Going home was secondary. Rebecca demanded an in-system survey. Plots of up to the minute orbital information, all kinds of other data gathering, right away. Even with Kreeb help, there went two days. Which meant food problems, which meant re-landing, resupply, more negotiation with locals, for stuff we were also short of, or needed. John wanted to hunt down a few more armories. Clacks would need a trip to his home world, to complete negotiating an approval for his new 'nest'. That would have to be a separate trip though, we decided.

Rebbecca meantime kept rubbing Lisa the wrong way, going out of her way to make short passes for my attention which, for some reason, Lisa always seemed to take as my fault. Lisa was a bit volatile normally, but not usually a problem for me. But her attitude of late was causing harm between us. I asked Rouk for help.

He pulled at an ear, and raised his forehead considering the issue. “Rebecca's always been like that, sort of social/sexually competitive, I guess. Wouldn't take it to heart. It, it's her way to express – whatever it is women feel driven to express by doing it. You're asking the wrong expert, comes to that.”

I pondered this. My problem probably wasn't singular. Even after off-loading colonists, and besides the bugs, there were still plenty of people aboard ship.

“We really didn't prepare for this sort of confined environment excursion. It was supposed to be a quick and dirty business, not a cruise. I suppose it's to late to put some kind of protocol in effect to lessen the tension of it all?”

Rouk shrugged. “We could prep a spare space as a game room, that would help. Have to see what we can come up with.”

I mulled on this. “Do we even have anything for diversion aboard?”

Rouk pointed to what I knew were printers along one side of the bridge. “Stock a room with cards and tables or such, likely. We can print some playing cards out on hard stock. Keep coffee available there. Sort of a recreation center. Might keep people off each other's backs for a few days.” Coffee turned out not to be a supply problem. The stuff got warehoused in south america by the ton, and retail importers had petered out before the supplies had dwindled. It just sat there. We had picked up gunny-sacks of the stuff. I knew John had the weapons re-collected and shut away. Fist fights and such might still be a looming problem, but again, it was still only for a few days.

“Tomas, why not talk to Christa, she's pretty level headed. Have her mediate some of the … girl stuff.”

Now, that seemed brilliant to me. “Yeah, meantime, set up a few bridge tourneys or something. Get on it, and spread the word. I'll talk to Crista.”

My head-throbbing abated after talking to Christa.

“I'll try to redirect some of that, but you need to spend more attention on Lisa. It's not she blames you for anything, it's worry. You're just caught in the crossfire, honey.”

She smoothed her hands in thought, then gave me the kind of look usually reserved for petulant children.

“Rebecca is busy up to her ears in the survey and prep for her project, so the rest is just in passing. Stay out of her line of sight, is my advice. You are largely excess baggage right now. Have problems brought to Henry...give him something to do anyway, which I'd appreciate. Man's impossible when confined to bed, it seems. Spend the time with Lisa, away from,” she waved her hands airily, “all this.”

I really wanted to spend more time with her anyway, so got over my guilt about delegating work, took the advice, and things did smooth out. Two days passed. John broke up one hallway scuffle, but nothing serious.

We landed back at the colony without problems. Machinery and supplies rolled out of the ship, to glad waves and clots of happy onlookers with tons of questions.

Henry was carried out on a stretcher, to the consternation of the crowd. John handled the unenviable task of notifying the friends and family of our casualties. Lisa saw to organizing the next batch of returnees.

The camp seemed a little different. The Kreeb building stood unchanged, its egg-shape dominating the camp, but there were fewer tents, and several in the process of being struck. A clean, campfire smell still permeated the air. Surprisingly, I had missed it. A breeze swept down between the tent rows, and overhead, the sun seemed motionless in the sky. This brought Rebecca to mind. I would need to ask what progress she had made, and what, if anything, that would mean for the next trip Earth-side. First, I checked on my own digs. The drab canvas was dusty, and some streaks on it suggested it had rained recently.

My bag was still dry, though the bedding, such as it was, would need airing out. I tended to that. Reems prowled off into the shrubbery without comment. This too, gave me an odd sense of comfort. I pretty much knew where his hunting grounds were, and wasn't too worried about recalling him. I wondered If the same sense of familiarity would have raised its head if time had allowed a return to my apartment. Which is odd, since there was no comparison between this scout-camp shelter and the solidity of the Frisco Bay apartment. I walked to the civic center tent, but Christa and Henry were not there. Rouk sat in it, looking discomforted.

