I disengaged hurriedly and shook Ven out of her rapport with Edith. "We've no time to lose," I said. "We must leave at once! You know what's going to happen!"
"I know," Ven said. "I feel the changes already."
"That's just in your mind," I snapped.
"We're not going home," she said. There was a note of prophecy in her voice. "We'll never make it."
"We can't stay here!"
"I know."
"Then what are we going to do?"
We couldn't stay here. But we couldn't go home either. The trip would take weeks, and hyperspace is fatal to a gravid Thalassan female. That was something we learned long ago, and the principal reason for continence-conditioning for couples in space. What was more, I knew that where Ven stayed, I would stay.
"Remember the fourth planet of this system?" Ven asked.