Winter World (The Long Winter #1)(47)

“Are you speaking for yourself or them?”

“Both. Please, Emma. Think about it.”

“I don’t need to.”

He throws up his hands. “You’re nuts, you know that? Nuts! And you’re driving me nuts.” He barrels out of the lab. It’s a good thing spaceships don’t have gravity or slamming doors, because he would have been stomping away and rocking the hatch off its hinges as he shut it.

I believe I’m doing the right thing for the mission and everyone on Earth, including my sister and her kids. I feel miserable about it.





An hour later, we reconvene in the bubble and make the decision: we’ll rendezvous with the Fornax and transfer all drone components to Pax. James is still sullen, either from our conversation or the weight of the decisions upon him. His plan isn’t elaborate, and there’s no mention of my going over to the Fornax or of the other ship turning back. But I wonder if he’s planning it.





In the lab, James, Harry, and I discuss what to do with the new influx of parts. It will almost triple our available stock. Most importantly, we’ll get more engine parts.

I voice my first reaction. With the exception of the contentious conversation I just had with James, the lab is a safe zone, where we are free to throw out ideas, and debate is civil and productive. It reminds me so much of the ISS.

“We could take more readings. Send a fleet ahead of the artifact, see how it reacts after our encounter with it.”

“True,” James says, eyes on the table. “But we need to consider the big picture.”

“Attaching my wide-view lens,” Harry says jovially.

That gets a chuckle out of James and me, but neither of us looks at the other. He’s still mad at me. That sort of makes me want to be mad at him.

“We’re out here for more than these two artifacts,” James continues. “Our mission is to get Earth the data they need to survive.”

I cock my head. “I don’t follow.”

“Think about it: two artifacts on the same vector. Think about what that implies.”

It hits me then. “A mother ship.”

Harry pinches his lower lip with his fingers. “What are you proposing?”

“A massive drone search fleet. Sent along the artifacts’ vector. Running silent, collecting their findings. Another mother drone, larger than Madre, to coordinate the other drones and send comm bricks back to Earth with the data.”

Harry smiles. “A mother mother drone? You should have led with that, James. You had me at ‘We’re gonna need a bigger drone.’”

“You’re so shallow, Harry.”

“Size matters. E equals mc squared.”

It’s got to be the nerdiest joke I’ve ever heard. But I laugh, and so does James. He glances over at me, and I can tell he doesn’t really want to be mad at me. And I don’t really want to be mad at him. We’re fighting, essentially, because he cares about me and I care more about the mission.





In the bubble, we present our plan. To my surprise, the crew is pensive. Maybe it’s because we’re technically going outside of our mission objective, which is to find and assess the known artifacts.

We don’t reach a consensus. We break and return to our departments.

Shortly after, Grigory drifts into the lab.

“If we send the other drones on search, we need to be ready to support them.”

“Madre Two,” Harry begins, but Grigory holds up a hand.

“Not talking about bigger mother drone. Talking about fact we have two ships now. One possibly without purpose.”

To my surprise, he doesn’t elaborate. He nods and floats out of the lab. His meaning isn’t lost on James, Harry, or me. But we don’t discuss it. We all return to our work, stewing on the idea.





The next day, James, Harry, and I form a plan. We don’t include the Fornax in it. Mostly because we’re scared to make plans for the ship—because those plans might sentence that crew to death.





In the bubble, the meeting about the drone deployment is contentious. Battle lines are drawn. Harry, James, Grigory, and I are for sending the remaining drones along the vector to search for more artifacts and a potential mother ship.

The rest are against, some more vocally than others.

Min points at James. “This isn’t our mission.”

“Of course it is. Our mission is to do whatever we have to do to save Earth.”

Min taps on his panel. “The mission—”

“Is more than what’s written in the briefing, Min.” James is mad. He’s trying to hide it, but he’s losing control. “Why do you think they sent us up here? To follow that document to the letter? No. We’re here to use our heads and figure this out. We need to find that mother ship.”

James looks at the group. “Odds are, it’s out there. And if these artifacts are responsible for the Long Winter, we’ve got to fight them at the source. There could be millions or even billions of these artifacts.”

Arguing ensues, voices rising. The fight, more than any of our time here on the Pax, reveals the personalities of the members of our crew.

Min, ultimately, is by the book. He favored finding the second artifact, but only because he felt that effort was well within the mission parameters. He can’t imagine going home and telling his superiors he went off on a completely different mission than what he was sent up here for.