The officer saluted, and several of the team gathered up Teresa's inert form and bundled her into one of the cars. Two men drove off with her, and three more officers climbed into the second car and raced off, leaving one last officer and the Commander.
Welness motioned Harriet and Alice towards the remaining car. "We'll give you a lift to the spaceport, but that's it. You'll have to organise a pilot," she said apologetically.
"No problem."
They climbed in, and the car shot through the gates and roared down the road, lights flashing. Welness turned in her seat to address Harriet. "Tell your super I'll be over to see him soon. The planets in this system have been playing lone hands for much too long, and I meant what I said about cooperation."
"Excellent. He'll be so pleased."
Welness nodded, and the rest of the journey passed in silence.
At the spaceport, Harriet and Alice were dropped off next to Teresa's ship, and they watched in silence as the cruiser tore across the landing field, lights flashing. "Impressive outfit," said Harriet.
Alice laughed. "If you say so."
"What does that mean?"
"First they fell for your daft superintendent trick, and now they're off chasing their own tails."
Harriet stared at her. "What did you do?"
Alice smiled and took out her commset. "I sent them a little text message while you were trying to get Welness off our backs. Oh, please help, they've kidnapped my husband!"
Harriet stood, open-mouthed. Wasting the Commander's time, making a false report, sending the entire security detail on a wild goose chase … just so Welness couldn't fly them home? She knew she ought to tear a strip off Alice, lecture her on the law, but frankly she thought it was brilliant and she wished she'd thought of it herself. "Yes. Well. Don't make a habit of it."
"That's okay, you can thank me later." Alice reached up for the fighter's access hatch.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"Home. Are you coming?"
"You're not flying that thing," said Harriet firmly.
"I know." Alice held up a small, square device. "I filched this from Teresa's pockets after you shot her."
"What is it?"
"Remember how the ship flew here from the settlement and landed itself?"
"Sure."
"This is the remote. With this we can go anywhere, and it's completely automatic." Alice aimed the device at the fighter and pressed a button. There was a double beep and the navigation lights blinked. Alice tucked the remote away and opened the hatch in the belly of the fighter. She hauled the ladder down and started to climb, but when she realised Harriet wasn't following, she turned to give her an exasperated look. "What?"
"We can't just—"
"Harriet, when's the last time you drove a car?"
"Fair point, but … space travel? Between planets?"
"There's a lot less traffic in space."
"What if we run out of fuel?"
"Last one to Dismolle's a loser," called Alice, and she climbed the rest of the way into the fighter.
Harriet stood on the landing pad, arms crossed. She dreaded the idea of strapping into the tiny vessel with Alice at the controls, no matter how confident the teenager was. Then she realised she was fussing over nothing, because the ship had already proven itself capable of flying, navigating and landing by itself. Worst case, they'd end up in orbit around Dismolle, unable to land, and someone would fly out from the orbiter and get them home.
Anyway, the alternative was to find some freelance pilot hanging around the spaceport, and from what she'd heard they were ten times worse than computers. Some were downright menaces, both to themselves and to everyone within blast range of their dodgy landings.
So, Harriet suppressed her misgivings and followed Alice up the ladder.
Chapter 29
Harriet was nervous as the fighter's engines burst into life, but Alice was in her element. While Harriet sat in the back with her fingers crossed, Alice selected their destination, checked it, then hit confirm.
Nothing happened.
Alice hit confirm again, but still nothing happened. "What's going on?" she asked.
Harriet started undoing her belts. "I knew this was a crazy idea. Come on, let's—"
"Obtaining clearance from the control tower," said the flight computer. "Clearance obtained. Departure authorised."
Alice pressed confirm for a third time, and the ship took off while Harriet was still scrambling to do up her belts. "A little warning next time?" protested Harriet.
"You mean there's going to be a next time?"
The ship soared into the sky, taking a much gentler course than Teresa's slam-it-and-up approach. Harriet realised it was the first time she'd actually felt comfortable aboard the thing … until they reached orbit, and she discovered they were weightless. Her stomach rose into her throat, and she clung to her seat, feeling green to the core. "Alice?"
"I'm looking, I'm looking!"
Alice scanned the console, and Harriet hoped she didn't hit the reverse thrusters … or the emergency eject. "Just tell the computer what you want!" she suggested.
"Computer, gravity on," said Alice.
"No it isn't," said the computer.
"Can you put it on, please?"
"Complying."
Weight returned, gradually increasing until everything was the right way up. Harriet's stomach returned to normal, and she relaxed her death grip on the seat. "Now just get us home safely," she muttered.
The trip passed without incident, and as planet Dismolle grew larger Harriet felt a rush of relief. Of course, they were heading straight towards the thing, but she was confident the ship would be smart enough to avoid something as big as a planet.
It was. The planet slipped beneath the nose, and then the ship rolled over automatically and headed down through the atmosphere. The craft was buffeted and shaken, but they emerged safely above an expanse of lush green landscape. Then the thrusters cut in, and they tore across the landscape towards the Dismolle spaceport.
"You've better get landing permission," called Harriet.
"I'm on it," said Alice. She turned to the console. "Get landing permission, please. Dismolle spaceport."
"I know," said the computer. "I heard the other one."
"That was Harriet. I'm Alice, by the way."
"Pleasure to meet
