Invaders (a sequel to Vaz, Tiona and Disc) (17 page)

Tiona thought about it for a minute. Essentially they’d be committing the seventy-five meter saucer for nearly six weeks to bring back a ‘roid that might not pay off very well. If they couldn’t actually use it in space, cutting it into smaller pieces that could be lowered down to the Earth by saucers wouldn’t be a trivial undertaking. It was also a mission that might bring them some bad publicity if the wrong people found out about it before the asteroid was safely in LEO beside the habitat. Finally, Dante would be pissed about the waste of money when he found out about it. “Is your crew all okay with this long, low gravity mission?”

Rob said, “Yeah the crew’s pretty excited about it. We’ve started loading extra supplies in hopes you’d approve.”

“Okay, I say go for it. I think we
need
to stretch our reach. Don’t talk it up though. If my brother or the other finance types at GSI find out about it there’ll be hell to pay.”

“They’re
going
to find out sometime…” Rob said in a puzzled and apprehensive tone.

Tiona laughed, “Then we’ll ask forgiveness, but they won’t be able to tell us we can’t do it.”

“Oh,” Rob said in a considering tone. “We’re almost ready to take off, so nobody’ll have much time to say anything before we’re gone. But I’ll tell them not to call back and talk to anyone about it while we’re out there.”

Tiona was about to call her mother when her AI said, “You have a call from Carolyn West.”

Puzzled, Tiona said, “Who’s Carolyn West?”

Of course her AI replied in a calm tone belying the weight of the message, “She was the young woman that you met at Nolan Marlowe’s house yesterday.”

Actively thinking about something other than Nolan’s betrayal
had
been making Tiona feel better. That fact hit her with full force as her mood sank when her AI reminded her of the bubbly blonde.
Why don’t AIs have enough intuition to know that you don’t want to talk to certain people?!
Tiona snarled to herself as she started to refuse the call. Then she decided that part of getting on with her life was going to require that she dealt with Nolan and this… bimbo. “Put her through… Hello?”

“Hi Ms. Gettnor!” Tiona recognize the bright bubbly voice of the blonde from yesterday morning.
How can she call me acting like she’s in a good mood? Shouldn’t she at least sound a little apprehensive?
Carolyn went on, “I’m just calling because I think there’s been a misunderstanding,” the girl said cheerfully. “Nolan and I are just friends. He’s such a cool guy and he seemed to be kind of lost so my friends and I have invited him out a few times…” Her voice took on a sober tone, “But I wouldn’t want you to think that we pose any threat to your relationship with him. He says you’re not answering his calls, and I know that’s just
crushing
him.”

Tiona slowly let out the deep breath she’d taken in preparation to blasting the girl. Something about the girl’s cheerful tone, her concern about Nolan and the fact that she seemed concerned about how Tiona and Nolan got along had abruptly disengaged Tiona’s anger.
This girl’s come between me and Nolan! How can I possibly be thinking about how nice she is!

But she was.

Tentatively, Tiona said, “You’re just friends?” To her amazement, she felt a little bit embarrassed about the suspicious tone she’d just used.

“”Oh yes!” Carolyn said. She proceeded to tell Tiona about how she’d met Nolan at a party thrown by one of Nolan’s friends and he’d seemed lonely to her. She’d gathered him in and taken him out partying with her and her friends. She explained how he’d gotten so drunk that night that Carolyn had stayed over to feed him some Tylenol and bagels in the morning. She described a few of their other outings, making them seem like delightful fun that Tiona wished she could go on. “He says he hardly ever gets to see you,” Carolyn said, seeming sad for Nolan without sounding reproachful of Tiona, “with you being so busy and all. We really felt for him, such a nice guy, all down in the dumps. So, we’ve been trying to cheer him up,” she finished with an upbeat tone.

To Tiona’s astonishment, she found herself feeling guilty. As if it was
Tiona’s
fault that this cheerful blonde and her dark smoky friend were sleeping over at her boyfriend’s house! “Um…” she said, trying to think how to respond.

Carolyn said, “I know! You should come out with us tonight! There’s a concert with local bands out at the Eno…”

Against all her better judgment, Tiona found herself asking, “What time?” Having collected the details, she found herself agreeing to “consider showing up,” though she didn’t commit to anything more than the possibility.

Tiona sat several minutes, confounded by the effect Carolyn had had on her. The force of the girl’s personality was astonishing.

Tiona called her mother. “Hi Mom, sorry I didn’t answer yesterday. What’s up?”

“Oh,” Lisanne said, “I was so hoping you could visit during your layover this time. I’m wanting you to meet our young neighbor, but I’m guessing we’ve missed our chance with you this stopover. You must be about to take off?”

“Okay…” Tiona said, puzzled as to why her mother would be so anxious for her to meet one of their farm neighbors. “I’m not actually going out on the next trip to the belt.” She paused a moment to think, for a moment considering that she might visit her parents that evening, but then remembering that she might decide to go to the concert on the Eno. “Maybe I could come by tomorrow night?”

“That’d be wonderful,” Lisanne said, sounding surprisingly excited. “We’ll have dinner.”

***

Tiona approved her AI’s query to pay the cover charge in order to enter the Festival for the Eno. She moved into the area uncertainly, realizing that the Festival was much bigger than she’d expected. Of course, she
could
just contact Nolan or Carolyn to ask where they were, but she had the idea that she would watch them from a distance. She thought seeing how they interacted when they didn’t know she was observing would give her a much better feeling for what the nature of their relationship
really
was.

However, it looked like just finding them might be fairly difficult. There was a large craft fair that Tiona walked through. She glanced around at the people, but only stopped at one stand that had some remarkable paintings. Stepping away from it, she continued toward the sound of the music.