“Temporary assignment,” he gruffed. “Christa's tending to Henry. The Nurse is going to fit him up with a plaster cast tomorrow, so he can hobble around a little. Won't see much of him or Christa till then, at the least.”

I dropped cross legged to the floor. “I have to see what progress Rebbeca's made, so I can tell Clacks what's next, and when we can haul more colonists back.”

Rouk nodded. “I can fill you in a little bit. The Kreeb were able to get most of the data she needed. About four bodies it seems, inside the orbit of Jupiter fit the bill. She's got a computer working out the orbits they need to establish. Four, because the orbits will have pretty odd trajectories, and are all based 23 degrees out of the planetary plane, to accommodate the planet's axial tilt. They'll pass in system at different times, and work on slowing the planet's rotation over about the next 500 years, she figures, and gradually pull the troublemaker out of the system entirely. It'll cause some big-time tidal changes, so coasties are going to be moving inland. Someone'll have to prepare for that. Can't be helped though. Each orbit of the four will change a little with each pass, so the whole mess has to be computed cycle by cycle, - why its taking so much comp time. They are largely ice balls, and the last passes will pull them close enough to the sun to melt them out.” Rouk was making circular passes in the air with his hands. “So it's really a complex eight, to fifty body problem. Can't count on the Kreeb to hang in there to make corrections each century, all that.”

I looked blankly at the man. “Fifty bodies? What happened to four?” Rouk snorted. “Well, four asteroids we intend to re-orbit, but they cross the path of several others, then the moon has to taken into account, Phobos too...she says it might crash sooner into Mars during this. The solar system is a big billiard table with lots of balls on it. Its not particularly my field. If you want the nuts and bolts you'll have to talk to her.”

“I don't know what you just said. Sounds dangerous and promising, both. Why the Kreeb didn't do something like this before, or suggest it, bothers me.”

Rouk shrugged. “The satellite they put up, besides gathering data and making a lot of noise, puts out some sort of charge that helps keep the air from slipping, eh, turning at a different speed from the ground so much. Something to do with temporarily altering the local Higgs field slightly. Why it needs to travel so fast. Don't get all that. Particle Physics isn't me either. Weather is, which is why I asked the Kreeb about it. Why we don't have 600 mile an hour windstorms, that would normally go along with the high rotation Earth now has. As for our project, you can't fault them for not investing time in what amounts to re-engineering the whole solar system, just because. We didn't exactly ask, you know. Not that there was anyone in charge to ask, at that point.”

“Oh, guess I didn't know that. All of it blows over my head like a comet anyhow. What's this gonna mean for our next trip?”

“She's figuring it out with Clacks right now. You'll have to go back to the ship. See what they have come up with.”

“They didn't get off, I take it?”

“Not yet, last I heard.”

Kicked myself for not hanging on to the portable com. I could have kept tabs on Reb's progress that way. Somehow I'd subconsciously assumed Lisa wouldn't care for my being on the horn with Reb all the time. Call it male intuition. All of that had been turned over to Henry. So now, it was catch-up time.

On the way to the ship, Lisa caught sight of me, and came running, an angry look on her face.

“What are you doing just wandering around down here, Sport? When are we gonna get another load of colonists in the air? Someone's gotta detail people to build storage for the seeds N' machines, yah? John wants ta' set up a bivouac, depot and set up some sort of defenses, and...”

“Rouk...”

“Rouk has his hands full, Henry is recuperating, and Christa's time is taken up with him, yah? People are counting on you, Tomas.”

Me? Feeling like a squirrel swept up by a hurricane, I wondered how this happened. I wasn't running in the elections here. The camp had already selected section representatives.

“Hey, there's a colony assembly of reps now, to handle that!”

“Yah? Then maybe you should get them assembled and tell them what all needs doing.”

I threw my hand up in submission. “Okay, okay. I'll have Rouk get the council together and outline what ought to be on the table. Right now though, I'm off to ask Lisa and Clacks about the next jaunt, as it happens, so there.”

Lisa smiled brightly and gave me a big kiss. “That's my guy. Go do.”

I boarded via the open cargo doors. Clanging up the ramp ran me into John, who wore a similar expression to Lisa's, and seemed about to breach the same sorts of issues.

