THE WORST OF ALL POSSIBLE ORBITS

Keene sat before the communications screen and looked at the lean, hawkish features of Idorf, captain of the Kronian ship. “Captain,” he asked, “what’s going on? Do you know any more than I do? . . . What is this all about?”

“Nobody’s told you yet, eh?”

Keene showed his palms. “I’ve been trying to find out all day. It’s almost like you said. The whole of Washington’s acting as if a war is about to break out.”

Idorf regarded him fixedly for a few seconds; then, he seemed to make up his mind and nodded. His expression was grim. “Yesterday evening, I passed some news down to Gallian that had just come in from Saturn. Our observatories there have been able to make measurements that won’t be possible here for a few more days until Athena moves further out from the glare of the Sun.”

Captain Idorf paused for a moment, then continued. “It seems we can forget further speculating about whether the electrical environment can be altered, Dr. Keene. Athena has come out from perihelion on a changed orbit. It isn’t going to cross fifteen million miles ahead of Earth as was previously thought. It’s coming straight at us!”

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