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“A few left, according to our manifest,” Spring said. “They’re supposed to be on their way.”

“Well, they better be here before I button up, or they’re waiting until Verdant gets back,” Roy stated as he stepped onto the bridge. At his command station, a red light was blinking over the com system, and Roy flipped the switch that opened the connection. “Haylee, it’s Roy.”

“Hi, boss,”
Haylee’s voice replied. The connection was not good, a lot of noise on the line, but she was understandable. “
I’ve got a problem. I just talked to my parents in Portland.”

“What’s wrong?”

“My dad was trying to shovel out from a layer of ash that was heavier than he expected, and he’s gone and jacked up his back again. He’s in the hospital, and Mom needs serious help fixing things up and cleaning out the ash all into everything—”

“Say no more,” Roy said at once. “If you need to go help your parents, go.”

“
Boss, you know I don’t want to leave you hanging without a pilot like this…”

“Are you kidding? I know half a dozen pilots I could call that would jump at the chance to see Mars!” In fact, as he thought about it, one obvious candidate came to his mind immediately. “I’ll get a pilot. You go help your folks.”

“Thanks, boss. You’re the best!”

“Don’t sweat it,” Roy said. “
Makalu
, out.” He switched off the com, and considered the conversation, and his statement that he could find another pilot. “I hope,” he muttered to himself.

Then he put in a call to the first pilot he’d thought of.

~

Julian was alone in his office when Kris arrived, wearing for the first time the cream-colored shirt, green blazer and trousers of Verdant’s staff. Julian looked up, and smiled immediately. “The outfit suits you. Not that I imagine even a burlap sack could look bad on you.”

“Flatterer,” Kris smiled back as she approached his desk. “I’ve been monitoring what communications we can get from Earth from here.”

“Yes, so have I,” he said, gesturing for her to come around to his side of the desk. On his workstation, he had notes and transcripts set up in organized files about the desktop. “It seems official channels have switched to new low-power signals that don’t carry out here. But I’m seeing a lot from unofficial channels.”

Kris moved to the desk and leaned over to look. Even after the last few days, she was good at maintaining a professional distance and demeanor during working hours, even when they were alone. Julian found himself approving of her professionalism, even as much as he found himself more attracted to her each day.

“Yes, I saw much of the same things,” Kris nodded. “Of the people who even believe we left, most of them still seem to believe we should open ourselves up to as many refugees as we can stuff in here.”

“And that America,” Julian added, “is within its rights to take us over if we refuse. Nothing I’ve seen of official comments seems to challenge the idea, which suggests tacit approval to me.”

“I agree. Have you heard from the
Makalu
yet today?”

“The last message came in early this morning,” Julian replied. “Roy said the Americans were being cooperative, the supplies were loaded, and everything seems to match the manifests. He expected the passengers who asked to return to Verdant with him in the morning, their time. He was going to do another check of the ship while he has the crew check the cargo again, before they leave.”

“Which is when?”

“They are scheduled to leave Earth at sixteen hundred GMT. Roy’s under orders to call us at fifteen hundred to confirm his status… less than an hour from now.”

“Mm.” Kris nodded, stepped back around the desk, and sat down in a facing chair. “We talked last night about the possibility of the U.S. doing something underhanded. What are your thoughts now?”

Julian considered. “Honestly? All this seems to be going too smoothly. Yes, I think they’re up to something. But I don’t know how to figure out what. We’re kind of at a disadvantage, here.”

“Kind of?” Kris repeated, and arched a playful eyebrow at him.

Julian smiled at his own understatement. “I mean, we have no way to accurately verify anything going on at the other end of this supply chain. We’re practically blind, dependent on what weak com signals we can intercept. Roy and his crew could have been co-opted or coerced… Silver’s staff could have been compromised, even with the precautions we took… the supplies could somehow be tainted or tampered with… or they could simply try to keep the
Makalu
, and somehow try to figure out how the Verdant drive works. And even if it gets destroyed before they can do that, it doesn’t help us get the supplies we need.”

Kris nodded. Clearly, she had been thinking along the same lines. “We need to consider the possibility that, when the
Makalu
gets here… we may not want to permit them to enter Verdant.”

“Are you suggesting stranding them once they get here?” Julian asked.

