"Robin said she might be able to, with Doctor Ingram's help. Says she has the tools to measure how far each star is from us, for example, so we could make a three-dimensional map and see if their movements are random or not. She can probably measure other things about them."

Way out of his wheelhouse now, though. Other than things like brightness and color he doesn't have a clue. Probably those things are the result of what those stars are made of, and that might be helpful, but that's not a question he can answer, which is why he went to Will for help with this in the first place.

"Anyway, I guess none of this answers your original question, but I figure there's not much point thinking about things back home when we have enough problems here."