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past the dish. It doesn’t take much energy to tickle a good dish, you know. In all the years they were running, all the radio telescopes in the world barely captured the energy liberated by a pin dropping off the table and striking the floor.”
    She finished the last few words in chorus with him. “Yes, I remember you telling people that to impress them. Then, you don’t think what this American detected is a message,” she said, disappointed.
    “The odds are rather fantastically against it.”
    “Ah—but because it hasn’t happened yet, right?—you can’t set any odds. What’s the probability of a non-event?”
    “I don’t want to play statistical games,” he said crossly. “Let’s just say I strongly doubt the message-from-space explanation.”
    She sat back, her face showing disappointment. “Too bad. We could do with a spot of help. The formula for—isn’t it fusion they’re always talking about?”
    Eddington snorted. “The signal must have been traveling several years at least—several hundred, more likely. It’d take that long again just to say hello back. If they were still there.”
    “So it won’t be a scintillating conversation. Just knowing there’s someone else there would be important. How are you going to check on it?” she pressed.
    “I’m not. There’s no way I can.”
    “Couldn’t you go to Milliard and get them to let you use it, just for a while?”
    “Do you think the government would approve an Energy Expenditure Request based on a phone call from Idaho?” Maggie frowned. “I suppose not. Wait—isn’t there a big telescope out where you are?”
    “It’s just a radio antenna they used for satellite communication.”
    “Well, wouldn’t it work?”
    “Probably not,” Eddington said. “They look the same, but they don’t necessarily work the same way. I don’t even know what equipment they still have in the control room. They may have stripped everything out when the last SKYNET Comsat failed.”
    “Couldn’t you get in and see if you could use it?”
    Eddington shook his head. “I’d have to leave my work area, which they’d notice—”
    “What about lunch?”
    “And the movement of the dish—”
    “Maybe the source is in the sky at night.”
    “I can’t see it matters enough to take the risk.”
    “Maybe you wouldn’t have to sneak—maybe they’d just let you use it.”
    “Why are you so excited about this?” She grasped his arm and shook him playfully. “You bloody fart! Don’t you realize what you’re talking about? You make it sound like it’s no more than having new neighbors move in down the road.”
    “Did you know they’re still using pictures of famous scientists as dart targets in some of the pubs?”
    “Not any I go in. Anyway, they only pick on you because you’re all too afraid to stand up and defend yourselves,” she said angrily, tossing her unfinished lunch aside and standing. “It wasn’t your fault the way things happened—they should blame the PM and the Parliament.”
    “They do. They just blame us more. For the blanket.”
    “What did you want me for, anyway? Not for advice—you already had your mind made up. Look, do you want me to tell you you’re doing the right thing? Listen carefully—I’m not doing it.”
    “Now, Maggie—”
    “Now, nothing! You’re taking the easy way again. Isn’t there anything solid inside you? If we take a close look at the Eddington genes, will we find the one for the backbone missing? You make me so angry! I thought when you lost your money you’d finally become what you had a chance to be. But you’re still the same.
    “Here’s my advice, unwanted or not. Grab hold of this and see what there is to it. It may be your only chance to do something that counts. You bloody well haven’t, so far.”
    She stalked off into the drizzle, and Eddington’s head tipped back. “You don’t understand.” He sighed to himself. “It’s not part of what I am now. And I have to