Alice gazed into the unbroken black of space. It would be another three hours to the rendezvous with Petbe. The heart pumping exhilaration of takeoff was behind her, but her nerves still rattled in time with the engine. There were no signs of attack, so far.

Alice startled as Marcos's voice sounded over the intercom. "Mission control, we have reached the Kármán line. We'll be leaving radio range momentarily."

"Roger that Commander Oliveira. Godspeed."

"Signing off. Over and out."

"Since when do spaceships rely on radio?" asked Alice.

"Ever since Lynch blew up the data relay satellites. Let's say about seven days. Once we're out of radio range, we're on our own."

"I see." Alice turned back to the porthole. "I always imagined space would have more of a view."

"Huh?"

"It's just black out there."

"Oh, right. One sec."

Marcos twitched a control, though there was no immediate effect. Then Alice noticed a blotch of blue slowly spreading over her porthole.

"There's something on the..." Alice trailed off as the Earth rotated into view. She'd seen pictures, but nothing could prepare her for the breathtaking beauty of that massive watery globe.

They were flying over Europe now. A storm system obscured most of the eastern continent, though the Atlantic Ocean was unusually calm. Alice traced the coast until she found the British Isles. There was England. And there, where London should be, was an angry brown smudge.

Alice sucked in breath as a tightness gripped her chest. "My god."

"Huh? Oh right. You already knew about that though."

"I guess it hadn't really sunk in. Hard to fathom the scale of horror. The atrocity I enabled."

"You can't blame yourself for what Lynch did Alice. Aden was a monster, he would have done this with or without you. And if you hadn't worked for him, we wouldn't know how to stop Petbe."

"Maybe. Even if we succeed, the weapon is still up here. The threat doesn't go away, it just changes hands."

"But it will be in the hands of leaders who can use it responsibly."

"Responsibly? What's the responsible way to blow up a city Marcos?"

"You know what I mean Alice. It's like the nukes were, before missile shields caught up. The ultimate deterrent."

"Great, who doesn't want another cold war? And if some maniac does decide to fire it some day? That blood will be on our hands."

"Well if you're worried about that, just leave it be. There'll be no blood left to bleed in forty two hours."

"You're an asshole." Alice clicked off her intercom. Marcos never could resist an argument.

"Hey Alice, I'm sorry. You're not the only one with reservations. All I'm saying is the alternative is worse.

"Anyhow, while we're coasting toward the big rock, I'd like to go over the rest of the plan."

"Fine. Go ahead."

"Love that enthusiasm. Wish we could bottle it."

Alice flipped him off. Marcos continued as if he hadn't noticed.

"First up, we need to 'land' on Petbe. That's easier said than done; Petbe isn't big enough to have meaningful gravity. It'll be more like trying to match orbits without bouncing off."

"Sounds tricky. You think you can do it?"

"Nope. But I won't have to. The pilot AI should bring us in nice and gentle. It's the next bit that's going to be hard. This ship we're in wasn't designed with space walks in mind. It's a recon plane. And like I said, no gravity. If you push off, you'll float away.

"There's a spool of rope next to your leg. Regular parachute cord, all they had on base. If for any reason you need to leave the ship, you clip that on to your suit before you take off your seatbelt."

"What do you mean 'if?' I thought we came up here to plug in Robert's thumb drive."

"I came up here to plug in the thumb drive; I've got my own copy. You're here to tell me where to go. Also as backup, in case it doesn't work out for me."

"Fair enough. Okay, so if I do need to move around out there, how do I do it without flying off into space?"

"I've got an anchor driver up here. It's kind of like a nail gun - it'll shoot a hook into Petbe, plus a chunk of ballast out the back to counteract the recoil.

"I'll lay down a route, hooking my tether in as I go. If you need to follow, use my rope to guide you. And try not to touch the asteroid."

"What, ground is lava?"

"Not exactly. Ground is razor sharp. Asteroids don't have weather to round the edges off rocks. Just assume that anything that protrudes is a knife blade. The gloves and knees on your suit have some kevlar reinforcement, but try not to rely on them. And your rope? Keep it the hell off the ground if you want it to stay in one piece."

"Noted. You've got me feeling good about staying on the ship. So what do you do?"

"The Canvasback will land away from the control pod airlock, we need a little distance from the explosives. I'll lay a route over to the door, set some charges, then come back here to detonate. Once the door's open I'll head back in, find a place to plug in the drive, and then we high-tail it out of here."

"Sounds easy. What could go wrong?" Alice asked.

Marcos laughed.

***

"We're coming up on Petbe now," said Marcos. "Course looks good, I'm turning it over to the autopilot for final adjustments."

The asteroid slid into view. A grid of silvery dots studded the surface, idle mining robots awaiting command. Then the canopy rotated away from Petbe as the ship made its approach.

"Hey, did you see that?" Asked Alice.

"See what?"

"The mining robots. I thought I saw them move."

"Looked still to me. Maybe a trick of the glass?"

"Maybe," Alice replied noncommittally.

The Canvasback gently lowered until it was hovering just above the surface. It twitched slightly as the thrusters made micro-adjustments.

"Welcome to Petbe! I'd give a speech, but we've only got thirty minutes to save the world."

"Plenty of time."

"Let's hope so. Opening the cockpit now."

The top lifted away, granting Alice a full field of view. The industrial yellow command pod peaked up over the horizon.

Marcos climbed hand over hand, methodically working his way out of the cockpit and towards the ground. When he reached the surface he unclipped the anchor driver and positioned it out to his side, clear of his body.

He squeezed the trigger and an aluminum spike plunged into the surface of Petbe. An equally massed slug ejected out the back, sailing off into space.

"Eggheads did a nice job of it, no recoil at all."

Marcos repeated the process every few feet, working his way from the Canvasback to the control pod airlock.

"Say Alice."

"What?"

"There's a green light next to the airlock. And a big red button that reads 'Open'."

"Huh. I don't remember that being in the plans. Did you press it?"

"Trying it now."

In the distance Alice saw the doors to the airlock slide apart.

"Looks like we'll be skipping the fireworks." Marcos sounded a little disappointed.

"I'm sure you can convince them to put on a show once we're back planet-side."

"There you go. Alright, we've got fifteen minutes left. I've tied off my tether and entered the airlock, going to cycle it now."

Alice watched the outer doors slide shut.

"Don't know why we can't just open both doors at once," Marcos said as he waited. "No one is home, it can't be pressurized in there."

"If you were designing an airlock, would you build a failure mode where it dumps all the oxygen into space?"

"Fair point. Timer on the wall says it's just about done. Open sesa– fuck!" Marcos grunted over the open comm. "How you like me now you son of a bitch?"

"What's happening in there?"

"Little fucker cut me. But I showed him. Rusty piece of shit." Marcos's slurred his words gently.

"Marcos, what's going on?"

"Feeling light headed, kinda cold. Mighta lost some air there actually." Marcos yawned loudly over the intercom. "Gonna take a quick rest."

"No you don't. Stay awake Marcos. Marcos?"

There was no reply.

"Shit. Hang in there, I'm coming."