“I understand,” Dr. Kemp said. “But I also know that he would beg you to reconsider.”

Mrs. Pritchard put her head down, balled her fists, and began to sob quietly.

Jennings and Kemp exchanged a glance, and Jennings put a card on the coffee table. “Here’s my number, should you have any questions. The ICDC will be preparing an official report and will give you a copy upon request.” Jennings bowed his head. “Ivan was a well-liked and valued member of the crew. We are all sorry for his passing and for your loss.”

Mrs. Pritchard nodded, plainly unable to force speech from her throat.

“We’ll let ourselves out, Mrs. Pritchard,” Kemp said. Without another word, they retreated for the door.

61.Vessel Released

61.Vessel Released

Moore leaned back in his chair and tossed the tablet onto his desk. A nuclear detonation in the environs of the Earth/Moon system was, not surprisingly, the hottest news topic of the last forty-eight hours. Virtually every news channel was running it, all using the same two or three short video clips, likely taken by amateur astronomers. He’d filed his report immediately, which would hopefully forestall panicked demands for information from HQ. No way to keep it hidden. Nor would it be good strategy to act embarrassed about the action. A forthright, self-confident statement was the way to go. Let the nay-sayers do the work.

And, of course, the SSE had gone completely ballistic, alternately demanding an explanation and declaring any explanation a priori to be propaganda. They were also suggesting that it was a ploy to keep the alien technology from them, a petulant reaction to not being able to extract said alien technology, and a result of mishandling the alien technology.

All at the same time.

Which would all be nothing more than fodder for the ever-hungry media, except that the SSE was also making threats again. The one that worried Moore the most was their stated intention to come to Lagrange Four again for an “inspection”. The Sino-Soviet Empire was always balanced on the balls of its metaphorical feet, ready to be loudly offended, suspicious or aggrieved. The blustering and chest-thumping were par for the course, but the outright threats were coming more frequently.

Moore considered for a moment, then wrote an order for inspection of all ordnance and weapons systems, as well as a Readiness Audit.

Lt. Bentley placed a document on Moore’s desk. What now? The admiral picked it up and scanned it quickly. “Jennings wants his ship back suddenly?”

“Or maybe he simply doesn’t want to pay us docking fees, sir. You did threaten.”

“The man is a skyrillionaire. I doubt he’d even notice. More likely he’s concerned about giving us anything at all.” Moore pulled out a pen and signed the document. “Here you go. And good riddance. Is he sending someone up?”

“He said he’d make arrangements. He wasn’t chatty.”