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unanswered though. In this day and age of radar, satellite tracking, and instant communications, how could two ships almost collide in the wide waters of the North Atlantic?
    Eleanor scanned the room. She didn’t know any of her fellow passengers well enough to know who spoke Spanish. Most of the crew did, but she didn’t want to share her eavesdropping with them. She’d met the French fellow, the German guy, the American brother and sister—and the creepy kid in black. For some reason Eleanor decided to ask him. He probably spoke all sorts of languages.
    Just her luck, Emile wasn’t in the lounge. She circled the room and didn’t see him. Jenny Hopkins was there, eating dinner with the cricket player and some of the football team. The French girl, Linh Prudhomme, was by herself. For that reason alone, Eleanor slipped into a chair across from her.
    â€œHi,” she said. “How’s the food tonight?”
    She didn’t speak much English, apparently. Linh smiled and said, “Not so good. Everything is cooked too much.”
    Eleanor made nervous small talk for a short while, gradually bringing up the subject of language.
    â€œWhere did you learn English?”
    â€œI have not learned it.”
    Eleanor’s eyes widened. “But you’re speaking it to me!”
    Linh put a hand to her ear. “I have—what is it—
un entraîneur
, a teacher?”
    She removed the pink bud from her left ear. It was an Info-Coach, a nice one. At Linh’s quiet urging, Eleanor put the device in her ear. Linh said something in French. After a very brief delay, Eleanor heard her words translated in her ear.
    â€œThis allows me to speak,” she said.
    The Info-Coach formulated likely responses, and all Linh had to do was repeat her choice aloud. Eleanor wanted to try it. Linh asked in her native tongue where Eleanor was born?
    â€œJe suis né en Afrique du Sud,”
which meant “I was born in South Africa.”
    â€œDijjy!” Slang baffled the Info-Coach. “Dijjy” meant “cool, neat, novel.”
    Eleanor returned Linh’s device and leaned close. “Can it translate from a recording?”
    â€œCertainly.”
    She tapped the PDD on her wrist. “I caught the captain and the officer on deck talking about our situation. They seemed worried. Will you help me translate it?”
    Linh stood up. “Come with me.”
    No one paid them any notice as they took the inside stairs to the deck above. It turned out Linh had a stateroom in the superstructure, a suite in fact, with a sitting room, private bath, and paneled bedroom.
    â€œOh, posh!” Eleanor said as the lights brightened.
    It took some fiddling to link the PDD output to the Info-Coach. The usual wireless connection would not work, probably due to the same interference that had cut the ship off from Your/World. Linh had to hard wire a connection using the earphone jack.
    Eleanor played the recording. In a low voice, Linh repeated what she heard her device translate.
    Captain Viega said, “Why are you away from your post?”
    Ms. Señales replied, “All communications are out. Am I to sit and stare at empty screens?”
    â€œThe blockage may clear at anytime!”
    â€œI was on the boat deck signaling the bulk carrier,” Ms. Señales said.
    â€œHow?” the captain demanded.
    â€œBy flashlamp.”
    Señales said the other ship was a bulk carrier out of Gdańsk,
Dzien Kolyska
. They apologized for the near miss, but claimed they couldn’t see the
Carleton
’s lights.
    Linh put a hand to her lips. “Here the captain says a crude word.”
    â€œCouldn’t see our lights?” Eleanor was puzzled by that. The
Carleton
was at least as brightly lit as the Polish freighter, if not more so.
    Señales warned the captain Eleanor was near. He said, “The English kid won’t understand us. Go back to the communications