“I understand, Doctor. One of your safety measures will involve something that will destroy the nanites if the shipment is in danger.” Moore shook his head. “Still not good enough. If a batch of fissionables were to get loose despite all our precautions, there would be deaths, there would be long-lasting environmental repercussions. But the human race would not be in danger of extinction.” He slammed his fist on the armrest for emphasis. “If the nanites get loose, it could be game over. For everyone.”

“There are a lot of assumptions in that scenario, Admiral.”

“My job, Doctor.”

“But fortunately, not mine. I’ve told you what I was told. I had no part in the decision. Do feel free to take it up with, uh…” she flipped through some documents. “Dr. Bertram Hall, the incoming administrator. I can forward his contact details to you if you want to talk to him.”

And give him time to mount a defense? Moore thought. Thanks, no. I’ll blindside him when he gets here. “Thanks, Dr. Narang, I’d appreciate that.” On the other hand, no point in cueing her to warn him.

He stood, gave Narang a smile and a nod, and walked out.

Idiots.

* * *

Moore flipped through his directory until he found Admiral Castillo’s number. Castillo had come across as a tad hawkish in committee meetings. Now, he was starting to look prescient.

He hit the call button, and Castillo picked up immediately.

“Afternoon, Admiral Moore. Something up?”

“You might say that. Can we meet?”

Castillo arrived at Moore’s office within seconds, perhaps alerted by his tone.

Moore didn’t bother with any preamble. “They’re sending nanites to Earth.”

Castillo was silent for a moment, absorbing the news. “They being…”

“Does it matter? Of course the simple answer is Narang’s group. But the request—a non-optional request, the way she described it—comes from uphill. Considerably so. My guess is it’s a move by the President to give the public something positive to focus on.”

“Positive?”

“The power source. The nanites actually seem to extract power from the fabric of space. Hell, even I’ll admit that would be a good thing. But not this way. Not driven by a political deadline, with prudence and common sense thrown out the airlock.”

Castillo nodded slowly, then steepled his fingers. “But it’s not done yet, right?”

“No, it’ll be a few—ah.” Moore gave Castillo a sharp look as he realized the direction of that question. “Right. Things can happen between now and then.”

“You mentioned that moving the hab might make the nuclear option more palatable. Were you going to confirm that first?”

Moore grinned. “I was debating. Now that seems like an unnecessary delay.”

“And risk. They could still say no.”

“Right.” Moore steepled his fingers, unconsciously mimicking Castillo. “Once everything is in place, there would be an accident or a breakout or something…”

“Making it necessary for us to detonate.”