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being
put through a cheese grater.
    “It’ll be
different. It won’t be like looking at video because we’ll know
we’re right amongst it,” Tessa said.
    “We won’t even
know that for sure. We could be anywhere. We could be still be here
and we wouldn’t know.”
    “Maybe we could
go outside in spacesuits and see for ourselves.”
    “We could still
be looking at a screen on the inside of the helmet, even supposing
I agreed to hang about in space and the only thing between me and
instant death is a spacesuit that doesn’t really exist so I
probably won’t.”
    Tessa gave up.
“Okay, you be Ms. Grump. I’m going to talk to the boss.” With that
she disappeared, choosing to make her exit outlined in a rainbow of
colours and surrounded by ostrich feathers. She returned a few
minutes later with Digby.
    “It’ll be
dangerous,” he said, slumping into a chair. He looked haggard.
    “That’s
wonderfully reassuring,” Marion said.
    “You said that
this was a super duper scout ship,” Tessa said. “Undetectable.
Doing what it was designed to do. Now when we want to do it,
suddenly it’s really dangerous.”
    “It’s always
been dangerous and I only do it when absolutely necessary.”
    “It’s
absolutely necessary now, otherwise Ms. Grump won’t believe it and
the planet dies in case you all hadn’t noticed. What have you been
doing anyway? You look like shit.”
    “Yeah, I love
you too, Tessa,” Digby said.
    “Okay. That
does it. I’m going to check out the big tracked thing with the
awesome gun and the silly name and you grouches can kill each other
for all I care.” This time she chose to exit through an exploding
bomb.
     
    Marion and
Digby sat silently for a while until Marion said, “What have you been doing, anyway?”
    “Same as you, I
guess. Trying to figure a way out of all of this.”
    “What’s the
problem? Come the time and you’ll flee. What’s so hard about
that?”
    “We can’t fight
them, Marion. I’ve run every scenario I can think of. They all end
the same way. The ship gets hammered. We die. Nothing changes. The
bugs do their thing on Earth.”
    “Supposing the
world listened and got it all together and co-operated for once.
They’ve got a pretty big nuclear arsenal and two years to put in
place, I don’t know, an ambush may be?”
    “An awful lot
would be riding on them cooperating and their record on that one is
not good. Do you really think they’ll take it on board?”
    “Who knows? I
do know that I cannot sit here and do nothing. You’ve been keeping
an eye on the bugs without being caught, evidently. How dangerous
is it really?”
    “Follow the
protocols. Skip in and out. As you say, done it before…”
    “When do we
leave?”
    “Soon as we
talk to Tessa.”
    -oOo-
    Digby’s sphere
ship hung in space beside the colossal bulk of a bug cargo ship,
motionless relative to the bug ship giving them shelter. Digby had
chosen a featureless part of the ship on the opposite side to the
crew’s quarters which helped the sphere ship to blend against its
backdrop. Helping too was that the bugs had no experience of sphere
ships and their entire defensive perimeter was directed outwards
from the fleet.
    Tessa had been
right. It did make a difference actually being in the midst of the
bug battle fleet. And they had to believe that they really were a
half a light year from Earth because you have to believe in
something.
    Across a
stretch of space, a bug battleship cruised along. About 185
kilometres in length, depending on where you measured from. Pulse
cannons the size of small skyscrapers. It bristled with nests of
smaller pulse weapons. Lots of other bumps and structures which
could simply have been storage for spare hammocks but which their
minds translated into lethal high-tech hardware. Anything up to
50,000 of the nasty little critters on board. Although, in reality,
they were not so small if you stopped thinking in terms of height
and noticed that they were about