Resolute

Chapter 7

Jack went next, tapping all the way with his stick. Kris followed, letting her walking stick just slide along ahead of her. Beni and Doc brought up the rear.

''I've got us connected to the Resolute.'' Comm Boss reported from his station at the door.

''We are delighted to see you've gotten this far,'' Captain Drago reported.

''So are we,'' Kris answered. She wanted to trot into the huge void in front of her, but, as she'd been trained, she checked her back door. Comm Boss was standing in the doorway, a long pole reaching to the top of the door, ready to warn if it suddenly decided not to be a way out. The gunner was faced out, toward the rest of town, just the way the Marines trained its back door. Nelly, remind me to look at the résumés for these folks. If they aren't all ex-military, it's only because they are still military.

You may be right, Kris.

Satisfied that her rear was as protected as it could be, Kris turned her attention inward. And found out why the net had been so full of ''wow'' and ''oh my'' and ''this is unbelievable.''

''This place is huge,'' Kris added to the admiring wonder.

Kris shot a laser range-finder out. Almost two thousand meters to the silver metal spire that rose to the roof and beyond. Almost four thousand meters to the far wall.

And it wasn't nearly as dark as it had been.

''Our lights are being reflected back,'' Abby said, walking over to the nearest rib. There was something light beside the rib, and growing brighter as Abby's suit light got closer. ''Our light is being reflected up the light beam, or whatever you want to call this thing.''

''It's being intensified,'' Jack said. ''Any chance it could burn us like moths under a magnifying glass?''

''Oh, you say the most inspiring things,'' Abby said. But Kris noticed that Doc and his sailor sidekick who had headed straight out onto the floor of this huge dome were now trotting for the door.

''The light in here is growing brighter,'' Nelly said. ''However, for it to get truly dangerous to you in your suits would take several hours at this rate.''

Doc and his teammate turned around again.

''Thank you, Nelly. Any other thoughts, girl?''

''I would like to see more of the floor. Also, certain sections of the floor are giving me radio signals I can match against those unidentified sequences from Santa Maria.''

''Think your girl found a one-size-fits-all key?'' Abby asked.

''Only one way to find out. Nelly, point us at one of those sources.'' Nelly led them to a section of floor that didn't look all that different from the rest: speckles of sparkling gold in the dark green stone and some patterns in white and gray several centimeters in size.

''I am sending the signal,'' Nelly said, and suddenly, out of the floor rose a translucent block of… something.

Close to three meters tall, almost two wide, nearly five long, it took on their lights and turned completely clear. The sole exception to that were two light blue, six-bladed propellers that turned lazily inside the near center of the block, one at each long end about ten centimeters in.

''What is it?'' Kris said.

''I have no idea,'' Nelly answered. ''I also am no longer getting any signal from this area of the floor.''

''Speaking of floor,'' Jack said, stooping close and struggling in armor to look up through the block. ''Where's the green floor stuff that was on it?''

''Your guess is as good as mine,'' Nelly said.

''You're getting to like that phrase,'' Kris said.

''It fits too much of this place for my comfort,'' Nelly answered. ''Kris, I agree with Jack, the full examination of this place should be left to a larger, better-equipped team.''

''That was a vote I never expected to get,'' Jack said, standing up. ''Anyone have any idea what this is?'' he asked.

Doc and Chief Beni examined it with their black boxes. Slight shakes of armored helmets told Kris all she was going to get out of them for the time being.

''Well, is it likely to explode?'' she asked.

''Your guess,'' Beni started.

''Is as good as mine,'' Kris ended. ''Yes, I know. But a guess would be appreciated.''

''I'm getting no out-gassing,'' Doc said. ''I've rubbed the surface of the thing and gotten nothing.''

''I've probed it with everything I've got that doesn't involve partial destruction of the sample,'' the chief said. ''And I got squat.''

''It's clear,'' Kris said, tapping her laser range-finder. The pulse she sent bounced off the end of the building and returned that measurement. ''It is totally clear.''

''What's the propeller for? I don't see any beanie,'' Abby said.

''Better question is how can it be turning in what looks like a solid,'' Kris said.

''Is it a solid?'' Doc muttered. ''Or something else we don't even have a word for?''

''I'm kind of getting the feeling of some hunter-gatherer, who's so proud of inventing the throwing spear, coming across a jet engine and not having a clue what it is,'' Jack said.

''Speak for yourself, Marine,'' Beni said. ''I know what it is.''

