Devereaux inspected the observatory packages one last time. The high-resolution STJ cameras, which recorded photon arrivals and energies from X-rays through the infrared, showed intermittent sawtooth bias patterns. They seemed fine now, but would they go bad again once in the fields along the ship's axis? Only one way to find out.



Devereaux stepped away from the observatory module and said, "Let's do it, Stearn."



"You can call me Phil, if you want." Stearn grabbed the module with a magnetic lift and manhandled it into the airlock, bumping the edge.



"Careful," called Devereaux.



"Okay, I'll be careful, but isn't this thing redundant? We know what's there, right?"



"Sort of, but the details could matter to us. Quite a lot."



"It's just one star, eating another star. Every few weeks its mouth gets full and it swallows a little fast, right? When it swallows fast, it burns hot. When it swallows slowly, it isn't so hot. I read the encyclopedia articles. You don't have to be a genius."



Stearn was going make himself an annoying boy on this trip, Devereaux thought. "The behavior of a dwarf nova isn't predictable very long in advance. The thermal disk instability that brings on the outbursts is tied to the accretion rate, which depends on the secondary donating the mass. That secondary has a magnetic field that interacts with the disk, and the whole thing is a mess of feedback loops, some of which behave chaotically. The outburst -- "



He cut her off. "Right. How fast it swallows. Like I said. You don't need a genius vocabulary either. And those are cheap to buy anyway." Stearn finished getting the observatory inside and sealed the airlock.



"We get caught in a dwarf nova outburst close to the disk photosphere, and our nano-skin cannot process the energy fast enough well, we'll cook. That's bad. Got it?"



"Bad. Got it. But can't we just monitor the transfer rate while we're there?"



"Of course we will, but these data won't hurt, will they?"



Stearn flapped his wings at her and turned his attention to the magnetic grapple that would insert the observatory into the central axis between the singularities. "Don't these systems go nova and super nova, too?"



"Not dwarf novae, at least not in general. Their mass transfer rate isn't high enough. Eventually other types of novae may occur. A classical nova will occur if a non-burning hydrogen mass builds on the white dwarf and fusion ignites all at once when it reaches its critical temperature, but that's a hundred thousand year timescale for SS Cygni. A supernova will occur if the white dwarf mass hits 1.44 solar masses, Chandrasekhar's limit, when degenerate electron pressure can't resist the self-gravity, and a runaway collapse follows. If that happens, the disk and everything in it will get smeared all over this part of the galaxy. But don't worry about it. The SS Cygni primary is far from 1.44 solar masses, and the accretion is usually matched by the winds and novae mass loss. No supernova for you this trip."



"It would be a fantastic thing to see though," Stearn said, chewing on his long forked tongue as he watched the insertion. "But I know another supernova I prefer. Ever cross wire your pleasure center to a popcorn bag? That's a real blast!"



"You're hopeless, Stearn."



"Not at all. I know the ship well. I'm good at my job. And I enjoy myself more than anyone else on this crazy trip. Anything wrong with that?"



"No. I suppose not." She started thinking about Phil Stearn. He came across as a complete screw-up, but Biolathe was a smart company, and its brain would never put an incompetent on a ship like this, let alone hire one in the first place. So what was with Stearn? There had to be something deeper below his shallow surface. Didn't there?



"So what tweaks you? Why you throw away the present? Lover toss you aside for a better drug? Lose a bet with another stuck-up scientist?"



"Nothing like that." She might as well tell him. It was not a secret. "I liked the puzzle."



"You liked the puzzle? You're more flighty than me." He tilted his head and flapped to emphasize his point.



"I mean, we've discovered a plethora of alien species in all sorts of environments, but no sentient races like ours. These star dragons could be it, or at least evidence for one. I mean, it's such an odd place to find anything alive. Maybe it didn't happen all by itself."



"So?"



"Well I think that's a puzzle of our age, whether or not anything else is thinking out there. Not working on it and just enjoying the fruits of our technology, sponging off Earth, that's the mental equivalent of masturbation."



"And what's wrong with that? I'm rather fond of it myself."



Why was she even arguing with him? He was just as shallow as he seemed. "Nothing is wrong with it, I suppose, in moderation. But don't you believe there are still important things for humans to do? Things that could matter, someday?"

Stearn shrugged.

"I do have another motive for taking fast, high-gamma voyages. I intend to be there, at the end."

"The end?"



"Or at least as long as I can go riding these relativistic time machines into the future. See what happens in the end. See who is still around, what they're doing, and what they've figured out about the nature of existence."

Stearn hit pause on the observatory insertion and stared at her.

She continued. "These long, fast trips help. I'd go to another galaxy if I could. Someday I probably will. But I'll find a way to be there, at the end, this body or another, until my protons decay -- if I'm still even made of baryonic matter at that point -- and I'll understand the big why."

"That," he said, "is the biggest fucking masturbation fantasy I've ever heard. And I've heard some big ones. Heck, I've carried out some big ones."

"Fine. You don't understand. Just do your job, and help me do mine."

Stearn turned back to the observatory and finished overseeing its insertion and alignment. "I understand better than you think. We have a lot in common."

"Unlikely."

"I can prove it."

"How?"



"In my hedonistic searches, scouring Earth and its colonies, I have experienced things you cannot dream of, mental states most profoundly satisfying, physical states most exhilarating. Rest assured that I pursue my goals with passion."



Devereaux smirked at him, bragging like a boy. She lowered her gaze into what she thought would convey skepticism, but didn't tell him to stop.



Stearn held up a finger before his face and with wide eyes said, "In my cabin, I have the means of achieving the most engaging intellectual pleasure in the known universe."



"What is it?"



Stearn lowered his finger and turned and walked away from her. "I suppose you'll have to drop by sometime if you want to find out."



"Unlikely," she said, but already as he walked away the puzzle of Stearn was working in her mind and she was afraid that she would wind up accepting his invitation/dare. She could not stand to let a puzzle go unsolved, even one so trivial as Stearn.