“Hey,” Deck murmured,gently nudging Finnegan’s arm, “we’re in this together. One of thekindest men I’ve ever known said that wehave a duty to help other humans out here – and he was right.”
“Was it your father whosaid that?”
“No, it was CommanderTalako Jacoway.” Her voice warmed as she added, “He’s a very goodfriend of mine.”
Moira perked up at thatnews. “Is he a romantic interest of yours? Will I get to meethim?”
“Yes, he is and…” Naichepaused and somewhat wistfully added, “….and I sincerely hope you’llget to meet him. If not on this mission – at least onUniterrae.”
Moira nodded thoughtfullybefore asking, “Deck…what if some people – some of us that is,don’t want to go to Uniterrae? Do you think they’ll be able to stayon Jileesa instead?”
“Who doesn’t want to go toUniterrae?”
“A group of us weretalking about it, today at lunch….” Finnegan stopped and looked upat Naiche. She interrupted herself, complaining, “You and yourcrewmates never join us for meals in the canteen – why isthat?”
Avoiding the truth – thatthe Lovelace crewfound the Aurora’s cuisine off-putting, Decker gave her a tight-lipped smile.“Oh, we have all of those meal packs from the shuttle to eat up.”She purposely gave the impression that the packs needed to beconsumed before they went bad, knowing the girl wasn’t aware thatDecker would be looking to retire before those packs officiallyexpired.
“I would think you’d allbe ready for a hot meal by now.”
“Meal packs areself-heating. You just pull the tab and ten seconds later – boom,hot meal.” She could tell Moira was about to raise other objectionsto the idea of meal packs so Naiche adroitly redirected theconversation. “You were saying something aboutUniterrae?”
“Oh, yes. Some peopledon’t like the idea of living on Uniterrae. It soundsrather…overwhelming – billions of people, having to think aboutmoney, and all the choices you said we’re going to have tomake—”
“Hey, it’s not as if we’regonna throw you all in the deep end and say, ‘sink or swim.’ Therewill be a lot of support offered to all of you. Like we did for theChelmanians.” Decker proceeded to tell Moira aboutLovelace’s discovery ofthe ancestors of the Valiant’ssister-ship, Intrepid. “I’m sure the Uniterraengovernment could even arrange for you to meet with some of them.After all, they’re sort of like your cousins.”
“I suppose…but does thatmean we all do have to go to Uniterrae – whether we want to ornot?”
“That’s not our call.”Expelling an uneasy sigh, Naiche said, “If someone is determined tostay on Jileesa – then, I guess, ultimately that would be up to theLignatians.”
“Oh, if that’s the case,then I’m sure it will be fine – the Lignatians would do anythingfor us.”
“What makes you say that?What are they like?”
“They’re the all-knowinggivers.” When Deck pressed for a better description, Finneganhesitated. “Well, I’ve only ever seen one of them – on launch dayfor the Aurora.Captain Maddox has completed over seventeen age-cycles and saysthey used to come amongst us regularly in the days of her youth,but only one does now. I don’t know why. That one I met was quitestriking, though – smooth and bluish-colored, without features, andglowing like a lamp. Their voices are identical to the onethe Aurora uses.”
“Mechanical, youmean?”
“I suppose so.”
Deck grimaced as the alienstook shape in her imagination. “They sound seven kinds of creepy tome.”
Moira stopped dead and gaveNaiche an affronted glare. “That is most unkind. You seem to havetaken a dislike to the Lignatians – for no good reason.”
“Not at all,” Deckerretorted, willingly giving the false impression that she wasresponding to the former accusation, rather than the latter one.She whistled for Kay who was nearly out of sight. “Let’s head back– see what kind of solution the scientists have come upwith.”
***
Kennedy was back in thelab, listening to Lateef and Brodie enthuse about the reprogrammingthey’d done on one of the hand scanners. Bly was saying, “Based onall the tests we’ve been able to run on this remnant, therecalibrations work and the scanner can now reliably detect aveil-worm. Unfortunately, that’s based on an N of one, since wecan’t get a larger sample size to do more testing.”
A cheery voice rang outacross the lab. “That’s good enough for me – I trust it.” They alllooked up to see that Decker and Kay had burst into theroom.
Con rubbed his handstogether and nodded. “I agree with Deck. This sounds like it’llwork great. Perform the same mods on our hand scanners and I’lltell Lindstrom he can definitely green-light this mission.” Hesmiled at Naiche. “We’ll leave in the morning at first light.Speaking of which, where’s your little shadow?”
“Maddox is leadingsomething called, ‘a guided meditation’ for her crew right now andFinnegan said she couldn’t miss it.”
“Oh, yes, Sanaa alwaysgoes to those, as well,” Bly said. “They do it at least twice daily– Maddox says it’s vital to maintain their equilibrium.”
“Maybe they should do itmore often,” Con joked. “Giving Moira something to do besidesfollow us around would help maintain Deck’s equilibrium,too.”
“Tell me about it.”Kennedy’s soft chuckles died abruptly when Deck added, “Though, Idid promise her that we’d all four have dinner with themtonight.”
Bly said, “You did?Why?”
Kennedy stared at Decker,waiting for the punchline, instead all he got was an apologeticexpression. Puzzled by this sudden desire to break weird crimsonbread with the Aurora crew, he asked, “Have you forgotten about that gray so-called‘meat’? We’re not that desperate yet – there’re still plenty ofmeal packs in the—”
“I know – but it lookslike us avoiding their canteen is starting to hurt their feelings.I tried to get out of it, but Finnegan kept bringing it up. It’sobviously pretty important to her. How bad could one meal be? Theydo have fresh greens from their hydroponic gardens, you know.That’ll be good for a change.”
“Yeah, I asked Sanaa aboutthat,” Aqila retorted. “They only serve them steamed, with diluteacid and salt – nothing else.”
Decker scratched her headand shrugged. “It’s sorta like a warm salad, I guess.” She lookedup at Con. “Come on, we can do it – we ate roasted ash-mice onCentauria that one time. This can’t possibly be anyworse.”
Her brow creased