''What is it?'' Kris said, in chorus with everyone else.

''It's a puzzle,'' the chief said, with a smile that leaked onto the net even if Kris couldn't make it out through his faceplate. ''It's a puzzle we are not going to solve today.''

Abby swung her walking stick at Beni's helmeted head.

''At ease, crew,'' Kris ordered. ''And if anyone else wants to make a joke at all our expense, remember, that poor gunner back with Comm Boss would love to have your slot in here.''

''Not really,'' someone contradicted on net.

Kris ignored the insubordination. Anything that failed to rise to the level of full mutiny struck her as just fun, all things in her past considered. She looked around. ''Any more signals, Nelly?''

''I have identified forty-seven, but there are more that may qualify.''

''Where's the nearest one that takes us closer to the spire?'' Kris asked. And Nelly gave directions to another perfectly normal bit of floor. ''Send the signal,'' Kris ordered.

Nothing happened. ''Nelly?''

''I sent it. Nothing and now the signal is no longer there.''

''Maybe that was one that was dead and didn't know it until it tried to come active,'' Beni guessed.

''Mark the floor with something,'' Kris said. Doc's escort pulled out some tape and marked an X.

Kris checked her readouts. ''I show six more hours of air.''

''Kris, are you having any trouble moving your joints?'' Jack said, rotating both arms of his suit. One moved much slower.

Kris did the same—with the same results. ''One leg is moving a bit stiffer than the other, too,'' she admitted.

''I don't know what's causing it, but shouldn't we be heading out of here?'' Jack said.

Kris ignored him and trotted toward the base of the spire. She ended up kind of limping, but the closer she got to the spire, the more excited she was. Several hundred meters out, she spotted a false ceiling or overhang around it, spreading out. Taken edge on, it was hard to tell how far it went.

A hundred meters out, they came under it.

Initially translucent, the lights from their suits caused specks to appear. ''It is a star chart,'' Nelly whispered. ''Yes, definitely a star chart as seen from here. Look, there's what Chance calls the Wild Horseman. And the Fat Lady Singing.''

''There are lines between the stars,'' Kris pointed out.

''I think those are jump points. At least the basic ones. Chance has three jumps out from it. The system we are in is marked with a point surrounded by a circle. Do you see it?''

''I think so,'' Kris agreed, pointing her range-finder up and clicking it to visible red.

''That's it,'' Nelly said.

''That one next to it also has a circle. Those are the only two,'' Beni said.

''And the line between it is green. The others are kind of yellow gold, but that one is green,'' Jack said.

''Why the difference between two stars?'' Nelly asked.

''Your guess is as good as mine,'' Beni said, ''but my suit is getting real hard to move. Let's get out of here.''

Kris joined the others limping quickly for the exit, but thinking as well. ''If any guess is as good as any other, let's have a few. For starters, I'm guessing that it has to do with this spire. What if it is a faster-than-light commlink?''

''And that shows where they got a signal from,'' Jack said.

''If you could make jump points across space, you could send signals through those jumps,'' Beni agreed, pulling ahead.

''But why the low-tech radio signal we picked up?'' Abby said, breathless. ''That certainly isn't the interstellar commlink.''

''Unless Abby's idea about the de-evolution of the species has something to do with it,'' Kris said, slowing to stay even with Abby. ''Part of Santa Maria was left as a nature preserve. Everything else was nano-mined. What if this was a nature reserve? A place for folks that didn't want all the tech?''

''And the last interstellar message had to be radioed to the other towns?'' Jack said, falling back, too. ''That's a big leap.''

''I'm open to other leaps,'' Kris said.

''When we get out of here, if we do, I'd sure like to see what that other circled star looks like,'' Doc said.

''So would I,'' Kris said, ''Resolute, you copy this star map?''

''We've got it,'' Captain Drago said.

''It fits the two new jump points I've found out of this system,'' Sulwan added.

''How long to boost to the one we didn't come in?''

''Not too long,'' Sulwan answered.

''Once we're out of here, we'll see,'' Kris said.

''Assuming we get out,'' Jack said.

''Whatever this stuff is, it's sure making our suits shine,'' Doc said. ''But I can't get any readouts off of it.''

''I can tell you that it's doing something to my joints,'' Abby said, coming to a halt. ''You go ahead. I got to rest.''

Kris didn't pause, but hobbled on, each step an effort. If she remembered right, the extra weight vanished from the nanos the second they got out of the building. Jack stayed beside her.

