New Title 1 (47 page)

Maria waited until the woman was a good distance from the kiosk where she had had the conversation, and was now in an area that was a bit removed from the other stores. Then she increased her pace and came up behind the woman.

“Excuse me,” Maria said, “did you drop this?”

The woman turned about and looked at Maria, then at her outstretched hand. In it, was an ident fob.

“Oh…” the woman immediately reached for her bag and rummaged around, then she pulled out her hand, and held up her own fob. “No, it wasn’t mine. See, mine is right here.”

“Oh, my mistake,” Maria said. Before the woman could turn and move on, Maria added, “I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation in the market back there. I understand that you would like to arrange a transit trade with a Verdant resident, in order to stay here?”

The woman looked at Maria, and looked about conspiratorially. “Are you trying to find one, too?”

“Actually, I may be able to help you. You see, I am a Verdant citizen, and I’ve decided to go back to Earth.”

The woman’s eyes immediately popped, and a smile crept across her face. “You have… you are? Do you want to—”

“Before we do anything else,” Maria stopped her, placing a hand gently on her arm and pulling her to a nearby wall, out of the way of passers-by. “I need to explain something to you. I am doing this against the wishes of my family. It is very important that they don’t realize I’m doing this. Therefore, if we switch these fobs, you must keep a very low profile, and avoid the authorities until the ship leaves. If you should get caught, you will have to leave, I will have to stay, and we will both get in serious trouble. Do you understand?”

The woman stared as Maria spoke. When she finished, the woman considered for a moment, then nodded. “Well, naturally, I don’t want to get caught. I can stay out of sight. Don’t worry.”

“I’m Maria Rios.”

The woman seemed to react to Maria’s name in confusion, or perhaps surprise—and for a moment, Maria panicked, afraid she had chosen the wrong person to attempt her switch—but in the next moment, the woman’s face smoothed over again, and Maria was sure she had put whatever concerns she had aside. “What’s your name?” Maria asked.

“I’m Emily… Emily Stearns.”

Maria nodded then, and held out her hand with the ident fob. The woman held out her hand, and Maria placed her fob in Emily’s hand, then plucked Emily’s fob from her hand and clutched it in her own.

“Remember,
Maria Rios
,” Maria said carefully. “We’ll both be in trouble if you get caught.”

Emily nodded. “Thank you…
Emily Stearns
. Thank you so very much!”

“Have a nice day,” Maria said. And with that, she turned and wandered back into the market, and was soon lost in the crowd.

There was a large crowd in the freighter bay in the morning when Julian, Reya and Aaron arrived from CnC. Many of the people were Verdant’s bay workers, many of them off-duty, but they were outnumbered by other Verdant professionals, engineers, scientists, and curiosity-seekers, all hoping to catch a glimpse of the process that had catapulted them across a significant part of the solar system.

There were also a large number of security personnel, mostly guarding the entrances to the freighter
Makalu
, checking idents, and allowing only select people aboard. Many more people were trying to talk their way aboard, offering numerous and inventive excuses over why they should be permitted, why their exclusion from the permitted list was surely an oversight, why people would be regretful if they were denied entry. But the security officers dutifully ignored every excuse, and only allowed those on their lists to come aboard.

“What a zoo,” Reya commented as they entered from the nearest lift… they were still a significant distance from the freighter. “I think we’re going to have to restrict bay access for awhile, just to maintain order and safety.”

“Agreed,” Julian nodded. “See to it after the test-flight.”

They worked their way through the crowd, most of whom parted agreeably when they saw the Ceo, Eo and Coo approaching in a group. A few people applauded them as they passed, which struck Julian as particularly ironic, considering they had had absolutely nothing to do with the bold move that had likely saved their lives. (He assumed the day that news came out would be an interesting one.) Others shouted questions about the ship, about Verdant, about the impending flight, about Earth, about the day they would all return… none of which were responded to by Julian and the others, beyond shrugs and “don’t know”s.

Abruptly, Julian found himself confronting Walter Gordon, who seemed about to blow. “Ceo Lenz! Your security people won’t let me aboard my own ship! I demand to see what’s going on in there!”

