“Really? You think they won’t notice that? They’ll follow us in and be waiting wherever we land—”

Hutch stopped. He was right. “Okay,” she said. “I’ve a better idea. How about if we record an interview with them, with Kwylla and Arin, and just send it to somebody?”

“We can’t use the transmitter, remember? So, you mean, what, wait till we get close and use a commlink?”

“No. That won’t work. He’ll have someone escort us in. When we get close enough to use a commlink, they’ll scramble anything except a transmission aimed at Union.”

“So, what then?”

“He shut down the ship’s transmitter. We’ve got another one on the lander.”

“Right! Okay, that’s good. But who do we talk to? You know somebody in the media?”

“Yes. I’d send it directly to Jack Crispee if I had his link. Unfortunately, I don’t.”

“How about a boyfriend?”

“Not anymore.” Tom Axler was the last guy she could have brought into this. “But I do have somebody.”

“Who?”

“My mom. I’ll ask her to send it to Crispee at CBC.”

“You don’t have their link either, I assume?”

“No. But Mom can find it easily enough.”

He needed a minute to think about it. “Okay. I don’t see what else we have.” They walked over to the lander. “I hope this works,” he said.

“Let’s see first if we still have control of the system.” She opened the lander’s hatch, and they went inside and sat down. Normally, she would have directed Tasha to activate the transmitter, but that would alert Barry and he might feel bound by his instructions to relay the request to Zhang. Best to do it manually. Which she did. “Good so far,” she said.

“You understand this is going to be the end of our careers?”

“I suspect that’s the least that will happen. We might both wind up in jail.”

“Whatever.” Derek sat for a moment, probably trying to find a way to laugh it off. “How are we going to manage the interview?”

“Best time is now. Let’s get it done, and then when we get close enough to Union, we’ll send it out.”

•  •  •

“I think,” said Derek, “it will work best if you do it, Hutch. You look a little better than I do.”

“Derek, you’re higher up in the organization. I’m just—”

“You’ve got more experience with this stuff. Please. Do it my way. We need to get the audience on our side. Whatever blowback we get, I’ll take full responsibility.”

They rearranged the chairs on the front porch, converting it back into a standard passenger cabin.

“I am uncomfortable with this,” Arin said. He looked over at Kwylla, who indicated she was in full agreement. “We’re getting you into serious trouble. But I don’t see what else we can do.”