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“I know it sounds risky,” Commander Kean nodded soberly. “But I watched the test-flight myself, and I’ve taken the liberty to check the probes that went with the freighter on its test-flight. I am one hundred percent sure that the effect caused by their device will include anything within a set radius of the device. All you have to do is stay within its influence. If your Wasps tuck in to within thirty meters of the hull by the engine bay, you’ll be fine.”

“That’s a tuck, all right,” Goldie commented.

“I’ll say,” Hunter added. “We’ll practically be able to reach out and hang on by our hands.”

“If you think it’ll help,” Kean said sarcastically. “Look, if you two don’t think you can handle a simple escort assignment, I can—”

“Sure we can handle it!” Goldie said quickly.

“Who said we can’t?” Hunter piped up after her.

Kean eyed the both of them. “Fine. Then quit grousing and get to your ships!”

Kean turned on a heel and left, and Hunter and Goldie turned to head for their fighters. Once he knew they were out of earshot of their commander, Hunter commented, “Maybe we should just leave the ships here and ride shotgun on the hull…”

“Well,” Goldie said, “what’s the worst that can happen? They do their jump-thing, and we’re still here? Not that I want to see anyone get hurt, but why we have to escort non-citizens is beyond me.”

“But we are supposed to be bringing citizens back,” Hunter pointed out. “And supplies. That’s worth escorting.”

“True,” Goldie admitted.

“I’d feel better,” Hunter added, “if I knew how it worked.”

“Why? You’ve already gone through it once, and you didn’t feel a thing. But if it’ll make you feel better, I can request to Kean that you be enrolled in a quantum mechanics class.”

Hunter looked at Goldie sourly. “Pass.”

Goldie grinned back. “Wishful thinking.”

~

“Ceo Lenz? I have Eo Luis on the line.”

Julian proceeded over to the workstation and leaned over the viewscreen. Reya’s face looked back up to him.

“Jules: Believe it or not… and I’m still not sure I do myself… we’ve actually got everyone and everything loaded. Security’s done their pass-through, and cleared the
Makalu
for departure.”

“Good work,” Julian said. “Lock it up and clear the bay. We’ll take over from here.” He turned towards the workstation that had been providing long-range communications with Earth since their arrival over Mars. “Is there any last-minute change to our confirmation from Earth?”

The technician looked up. “No, sir. Earth has verified our arrival itinerary, and is just awaiting the time.”

Julian checked a wall clock, which was still set to Greenwich Mean Time: It was ten minutes after two in the afternoon. Then he turned back to the technician. “Send this: Expect our freighter at fourteen thirty GMT.”

“Yessir.”

Julian then moved to the flight control workstation, where a technician was connecting to the
Makalu
in anticipation of his order. “Captain Grand?”

“This is Grand,”
came Roy’s voice.

“You have clearance for launch. Earth is expecting you in twenty minutes. Pass the word to Dr. Silver. And good luck.”

“Thank you. We’ll hit space in five.
Makalu
, out.”

“Verdant, out.” Julian indicated the board, and said, “Send word to the escorts to launch and await the
Makalu
. They will take their flight orders from Captain Grand.”

“Yes, sir.”

~

Reya watched as security did their last checks, and the final stragglers were shooed out of the bay prior to launch. The
Makalu
was already sealed up, and the access tubes retracted, but she didn’t want to see any last-second shenanigans around the freighter before launch. As she watched, she noticed a bay mechanic arguing with a security guard to be allowed to go back to work in an adjacent bay. Reya called out to them, “I don’t care who you work for, you’re on break for the next five minutes! Get lost!”

She was standing not far from the access tube to Aerospace Force One, which had been sealed by its flight officers prior to boarding the
Makalu
. With her back to the ship, she did not notice the face, standing back from within the doorway portal so as to remain in shadow, watching the proceedings outside.

~

“We’re at one hundred percent across the board, Cap.” The
Makalu
’s pilot, a fair-haired Irish girl who looked barely strong enough to operate its controls, poised her hands over the release locks and waited for the word.