“I know, I know. Lisa told me. I'll get Rouk to fire up the council. Why is everybody coming at me with this stuff?”

John hesitated, switching gears. “Well, the council is fine, but leadership elections were never held. Current events, right? When a bunch'a people need to do more than one thing, someone has to administrate. Act as a center, a contact point, - the place to go first, where someone knows in general, what all is going on and needs getting done next. You just happen to occupy that space now. Deal with it, and don't get a big head.”

“Ought to be Lisa then,” I grumbled. “Anyway, Do me a favor and ask Rouk to get the council together. Let me know when that will be. I'm on the way to see about our next flight out.”

“I can do that.”

Oh, yeah, what's this about setting up defenses?”

John gave me a 'you can't be serious' look. “You know we can't just trust Reese will keep his bargain. He may have gotten a sweet deal, but it still cost him all that equipment. A lot of it wasn't his to dispose of, at least not the way we agreed to. If he gets his hands on another ship, things could change. The Enlightened Servitors ain't th' only sect picking people up.”

“Ah crap.” I forgot about the other sects. Where were they taking their volunteers? Far as I knew, the other sects only took those as wanted relocation; the servitors, likely with Reese's urging, were the only ones who shanghaied people off the streets. My new-found mindset about such things pressed questions on me I'd not considered my business before. Added to my list, getting any other relocation sites pegged, and if possible, their status. “I got to see Reb.”

#####

The ship's bridge was busy, and Rebbeca gave me a tired smile. “Y'all come up just to see me, Tomas?”

While she seemed in good spirits, and as predatory as ever, there were shallows under her eyes, carefully covered with cosmetics but still visible. “Heard you made major league progress with the save the Earth project, Miss Whorley.”

“Jus Call me Reb, Tomas. No need to be formal. Wah don't you take me down to the rec room and feed me, and ah'll bring you up to the minute?”

She came around the console and draped an arm over me. I kept my composure, and noted, “Thanks, but I had Rouk fill me in on the big picture. The rest I'd have to go to school for anyway. Just a couple of practical questions for now, if you've a second.”

She pulled her arm back, and gave me a grin. “Fire away then.”

“One thing, It would be nice if I could get a date for our next trip Earthward.” Her grin widened, and I hurried on to forestall another tease. “I need to know in advance so we can plan to board re-repatriates, and such. It'd be nice if it were also good for your project. Also, Clacks needs to talk to his kin, and settle a few things.”

Rebbcca nodded, looking thoughtful. “Well, the orbital programs need to run to completion. And bah that ah mean to the very end. That's several thousand orbits. We expect the four Sheppard Bodies to affect other objects in the system too, and we need those influences to not cause problems, or to be correctable. There's a handful of small ones we will need to move out of the way. We cain't manipulate ones big as the troublemaker or we would just do that directly.”

This wasn't getting my question answered, but the sheer scope of the project fazed me. “Can the Kreeb really carry it off?”

“Time comes, each of the four are going to have their orbits changed by a kind of technology the Kreeb have. They's real tricky with Higgs field manipulations. Wah they have gravity on the ship, wah it moves the way it does, all that. All takes time.”

“ Thought the Higgs thing was related to why stuff has mass.”

“Whah, you're a briaght one aren't you? So it does. And Mass diah-recly affects gravity, don't it. The two are connected. We might be ready to start moving rock around in say three days, but once my model is cooked, we can just keep it running and start things anytime. What ah'm sayin'is, whatever pressin' business you have, ah would just get after it. Once we start moving rock, we'll be doing it for a good while, and will want to monitor the results foah a while after. You won't have use of it as a taxi for a month, and only now and then after that, for a year at least. Which means ah am going to have to go shoppin'. Not stayin' on this bucket the way it's fitted now. A girl's gotta have her things, you know.”

I got Clacks to join the conversation, and we worked out a trip three days hence. The Itinerary would include returning colonists, and Reb, to do final checks and get her 'things'.

Clacks buzzed his wing casings in an expression of deep thought. “You must be going also. To need your support, with the queen's counsel. Last stop, will be.”

“Me?” I had expected to stay at the colony and send John to look after the disembarkation. He wanted to plunder a couple more armories. I know nothing about astrophysics or weapons. Then there was this really bad feeling about being cooped up with Reb on ship again. Almost certainly it meant Lisa would insist on making the trip too. There's a reason the Chinese pictograph for trouble was two women under one roof.