“No one’s coming to look at us,” Jamie said, sounding disappointed.
Checked the window. Looked like we were in a large basin that was part of a rocky area. There were trees that reminded me of Beta Eight, seeing as their leaves were red. So were the leaves and branches of scrub bushes that were nearby. The area was various shades of red, similar to how it was in Sedona, Arizona, only more so.
Didn’t spot a lot of animal life, but that might not mean anything—the ship was huge, and normally something gigantic landing in your home tended to make animals run and even insects cautious. Plus I didn’t see any water nearby, so maybe that was why we had no animals.
Realized Jamie was right, though—saw nothing that would be considered a person, unless the rocks were sentient. Put nothing past the galaxy, but Kreaving hadn’t indicated that they were on a planet where the people were made of granite, so chose to figure that the people, like the animals and insects, were hiding.
“Maybe they’re afraid of a ship as big as ours, Jamie-Kat. I’m sure we’ll meet them soon enough.” Gave her and Charlie quick hugs and kisses. “You two need to behave. Everyone needs to stay in, just like Daddy said.” Gave Lizzie a hug as well. “You, too, please and thank you.”
“Oh, fine,” Lizzie said with the requisite dramatic sigh. “We’ll behave.”
Received similar assurances from everyone else. Didn’t buy them all that much. Decided to ensure that Jeff’s order would happen, and assigned the flyboys to guard the nest, so to speak. Thought about it, and put Rahmi and Rhee on guard duty, too. Then really considered and put Kevin, Buchanan, Siler, Butler, and Maurer on this duty as well. Not that I’d felt that it was anyone’s fault other than Jamie, ACE, and Algar’s for her early expedition on Cradus, but it never hurt to show that we meant business.
Kevin, being my mom’s right hand in the P.T.C.U. and therefore the most used to this kind of situation, immediately ordered everyone into the crash couch room, both because it would be easier to keep everyone in and because if things went wrong, none of the kids needed to see it and we’d be ready in case we needed to make a hasty exit.
Whining about everyone wanting to see what was going on ensued and was promptly ignored, mostly because the rest of us agreed with Kevin’s decision. And of course, this meant I got a lot of whining from those assigned to ensure that our civilians stayed on the ship, but we all managed to find the will to go on. Christopher stayed behind to ensure that all heads were counted and everyone was where they were supposed to be.
The rest of us on the away team then headed to the armory and got into the body armor. I was fine with this, since the Elves continued to deliver and I was in jeans, a KT Tunstall Eye To The Telescope t-shirt, an Aerosmith hoodie—because I had standards to maintain—and my Converse.
“Do we take weapons?” Tim asked.
“I don’t recommend it,” White replied.
“Take smaller ones that can be concealed,” Chuckie said. “Just in case.”
“If you insist, Charles,” White said. “But I’m sure we could manage without them.”
“I insist,” Chuckie said with a smile. “Because I don’t trust anyone out there. Yet.”
Dropped some smaller guns and some cool sheathed knives in my purse because who was I to argue with the Smartest Guy in the Armory? Grabbed a few grenades, too, ’cause why not? Didn’t appear to have Poofs on Board. Chose not to worry about it and added another grenade.
“Chuck’s right,” Christopher said as he joined us. “Dad, why are you always so foolhardy?”
“Because it doesn’t do well to come to the people you’re trying to help waving big guns in their faces,” I replied. “Richard knows what he’s doing, don’t you, Mister White?”
“As you do, Missus Martini. Plus, you’ll be there, son, all ready to protect me and whisk me and the others to safety.”
Patted my purse. “And I’ll make sure, as always, that you’re totally safe, Mister White.”
“The love in the armory’s great,” Reader said, as several of the others snorted about my keeping White safe comment. “But I’m still not thrilled that anyone other than Alpha Team is going out there.”
“Wheatles talked to me and to Chuckie. He needs to meet us. Trust me on this one.”
Received a shot of the cover boy grin. “Always, girlfriend. Always.”
“You want me and Mahin with you in case something goes wrong,” Abigail said. “And that’s not a question, but a statement.”
Mahin nodded. “That’s earth of some kind out there, so I can move it.”
“I’ve got my own explosive miniatures with me,” Serene said. “Just in case.” Pretty much everyone put their hands out to get some. Didn’t even have to put back the extra grenade to fit them into my purse.
“Nice to see we’re armed for bear,” Reader said with a sigh. “Not that I think we’re wrong to be prepared.”
“Then why are the princesses not going again?” Tim asked.
“Because we want everyone staying in the ship and we need muscle to ensure they follow orders,” Jeff said. “Since we have limited time, and most of what we’re going to be doing on is planet is going to be saying hello, then throwing people into the Distant Voyager and flying away as fast as we can, the fewer of our untrained personnel out there the better.” He sounded down and angry.
“Way to focus on the positives there, Jeff,” Tim said.
Nudged against him. “What’s wrong? I know you want to save everyone. I do, too. So does everyone else. And I’m not counting us out yet. Why are you?”
He hugged me to him. Even with the body suits on I could feel his hearts pounding. “I’m just worried.”
“We all are.”
“Yeah, but I’m worried about more than the rest of you. If we can’t fix this sun—and, so far, none of us have the faintest idea of what to do—then we’re about to feel millions or billions of people die. That’s hard on empaths, and what this ship does not have are isolation chambers.”
“Oh. Good point.” It was, and what Jeff was worried about was, frankly, frightening. The blowback of all that death and destruction on a regular person would be bad enough. On an empath, it could kill them.
It had killed Christopher’s mother, Terry, in Bizarro World. Alfred had told me she’d died in his arms because of White and all the others being annihilated. And those were far fewer numbers than we were talking for a fully populated solar system. This event could kill Jeff, Jamie, Kimmie, and who knew how many of the other kids?
Everyone else’s expressions shared that they hadn’t thought of this either. We were currently Team Stressed Out.
Jeff ran his hand through his hair. “I didn’t mean to upset everyone. Look, stop worrying about this specifically. Let me handle that worry, okay?”