Reb, Clacks and two of the bridge crew poured over chart displays as we lifted past the ionosphere and out to whatever point in the heavens Rebekah had decided on. A yellow mark streamed slowly across the largest one toward what I assumed to be Mars, though my brief familiarity with Kreeb tech, and my occasional ogling of their displays left me unsure, to say the least. Reb and I had discussed … some of this before, but I'd ended doing the smart thing and put this leg of the expedition entirely in her hands.
“Riaght about now, Pallas will be the closest rock of interest to Mars in the belt. About 338 miles in diameter, but she's the one ah want to set in counter orbit to slow Earth down.”
There followed more frenetic discussion between Clacks and his subordinates that I couldn't follow, then Reb waved her arms around and spouted more math, also over my head. “That's all fine and all, but its mass is 2.108 × 10^20 kg, and 'sides, its round, Ah like round, will look good in the sky, gotta be a little artsy about these here things.”
More from Clack's crew, to which Reb Noted “Ah knows that, but we can counter that with other rocks. I knows what we need and where to get 'em. We did all th' orbital mechanics befoah. Jus doin' Pallas first 'cause its close riaght now. – Relatively speaking. You can adjust your doodad orbiting Earth-side to ameliorate th' tide problem, once we have Pallas set.”
I raised my hand like a schoolboy and waved at Reb. She looked at me in a sharper manner than I had seen her use before, a bit distracted, eyes flicking back and forth between Clacks, his engineers and me. “What?”
Eh, is Pallas a code name for one of the rocks you mentioned needed moving?”
Reb was quiet for a second, switching gears, then she smiled. Not reahlly, but yas, its an asteroid about two and quartah Astronomical units from the sun. Its in an eliptic solar orbit out between Mars and Jupiter. The biggest one in the belt. We tend on using it. Weah talkin' bout when maight be the best time to get it movin' Y'all have an opinion 'bout that?”
“Uh, no. Just curious. Don't let me interrupt.” Reeb nodded and returned to her discussion.
This was all giving me a headache, and unlike Reb, I could walk away from it, which I did.
Lisa's room door was shut, probably sacking out for a bit after all the excitement of the raid, right on the heels of orchestrating the unloading of all the returnees. I was dog tired myself, and had no excuse for robbing her of a little rest, so decided to check in with John and look at the inventory he'd garnered. John was directing the stacking of ordinance and other supplies when I arrived,and gave me a nod.
“Hows Rebekah doing?”
“I've no idea, and I spent some time trying to find out, but she seems to be getting things ironed out okay.” I pointed to the stacking going on. “How did we do at the armory?”
John gave me an annoyed look. “Sixty Cases of standard UN rifle rounds, Spare Ammo Chain, Small arms shells mebbe 80 cases, twenty five boxes per. That over there,” he swept an arm towards another area, ”is Det chord, and between the sandbags, Various other Explosives. We poached some anti-personnel mines, more automatics, some field radar gear, various small and medium arms including a few sniper rifles and three fifty cals, a few bullpups, a case of AR's. Don't have the full count yet. Some reloads for the Adagio, rockets, so on, that she can be fed with. Some interesting perimeter automated sentry Machine gun pils, Field gear, like night vision and binoculars, flack vests... Anything particular you want to know about, or just hoping to slow things up?”
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I Must have blanched a bit at that, because John grinned.
“You need to be resting up. Right now your idling on nerves. I'd guess of no use on the bridge or you wouldn't be down here, and I've enough help – experienced help, to stack our loot, so go lie down somewhere. When I'm done mebbe we can talk about those men you've got penned up, but you need to take advantage when no ones beating down your door. Go zonk out. Please.”
I inhaled deeply and let it out in a whoosh. He was right. I realized just how wound-up I'd been, and felt fatigue flood in. I nodded and wordlessly stumbled off to collapse for a few hours.
I hadn't left anyone word to get me up at a certain time, figuring Rebekah would be doing whatever and that she'd let me know when they were done. So I arose naturally, my internal clock said I'd zonked for at least six hours, which was my usual trick. I'd packed a change of duds, so pulled together a few things. A sort of shower affair had been set up to make human sanitation bearable, and I availed myself of it. The corridors were vacant, and quiet. Good news, I assumed.
The bridge was next, and there found both Reb, her techs and surprisingly, Lisa, who waved at me, watching what looked to be a viewscreen of the ship exterior.
“Tomas, look at this!” Lisa waved a hand over the display, and a starscape appeared, with a largish round globe occupying a central spot, about the size of a fifty cent piece. “That's Mars! I zoomed in on it to get the view, but yah? We're the other side of Mars! She made another hand motion, and The outside hull view reappeared. Left of this on screen, a White golf-ball showed. “That's Pallas. Rebekah is going to alter its orbit, and stick it in one that takes it around Earth, but In a reverse direction from the moon. We're gonna have two moons for a while, she says, when all's said and done.”
“ We get to see this happen soon?”
“Oh, no. Best she can do with everything the ship offers, and a mess of Sheppard rocks to help alter it's orbit, It'll take about a hundred years to move.”
“A hundred years!”
“Lisa grinned. “Uh-Huh. Its all about setting up the shots, she says. We wont be around to see it.” she zoomed back out, and a couple smaller rocks showed in the display at odd angles to it. “Those there, have had their gravity altered, and and are now tugging on it to change the orbit, yah?”
I watched the display for several more minutes, which after the initial sight, was like watching grass grow.
“So we've got a little time to kill then, I take it.”
She had a few things as need doing right off, but yah, other stuff can wait a while, though some of those things are timing dependent – need to be in the right place at the right time, or out of the way at the right time.”
Lisa evidently had spent far more time on the bridge and talking with Reb than I had. Not to mention being smarter and catching on faster. I was a little jealous she knew how to manipulate some of the bridge equipment, even if it was just the view screen controls. On the other hand, I was happy they had become more friendly.
In due time Reb released control of the ship, and Clacks piloted us on to the next horrid encounter on the itinerary.