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“What’s he expect? Am I supposed to board him or what? We’ll have to call him when we’re subcee. Perhaps he’s transmitted more while we’ve been on our way. I don’t suppose he’s expecting anyone for at least an hour. We must be taking minutes off the galactic rescue record.”
    The transfer down was as easy as the transfer up. Within five minutes after returning to subcee I could be knocking on the Saberwing ’s front door. It was a brilliant piece of flying, though I say it myself.
    I opened a call circuit wide, so that I could talk to the ship coming out from Pallant while she was still below transfer if I failed to reach Saberwing . At the same time, I asked Nick whether Saberwing was a p-shifter and whether we had any clue at all about what might be wrong.
    â€œShe’s a p-shifter all right,” he told me. “But there’s no indication at all about the trouble.”
    â€œCan’t be flux, anyway,” I muttered. That was a relief. At least she wasn’t going to blow up on me, and she wasn’t going to be so hot as to be impossible to approach. P-shifters don’t have many advantages—you can’t take them hardly anywhere—but at least they go wrong discreetly.
    I invited the Saberwing to communicate via the link, but there was no reply. I invited anyone to communicate, and got an answer from the ship that was coming out from Pallant.
    â€œThis is Gray Goose ,” was the message. “Bleeping data.” Fast pause for a bleep, then: “We have no additional information. Transfer due in twenty seconds.”
    â€œThanks,” I said. “Go ahead. See you soon.”
    Nick automatically picked up the bleep and played it back.
    â€œIt’s only her identification,” he said. “She’s the local police boat. Doubles as ambulance and lifeboat. Man in charge is Captain Corey. That’s all.”
    It wasn’t much.
    I decelerated as I approached the Saberwing . She was drifting at a low velocity. I matched, and began to maneuver myself alongside. I sent out a couple more appeals to the ship, but there was absolute silence.
    â€œWhat do I do?” I asked, of no one in particular. Having come so far so fast, I was tempted to don a spacesuit and rush over there at a sprint, but people have been known to get into trouble by acting headstrong like that.
    I called up Pallant on the circuit. I told them who I was, and pointed out that it would be the best part of an hour before the official vessel could get here. I asked them for advice.
    â€œFerrier is a very important man,” said the officer on duty at Pallant, without bothering to relay my message back to his own superiors. “I think we’d all be grateful if you could render what help is possible right now.”
    All in all, it wasn’t very helpful advice.
    â€œCaptain,” I said. “What do you reckon?”
    â€œWe’d better board her,” he said. “I’ll go, with Eve.”
    â€œHold on there,” I said. “If there’s any boarding to be done, it had better be me that does it.”
    â€œWe don’t want to risk you,” said delArco. “If we get into trouble too….”
    â€œThere’s a rescue ship already on the way,” I pointed out reasonably enough. “And if we leave Eve the Swan still has a complete crew. You can come with me if you like, but I’ve got to go. I’m the only one who might be capable of dealing with whatever’s wrong over there.”
    â€œOK,” he said, “You’re in.”
    I took a last look around inside the hood before peeling it off. The Gray Goose was transcee and making good progress. The other ship was also making a beeline for us, and she was fairly close. But I couldn’t see where she might be coming from. Certainly not one of the outer worlds. Did she just happen to be around? It was strange that she hadn’t