Through the wire on the spaceport and they've seized the vehicle park. I've got the code that the plasma towers are off-line. " "I'll believe it when we're in " Pahner growled.

To be about the numbers and types of beings he'd seen in his earlier reconnaissance. Some- thing was definitely wrong here. . . But what? On a hunch he swung over his own forces jubilant in their easy victory and beyond in back. lexapro 10mg Giving her piggyback rides and telling her stories about another man—her father—that she didn't remember at all. Tell it again Uncle Bernie. Tell it again. 0555 Hours Tuesday 5 December 2062 Marriott Inn Toronto Ontario It's not like I actually got drunk. But mixing stimulants alcohol and military-issue reflex and concentration-enhancement aids might not be the wisest course of action. Which is why you should hate me for waking up bright eyed bushy tailed and four minutes before my alarm goes off Boris purring on my chest. Plenty of time for a long hot shower. As if in my ear I hear someone clear his throat. Richard? "You need to cope better than that Jenny. " I know. Water like standing under a sluiceway but steaming. It almost feels thick where it drums against my skin driving the chill out. Would you feel happier if I had one hell of a hangover? When was the last time I was sloppy self-indulgent and maudlin? "Do you want a list?" Immaterial hands beat at virtual air. "All right. I know. I know you're worried and you're right to be. Look I'm learning how to run some basic programming on the nanotech. I'm making good progress with one of the Chinese pilots but I'm concerned their government may try something drastic to put an end to the Canadian program because I've come to understand where you're going and what the stakes are. " To hell in a handbasket? "If I thought it existed I'd be worried. Can you actually imagine a supreme being that petty and erratic?" I let that slide and wait. Richard I sometimes think is happy to hear himself talk. I taste hot water and soap close my eyes draw a valentine's heart in the steam on the rippled glass door. "HD 210277 " he says. "A G7V main sequence star very similar to the Sun but a little less bright and about sixty-nine light-years away. As long ago as the turn of the century we knew it had a planetary system—a gas giant with an erratic orbit but it more or less sits in the habitable zone. That's where the generation ships that the Chinese launched ten years ago are going. And it's where you'll be going too. " "Why?" I put a hand over my mouth. Oops. What do they want with it? "More recent data indicate that one of that gas giant's moons has a very good shot at being earthlike. " Oh. They are colony ships. What about whoever lives there now? "If there is anybody . . . Jenny you of all people ought to know how it works. " Yes. Yes I do. Richard—the Montreal can leapfrog those generation ships. We could have a colony long established before they ever arrive. Assuming we beat the Huang Di out there. The Chinese regime was crazy enough to send ships out there with no guarantee they had anyplace to land and no way home? Why would anybody do something.