The question caught her off guard. Oddly, it wasn't one that anyone had ever asked her before. Now that she thinks about it, had anyone ever had the need to? Researching Yamatai and getting the expedition off the ground had seemed so benign...

"I don't know," she said finally, "Part of me just wants to get off and as far away from this planet as soon as possible. But..." She thought of her father, so obsessed with his work, so consumed with the desire to know, to understand until it killed him. The thought doesn't actually stop her from saying, "I want to know. There's something happening here and I want to know what it is."