“Sorry, Mister Walter,” Julian said as evenly as possible. “At the moment, this project is classified, and we’re limiting access to essential personnel only.”

“This is outrageous!” Gordon railed. “Taking my ship without authorization or the owner’s consent is a violation of the U.N. charter—”

“Except,” Julian interrupted, “during an emergency in wartime, when due process is considered to be too slow to be effective. Sorry, Mister Gordon, but this situation applies.”

“What emergency? No one’s dying around here!” Gordon insisted. “You’re just inventing this stuff in order to justify stealing my ship! I’m going to sue Verdant for every credit it has—”

“You’re certainly welcome to do so,” Reya jumped in. “As soon as you get home to file your complaint, of course.” With that, she bodily herded him out of Julian’s way so he could continue on.

Finally they reached the freighter’s cargo bay entrance. The security officers stood aside for Julian and Aaron to pass, while Reya moved to speak to the ranking security officer on the deck before following them in. Julian and Aaron simply followed the crowds to the engine bays, and the newly-rechristened “Verdant drive.”

They entered the bay containing the drive, immediately noticing a black-and-yellow painted strut that passed close to the entranceway and through the bulkhead, requiring them to step over it to enter. Most of the staff in the bay, including Dr. Silver, looked up at their arrival, and after checking a last reading on one of the workstations, she moved in their direction.

“So,” Julian said when they were in earshot, “how’s it going?”

“Very well,” Dr. Silver said. She indicated a number of people crowded around one workstation, one of which was Valeria Epstein. “Our mathematicians are giving their equations one more once-over, and everything looks set for our test flight.”

“Great,” Aaron said. “When?”

In response, Dr. Silver looked back at the mathematicians, who all seemed to be nodding in satisfaction and smiling at each other. She turned back to Aaron and Julian. “I’d say right now.”

“Excellent,” Julian smiled. “Who’s going to fly this thing?”

“Well,” Silver replied, “the freighter can be conventionally flown by its regular pilot. Captain Grand has already talked to her, and she’s apparently volunteered to take her out. Then our people will trigger the translation from here, out, and then back. Then the pilot brings us in conventionally.”

“How far away were you thinking of getting from Verdant, to give you a safety margin?”

“I’m confident to say we won’t need one upon leaving,” Dr. Silver stated. She pointed to a sphere, roughly twice the diameter of a soccer ball and covered with electronics components, seated in a cradle at the rear of the bay. “We have the first test-bed with us, which we’ll use as our advance probe. We simply push it out of an airlock and let it run a preprogrammed sequence. It will go out, take readings to confirm its location, and come back. We examine the readings to make sure we have the correct settings… and then we go ourselves. We’ll add a few miles’ cushion on the return trip, if you’d like.”

“Please,” Julian said. “Just to be on the prudent side.”

“Well, if that’s settled,” Dr. Silver said, “why don’t we get this thing going?”

Reya had just walked in when Dr. Silver had spoken those last words. “What? You’re ready already?”

“Yes, they are,” Julian said. “So let’s get everyone cleared out of here, and get the ball rolling.”

“Fantastic,” Reya said, though her demeanor was somewhat less than excited. In fact, she still harbored ill-will towards Dr. Silver’s device, and she wanted to make sure she was as far away from it as possible when it activated. Abruptly, she windmilled her arms to get everyone’s attention. “All ashore that’s going ashore!” Then she began herding people towards the exits, making sure there were no stragglers.

In her haste, she almost ran into Roy Grand, who had appeared from forward, and now approached Julian, Aaron and Dr. Silver. “Sounds like you guys are ready?”

“We are,” Dr. Silver replied. “Is your pilot still willing to fly the freighter?”

“Are you kidding?” Roy grinned. “Haylee figures she’ll go down in history. I couldn’t keep her away!”

“That’s fine,” Julian said. “But I suggest you leave everyone else behind, except for essential personnel. This is a test-flight, after all. And for the record, if you have any reservations about being aboard—”

“No, sir,” Roy answered at once. “She’s my ship. Where
Makalu
goes, I go.”

“Very good,” Julian said. “Then let’s plan to get you into space in thirty minutes.”

