There was a murmur of concern among the Council.
&nbs
p; "As for when it will reach the Kuiper Belt," said Edimar, "we obviously have much less time. I've run through the data over and over again now and it looks as if the ship will be relatively close to us in less than four months."
Everyone started talking at once, alarmed. It was loud and chaotic and Concepcion called for order. "Please. Quiet. Let Edimar finish."
The talking subsided.
"We can't even reach Weigh Station Four in that time," said someone in the back.
"You're probably right," said Edimar. "I've done the math. The starship will likely pass by Weigh Station Four before we get there."
"Pass by?" said Dreo. "You mean the two will be close?"
"They won't collide," said Edimar. "There's little chance of that. Weigh Station Four will be a hundred thousand kilometers away from the ship's trajectory. That should be a safe distance."
"In relative space terms, that's not all that far," said Mother. "That's only a quarter of the distance from the Earth to the Moon. That's too close for comfort. We have to move now. Immediately. We need to warn the weigh station as soon as possible."
"We need to be clear about our warning, though," said Dreo. "We know plenty about the pod, but less about the ship. Such as its size. Do we even know how big it is?"
"Not precisely," said Edimar. "It's heading toward us, so we don't know its length. We can only detect the front of it. But even that is big. At least a kilometer across."
This time the reaction in the room was a stunned silence.
Victor thought Edimar had misspoken. A kilometer? And that was the ship's width, not its length. That couldn't be right. What could possibly be that big?
"Any of you are welcome to check my calculations," said Edimar. "I hope you can prove me wrong. But you won't. I didn't believe it myself until I rechecked it the fifth time. This ship is big."
And filled with creatures like those that killed Janda and Toron and the Italians, thought Victor. How many could fit in a ship that size? Thousands? Tens of thousands? And what about pods and other weaponized ships? How many pods could squeeze into a ship a kilometer across?
Sending a laserline wasn't enough, he realized. Dreo was right. A warning might get through, but not as quickly as it needed to, if at all. Any number of things could go wrong, and then Earth would be caught off guard. We need a contingency plan, he told himself. We need a way to get the evidence to Earth and in the right hands as soon as possible. No delays, no middleman holding up or deleting the warning. We need a person on Earth presenting the evidence to people that matter, decision makers, political leaders, government agencies. That was the only way it was going to get noticed.
It all became clear to him then. He understood in that moment what he needed to do.
"A quickship," said Victor.
Everyone turned to him.
"We need to send a quickship to Luna. The laserline is one approach we should pursue, but it shouldn't be the only one. If Dreo is right, there's too much of a chance the message won't get through. We can't risk that. There's too much at stake. We have to have a second means of warning Earth."
"What are you suggesting?" asked Concepcion. "That we put all of the evidence on a data cube and send the cube on a quickship to Luna?"
"If we just put a data cube on the ship, it probably wouldn't get noticed," said Victor. "All of the quickships go directly to the mineral docks. They don't pass through human hands. And even if someone did notice the cube, we can't be certain that person would recognize its significance and put it in the right hands. What I'm suggesting is that we send the data cube with an escort. Someone rides in the quickship to Luna with all the evidence and then gets passage to Earth to deliver that evidence to the people who need to see it."
There was a pause as everyone stared at him.
"You can't be serious," said Selmo.
"Victor," said Concepcion. "Flying a quickship around on a rescue mission with docking propulsion is one thing. Riding in one to Luna is another matter entirely. The quickship isn't designed to accommodate a passenger."
"I can fix that," said Victor. "I can build a seat and cover the cockpit with shields to block out cosmic rays and solar radiation. I can make it safe. The cargo hold is more than big enough for batteries and one of the large air tanks. And the suits are already designed for food intake and waste removal. It's just a matter of stockpiling the needed supplies."
"That trip takes six months," said Selmo. "You're proposing that someone ride in a quickship for six months?"
"A full cargo of mineral cylinders takes six months," said Victor. "A quickship with only a passenger and gear will take longer. You wouldn't want to accelerate and decelerate as quickly with a human inside. Too much G-force. Seven months or so is probably more accurate."
"You want to strap someone between two deep-space rockets and fire him like a bullet to Luna?" said Selmo. "That's insane. Who would be crazy enough to do such a thing?"