“What about Mushran?” Joe asks. Mushran appears to have left. Disagreements, arguments… Like listening to my mom and dad yelling at each other in another room, while I lie in bed with the flu. “Perhaps he is still lying.”
“We don’t have any other options,” Borden says. “We’re told by people we trust that the ships are coming, and that Teal and some of the settlers will return to Earth—and that DJ and Venn will continue with us to Titan.”
“Why not take us all to Titan?” I murmur.
“Stop it,” Joe says. “We’re Skyrines.”
“I am?” I shout. “Who the fuck says?”
Joe shakes his head. “We go where we’re told and do what we’re told,” he says.
“Told by who, goddammit?” I hate him when he feels he has to spell out the way things are to me, of all people.
“The President,” Borden says, jaw tight. She still believes in chain of command, God bless her little pea-picking heart. Bad orders. I was right. They’re all facing up to receiving bad orders.
“You don’t know that!” I say.
“I’m told the President is now with our program,” Kumar says.
“He’s flexing whatever muscle he has with the divisions,” Borden says. “Some commanders are refusing his orders. But… that’s enough for me.”
“And for me,” Joe says, patting his knee and standing. “It’s what we’ve been waiting for.”
“Where are you going?” I ask him. “Earth or Titan?”
“Titan.”
“Good!” I cry out. “I’ll get it done there.” I don’t know what I’m talking about, clearly, but that’s never stopped me. Didn’t stop me from banging on my parents’ bedroom door and shouting for them to be quiet, let me die in peace—swear to God. Then I fell over and puked on the carpet and my pajamas. “What about Teal?”
“Alice will accompany Teal and the others back to Earth,” Joe says.
“Yeah,” Alice says. “Lucky me.”
“You’ll die, right?”
“I hope not.”
“They’ll reunite Teal with her child,” Borden says.
Joe is talking now. Wow, is he ever far away. “Jacobi’s Ops team will finish here and six will go with Alice and the settlers, six will go with us. Litvinov is prepping his own team. I don’t know how many of the Russians will come along to Titan.”
“Fucking Titan!” I mumble. “Who’s in charge of our sisters?”
“They’re under my command,” Borden says.
Somehow, I doubt that.
“They’re with us,” Joe says. “You think this place is a mess, I hear Titan is a fucking nightmare. Biggest goddamn weapons in the solar system, biggest battles, diving through methane seas to tunnel below thick ice to underlying oceans… ugly and old and cold. But somebody thinks it’s worth claiming and saving, and maybe they’re right. Maybe out there we can learn the truth.”
“What about everyone we leave behind?”
Joe shakes his head. “I don’t know how many will have to stay.”
“I have asked for as many landers as they can spare,” Kumar says.
“What about the Antags?”
“We assume their goal is to recover all the fragments.”
“What will that get them?” I say. “We’re human. The dust speaks to us. The Antags aren’t human. That’s how the tea works, isn’t it?”
Kumar watches me, inclines his head, says nothing. I know more about this than any of them except DJ. Borden is smart enough not to claim expertise when I’m so obviously upset. Is she worried I might puke on her? I reach down and feel the tunic. Not pajamas. A tunic. Christ, am I confused. “I can’t think now,” I say, but nobody’s paying attention, because I’m so clearly out of it. That pisses me off and I struggle. Ishida holds me down. I get fascinated with the way her arm works, lying across my chest. It’s such a pretty arm, all shiny metal and composite.
“Maybe they’ll allow the settlers to live,” Kumar says. Did I hear him right? We’re leaving settlers behind? “To provide them with assistance,” he adds.
I heard it right. “Then shouldn’t we kill the settlers ourselves, to keep them from helping the Antags?”
Joe can’t answer, Kumar can’t answer. The variables are too many. One step at a time, one problem at a time.
“Teal will be reunited with her baby,” Borden says quietly. “We all want that.”
The knot just gets tighter. My becoming valuable, for whatever reason, is the worst thing that could have happened to me. Or to them. I could just blow it all right now. I could become a prodigal goddamned monster, shooting tea dust from my fingers, spraying everybody until they’re flocked with a thick coat of powdery green. I want to. Part of me really wants to self-destruct.
“What does Coyle say about this?” Borden asks, taking me by surprise.
The dead Captain Coyle is lost in the haze. “She hasn’t checked in,” I say. “She isn’t real. She can’t be.”
“In any other time, under any other circumstances, I would agree,” Kumar says. “I do not believe in survival after death. But it seems that turning glass elevates you to a quite different plane.”
I look around the shadowy group. This is weirdly important to Kumar, to Borden. Joe doesn’t commit. “You believe she’s still here?” I ask. “I mean, floating around—but talking only to me and DJ?”
Long quiet. Sounds outside. People moving.
Kumar says, “Your experience is not unique.”
Joe says, “Kazak saw Coyle, too. Really chafed that DJ was the only one who supported him. But before he died, Kazak was tuned in stronger than anyone. Mushran says it’s not a plague. It’s a fucking investment opportunity. If we can find and protect everyone who’s tuned in, we might have a direct way into the old data. That’s what Division Four’s thinking—isn’t it?”
Kumar maintains his steadfast expression. Borden nods once. Joe stretches. All this weirdness doesn’t sit well with him. I’ve become a big part of the weirdness.
Kumar says, “If Antagonists attack with full force, this mine will become just like the Drifter. We have, I believe, less freedom of action if everyone is black glass and no one is free to interpret.”
“Will the Ants attack?” Joe asks me, leaning in close. His nose bobs over my head.
“How the hell should I know?” I ask.
“A few hours ago DJ just sat by his sketches,” Joe says. “He didn’t draw, he just whispered over and over about big change coming, like what happened when they dropped the load on the Drifter. He felt that one before it happened, too. So did Kazak.”
DJ senses it. He’s right. I sense it, too. Coyle isn’t being drowned out by my confusion—she’s gotten lost in coming change.
“Yeah,” I say. “Something big, anyway.”
“Okay on that,” Joe says with a deep sigh. “Here’s what the last bitburst has to tell us. At least seven space frames are entering orbit, along with one or two bigger vessels. No guarantee what they might be.”
“Spook or Box,” Borden says.
Kumar looks languid, like a nap would be a good idea. Weird fucking reaction.
“Let’s hope,” Joe says. “As soon as the landers drop, we’re pulling out.”
I’m fazing. My head hurts.
“Hey!” Joe clamps his hand on my shoulder. “Still with us, Vinnie?”
“Fuck you,” I say.
Joe pats my shoulder. “All right, then.”
Borden looks disgusted. No letup, no certainty. She’s made her pact, received her orders, and she’ll follow through, but she doesn’t trust Kumar and can’t figure Joe. To her, I’m a crazy burden, neither ally nor asset. Teal and DJ and the Muskies are deep-sea mysteries. And nobody trusts Mushran.