Everyone nodded and put in their earpiece.
“Good. Give me a minute to hack into the security feeds and then you’re good to go.”
She tapped and swiped on her wrist computer and the flyer’s control panel.
“You’re all set. Good luck, everyone. I’ll be waiting for you when the package is delivered.”
Bear climbed out first and the rest followed him, with Court sticking close to Elle.
“You don’t seem too worse for wear,” she said.
“They patched me up after my fall down the stairs. Do you know anything about nanobots? They can’t control me or make me sick or anything, right?”
Elle laughed and Britt flashed her a stern look over her shoulder.
“Control you? What, like a nanobot zombie?”
“I don’t know. We don’t have nanobots in the village. I mean, we didn’t.”
The crack in his demeanor was brief but she saw it. He was still struggling to deal with the pain of losing his people. With all that had happened so suddenly, he still needed to finish grieving. She had at least had the handful of days in the village after that beast had taken Dr. Donovan from her.
“Don’t worry about the nanobots. Your body flushes them out in six or seven days.”
“Good. That’s good.”
He looked relieved, and she remembered how different their life experiences were. Once again, she wondered when he would get to return to his home. Now that they were fugitives, it might never be safe for him to go back there.
The warehouse in front of them was enormous, more like a geographical feature than a building.
Bear led them to a door that was a speck on the massive wall. He punched a code into a numeric keypad and the door opened with a gentle buzz.
“I worked here for several years, but there’s been a lot of changeover since I left so don’t talk to anybody unless I introduce you. Don’t even look at anyone. Understood?”
Britt patted him on the back in acknowledgement and they proceeded inside. The warehouse was organized into collections of containers. A handful of humans and robots roamed the space, moving crates or examining tablets. They stopped at a makeshift office of crates stacked around a desk.
“Why’s it smell so much like robot lube over here?”
“Bear, you son of a bitch, how you doing, pal?”
The man at the desk was heavyset with dark circles under his eyes. He came out from behind the desk and Bear clasped him by the shoulders.
“It’s good to see you, Kamil.”
“You brought a whole entourage with you.”
“Look who’s been learning big words. These are some friends of mine. We need to get a package to the Willow Wisp. It’s important.”
“No can do, compadre. Since your last shipment got snagged, management’s been making a bunch of changes. I’m getting rotated out. I’ll be working logistics in Arizona end of next week. By the time that shuttle goes up, there’s going to be all new ground and shuttle crew here. We won’t be able to drop anything off for the Wisp on that run.”
“Well, shit.”
“Unless the shipping schedules change, the Wisp won’t be back in range for months,” Britt said. “That’s too long to wait. What other options are there?”
“None. You’ve got to have a human up there who can override the airlock and toss the packages out into space. The people we trust aren’t going on the next shuttle run now, and the people who will be going I don’t know if we can trust yet. All the other upcoming shipments are smaller payloads going up in automated pods.”
“Please, this is unbelievably important. More important than anything you’ve helped us deliver before.”
“I’m sorry but without a human component, it just doesn’t work.”
“What if a person went?” Elle asked.
“I just told you, we don’t have anyone on the next staffed trip.”
“Not on the shuttle. What if someone was in the automated pod? Could they open an airlock?”
“Those pods are glorified shipping containers. They don’t even have airlocks. In theory, someone could travel in a suit inside a pod and open the door, but that’s a suicide mission. It’d be a one-way trip.”
“When does the next pod shipment go up?”
“No,” Britt said. “We’ll find another way. I won’t ask someone to make that sacrifice.”
“You don’t have to ask. I’m volunteering.”
Elle didn’t have to see Court to know his reaction. She could sense it, and it was unmistakable in his voice. “Britt’s right, Elle, we’ll find another way.”
“You don’t know that. This could be our only chance. My options are to spend the rest of my life running or to go back to a prison to be a science experiment. Or I can do this thing and help the people who can literally save humanity. When’s the next pod launch?”
Kamil looked at Bear nervously before he answered. “Tonight. In roughly ninety minutes.”
“Can you put me in a suit and get me on it?”
“Like I said, in theory, but—”
“No buts. Too many people have already lost their lives over this. Better to lose one more than for all the others to be for nothing. Besides, there’s a chance the Willow Wisp would pick me up in time, right?”
“A slim chance. A very slim chance.” Kamil looked to Bear again, his concern evident. “This is a lot different from sending some supplies up on the sly.”
“I agree with Britt and Court,” Bear said. “This isn’t a good plan.”
“Yes, it is. It just doesn’t make anyone feel good. The Qyntarak literally want to send starships full of humans to their planet to eat. How will we live with ourselves when that happens knowing that we stood here at this moment and didn’t try to stop it?”
“They want to eat humans?” The horrified expression on Kamil’s face told Elle everything she needed to know. The others might not like it but she could get him to help, she was confident of that.
“Yes, and we know how to stop them. We have to tell the Reclamation leaders on the Willow Wisp.”
“No,” Court said, “this is insane. We are not having this discussion.”
“There’s no discussion to be had. I’m doing it. It’s my choice. They’ve been telling me what to do my whole life but not anymore. This is how I finish the job that Dr. Donovan started.”
Bear, then Kamil, and then Court looked to Britt. Elle saw a shimmer of moisture in her left eye before she blinked it away. Britt handed the little white box to Elle.
“It’s not my preferred way to see this through, but you’re right. We all want our autonomy back and it would be hypocritical of me to say that you can’t decide this for yourself.”
“There’s not much time,” Kamil said. “We must hurry to make the launch.”
He took them to a storage area and hauled a blue and silver suit from a storage crate.
“This is a long duration EVA suit, meant for use in low gravity. I’m going to have to do some creative accounting to explain this thing going missing. We’ll need to carry it to the pod. They’re one-size-fits-most and it’s pretty easy to get suited up, but once you’re in, you can hardly move in full gravity.
“It has self-contained atmospheric and biological management, meaning it can keep recycling oxygen into the air and convert your piss into water to keep you hydrated. It’s a closed system, but it relies on some chemicals and batteries. Sunlight will keep your batteries topped up but the chemicals are a fixed quantity. When those run out, the clock starts ticking.”