She could barely hear his words as more motor noises approached. The red and white of the coast guard popped against the blue-gray water. Distorted speech from their megaphones reached her ears: “Cease all launch preparations or you will be fired upon.”

“The orders for you and Troit are to go home and await further instructions.”

“Understood,” she said bitterly, and turned the switch off.

Rage filled her until she wanted to scream. Why couldn’t her government have the nerve to do what was necessary? They lost their only chance to stop the caliph in ’88, and now they were making the same mistake with the Machinehood.

She maneuvered the skiff back to the launchpad. Petra’s baffled, distraught expression made her more angry. It wasn’t the club leader’s fault, of course, but right now Welga had no patience for anybody.

“We’re done here,” Welga snapped. “Go home.”

She clamped her mouth shut before she spewed insults about shitty politicians and their weak-minded ways. Nobody tried to talk to her as they filed onto the big boat. The coast guard escorted them to shore, sirens blaring the entire way.

NITHYA

[Video of K. V. Ramya, prime minister of India, speaking at a podium] We are investigating the destruction of constellations, including those belonging to India. The United States does not have exclusive ownership of this catastrophe, nor does it have unilateral privilege in assigning blame. Indian intelligence has reason to believe that the origin of the Machinehood is terrestrial. Unless the United States can present clear and incontrovertible proof of wrongdoing by the government or residents of Eko-Yi, India will not participate in the embargo against its former colony. Further, any unilateral act of aggression by the United States against Eko-Yi will be considered by India as an act of war.

—Doordarshan News, English Feed (March 24, 2095) Current accuracy rating: [off-line]

The Indian government displayed its usual chest-beating at the news from abroad. Like other major countries, they had launched emergency communications drones, which meant that Nithya could get some information the old-fashioned way, via screen access. Both China and India, the originators of Eko-Yi Station, were on the US blacklist because of their ties to the off-world colony. As if they hadn’t suffered from the Machinehood’s actions as much as everyone else.

Carma had weathered the outages better than Nithya expected—and, if she were honest, better than she herself had. Bhairavi Chitthi, too, but she had the benefit of having lived through it before, during the uprisings in the seventies. They all had a high degree of cabin fever, so to speak, but they had food and fuel and the power had come back on.