Beni, Doc, and his helper struggled out into the daylight, their heavy breathing filling the net. Kris was throwing each stiff leg ahead of the other by swinging the suit from left to right, right to left. Jack struggled, too.

''Who'd have thought a clean freak could kill us a million years after the last white-glove inspection,'' Kris muttered.

''Kind of makes you wonder what a Neanderthal would think if you handed one a bar of soap,'' Abby drawled.

''Remind me to say something nice about you,'' Doc said.

''Save your breath,'' Jack ordered.

''You okay, Abby?'' Kris asked.

''Long as my air holds, I'm just the tin man giving advice.''

Outside in the sun, Doc moved the arms and legs of his suit. ''It's gone. Let's see what happens,'' he muttered, and ran back in. He was only starting to go stiff legged when he reached Kris. He grabbed her shoulder strap, and dragged her along.

''I'm gonna hate myself if this don't work,'' Chief Beni said, and dashed in to help Jack.

Long minutes later, all four of them were in daylight. And the stiffness was gone. ''Can't you get any readout off of this?'' Kris asked Doc as she rotated her arms, bent her knees.

''Not a thing shows on any of my stuff.''

''We can't leave Abby in there,'' Kris said.

''I was kind of hoping you'd remember me.''

''Jack, you're with me,'' Kris said and headed back in. She and the Marine ran for Abby. The stiffness was just coming back when they reached her. The maid was locked up, stiff as a board. Kris grabbed one arm, Jack the other and they dragged her along most of the way to the shining door… and locked up themselves, twenty yards out.

''I'm really going to hate myself,'' Beni said as he, Doc, and the door guards headed back in and dragged Kris and Jack out. The two door guards, then, had no trouble going back for Abby.

''Glad that's over,'' Abby said.

''Look at our air supply,'' Kris said.

''My how time flies when you're turning to stone,'' Jack said.

''How do we protect this place?'' Kris said, looking at the door. ''If we close it, assuming we can, will it open again? If we leave it open, will we lose too much of what's inside?''

''Sure you want to save whatever that stuff was?'' Abby said.

''I've got a balloon,'' Comm Boss said. ''To raise an antenna if we needed to. We could use it to block the door.''

''We'll get out-gassing off the balloon,'' Doc pointed out.

''It's still better than nothing.''

A few minutes later, the balloon blocked the entrance and a coat of plastic glue protected the balloon from anything short of a rifle round and everyone was hurrying down the path they had taken in. Their gleaming battle armor got smeared with poop and rocks. Another large-tusked animal disputed the right-of-way with Kris, ignored the tossed rock, and had to be shot as it charged. Doc bottled hair samples of the beast but with air supply down to three hours, that was it. They arrived back at the riverbank where they'd left the shuttle. It was gone.

''It can't be far,'' Kris scowled, more bothered than scared. Just now, panic was not an option. Kris tossed her walking stick out into the river and watched as it drifted to her left. ''If someone untied it and pushed it out, it ought to be headed that way. There's not much of a current.''

Abby had waded out into the crushed rushes made by the beached shuttle. ''Mind if I go upstream? Those little dickens might have thought to tow it.''

''And now our intrepid heros separate into two groups,'' Beni muttered. ''Which one will vanish, never to be seen again?''

''Stow it, Chief,'' Kris ordered. ''It seems our jelly bean strings have a few tricks up their sleeves we didn't expect.''

''Ah, Kris,'' Nelly said softly. ''I just sent a signal to the shuttle. It is slightly west of us and moving slowly westward.''

''Thank you, Nelly,'' Kris said, to chuckles from the other twenty-fourth-century humans as they remembered they were, after all, not cavemen.

Around a small bend in the river, the shuttle bobbed gently along, drifting broadside to the stream flow. Four waded out to capture the line floating from the shuttle's nose. The synthetic rope had not been cut. ''They haven't forgotten everything they once knew,'' the woman gunner said, holding the line as she and the others dragged the spacecraft back into the shallows.

The return to space went quickly after that. Kris matched orbit with the Resolute, but did not enter the shuttle bay. Crew that had stayed behind now came out and passed them a line to follow into an airlock. The three girls started the process of decontamination. In Lock 1, their battle armor was sprayed, scrubbed, and generally scoured for anything virus size or larger. After the lock had been vented to space and the cleaning process run a second time and vented, the gals got to shuck their armored duds and advance into Lock 2. There they scrubbed themselves down, got to enjoy having the lock vented to space down to one-tenth normal pressure, then repeated. Stripped bare, they entered the third lock where they found long johns to skinny into and a airlock that wouldn't open.

