Reb and Lisa stood the bridge,arms folded looking on expectantly. The glass lens of a monitoring camera and speaker were also evident on one of the control decks, which meant Henry was watching our arrival.

“Well? So what happened? We good with the bu - Kreeb, champ?" Lisa flicked eyes at Clacks, self correcting her query on the fly.

“The hive queen says we can have the colony and two ships, this one and another one that will arrive later with a couple ah, colonial administrators of their own. I am to liason with the Kreeb regarding anything the colony government decides to do. Uh, its not to be an electable position, That's their demand, not mine. I get to be permanent lackey. No more transporting folks from Earth here.”

The speaker fired up, and Henry's baritone blared out. One of the bridge engineers moved forward to moderate the volume.

“Okay, so you're to be the diplomatic envoy. Anything about repatriating people that want to leave?”

“Wasn't directly forbidden, so I'd say no. I think to start, they just wanted to end Kreeb shanghaiing citizens off the streets. We could discuss other stuff later, I'd think.”

“We get to use the ships as needed for trade and Reb's project? You made certain of that, at least?”

I blushed, remembering all the quietude and head nodding I'd done, and how little negotiation. Clacks did all the talking. “The queen specifically mentioned trade, and our attempt to rectify Earth's troubles was discussed by Clacks. The Kreeb will share both with us, that's one more ship than we have now. They intend to make the sects withdraw from Earth, trusting our pact with Reese Corp to end it only so far.”

“Its a start. Did they mention any other colonies on Lyra? Have any problems with our seeing to self defense?”

I froze at that. All those things a smarter person would have prepared to do and say. And now the colony was stuck with me, the original Okie-dokie opie, as ambassador to an entire species.

“I understand they weren't informed of colonist's being moved here to begin with. So thats onr thing we should use the ship to look for. This was all Reese Corps brainchild.”

“So, we've a lot to figure out yet. Understandable. A colony survey is important to do. If Reese has more than one, that throws a whole different spin on why he was so quick to give in during our negotiations, and could mean trouble for us down the road. At least he can't message the transportees anymore.”

I bit my lip. “There's one other thing. All of this support doesn't come free, or without Kreeb involvement. There'll be a colonial tithe of 20 percent on exports, once we have something to export. The world will be a shared resource. The Kreeb will be staying.”

“What!”

“Again, their initial condition for keeping the colony on Lyria. We weren't exactly there to negotiate. It was more like a petition. We get to stay, ships, tech, land, a shot at saving earth, independent governance, trade...”

Henry remained silent for a minute. Then, “I suppose its to be expected. In the future, maybe we can negotiate something else. This could end a Boston tea party in the making if not. Got this in writing?”

“I'll have Clacks get on it.”

Our approach to Lyra slowed to a crawl. “Clacks, how long will it take to do a good surface scan for other settlements from orbit?”

The beetle figited a bit. “To need a close, you say low polar inclined orbit, within gas envelope, so sslow will be. To passs over all the land, two orbitss take, and to do ssurvey well, four at leasst. Can process scan data electronically real time, but sstill, several dayss.”

“Okay. So we'll want to land and offload first.”

“I also need time,Tomas. Musst advisse Kreeb of decissions made, what the future iss to be. Am leader now. Also, should assk Reb when she needs to continue her work, more important iss.”

Things were getting quickly very complicated. I felt overwhelmed, and pressured about stuff. I would certainly end dropping the ball; the question was, could I hold on long enough to keep the colony in one piece?

Speaking of pieces, I did still need to deal with the guys we picked up in Hawaii. I found John back in the hold, making ready to unload the cargoes. John straightened up from reloading the Addagio, and agreed.

“”Yeah, now as good a time as any.” Grunting, he lifted one last case of belted ammo onto the addagio's hopper platform and dusted off his hands.

We made our way to to the brig, and gave the scavengers a fast summary of events and choices. A lot of angry faces and shouting ensued. As we could no longer transplant, say family members left on Earth to Lyra, there were few takers for staying with the colony. Two, to be exact. The rest opted to return at the first opportunity but did not want to stay on ship meantime, in lockup.

John gave me a righteous look, saying ”They got a point. They're unarmed and can't go anywheres, less they decide to set up shop here. Let 'em off.”

Since we had no firm date of return, an agreement was made to disembark all of them temporarily, with a warning to stay in close proximity to each other so as not to miss the next lift off. I put the group in Lisa's hands for that, as she had the most experience shepherding passengers around.

John seemed satisfied and turned to more current events.

“So, are we landing, or what?”

“Yeah. I'll have Clacks bring us in now.”

“Good. If you don't mind, I got more work to do.” With that he stomped off in the direction of the cargo hold. While on the bridge, I queried Reb about when she'd need to return to her work.

“Whah, about two weeks off, ah'd say, would be just fiahn.”

“I've got some extra passengers that will need dropping off earth-side; would it be bothersome to do that on your next trip?”

Reb made a face. “Oh, those hooligans y'all picked up in Hawaii? Well, ah suppose. If Ah get to shop a little, definitely.”

This was good. If Clacks could clear up his business in a week or so, I'd have a date to give Henry for a site survey, and another for the goofs we picked up. Atleast until something else blew up.