Part One Gradually, all members of the Wild family were gathered in the Common-room, drawn to the regular place of meeting by irresistible force; they were all driven by the urge to get to know what had happened to the spaceship, and to them.
In the attached Control room, Leshem and Ziv were busy checking the gauges; the door was open for anyone to peep in if they felt like it, but they were not answering for the time being any question or demand. At last, when words did not help, Leshem began pushing them gently back to the Common-room. When they were all there - though none of them was sitting down patiently for the experts' report - she signed to Ziv and they went over, joining the others.
Lyish had made a superficial check of the passengers, seeing no one was hurt more than being scratched or bruised. Ofer asked each of them a few questions to find out if anyone was shocked and needed immediate treatment. Lilit went from one to the other, making them sit and calm down, then signed to Nan to take Ben and together bring hot and cold drinks and something to nibble in order to sooth their nerves.
At last, Lilit gave the sign, an agitated silence fell, and she asked the most important question, "What's happened?"
Leshem looked at Ziv, who nodded, and said, "We had a forced landing…"
The reaction was in the form of a barrage of questions from all sides, "Why?" "Where?" "What was the cause of it?" Anything wrong with the spaceship?" "Anything wrong with the Computer?"
Lilit raised her hand, silence returned, and she signed to Ziv to talk. "The computer is all right," he said in a low voice; "I checked and it seems to work properly. But we still don't know where we have landed."
"Not on Asteria?"
"No, we haven't reached Asteria yet."
"Can we at least know what happened, if not how?"
Ziv and Leshem exchanged looks, and she said, "We think we've been swept into a wormhole - there was a burst of unexplained energy…"
"The galactic ghosts," Mira whispered as if to herself.
Leshem shook her head. "We can't know that," she replied.
"Anyway," Ziv said, "that energy drove the power hard, and with a sudden movement we were swept away from out route."
"Swept, before Ziv had a chance to stabilize the ship…" Leshem added.
"Into a wormhole!" The passengers looked amazed at each other. "And came out at the other end?"
"We have come out, but we don't know where…"
The silence was now heavy and gasping. "So, what do we do now?" Nogah's clear bell-like voice rang into the silence.
"We'll have to investigate, I suppose," Leshem said.
They all heard Mira's deep inhaling. "We can go out at last?"
"No!"
"No?" asked Lyish in astonishment.
"No!" Leshem replied decisively.
