by an hour or more usually do not return. You have a scientific brain. You should understand—"
    "Shut up," Tory said, her hands balled into fists. "Shutupshutupshutup."
    "Tory—"
    Tory waved her hand at her mother, effectively silencing her. Then Tory shook her head, and ran for the door. Tory had no idea where she was going to go—if she went back to her room, her mother would find her—but she had to get away.
    Just like she had to get away when she was a child.
    And like she had when she was a child, she found herself heading toward engineering, the only place on any ship with concrete answers.
    The only place she had ever felt safe.
9
    Sabin's search found evidence that Coop had used the
anacapa
drive. Sabin was relieved and not relieved at the same time. In fact, she couldn't remember a moment when her