Arriving at a large open area in the trees, she saw hundreds of people sitting and standing around a bandstand listening to rowdy blues music. Tiona stopped by a pole at the back to study the crowd, her eyes roaming back and forth.

Somehow she didn’t feel surprised when her eyes finally caught on Carolyn. The blonde was enthusiastically dancing with the beautiful dark girl that had also been at Nolan’s place. A couple of other girls and two young men danced with them. Tiona realized her eyes weren’t the only ones fixed on the stunning young women. Their eyes were caught, perhaps not so much because the girls were pretty, but instead because they were so animated.

Or Carolyn was just so excited and happy that the others were having fun just being with her?

Tiona found she couldn’t help but smile at their antics. It was another minute or so before she realized that Nolan was sitting near them. Carolyn tried to get him up to dance, but he shook his head. However, he couldn’t keep his eyes off Carolyn and her friends—any more than anyone else.

Tiona settled in to watch for a while.

After about fifteen minutes, Tiona decided she wasn’t going to learn anything more by just watching. She began picking her way through the crowd.

Tiona pictured herself walking up and sitting down beside Nolan. He’d be surprised, then they’d have a serious talk, probably walking away from the crowd to do it.

Instead, Carolyn saw her when Tiona was probably still fifty feet away. She began enthusiastically waving, then jumping up and down. “Tiona! Tiona, over here!” Carolyn started threading her way through the crowd, toward Tiona. People nearby started turning to see what Carolyn was excited about and prompted by Carolyn’s shouting her name, began to recognize her. Although Tiona was moderately famous after the trip to rescue the astronauts, the furor had died down and nowadays she was only recognized occasionally.

Tiona felt like she wanted to grit her teeth, but then Carolyn arrived and threw her arms around her. Over Carolyn’s shoulder Tiona saw Nolan rising to his feet, a hangdog look on his face. Carolyn started bouncing up and down in time with the music and soon Tiona found herself doing the same.
Damn it’s hard to stay grumpy and serious around this girl!
Tiona thought.

Hours later, as she wobbled away from the park, having had too much to drink, Tiona realized she’d never had that serious talk she’d planned to have with Nolan. Carolyn had quickly drawn her into dancing, singing along, drinking, laughing and generally having an exuberantly awesome time. Tiona honestly couldn’t remember having had so much fun before. She and Nolan had been part of Carolyn’s party rather than a couple and it hadn’t been uncomfortable at all.

As she plopped into the seat of her car, Tiona thought exhaustedly,
That girl’s a tornado of fun!

Then she pondered whether she could blame Nolan for… whatever had happened.

And wondered how much of the blame for their foundering relationship belong at her own feet.

I’ll call him tomorrow,
she resolved.

***

When Levon sickened of holing up in her cramped cabin and returned to the bridge, the officers that were present turned their eyes toward her, though not their muzzles. As she climbed onto her rest, she decided they looked afraid.
Probably because of what happened to Second,
she thought. At first, Levon felt concern over what this fear might do to the morale of her team, but then decided that whatever camaraderie they’d had prior to transition was already gone.
Better to have them fearful, than to have them constantly questioning my decisions.
Levon tried not to think about whether her decisions
should
be questioned.

Levon had been on the bridge for some time when one of them finally spoke. It was Third Officer. “Captain, did you want to send a manned mission to the third planet?”

Acerbically, Levon said, “And which one is the ‘third’ planet?”

“Um,” Levon heard her swallow. “The binary planet? Remember, the larger member of the binary has an oxygen atmosphere? By the mission directives we should survey the biosphere and begin tailoring viruses to eliminate any problem species.”

Levon felt glad that she still had her back to the bridge officers so they couldn’t read her dismay at the realization that she should have already sent such a mission. Swinging about in a fury, she said, “You
haven’t
sent the mission yet?! What are you waiting for?!” Third Officer reared back in panic from this onslaught and didn’t respond for a moment so Levon continued, “The longer we wait, the more propellant it’s going to take! Of
course
we want to send the mission, the sooner the better!”

Placatingly Third Officer submissively dipped her muzzle. In a rush, though calmly and quietly, she said, “We’ve begun prepping the lander. Fifth Officer has designated a crew to bring out of hibernation and the genegineers have begun bio-modding them so that they’ll tolerate the low density atmosphere and high gravity. Second Officer has worked out several possible transfer orbits.” She swallowed, “Really, there’s been no delay… We’ve been getting it ready… we’ll be able to launch shortly…” she trailed off.

“Launch as
soon
as it’s ready!” Levon had a sudden thought, “Is the atmosphere thick enough for aerobraking?” Without aerobraking they would have to provide the lander with even more of their precious propellant.

“Yes, aerobraking and parachutes should be sufficient for landing. Also there are enormous bodies of liquid water on the planet. They’ll be able to use the water for propellant if they need to launch again rather than staying behind.”

Levon blinked, “Why
wouldn’t
they stay behind and begin prepping the planet?!”
If it wasn’t for the high gravity and the thin atmosphere I’d stay myself.

If for no other reason than just to avoid enduring another solar perihelion.

“Um… what if the sapients… endanger them? The directive says that if they don’t think they can survive attacks by the local lifeforms, they’re to return to the ship—bringing biologic specimens so that the genegineers in home system can plan their bio-obliteration.”

Did they forget to tell me that this planet had intelligent life? Or,
Levon almost shuddered
, did they tell me and I didn’t notice… Or forgot?
She hoped that her dismay and astonishment hadn’t evidenced itself on her face. In all the systems that the Rendor peoples had spread to so far, they’d never encountered another intelligent race. Levon had thought they never would. Now, the question was, how technologically advanced were these aliens. “Give me a rundown on what we know about their technological capabilities.”