Roy Grand gave the control boards in front of his pilot, and those in front of his own consoles, one last look before nodding. “Okay, Haylee, kick us loose.” Her hands danced across her board, and in a moment, they felt the slight bump of the moorings releasing… then the feeling of lessened gravity as they dropped out of the bay.

“We’re in space,” Haylee confirmed, and applied power to the engines to remove the minute spin they had inherited from Verdant. She let the ship drift along, making space between the freighter and the satellite. “Our escorts are here,” she commented presently. Roy saw them on his boards, too, and as they watched, the two Wasps took up positions on either side of them.

Roy activated the com. “Goldie, Hunter, we’ll be at station-keeping in five, and doing our jump in ten minutes after that. We’ll be launching our probe first. Copy?”

“We copy,”
came Goldie’s voice.
“Proceed on your schedule.”

The
Makalu
continued to drift leisurely away from Verdant. In the makeshift passenger sections, everyone was strapped into their seats while under microgravity, which had the effect on many of them of stifling their grumbles and complaints, and thereby slightly lowering the volume level in the bay. Now some individual conversations could just be made out over the typical noises of the freighter (which, after all, wasn’t soundproofed to the extent that a passenger craft was), and a few other urgent but hushed conversations were evident, such as the one being carried out between President Lambert and Enu Thompson at the front of their bay section. A few were afraid of the impending “jump” to Earth, despite the assurances of others that they had already been subjected to the “jump” once on Verdant, and that the freighter had been tested. Others were simply upset about being uprooted from their work, their vacations, or their visits at such short notice. And some of them expressed dismay about having to return to Earth while Yellowstone was still spewing ash into the atmosphere… many people apparently believed Earth would be plunged into a lifeless millennia thanks to the caldera, and did not want to be forced to go back to an expected hell of a life on Earth.

In the rear of the bay, Maria Rios ignored all of the talk. All she could think about was setting foot on Earth again. As far as she was concerned, volcanoes blew, then they stopped… there was no reason to assume the worst. She was positive there were still good places still on Earth, and she would find them… no matter what it took.

Finally the
Makalu
reached its station, and an application of its retros brought it to a stop. The two Wasps brought up alongside the aft area of the freighter, edging close enough to almost touch the hull. At the same time, the spinal airlock opened, and the mechanical arm deployed the probe, as it had in the test-flight the day before.

“Patience, folks,” Roy Grand announced over the ship’s intercom. “It’ll just be another ten minutes to send the probe out, get it back, confirm our course… and then we go.”

Once the probe was placed at-station, and the arm retracted, it took only a minute before the probe disappeared from their screens. Two minutes later, the probe reappeared, and the arm extended out to retrieve it. After a few minutes had passed, the passengers in the bay saw one of Dr. Silver’s technicians float by them, in the direction of the bridge.

The technician reached the bridge, and Roy turned to see what was going on. “Is something wrong?”

“No, the probe was good,” the tech said. “Just wanted you to be aware, though, that its sensor check turned up multiple spacecraft in your target vicinity. A lot of fuss pulses bounced off of it. They’re expecting us, in spades.”

Roy nodded. “It’s all right. No one’s going to shoot down the President and other American citizens.” He checked his watch. “Three minutes to scheduled departure. Let’s do it.”

Once the tech left, Roy got onto the com and passed the same information to Verdant.

“We concur,”
Julian Lenz replied.
“They will likely escort you down to a secure landing area, but not molest you. Don’t be surprised if you’re boarded before you hit atmo.”

“We know,” Roy replied. “We’ve got everything prepared back there.”

“Then, have a good flight, Captain. Verdant out.”

“Goldie, Hunter, this is Roy. You tucked in and ready?”

“We’re ready.”

Roy switched all of the com channels and intercom on. “Folks, we’ll be doing our ‘jump’ to Earth in… forty seconds.” Then he switched off the intercom, and after a few seconds, started a countdown. “In twenty… ten… five…
go
.”

Before he’d spoken his last word, Goldie, Hunter, and everyone on the
Makalu
became aware of a high-pitched tone, coming from seemingly everywhere around them. It rose in frequency, until it was beyond everyone’s hearing, but not quite beyond their ability to sense its presence. And then that sense, too, went away.

A moment later, the
Makalu
and the Wasps vanished from the orbit of Mars.