“You got it, Ceo,” Roy said, and quickly turned on a heel and headed forward to the cockpit.

Once he was gone, Julian turned to Dr. Silver. “Doctor, I realize this is your project. But I’d feel better if you stayed behind, too, if your people can function without you standing over their shoulder.”

“Ceo,” Dr. Silver stated, “I assure you, this will be a safe and simple procedure.”

“Simple?” Julian repeated.

Dr. Silver smiled, conceding the point, and shrugged. “Either way, there’s absolutely no need to worry.”

“Then you won’t mind indulging your Ceo and staying behind,” Julian said, leaving no room to question his intent. “You can keep in touch with them by com, if you need to.”

Dr. Silver shook her head. “There’ll be no need: My people can do their jobs.” She turned and approached the teams at the workstations, explaining to them in turn what they needed to do. Satisfied, Julian left the engine bay and headed for the cargo locks, leaving Aaron behind to wait for Dr. Silver.

When Julian exited the freighter to the bay, he saw Reya directing the security teams, who had pushed the crowds back from the freighter and established a new cordon, along the far wall of the bay. They were apparently also keeping Walter Gordon at bay, ignoring his shouted demands to get access to the command staff or his ship. In another corner of the bay, a number of technical people had set up recording and communications equipment, to watch what was hopefully to be an historic occasion, rendered a bit more realistic to them by the fact that they would actually get to record the event from without this time, as opposed to riding blissfully unaware inside of it.

A few minutes later, Dr. Silver and Aaron exited the cargo lock, just as Roy Grand exited the crew lock and approached from the other direction. “We’re warming up,” Roy told Julian. “Be ready to go in twenty minutes.”

“Very good,” Julian said, motioning to a nearby dockmaster. “Issue a clear traffic notice. The
Makalu
takes off in twenty minutes.” The dockmaster nodded and moved off, working over his remote datapad. At the same time, Roy Grand went back into the
Makalu
, and after a moment, the crew and cargo bay doors began to close.

Julian stood by, watching the preparations being made for departure. In another moment, the access ramps would be closed off and retracted, leaving the freighter attached to the bay by moorings only. As he watched, Reya approached him.

“I can’t believe Dr. Rios didn’t want to come down to see this.”

Julian looked at her, surprised. “You hadn’t heard? Dr. Rios’ wife is missing. She went out the other day, and hasn’t been seen since.”

“You’re kidding,” Reya said. “Does he think she’s had another heart attack?”

Julian shook his head. “He didn’t act that way… I didn’t get details, but he seems to think something else is wrong with her. He’s just too upset right now… he didn’t seem even remotely interested in the tests.”

“I see,” Reya said quietly. After a moment, she added, “I hope she’s okay.”

The general commotion in the bay helped the time to pass relatively quickly. In seemingly no time at all, the warning lights and buzzers began to go off, signaling the imminent departure of the freighter. Observation ports along the bay receiving wall revealed the
Makalu
, preparing for a departure that would look like any other. In another minute, the moorings were cast off, and the capturing clamps released. There was a perceptible bump from within the bay, a sign that the freighter had cast off, and through the observation ports, the
Makalu
could be seen drifting downward out of the bay area. Then a faint puff from her steering ports began to bring her about and rotate her away from Verdant.

Julian noted a nearby communications station where Dr. Silver was standing. Kris Fawkes was also there, the first that Julian had seen her since arriving at the bay. She hovered out of the way of the technicians, but close enough to get a good look at everything that was happening.

Julian, Reya and Aaron moved to the station, noting that it had trained Verdant’s outboard cameras on the
Makalu
. Kris caught Julian’s eye, and she smiled in anticipation. “I feel like I’m watching… I don’t know… the first Moon launch, I think. It’s so exciting!”

Julian smiled and nodded. Then he leaned close and said, “When we’re done here, come see me in my office. We have an assignment to discuss.”

“Of course,” Kris replied, her smile fading just a bit, but only out of curiosity.

Dr. Silver noted Julian’s appearance by her side, and for his benefit, said, “The engineering staff reports no problems with power or control related to the installed system. They’re asking for confirmation to proceed to the next step… station-keeping, and launching of the probe.”