''Sorry Princess, but we want you to breath the air awhile, let us test it for the creeping uglies, then we'll let you in.''

Which meant Kris, Abby, and Gunner Jennifer were still there when Jack, Beni, and Doc came through the hatch.

''Don't look,'' Jack growled, as he hurriedly pulled on the same style white long johns. Kris didn't look… very much.

About as much as Abby didn't look… much.

Jennifer didn't even turn away. ''I usually have to pay for a show this good.'' Beni went beet red.

''Captain, I told you we wouldn't have to go through full decon,'' Doc shouted at no particular speaker visible.

''Hey, be glad I'm taking you back. If one more member of the crew had voted the other way, we were going to leave you down there until a real expedition came along.''

''You wouldn't have done that,'' Kris said, trying to make it more a definite statement than a question.

''Who cast the decisive vote?'' Abby asked.

''I did'' came from about five voices on net.

''Well,'' Abby drawled, ''if there'd been just one of you'all, I might have had to be nice to you.''

''Where do you want to go next?'' the captain and navigator said together.

''The planet that sent the last message to this one, or so we think,'' Kris said, loosening the first button of her top and moving along to the next one.

''You really want to go there,'' Captain Drago said.

''I really do,'' Kris said, trying to coo as she toyed with that second button. Now, how do they do this in the movies.

''I do, too, Princess, so that is where we're going.''

''Aw, Captain, you could have at least waited to see if that second button came undone,'' Abby grouched.

''How am I supposed to learn to be a femme fatale if no one lets me practice on them?'' Kris tried to pout.

''In case you haven't noticed, Kris,'' Jack drawled, ''fatal is what you do.''

''Fatal I don't have to work at. It's the femme fatale I need to get a handle on,'' Kris insisted.

Kris was still defending her right to explore other aspects of her nature when Captain Drago ended the quarantine.

The Resolute was already at 1.5 g's by the time Kris was back in a shipsuit and on the bridge. There was just time for chow and a general briefing on what they found before the ship hung motionless before another jump point. Again, a buoy went through first. This time it returned with no radio noise, but some decent shots of a planet, several moons, and what looked like orbital habitats. Very sophisticated.

''I think I make out ships in orbit,'' a laser tech with a surprising skill in photo interpretation said, highlighting several bodies in space, smaller than habitats. ''Look at the size of those space elevators.''

Kris whistled, along with everyone looking. ''And look at the number of them. Six I can count from just this side alone!''

''Is this place active?'' Jack asked, eyeing Kris like he was about to haul her back to her room and lock her away.

''No way to tell from these photos,'' the tech said.

''Captain Drago,'' Kris said. ''If you please, will you take the Resolute through the jump at minimum speed.''

''Honey,'' the navigator said, ''you crawled faster than I'll move this tub. That is, if you say we're going, Captain.''

Drago eyed Jack. The two of them seemed to be doing that male telepathic thing Kris hated. She could almost hear Jack shouting ''Run, run, run for our lives'' in mental silence.

Then Drago grinned. ''I could never go back without seeing what we've found. Sulwan, my girl, petite steps. Tres petite.''

The buoy went through first. They gave it time to settle down at a comfortable distance out of their way, then Sulwan goosed the Resolute through, just a tad after doing the same for the five scouts Kris had out ahead of the ship.

A brief disorientation, and then they were there. Kris was out of her seat, hanging over the helmsman, eyeing his close-in scan, glancing up at the expanding picture coming back from their deeper sensors. ''The buoy's there,'' the helmsman reported. ''And all five of the scouts.''

''Four,'' Kris said as the left one winked out of existence.

''Right a nudge,'' Captain Drago ordered, and it was so.

''There goes the next left one,'' Kris said.

''Halt the ship. Take all way off her,'' Drago ordered.

Kris thought they were going about as slow as they could. Still, she bumped the forward screen as the ship stopped more suddenly than she was ready for. Than Jack was ready for. He plowed into the navigator's station.

''The ship is marking time in space,'' the helm reported.

''Princess, do you have any more of that magic stuff for scouts. I'm not going anywhere but back through that rabbit hole until I've got lots and lots of bugs out in front of me.''