“Not necessarily,” Kris said. “Remember, they can always jump back to Earth. But they can also do that after they do something to damage us.”

Julian shook his head. “But why would they do that? They want us back! Everything we’ve intercepted tells us that they want us back!”

“I agree,” Kris said. “But the means they choose to…
encourage
us to come back… may be heavy-handed.” She looked at Julian meaningfully. “And they could easily get out of hand.”

After a pause, Julian said, “I see what you’re getting at. In case negotiations go awry.”

“Exactly.”

Julian reached for the com to CnC. “Reya, get Dr. Silver up here ASAP. And try to get ahold of Dr. Rios. We need to make some plans.”

~

At seven-thirty, President Lambert walked out of the residence wing of the High House. Enu Thompson stood waiting for him not far from the doors. “What’s our situation?” Lambert asked.

“As planned,” Thompson said. “The intel we got from Walter Gordon allowed us to get our package aboard the freighter last night. We have everything in-place, and Kline is ready to go. Any words of encouragement you want to pass on to him while he’s here?”

“No,” Lambert said. “Just tell him to bring that satellite back, and get him going.”

~

Just before eight, Roy was on the spine of the ship, examining the hull personally, when Spring stuck his head out of the spine airlock and called out, “Time, sir!”

Roy swiveled his head around to face his crewman. “Okay, I’m coming.” Then he turned back to the conduits he had been examining by hand a moment before. He gave one last pass with his hand over the seam, satisfied that it was well-sealed… he had to admit, the government service crew had done a great job cleaning up the
Makalu
after passing through the ash clouds. But he still wanted to make sure everything passed muster himself, before he took his ship back up there.

Finally, he stood up and returned to the spine airlock, climbed down into the freighter, and made his way to the bridge. Spring was waiting for him there, checking over the com equipment. Roy gave everything a look himself as he sat at his station.

“Is the transmit booster registering?” Roy asked as he examined the com settings.

“It’s at one hundred percent,” Spring told him. “Anytime you’re ready.”

Roy nodded, and opened the connection. “This is the
Makalu
, calling Verdant.
Makalu
calling Verdant. Time is fifteen-hundred GMT, and this is our status report. I’ve gone over the ship again, and everything looks good for launch. We’ve had a personnel issue, though: Haylee, my pilot, has had to go to Portland to help her folks. I’ve put in a call for another pilot, who I’m waiting for right now. Don’t worry, though, it’s someone you know…”

Roy paused when he heard voices outside of the bridge, and a voice he recognized. He pointed at Spring and gestured at him to go and bring the newcomer to the bridge. As Spring got up and headed for the outer bay, Roy said into the com, “Yes, perfect, she just got here. So we should be able to leave on time at sixteen hundred.” He looked up as the pilot entered the bridge, and he waved her over to his station. “Hold on, Verdant, the pilot would like to say hello.”

Roy leaned back, allowing the pilot to come forward and approach the mike. “Hello, Daddy, it’s Anise! I’m so glad you guys are okay! Can’t wait to see you!”

Anise leaned back, smiling at Roy, who grinned back at her. Into the com, he said, “We are proceeding as scheduled. We’re still expecting a few last passengers to arrive soon, but I plan to button ‘er up at fifteen-thirty, so they haven’t got much time. If I haven’t heard from you before the hour is out, I’ll assume it’s okay to take off. Will call again if something unexpected happens.
Makalu
, out.”

Roy closed the connection, just as he heard more voices from the crew bay. He turned to Anise, who was already in the pilot’s seat and getting herself organized. “So, we’re leaving in an hour?” she asked.

“Unless we hear different,” Roy replied. “Anxious to see Ceo Lenz, are we?”

Anise turned to him. “You don’t know! I was a wreck when we all thought something horrible had happened to Verdant. Knowing Daddy’s okay… well, I can’t wait to see him again!”

“Well, it’ll happen sooner than you’d believe,” Roy grinned back at her. “So get comfortable, and I’ll be back later.”

Roy left the bridge and found Spring near the crew airlock, with two people standing before him. Spring looked up when Roy appeared, and nodded at the two people next to him. “Our last passengers, sir. This is Mattie Horn… and this is Dr. Emilio Vasqual.”

