"Stop beating yourself, Wilson."
"Beating myself? I—" He stopped, then spoke to Manning. "What are their chances of being in the same general region as that other lifeship?"
Manning said to Weston, "You answer that."
Weston shook his head. "We have no way of knowing whether the rescued ship left the foundered spacecraft before or after the lost one. Nor at what celestial angle. Nor at what speed. Okay?"
Manning nodded, then added to Wilson, "The answer to that, Commodore, is that the position of the rescued lifeship has no bearing on the lost one. Just as the turn of heads in a toss has any effect upon the turn of the next toss."
Wilson nodded unhappily. "And so we sit here and talk it to death."
"What more can we do?"
"We can start over again."
"Is that an order?" asked Hatch.
Manning shook his head almost imperceptibly. Wilson caught the faint objection and said, "Wait a moment. Toby, what have you got in mind?"