''Abby, grab all our Smart Metal and goo and meet me in Engineering.''

Kris paddled aft; Jack right behind her, rubbing a shoulder. ''You ought to put some ice on that,'' she said.

''I ought to get another job,'' he grumbled, but did stop off in the galley and when he caught up with her in Engineering, he had a sack of ice taped to his shoulder.

''Nelly, make them plenty and dumb,'' Kris said. ''We want a cloud of these ahead of us whenever we move. They'll tell us all we need to know when they vanish.''

''And if we want to do further exploring?'' Nelly asked.

''You can reform them into something bigger, smarter.''

An hour later they were back on the bridge as the Resolute began a slow approach to what they called Alien 2.

''You have a problem with that?'' Captain Drago asked. ''Maybe you wanted it named Kris.''

''Why not,'' Jack drawled as he settled into a seat. ''The planet almost killed us, and Kris gets us almost killed a lot.''

''You wrong me,'' Kris said, innocently. ''What have we found out so far from visual scans?''

''Interesting planet,'' Captain Drago said. ''Take the moons. Three of them, about equal in size. All tidal locked on the planet and each in the same orbit. Offset one third of the orbit from each other.''

''Unless this is the strangest accident I've ever heard of,'' Jack said, ''someone is moving moons around this system.''

''Very likely,'' Sulwan said. ''I'd love that power plant.''

''We think we've spotted large cities on the planet,'' the photo tech said. ''Not absolutely sure. There're no lights showing on the night side, but when we get sunlight, it sure looks like man-made structures… huge ones.''

''But no lights?'' Kris said.

''Dark is dark. Sunlit is, well, what we see.''

''Infrared? Radioactive readings. Anything hot?''

''Sorry, Princess. It's as quiet as if hatched yesterday.''

''Except we're missing those two probes,'' Jack and the captain said at the same time.

''So something is active.''

''Somebody forgot to turn a few things off.''

''Assuming they left.''

''Seen enough, Kris? Can we go home now?'' Jack said.

''No, I didn't make up all those scouts to guide us back through the jump,'' she said, taking a seat next to the captain. ''If you will, sir, see if you can find us a closer orbit that this planet doesn't object to.''

''Sulwan, take charge of the scouts our employer has so graciously allowed to us. Put half of them ahead of us. We'll use a few as a string back to the jump. I think the Marine does want to assure a line of retreat.'' Jack gave a sour nod. ''Then send the rest exploring. See if there is any other place safe around here for us.'' Six hours of sweat and bad language later, they had the Resolute in a planetary orbit about halfway between Alien 2 and one of its moons.

''I really don't want to go any closer than this,'' Drago said. ''We've got six layers of your bugs out around us. If something changes its mind about letting us hang here, we ought to get the first hint and have time to bug out.''

Kris eyed the situation from behind the helmsman, found it good and turned to the photo tech. ''How good are your sensors?''

''I've got quarter-meter resolution from here.''

''I must thank Penny when we get home for hiring such a versatile crew. Or should I thank Abby now?''

''Don't know what you mean by that, Princess,'' the captain said, not looking her way.

''So, let's see what there is to see.''

There was plenty. The moons were airless, but splotched with structures connected by what looked like a rail system. And they had large structures orbiting them that looked innocent, strange, and dangerous all at the same time. ''Are those laser weapons?'' Kris asked pointing at protrusions jutting from the nearest satellite.

''They don't look like anything we've got,'' the Resolute's chief gunner answered. ''God herself only knows what they are, and she quit talking to me about the time I left home.''

''You see any other signs of weapons?'' Captain Drago asked.

''Boss, I feel like this whole place is one big rifle range and I'm the sitting duck, sir. If you want my opinion. And I know you don't.'' Then she added another ''sir.''

''Thank you, Thong, and if you see anything new that makes you feel less safe, let me know,'' Kris said, before turning back to Sulwan's sensors, now ably assisted by the photo expert. ''What can you tell me about the planet?''

''A lot more. A lot less, Your Highness,'' Sulwan said. ''There are twelve space elevators evenly spaced around the planet's equator. Several of them look to be rising right out of the sea. At least three of them have what look like huge floating cities around them.''

A picture appeared on the main screen. The scaling next to it said the floating structure was several hundred kilometers across. ''Is it free-floating or anchored in shallows or what?''

''You make the guess, Kris. I tried with radar to ping the bottom of that ocean. No joy. Radar went out. It didn't come back. But that ocean sure looks deep to me.''