“Good timing,” Roy said, shaking both of their hands in turn. “We were going to lock up in another half-hour. Your seats are over there, and we plan to take off in an hour.”

Mattie Horn nodded, and started towards the bay with the seating. Dr. Vasqual looked about anxiously, and addressed Spring. “My samples were supposed to be delivered already. Are they here yet?”

“Samples?” Roy asked.

Vasqual turned and looked at Roy, seemingly trying to decide whether he should bother to reply. To prompt him, Roy added, “I’m the Captain of this ship.”

“Oh,” Vasqual said. “Of course, Captain. Well, I have agricultural samples that I’m taking back to Verdant. We’re hoping to use them to improve crop yields.”

“Your cargo arrived a half-hour ago,” Spring volunteered, and indicated their general location amidst the rest of the cargo. Apparently satisfied that they were aboard, Vasqual nodded. Then he leaned at Spring and asked, “What’s going to happen to them? Everybody’s talking about some weird drive you have, and there’s talk of radiation. I don’t want my samples damaged.”

“There’s no radiation,” Roy told him reassuringly. “The drive won’t affect them at all. So just relax, and take your seats before we close up.”

He left Spring to deal with the passengers, and headed to the engine bays. All of Dr. Silver’s staff, and his remaining crewmembers, had been delivered from their overnight quarters. Valeria and the rest of Dr. Silver’s staff had taken the time to change out of the clothing they had worn to their overnight lodging, and into clothing that had been waiting for them on the
Makalu
… a precaution against any bugs or other devices that might have been planted on their clothing while they were asleep. Roy planned to throw the clothing out, the moment they locked up.

As he approached, Valeria was directing the staff to get ready for translation, as she studied a workstation herself. She looked up as Roy approached. “Morning, Captain.”

“Morning,” Roy said. “Everyone ready to go?”

“Pretty much,” Valeria replied. “Everything checks out okay, so we’re just waiting to hit orbit to get the ball rolling.”

“Glad to hear it. The last of our passengers are here, so we’ll be closing up at fifteen-thirty GMT… about twenty minutes from now. Let me know if you need anything.”

“You bet,” Valeria said, smiling back.

Roy then went into the adjacent bay, where his engine crew was working. “How’s everything look?”

One of the crew, Blake, turned to him. “Everything looks one hundred,” he said. “We’re almost done with the maintenance checks. We got all the kinks out of her last night, so we’re ready to hit orbit.”

“Okay,” Roy nodded. “We’re closing up in twenty, and taking off at the top of the hour.”

“We’ll be ready!”

Satisfied that everything was well in-hand on-board the ship, Roy descended the ramp from the crew airlock, and stepped out onto the tarmac. Not far from the ramp, Hunter and Goldie stood watching the general activity around the freighter, and the soldiers watching them in-turn. Goldie looked at Roy upon his approach, and asked, “What’s your status?”

“Everything looks good,” Roy told them. “The passengers are all here, the engines check out, Silver’s people are all ready, and our pilot is here.”

Goldie blinked noticeably. “Pilot? Where did our pilot go?”

Hunter turned to her, and said, “Happened while you were asleep. Haylee, the original pilot, went home to Oregon. Roy got Anise Lenz here for the return trip.”

Goldie looked in turn at Roy, then at Hunter. She finally addressed Hunter: “You saw her?”

“I admitted her,” Hunter replied. “It’s okay.”

Roy said to Goldie, “He said you all knew each other.”

Goldie nodded. “Just making sure it was someone we could verify.” Something occurred to her then. “Captain, you don’t know personally the people flying back with us, correct?”

“That’s right, I don’t,” Roy admitted.

Goldie thought a moment. “Do me a favor: Try to get pictures of your passengers, and send that to Verdant with their idents before we take off.”

“We’ve been checking their idents as they came aboard,” Roy stated. “They all checked.”

“Humor me, would you?” Goldie said. “Just to be on the safe side.”

Roy considered her request, and after a moment, he nodded. “Let’s see what I can do. We’re locking up in fifteen, and taking off at sixteen-hundred GMT. You guys ready?”

“We’ll be ready when you are,” Hunter said, nodding at the Wasps sitting fifty meters away on the tarmac.