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For one thing, it appears that the zones themselves are in flux." "What?" "It's not that unheard of. Small shifts are going on all the time. That's a major purpose for bottom-lugger ships: to track the changes. We're having the bad luck to run through the middle of the uncertainty." Actually, Ravna had known that interface turbulence was high at the Bottom below here. She just didn't think of it in grandiose terms like "zone shifting"; she also hadn't realized it was serious enough to affect them yet. "Okay. How bad can it get then? How much can it slow us?" "Oh my." Blueshell rolled to the far wall; he was standing on starry sky now. "It would be nice to be a Low Skroderider. So many problems my high calling brings me. I wish I could be deep in surf right now, thinking on olden memories." Of other days in the surf. Greenstalk carried on for him: "It's not 'the tide,复件 (8) air max2, how high can it rise?' It's 'this storm, how bad can it get?' Right now it is worse than anything in this region during the last thousand years. However, we have been following the local news; most agree that the storm has peaked. If our other problem gets no worse, we should arrive in about one hundred and twenty days." Our other problem. Ravna drifted to the center of the bridge and strapped onto a saddle. "You're talking about the damage we took getting out of Relay. The ultradrive spines, right? How are they holding up?" "Quite well,复件 (89) air max, apparently. We've not tried to jump faster than eighty percent of design max. On the other hand,复件 (4) 复件 air max1, we lack good diagnostics. It's conceivable that serious degradation might happen rather suddenly." "Conceivable, but unlikely," put in Greenstalk. Ravna nodded. Considering all their other problems, there was no point in contemplating possibilities beyond their control. Back on Relay, this had looked like a thirty or forty day trip. Now ... the boy in the well might have to be brave for a long time yet, no matter how much she wished otherwise. Hmm. Time for Plan B then. Time for what someone like Pham Nuwen might suggest. She pushed off the floor and settled by Greenstalk. "Okay, so the best we can plan on is one hundred and twenty days. If the Zone surge gets worse or if we have to get repairs..." Get repairs where? That might be only a delay, not an impossibility. The rebuilt OOB was supposed to be to repairable even in the Low Beyond. "Maybe even two hundred days." She glanced at Blueshell, but he didn't interrupt with his usual amendments and qualifications. "You've both read the messages we're getting from the boy. He says the locals are going to be overrun, probably in less than one hundred days. Somehow,复件 (50) air max1, we have to help him ... before we actually arrive there." Greenstalk rattled her fronds in a way Ravna took for puzzlement. She looked across the deck at Pham, and raised her voice a trifle. Hey you, you should be an expert on this,Monster Earphones! "You Skroderiders may not recognize it, but this is a problem that's been seen a million times in the Slow Zone: civilizations are separated by years -- centuries -- of travel time. They fall into dark ages. They become just as primitive as the pack creatures, these 'Tines'. Then they get visited from outside. In a short time,复件 (75) air max, they have technology back again." Pham's head did not turn; he just looked out across the starscape. The Skroderiders rattled at each other, then: "But how can that help us? Doesn't rebuilding a civilization take dozens of years?" "And besides, there's nothing to rebuild on the Tines' world. According to the child, this is a race without antecedents. How long does it take to found a civilization?"