“I hope so.”
“How? I doubt you’d havejoined the UDC if your mother had lived.”
Pained at the thought ofmissing out on knowing Tal in anyversion of reality, Deck insisted, “It couldstill happen. Shimáá could have introduced us.” Knowing this tangent was leadingthem to a conversation she wasn’t ready to have, she ran her handplayfully down his arm. “Instead of trying to figure out all ofthese ‘what-ifs’…maybe we should take advantage of being together –and awake, in this universe….”
Jacoway grinned and said,“You do have thebest ideas,” before pulling her into a passionate kiss.
While that interlude provedextremely enjoyable, and actually enabled Decker to get a few hoursof sleep, it didn’t solve her problem. The dilemma was once againweighing heavily on her mind during her early morning run throughthe ship’s passageways with Con and Kayatennae. Afterwards, whenthey were strolling towards the mess hall, Deck was suddenly awareof Kennedy saying, “Hello? Anybody home in there?”
“What?”
“Twice I asked you if Talis meeting us for breakfast.”
“Yeah, he is. Sorry – I’mkind of distracted today.”
“No shit. And it isn’tjust today – itstarted before we even reached this place. What’s goingon?”
Kennedy listenedthoughtfully while Decker filled him in, only interjecting when shegot to the part about Jacoway wanting to live in the Centaurisettlements. “Why the hell would he want to do that?!”
“I know, right? It seemslike only those of us who fought at the front still remember howbad things were.”
They arrived at the messhall, causing a lull in the conversation. As they walked down thefood line, Con asked, “So what’re ya’ gonna do? AboutTal?”
“I guess I am gonna havemy kids alone after all.” Deck shrugged as she mused, “Maybe Riccican help me raise them like we talked about once….” She chuckled toherself. “Or you guys could.” When Con didn’t so much as smile,Naiche said, “Come on, that was a joke. I know you’ll be busywith—”
“No, it’s not that. Thereason I didn’t laugh is because….” He glanced around to ensure noone was within earshot before continuing, “Aqila and I are havingsorta the same problem.”
“Where to raise yourkids?”
“No. Whether or not tohave them.”
“Didn’t you guys discussthat before you got married?”
“Yeah, we did. We wereboth on the fence. We finally made up our minds – and came down onopposite sides.” Con heaved an enormous sigh. “I wanta have atleast one kid. Aqila would be such an amazing mom—”
“And you’d be an amazingdad.” Kennedy smiled bashfully at the praise. Naiche returned thesmile, then asked, “What’s Aqila think?”
“She doesn’t thinkit’s fair tobring kids into our kind of life – with both of us servingon Lovelace. Shethinks one of us would haveto take an Earth-side post – which neither of uswants to do.”
“You guys could use anartificial womb like Petrović did.”
“We know. Pregnancy isn’tthe issue. It’s afterwards – while we’re both away on missions.Aqila thinks it’s too risky, that we could leave our child anorphan.” Kennedy stopped short since they’d gotten to the seatingarea and found both Tal and Aqila waiting at a table for them. Hewhispered, “I say – why live your life based on worst casescenarios?” before approaching his wife for a warmembrace.
After greeting Tal with aquick kiss, Naiche sat down and asked Aqila, “Did you get anysleep?”
“I did. Bly is the onewho’s been up all night,” she said, referring to Second LieutenantBlythe Brodie, one of her top scientists. “She woke me about thirtyminutes ago.” With a proud smile, Lateef informed them, “We’re veryclose to a break-through on the cloaking technology.”
“Great!” Con rubbed hishand together at the news. “This should be good.” With aphilosophical nod, he admitted, “Or bad.”
“At least we’ll know whatkind of fight we’re in,” Tal said.
With a quick smile andshrug, Aqila suggested, “Maybe there won’t be a fight.”
Deck swallowed down a gulpof coffee and shook her head. “There’s always a fight.”
“I married you for thatkind of optimism,” Con said, placing an affectionate hand onAqila’s arm; he glanced at Naiche. “While I recruitedyou for thatrealism.”
Her deep brown eyes warmwith humor, Lateef said, “I guess the pinnacle would be to achieveoptimistic realism.”
“Not realistic optimism?”Con bantered back.
Decker focused on heromelet, pretending not to understand the significance of thatexchange. The matter was swept to the wayside a few minutes laterwhen VICI summoned Aqila to Science Laboratory-Two. Lateef rosefrom the table. “I told Bly to let me know as soon as the newsensors were ready. I’ll probably see you all shortly – with ananswer.”
***
Decker and Kennedy weresilently contemplating the holographic data screen Lateef had ondisplay in the war room. With the improved sensor array able topenetrate the cloaking device, they were looking at an extremelyordinary, very unthreatening, domed city. Con was trying to figureout what key truth they were missing and he could see Naiche doingthe same.
The captain was engaged inthe identical endeavor – out loud. “This doesn’t make a bit ofsense,” Ricci complained. “Why would these people go to all of thetrouble of developing cloaking technology to hide what looks to bea conventional city – with, at best, minimal weaponry?”
Sasaki said, “What aboutthe frequent seismic activity Lateef noted on this moon – can thatever affect a ship’s ability to safely land?”
“It can...depending on theship and how sophisticated the landing technology is,” Jacowayanswered. “With a ship that size, I could see a planet-quakepossibly disrupting its mooring-locator systems.”
“But Maddox mentioned, ‘anattack’,” Decker objected. “Even if it wasn’t was what caused thecrash, there must be weapons of some kind, somewhere on this world.”
“Their weapons must be ofa sort not easily detected – or we’re not truly breaching thecloak,” Lindstrom said. “Lateef, how sure are you that the sensorsare accurately reading the city and surrounding areas?”
“The surrounding areasaren’t under cloak and I’m extremely confident in our results.There’s a greater than ninety-eight-percent certainty that we’reseeing everything there is to see in the city.” With a wave of herhand, Aqila flipped the data on the screen back to the start. “Ifyou’d like, I could walk everyone through how the re-tuned sensorswork again?”
Ricci held up his righthand, belaying the repeat explanation. “Thank you, but that’s notnecessary. I, for one, do
