Took my helmet off and gave Chuckie the “get over here now” hand gesture. He grinned and took the helmet from me while I got up. Then he sat in my chair, put on the helmet, and strapped in. Clearly he’d had the same thought I had about our potential landing. Happily, Mother didn’t object to any of this.
Once settled, Chuckie started talking to Fathade and my ears turned off. Not that our biological structure wasn’t fascinating, but I didn’t want to hear about what percentage water we all were because it had already been a long trip. Wruck adding in to discuss alien body structures was just overkill as far as I was concerned.
“This may be a bad idea,” Jerry said quietly to me. “If we land, everyone’s going to want to get off the ship. And if they’re told that they can’t, it could be a problem.”
“Yeah, we’ve been being warned about boredom already. But if it means we’re going to die or something, I know that we’re not going to allow anyone to get off.”
“So why land?” Joe asked, as he joined us. “Maybe we just hover out here and talk to Fathade, get what intel we need, and leave.”
“There has to be a reason we were sent here. I mean that seriously. Someone took over Mother’s controls and tossed us here. And before anyone says that it was done to harm us, let’s recall that there are easier ways to kill us out in space. We’re here for a reason. We need to figure out what that reason is.”
“Okay,” Chuckie said so that everyone was listening. “We’re going to land. Fathade feels that our ship will be able to take off again. We’re also going to be using John Wruck to test the atmosphere.”
“I can volunteer, too,” the Kristie-Bot said. “I’m the most advanced model we have, and that way we have human elements to verify.” We all stared at her. “What?” she asked defensively. “I’m part of the team, I’m willing to take risks, too.”
Realized I was doing to her what a lot of people did to me—doubting her because of her job, her attitude, and the way she talked. Sure, she’d blackmailed me to get a part on Code Name: First Lady, but from all I’d been told she’d done a great job and, beyond that, she’d become Team Kitty the moment we’d agreed to have her on the movie. Frankly, as people who’d started out as enemies went, the Kristie-Bot was pretty much in the winner category.
“That’s great, Kristie,” I said. “We’re just worried about you getting hurt. You’re a public figure.”
“So are you and Jeff and half the other people on this trip. I want to help. I’m capable of helping, and, besides Mister Wruck, I have the best chance of survival. John and Cameron are older models and made to be more human, meaning they have more risk. Joe and Randy are still human, just with cyborg enhancements. I’m the only true cyborg we have. So I’m going.”
“She’s convinced me,” Jeff said.
“Good, because we need test subjects.” Chuckie rolled his eyes at the looks he got. “I’m not suggesting we throw John and Kristie out of the ship and hope for the best. Fathade’s people have suits we can use.”
“Space suits?” Hey, wanted to be sure they weren’t just going to hand us their moon’s version of Armani and call it good.
“In a way. Planet suits, for us.” Chuckie sighed. “Look, as I heard Kitty say when she thought she was being quiet, we’re here for a reason. So, let’s land and find out what that reason is.”
CHAPTER 57
CHUCKIE GAVE JOE HIS SEAT, though Jeff stayed at Weapons. Had no idea why, other than the fact that Jeff might have figured that Mother wasn’t going to okay him or Tim leaving their posts. Decided it didn’t matter.
We were able to spot what Fathade had been talking about once we got to the sun side of the moon—there was a heck of a lot of orange scattered about on one section of the moon’s surface. It didn’t fit, though—it wasn’t a metallic color. It was, frankly, more of a neon. The neon orange certainly stood out, though, even against the warmer hues of gold and copper that were in great evidence on this side.
Waited until we were through reentry, which wasn’t all that bad—no one went flying, for example, which was good because I wasn’t strapped in—then went off with Drax while the others stayed on the command deck. I wanted to make sure my kids were okay. Mother kept communications open, though, so we could all hear each other if needed, though she muted the command deck chatter that didn’t pertain to the rest of us.
We gathered up everyone else and headed to go see what we could see. Noted that Algar wasn’t in either room. Figured that, because personnel divided up, each room thought the Ard Ri was in the other room—if they thought of him at all. Decided not to worry that he wasn’t around—either he’d seen this solar system already, which was my assumption, or he’d miss out.
Those of us not involved with landing the Distant Voyager went to an observation lounge, different and much larger than the one Tim and I had been in with Sandy. Drax thought of everything. And so did Algar, because he was already there, watching. Couldn’t blame him—this moon was amazing.
Because this lounge was actually large enough to accommodate a quarter of the ship if it was full, everyone could see easily and comfortably. They were tired of being bored? Well, watching a mountain of what looked like pewter reform itself into a giant landing pad certainly handled that complaint.
Cradus was, apparently, a shifting world. Hadn’t known those were out there, but I was always open to the new ideas. “Fascinating,” Drax said as the ship headed for the highest mountain, which was the one that now had a landing pad.
“Can other planets do this?” I asked him, as the kids and I got closer to the window.
“Not that I’ve seen. But I haven’t traveled as much as Mister Wruck. I haven’t traveled as much as Mossy.”
The Turleen was perched on Drax’s shoulder, so he could see easily. “I haven’t come across anything like this. I wish Muddy and Dew had come with us—they’d love to see this.”
The sun’s reflection on this moon was so dazzling that we couldn’t have looked directly at it if not for the fact that the windows were able to shade, just like transitional sunglasses, depending on the intensity of light. We were likely at Top Of Kilimanjaro Level for the tint, but apparently the glass was also polarized, because the colors seemed accurate.
I was holding Charlie and Siler had Jamie, with Lizzie and Wasim in between us. “This is so totes cool,” Lizzie said, sounding awed as we watched what looked like a river of gold glisten against a silver valley, the mountain adjusting so that these areas weren’t disturbed.
“Amazing,” Wasim agreed. “I’m so glad I got to come along on this journey.”
“Me too, but I sure hope your grandfather understands and doesn’t think you’re kidnapped.” And that none of us got radiation poisoning or worse.
“I’m sure it will all be alright, Queen Katherine.”