It was late on this side of the planet when you left the conference. Most people with just day tickets had left earlier and the people still there now stayed overnight. As with so many systems only small parts of the planets were actually inhabited and those parts followed roughly the samedaily cycle. Late on the conference sote of Veridian was also late on the habitated parts of your current home planet. And the shuttle was nearly alone in the vast darkness of space.

Another shuttle had been flying close to yours for a couple of minutes. The sensors had picjed up on it way back. It had just seemed a shuttle whose top dpeed was slightly higher than yours and had thetefore slowly been gaining on you. Now that it had reached you, however, it adapted its speed and hailed you.