“And we’re going to leave it a design? So it can get clear?”

“One problem at a time, Matt.”

“I don’t think we should let this happen.”

“I know you don’t. At the moment, all I really care about is picking up Hutch and Antonio and getting out of here.”

It was a betrayal. “If the idiot woman had listened to me, none of this would be happening.”

“You can complain to her when we have them back on board.”

“Jon, you know, after we get them back, it might be possible to destroy the Preston anyhow.”

“Matt, I promised the thing it could have the ship.”

“I know. But we have a defense system. We have particle beams.”

“Matt, the Preston is armored. The particle beams might do some damage, but I suspect it would be minimal. The thing would probably still be able to figure out how the engines work.”

“Probably.”

“You’d have to pretty much melt the engines to hide the design.”

“If we fired a few shots right up the tubes, we’d bypass the shielding. There’d be a decent chance of blowing the ship apart. We could pick them up, then at least make the effort.”

Jon looked unhappy. “Wouldn’t you have to maneuver into position to do that?”

“Yeah.”

“And if you succeeded, we’d have to make a run for it. Against lightning bolts.”

“We already know the thing’s a scattershot.”

“I don’t think it would have to have a very good aim to take us out.”

“I don’t know. If that’s the case, why didn’t it disable the Preston when it got so close right at the beginning? Why did it have to arrange that elaborate ploy with the alternate ship to get her even closer?”

“I’d say because it wasn’t a matter of taking down the Preston; it was a question of securing the ship afterward.”

“So what do you think?”

“I think we do what we said we were going to do. Let it have the Preston and count ourselves lucky if we get clear with Antonio and Hutch.”

THEY WERE TOO far away to get a good look, but as Matt accelerated toward the Preston, they could see that tendrils still clung to it. The forward motion of the ship had not yet stopped, but it was barely moving.

“It’s not letting go,” said Matt.

Jon nodded. “It won’t.”

Matt got back on the circuit. “Hutch,” he said. “We know you can’t transmit. But we’re on the way. Be there in a couple of hours. Hang on. We’re going to—”

Jon held up his hands. Stop. He scribbled a note. Careful what you say. Enemy listening.

“See you then,” he finished.

Jon took over, explained how they intended to make the transfer, and signed off. When he’d finished, Matt wondered what the enemy remark was about.

“If we sound anxious to get them off, Frank might conclude the story’s a fabrication.”

“So what if it does? I mean, really, as long as it gets to keep the ship, why would it care?”

“If I were Frank,” said Jon, “I’d prefer two ships to one. In case something went wrong. In case the engine in one was damaged to the extent I couldn’t figure out how it worked. Maybe just because I’m a mean son of a bitch who wants to kill everybody in sight. Look, what would your mood be like if you’d been stuck out here a million years?”

“Okay.”

“We need it to be convinced we’re suicidal.”

Jim broke in: “Forward motion by the Preston has stopped.”

“Okay,” Matt said. “Maybe it’s best we stay off the link.”

“Until we get there, anyhow.”

“It is beginning to retract. The ship is being drawn back toward the cloud wall.”

They reached cruise velocity, and Matt released the harnesses. “Time to get to work,” he said.

They climbed into e-suits and went below to cargo. There, they collected two lasers and began cutting into the ship’s outer bulkhead.

WHEN THEY GOT within a hundred kilometers, they picked up a transmission from the Preston. “Glad you guys are coming. We’ll be waiting.”

“Very good, Hutch,” said Matt. “We’ll be there in a few minutes.”

Jon leaned forward. “Hutch, in the various communication media, as in all things, caution is the watchword.”

“Understood, Jon. Nobody ever got in trouble for something she didn’t say.”

The Preston was being dragged relentlessly toward the cloud wall.

“Jim,” said Matt, “you get any indication of increasing activity inside the cloud, let me know right away.”

“Yes, Matt.”

Jon got on the link. “Being in the cloud, we do not have a name for you. How do we address you?”

He got only static back.

“Okay. It doesn’t matter. We’re approaching the Preston. In a few minutes we will be taking our people off. When we have accomplished that, I’ll signal you, and at that point you may do as you will with the ship.”

“Yes,” it said. Still using Matt’s voice. “Agreed.”

“Okay.”

Matt brought them in carefully. He tried to angle the ship so he could get clear quickly if attacked. But he knew, they both knew, that if things went wrong, there’d be no evading the lightning. Not at this range.

“Okay, Hutch,” he said, “we’re ready to go.”

“Need a couple minutes,” she said.

Matt grumbled under his breath. They were presumably putting on e-suits, getting ready to go down into cargo. But they’d had plenty of time to do that. It was irritating that she hadn’t been ready to move on signal.

“All right.” He didn’t add What’s the holdup? but his voice must have given it away.

“We’re packing,” she said.

Packing? What the hell was the matter with the woman? “Hutch, you have nothing over there we can’t replace.”

“Need my clothes,” she said. “Just be a few minutes.”

He pushed back in his chair. “Goddam women.”

And he waited.

Jon went below to take a last look at the shielding they’d welded to the hull of the lander. More had been placed inside the vehicle wherever possible. It didn’t look pretty, and it wasn’t much, not in the surrounding electromagnetic maelstrom, but it was something.

The minutes dragged. Didn’t she realize the monster in the cloud could change its mind at any moment and fry them all? What the hell was she doing over there?

Then, finally, she was back. “Okay, Matt. All set. You’ll want to hurry up, though.” Urgency in her voice. That’s right. Take your time and now let’s hustle. He wanted to say something, but best not. Not with Frank listening.

“Thank God,” he said. “Jettison the lander.”

Since the Preston had no power, Hutch and Antonio would have to release the locks and the cargo hatch manually. That would expose them to the outside radiation, but she’d said not to worry, she could take care of it. Probably she had done much the same thing he and Jon had, taken down some of the interior shielding and built a shelter near the hatch that they could hide behind.

The Preston cargo hatch was located on the port side. He watched it open. The lander, like the ship, had lost power, and they needed to get it out of the way. Even in zero gravity, it retained its mass, and would therefore require some serious pushing. Hutch and Antonio would be behind their makeshift shielding pulling on lines to drag the lander through the launch doors. He was relieved to see it emerge and begin to drift away.

Matt opened his own cargo door.

Hutch called over. “Okay. Let’s go.”

Incredible. She was annoyed at him.

“I hope you got all your blouses,” he told her.

“Say again, Matt?”

“Nothing.” The McAdams lander slipped out through the hatch and started toward the Preston.

“Jim, don’t forget they have no gravity over there.”

“I know.”

It crossed the twenty or so meters that separated the two ships and entered Hutch’s cargo section.