Kris couldn't argue. No basis for any opinion. Kris suddenly had a suspicion she knew what a newborn felt like getting its first look around. Only this newborn was gawking at a whole world, not just the inside of a nursery. Oh, and this newborn had better not cry… or piss her pants.

''But there is one thing,'' Sulwan added. ''See that, there, that elevator station.'' Kris watched as what looked like static electricity leaped out from the tip of the orbital station and lost itself in the blackness of space.

''What was that?''

''I have no idea, but six of the stations are doing that.''

''Looks dangerous.''

''Maybe. Or maybe the six stations not doing that are the dangerous ones. Pay your money and take your chances. Me, I'm betting on not going near any of them.''

''Not this trip,'' Kris agreed. ''Okay, we're learning a lot about this place we don't know. Let's see what we do know. Can anyone give me some numbers? What part of this place is city, rural, wilderness?''

Numbers came up on the screen. Someone had even added Wardhaven's stats as well as Earth's. The place had a bit more land than either Earth or Wardhaven. Much more urban than Wardhaven, but not as much as Earth. Arable land matched well. Same for wilderness.

''I don't get it,'' Jack said.

''Don't get what?'' Kris asked.

''Santa Maria was worn down to the bedrock. What evidence of the Three that we found was mostly underground and nano in size. Alien 1 is all rubble and overgrown. What's this planet doing looking like you might find a warm supper on the table?''

The bridge fell silent in the face of that one. Kris gnawed on it for a while… and came up empty.

''Can I say something?'' Nelly asked.

''The floor is wide open for observations, opinions, and guesses,'' Kris said.

''Santa Maria's moon showed no evidence of habitation,'' Nelly said slowly. ''There was nothing left in orbit from the Three.''

''Yes, Nelly, that's right,'' Kris said.

''Our review of what you are calling Alien 1 was cursory, but there was no evidence of any active systems in orbit.''

''I think you're right about that,'' Sulwan said.

''Here we see orbital stations at the top of elevators,'' Nelly went on. ''There are clearly some things still operating or we would not have lost our scouts. I notice only one major weather system on the planet, and it seems to be limited to one of the wilderness areas. There are other weather systems, but they are providing very gentle rains to the arable lands and urban areas. May I venture a guess that the weather control system is still protecting this planet from violent change. Anything that could move moons into this planet's orbit might also be able to arrange it so that tectonic plate activity also was negated. I do not know any of this. But they do seem to be reasonable assumptions.''

''They most certainly are,'' Kris agreed. ''Nelly, you have drawn some very reasonable conclusions. Tell Auntie Tru how you came to them next chance you get to send her a message.''

''I will,'' Nelly said, almost giggling with glee.

''If what Nelly says is true,'' Abby said from the hatch of the bridge, ''then we might be looking at the ultimate achievement of the Three. One of the last places they were at before they did whatever they did to go away.''

''Yeah,'' Captain Drago agreed. ''But I don't think the last one out remembered to turn everything off. I like the idea of leaving on the weather controls. Hell, I'd like to live where they got weather controls. But did they leave on anything like those cleaning things that almost turned you to stone?''

''Strange as this may sound, my dear Captain,'' Kris said with a cheerful grin, ''I agree with you. Let's spend the next six hours taking pictures from a safe distance, then tiptoe our way out very carefully and make like no one was ever here.''

Of course, Kris knew that was impossible. They had been here. Every crew member on board must be seeing dollar signs dancing in his or her head. Kris had spotted what looked like ships in free orbit around the planet as well as others tied up to the stations. Stations that were not rotating to give them something like gravity. The Three must have had artificial gravity. That would change humanity at least as much as the jump points had. That would be worth trillions.

To whoever could figure it out.

And like every other invention humanity had come up with, it would be twisted to something deadly. What would gravity waves do if you aimed them at a ship? Would ice armor be any defense against them? Questions. Questions with no answers. Who knows, Wardhaven had ships in free orbit. Maybe they didn't have controlled gravity. But High Wardhaven rotated to give Kris a feeling of up and down. No. There was something here.

And that was only what she saw at a glance.

''I'll be in my room,'' Kris said, kicking herself off from the helm and swimming for the hatch. Abby made way, but said nothing. She also didn't follow Kris, but edged onto the bridge to get a better view.

Kris had gotten what she wanted.

Now, what did she do about it.