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“Afraid I’ll like him better than you?” she asked
“No,” he said slowly, “I’m more afraid that he’ll kill one or both of us to protect his identity He only expectskind of man”
She shivered, and fell back in the seat, unsure of what to say Jenna chi to hyperspace before too long If you’re going to stay up here, you need to strap yourself in”
She nodded, and reached around to grab the straps This was always her least-favorite part of space flight People who traveled a lot see deal, but the juh the preparation checklist far too quickly for her co each of the details and checking the settings He didn’t even do theJenna to feed hi to his list of faults, in addition to being a jerk
Hopefully he wouldn’t get theht was the last she had before they twisted out of nor shudder She reached to unhook her belt, wanting to go back to her cabin and lie down for a while, but he held out a hand to stop her
“Go ahead and stay strapped in,” he said “We’re only going to be in transit for about fifteen ain”
“Why?” she asked, startled “We can’t go very far in 15 minutes”
“That’s the point,” he said “It’s not far at all We only left nor us It wouldn’t occur to anyone that we’re only going a few light years from Transit Three”
“Is this so we can meet your friend?” she asked “The one you won’t tell me about”
“Yes,” he replied They fell silent for severalthe patterns on the ship’s view screen She knew they were mathematical calculations translated into colors by the computer, but they seemed like some kind of weird landscape after a while
“Jenna, is that what you see through your sensors e travel outside of normal space?” she asked abruptly Jerred looked at her in surprise
“Yes and no,” Jenna replied “They are a visual representation of the overn our current state Thus they represent the data that governs our position Butinformation on that which is around us at thepresented with data I have the capacity to detect”
“Is that a fancy way of telling ?”
“Yes,” the computer said “I can envision calculations that make our current state possible, but I cannot collect any data on that state”
“Why not?’
“Because the very act of attees the data collected,” Jenna finally said after a long pause “Thus any data I collect is, on a certain level, being created by es of the theoretical data, rather than any Iin fro she hadn’t asked Jenna was a weird computer
“We’re ready to drop back into real space,” Jenna announced after a brief pause Even as she said it, another warning chimed, and the screen before them abruptly filled with stars