It took just over three weeks for the T.S.S. Mary Anning to reach New Terra. The research ship was one of the newest in the post-war fleet. Everything was state of the art, from its two dozen sensor arrays that could tell practically everything about a planet from orbit to every kind of science lab imaginable. Timothy was one of 30 experts on the mission. He was also the youngest by far and the only one without a Ph.D. Yet everyone wanted to have lunch or a cup of coffee with ...