One of the nice things about starting the Terran Federation small was I got to know everyone, at least at first. And even when we were starting to get into the thousands of people, I still knew most of the movers and shakers.
But on the down side, it also meant that, more often than not, when something particularly hairy came up someone I knew and liked would probably be putting their life on the line for my dream.
This one? This little episode?
Holy crap.
CHAPTER SIX
TFS Enterprise
“Captain!”
“Mr. Kay?”
“We’ve got six shuttles, small craft, leaving the cruiser, dropping for the planet.”
Enterprise hung on the far side of Titan, invisible to the cruiser’s sensors. She could still ‘see’ the cruiser thanks to her more advanced sensor suite, which included gravitic detectors, but her line-of-sight systems were just as blind.
“I should be down there,” President Smith groused.
“We’ve been over this, Kyra,” Kendra said.
They were standing as unobtrusively as they could on the bridge, back to the science station.
“We think the Kepler is up to something, and we decided it was safer for you to remain aboard, you and your family both, until we figured out exactly what they’re planning to do. Now we have a better idea.”
“Can you get a sense of their type, Mr. Kay?” Alley asked.
“No, Ma’am. Not without using our line of sight scanners.” His voice trailed off.
“Elliott?”
“Ma’am. I just had a thought.”
“I noticed; you planning on sharing it?”
“We still have the planetary probes aboard. We could launch one and relay its information back to us.”
Alley started to answer but was cut off by Cass. “Next time, Elliott. By the time we get one in place without it being noticed, those shuttles are going to be on the ground.”
“Exactly what I was going to say,” Alley whispered to Cass.
“That’s a little worrying.”
The conversation between Kyra and Kendra continued.
“At least I’m in contact with my aide.”
“Kassidy? Yes. There are benefits to joining with us; access to our Q-Net technology is one of them.” Kendra paused. “Last chance, Kyra. We can still play this straight with them. Warn them off.”
Smith shook her head firmly.
“No. I’ve been unhappy with our association with Artemis for years. In truth, that’s what drove me into politics in the first place. I wanted to reform the Union from the inside.”
“Maybe I should have asked this yesterday, but what made you throw in with us?”
“Part was the strong-arm tactics they tried a few weeks ago. Their Foreign Minister tried to pressure me into giving them our source of antimatter.”
“Foreign Minister? Dent, Arthur Dent?”
“Yes. You know him?”
“We’ve gone a few rounds. I rather like him.”
“He’s not a bad sort, but there was simply no way we were giving access to our antimatter.” She paused for so long Kendra thought she’d stopped.
Finally she said, “You were absolutely correct, Kendra.”
“Thank you. What did I get right this time?”
“You said it a couple days ago. You were talking about the differences between your Federation and the Union, and you pointed out that the most fundamental ethic for you was equality of opportunity. And then yesterday, when you said that everyone would be a citizen of the Federation, not Titan or the Guild, that clinched it.”
Kendra’s response was cut off by Kay’s announcement.
“Three of their shuttles are breaking off their descent.”
“Explain,” demanded Alley.
“They’re going into a racetrack pattern a hundred, maybe a hundred five klicks