~

By the time Calvin made it back to his flat, he was sure the freighter had gone… he hadn’t stuck around to watch it go.

He turned around after closing the door, and saw Erin before him. Her eyes were red-rimmed and puffy, as Calvin suspected his were as well. But her expression was blank, as if she had flushed all of her emotions out of her.

“I was listening on the news,” Erin said dully. “I saw the freighter go. They figure it’s already being escorted down to Earth by now.”

Calvin nodded. “Probably.”

Erin nodded. She stepped forward and hugged Calvin, who returned her hug with vigor. Presently, she said, “What are we gonna do without Mom?”

Calvin shrugged and shook his head. “Live, I guess.”

The instant the
Makalu
was in Earth orbit, Roy and Haylee became aware of the volume of com and sensor traffic that had been cut off when they left Earth’s proximity, and which had now been restored. Like yanking your hands away from your ears, the ambient noise level on the bridge was significantly higher.

Haylee instantly reached to adjust her board. “That tech was right… I just had about twenty fuss hits at once!”

“They know we’re here,” Roy nodded, taking note of an insistent pinging from his board on the emergency frequency used by military craft to communicate to civilian craft. Roy activated the circuit, and said, “This is Captain Roy Grand of the
Makalu
, and escort, arrived from Verdant. You were expecting us,” he added pointlessly.

“Attention,
Makalu
,”
came a clipped voice over the com.
“This is U.S. Aerospace Force Commander Hollen. You are to maintain present station and prepare to be boarded. Starboard escort craft, you are ordered to allow access to the starboard airlock. Confirm this order.”

“We will comply,” Roy replied simply, and muted the com. “Haylee, just maintain station. I’ll be at the airlock.” With that, he unstrapped himself and drifted out of the bridge.

Roy passed through the makeshift passenger bay, and a number of passengers spoke up when they saw him. “Are we there?” “Did it work?” “When do we land?” “Did something go wrong?” “What’s happening?”

Roy spoke as he drifted past: “Folks, we made it to Earth orbit. In a few minutes, we will be boarded, by American military. Everything’s fine. Just relax, stay in your seats, and I imagine we’ll be hitting atmo in a little while.”

Without responding to any other questions, Roy continued to drift aft. He passed the airlock corridor, and continued to the engine bay. There, he confronted the technicians coming out of the bay that held the quantum translation equipment.

“We’re about to be boarded,” Roy said. “Are you all ready back here?”

One of the technicians, a woman, turned to face him. “Just sealing everything up,” Valeria Epstein said as another tech, the last one out of the bay, turned and closed the door behind him. The one at the door pulled a small device from his pocket, and tapped at its control panel. A coded set of beeps emanated from the box, and the technician threw a thumbs-up back to them.

“Okay,” Roy said. “Relax back here while we entertain our guests. You know what to do.” Then Roy pivoted around and drifted back towards the airlock corridor. When he was nearly there, he stopped and tapped a wall com to the bridge. “Where are they, Haylee?”

“A small transport, coming up on starboard,”
Haylee responded.
“Give ‘em another minute, I think.”

In less than sixty seconds, Roy felt the telltale bump of a craft connecting with the
Makalu
. He waited, listening to the whirrs and ticks of motors and circuits being tripped. Then came a rather conventional knock on the airlock door. After checking a pressure panel to make sure there was a good seal, Roy unlocked the airlock door and slid it open.

On the other side of the airlock was a young man with Commander’s stripes on his shoulders. Behind him were three men in standard grunt uniforms, all well-armed. The young man in front eyed Roy and said, “Captain Grand?”

“I’m Grand,” Roy admitted.

“I’m Commander Bob Hollen,” the young man said. “It is my duty to inspect your ship before you are allowed to enter Earth orbit.”

“I understand,” Roy said, nodding and drifting backward. “Welcome aboard.”

Hollen followed him into the freighter, and the grunts followed Hollen. They all came out into the makeshift passenger bay, and Hollen quickly surveyed the rows of people who stared back at them, rendered mute at the sight of their uniforms and sidearms. Hollen turned to Roy. “Show me to the President… he’s supposed to be aboard.”