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the stardrive expert. She peered at Landon over the top of her glasses and said, “My first thought upon learning of the wreck was the same as yours, Dan.
    Obviously, that ship is much too big to take onboard one of our own starships whole, so I figured we would have to carve it up and ship it home in pieces. The only problem with that approach is that we are liable to destroy as much alien technology as we save. Just imagine what would happen if you gave an able spacer a cutting laser and orders to chop up Magellan !
    “Anton first brought me into this to evaluate the records you people brought home with you. About halfway through my review, it occurred to me that we might be able to fly the ship home.”
    “How? It isn’t equipped with a star drive and we don’t happen to have a stargate handy.”
    “What if we install both a drive and a reactor in the wreck?”
    “Same objection as bringing the wreck back in pieces. To transport the drive generator and power reactor, you will need a colony ship.”
    “Not if we mount both on Magellan ’s hull,” Laura Dresser said. “We will cross connect the new generator with the ship’s own drive, thereby extending the field to cover everything.”
    “Will that work?”
    “My computer says it will if we synchronize both generators properly. It might be a little tricky in practice.”
    Right. Let us say you succeed with this jury-rig. Have you considered the risk of flying the hulk home?
    What if the drive breaks down en route?”
    “Then you will be there to rescue us.”
    Landon snorted. “Do you have any idea how much empty space there is in a light-year? If you disappear in that blackness, you will starve to death or run out of air long before we will be able to find you.”
    “Then we had best not break down.”
    Landon turned to the director. “Are you sure you want us to try this, sir? It seems a good way to lose a lot of talented people, not to mention our alien prize.”
    Bartok glanced at the chronometer inset into his sleeve before fixing Landon with his gaze. “That is the reason I asked for this conference, Captain. Laura is the best we have when it comes to star drives, but you have the practical experience. I want the two of you to work this plan, wring it out, and report back to me tomorrow on whether it is feasible or not. If you conclude there is too much risk, we will think up something else. Just remember, the longer we are in the New Eden system, the more likely it is that other aliens will show up.”

CHAPTER 8
    Salli Rheinhardt was a typical working mother. In addition to the job that kept her tied to the computer workscreen in her den six hours each day, she had three children to get off to school, pick up after, and shuttle around to various functions. She worked in the Princeton Medcenter four hours a week and had her clubs and hobbies. She was also active in campus politics and had faculty teas to attend. Even in the best of times, it was difficult for her to find a free hour in her day. With her husband away on an extended business trip, the burden was nearly more than one woman could handle.
    When Ben had told her that he was being assigned to an orbital research project, she had sighed and played the supportive wife. In theory, he could have told his department manager to find someone else; in practice, that would never do. Had Benjamin Eustus Rheinhardt turned down the assignment, it would have been like announcing to the entire university that he no longer sought the chairmanship of the microbiology department. Salli Rheinhardt understood that as well as her husband. Still, after nearly a month alone with the children, she no longer cared whether Ben was awarded the chairmanship.
    Suddenly, the idea of hosting faculty teas and being deferred to by the other wives and the graduate students had lost much of its allure. She had reached the point where she would gladly have traded all of that for Ben lounging on the couch in his tattered