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in the
     days after Abraham’s disappearance at the Calamity when Citadel Bishop fell. Time and again he had wondered what his father
     would have done….
    He sighed and got to his feet. His hand brushed the Legacies once more. Then he turned and left, the mottled brown face of
     the nearby planet framed in his right eye, so that he could study new pictures as they arrived.
    He was mulling over this vision so deeply that he didn’t hear the running feet in the spiral corridor. A body slammed into
     his shoulder and spun him around.
    He fetched up against the wall, the wind knocked out of him. His son peered into his face. “You all right, Dad?”
    “I…didn’t hear…you coming.”
    Besen and three others came running up, their hot pursuit of Toby brought to a halt as they saw the Cap’n.
    “We were just, y’know, playin’ a li’l kickball,” Toby said sheepishly, holding up a small red sphere.
    “It’s lots fun, on the axis,” another boy said.
    “Yeasay, funner with low grav,” Besen put in. Her eyes were zesty and bright.
    Killeen nodded. “Glad you’re keeping your legs inshape,” he said. A meaningful glance at the others prompted them to leave him alone with Toby.
    “You steamed ’bout what happened in the control vault?”
    Toby chewed at his lip, conflict warring in his face. “Don’t see why you had to roust me.”
    “I won’t give you the discipline lecture, but—”
    “Glad ’bout
that
. Been hearin’ nothin’
but
that from you.”
    “You haven’t given me much choice.”
    “And you aren’t givin’
me
much chance.”
    “How you figure?”
    Toby shrugged irritably. “Ridin’ me alla time.”
    “Only when you force me.”
    “Look, I’m just tryin’, that’s all.”
    “Trying too hard, maybe.”
    “I’m tired out from just sittin’. Wanna
do
somethin’.”
    “Only when you’re ordered.”
    “That’s it? No—”
    “And you’ll belay your gab when I give you an order, too.”
    Toby’s lip curled. “That’s your old Ling Aspect talkin’, right? What’s ‘belay’ mean?”
    “Means
stop
. And my Aspects are—”
    “Ever since you got it, seems like
it’s
givin’ the orders.”
    “I take advice, certainly—”
    “Seems like some old fart’s runnin’
Argo
, not my dad.”
    “I keep my Aspects under control.” Killeen heard his voice, stiff and formal, and made himself say more warmly, “You know
     what it’s like sometimes, though. You’ve had two Faces now for—what?—a year?”
    Toby nodded. “I got ’em runnin’ okay.”
    “I’m sure you do. They ride easy?”
    “Pretty near. They give me tech stuff, mostly.”
    “But you can see, then, how you look at some things differently.”
    “Get tired, just sittin’ ’round tryin’ to fix stuff.”
    “When the right time comes—”
    Toby’s mouth warped with exasperation. “Me an’ the guys, Besen, all of us—we wanna be in on what happens.”
    “You will be. Just hold back some, yeasay?”
    Toby sighed and the tightness drained slowly from his face. “Dad, it’s like there’s…there’s no time anymore when we’re just…”
    “Just us?”
    Toby nodded, swallowing hard.
    “You better ’member, I’m Cap’n now a lot more often than I’m your father.”
    Toby’s jaw stiffened. “Seems you come down special hard on me lately.”
    Killeen paused, tried to see if this was so. “Might be.”
    “I’m just tryin’, is all.”
    “So’m I,” Killeen said quietly.
    “I don’t want to miss out on anythin’ when we hit ground.”
    “You won’t. We’ll need everybody.”
    “So don’t leave me out, just ’cause I’m…you know.”
    “My son? Well, you won’t stop being that, but sometimes maybe you’ll wish you weren’t.”
    “Never.”
    “Don’t think you’ll get special jobs, now.”
    “I won’t.”
    “Son? None this changes what we are, y’know.”
    “I guess.” Toby’s face seemed strained and flattened in the enameled light. “Only…it’s not