“Enough with the Star Wars jokes,” Chuckie said mildly. “We need to focus.”
“Can we determine how long ago this was done?” Kreaving asked.
“Within the last hundred years,” Lilith replied. “At least as far as I can discern.”
My music changed to “Get the Girl! Kill the Baddies!” by Pop Will Eat Itself. “I think we need to get down there. Probably to both planets.” Since I had to figure the girl was on the blue one and the baddies were on the red one. Knew where I was headed, therefore.
“How?” Brian asked. “We don’t know if we can land safely on either planet, or if the red one will try to blast us out of space should we decloak or if they can see through our cloaking somehow. We don’t know if we can take off, either.”
“So, we stay in orbit and take a shuttle down. We did that on Nazez.”
“Nazez wasn’t being shot at by the neighboring planet,” Reader pointed out. “Nor was it doing the shooting. Not that I’m saying that the shuttle idea is out. But it’s not the same situation.”
“True enough. And we’re going to have to take two shuttles—one team going to the blue planet to find Ixtha, the other going to red one to find whoever’s in charge and get them to stop.”
“Are you sure we should go for the blue planet?” Joe asked. “Maybe we want to side with the aggressor in this case.”
“So as to not be blown up,” Randy added.
“We want to side with Ixtha. At least, I think we do.”
“Why do you think Ixtha’s on the blue planet?” Hughes asked.
“I guess because it looks more like Earth. And I don’t think that she’d have been asking for the Warrior Queen if she was on the side with all the weapons.”
“At the risk of getting told to shut up, I don’t think we want to drag a warring system back into the galaxy,” Mossy said. “It’s not like we need anyone else fighting.”
My music changed to “Red Red Sun” by INXS. “I think their sun is old, isn’t it? That means it’s going to go supernova or something in the near future, universe-wise. And that means, warring or not, they’re all going to die if we leave them here.”
“The galaxy needs what supernovas create, too,” Kreaving said. “It’s how star factories are formed.”
“You mean nebulas?”
Grentix nodded. “Yes. If we can get this system back so that when the star explodes it doesn’t affect other systems, it would be a good thing for the galaxy.”
Everyone other than Lilith and the Real Naked Apes heaved a resigned sigh. We sounded like a giant tire deflating. “Kitty doesn’t need to say it,” Reader said. “We have to do this thing, because the Superconsciousness Society expects us to.”
“Orbiting the planet or hiding out near the biggest piece of a former planet and away teams using shuttles it is,” Tim said. “Can’t wait to see who volunteers.”
CHAPTER 95
I COULD HAVE JUST USED the Z’porrah power cube to get us down and then over, only I had no idea what spot to aim for, and without a destination in mind, you could end up nowhere or in the middle of a wall or worse. Plus, once down, we all needed to be able to escape, and that wasn’t going to work with just one cube because everyone would have to be touching me and we were going to have to split up. It was use shuttles or give up and leave.
We didn’t have to hide the ship, though we still kept it cloaked, because Lilith could determine that if we were up high enough, the red planet’s projectiles couldn’t aim accurately to reach us, because we were so much smaller than the targets they were used to hitting. That wasn’t going to be the case for the shuttles, though they did have cloaking of a sort, but they were maneuverable enough that the assumption was we could avoid missiles fairly easily.
Because we were going to be in two teams, the ship was hovering above the asteroid belt and as near to the middle of the distance between the planets as possible. Their orbits weren’t that far off from each other—they weren’t aligned with the sun or each other, but they were close enough that one shuttle wouldn’t have to go that much farther than the other.
Once we got out of range of the red planet and the majority of the asteroids, Tim insisted that the flyboys and Brian remain at the controls and, under the circumstances, no one argued. Tim pointedly put Hughes in charge, not Brian, who was smart enough not to complain about this. “I wouldn’t leave you guys here, you know,” Brian said, sounding kind of hurt.
Patted his shoulder. “We know, but you’ve seen the least amount of action with us. We’re considering this a war zone, and that means you keep military at the controls.”
Brian somewhat appeased, shields were verified as set to full and staying that way, then Mossy trotted off to get Hacker International so they could all do what they could to ensure that the shuttles would also be shielded, more from fear of stray asteroid hits than the weapons.
Mother verified that we could survive on both planets. The blue one was definitely Earthlike and she expected no issues. The red one also had a breathable atmosphere. “It should be a colder planet, based on where it is, but it’s quite hot,” Mother said, sounding as worried as an AI could within the programming limitations. “For those from desert climates, you should be fine. Others should prepare to feel very hot if you have to go there.”
“Meaning the A-Cs should be going to the red planet,” Jeff said, clearly anticipating the next discussions to come.
“Um . . . no. You don’t get to own the heat, my big man. Some of us are from Hell’s Orientation Area, thank you very much. But thanks for the lead-in for the determination of who’s going where.”
Because we were going to be in two teams, Jeff and I had to first have the fight about whether or not we were going together or separately.
Finally won on the idea of separately by explaining that those who had the most experience working together needed to stay together, meaning I was going with White and Jeff was going with Christopher. Plus, king on one team, queen on the other seemed wise. Jeff only gave in because Lilith said she was going to be with me.
This part of the plan grudgingly agreed to, then had to have the fight for who was going to red and blue. Won that one by Chuckie pointing out that the person with the best record against the baddies was me, not Jeff.
With my husband hugely unhappy but resigned to merely muttering about how his uncle was constantly rating higher in his wife’s esteem, how sidelining the guy who used to run the entire Field to the presumed safe planet was the rest of us being petty, how his closest friends weren’t being supportive, and how he knew his wife needed his backup more than she ever wanted to admit, we then divvied up the rest of those who were conscripted to go, ensuring that we had those with hyperspeed on both teams.