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created this mess is just fine.”
    The crawl changed:   All ISS arrivals canceled until further notice. Departures advised to confirm at assigned docking station.
    “I’ve got to go, Meadowlark.”
    “Rani?” She was his crewmate. Maybe more than that.
    “The V is going to be invaded by ships getting off planet. The Imperial will be fine. No one will be able to dock without authorization codes, and its data links are too hard counterfeit.” He kissed her—with intensity she didn’t expect. Shib, he was afraid. “If things get too weird, stick with Mike. He’s a survivor. And he cares about you.”
    And he was gone. The feeling struck her that she’d had about the Pacific Zone, that same sense of finality. Jake wasn’t coming back. The gaping hole in her life, the one ripped when she lost Brandon and Sky, tore open a little larger.
    The monitor went blank and a different artificial voice said, “Incoming message, priority one.” Mike’s avatar appeared in the lower portion of the monitor. Char touched it and his face filled the screen. “Mike, what’s happening?”
    “So far it’s only four cities, all on the one continent. The DOGs are denying everything, o course, but they’re behind it.” He was calm and precise, as if he were performing on stage. The strong leader. “The Emperor is coming up. Just as a precaution.”
    That was big. The Imperial press secretary was always making noise about not being terrorized by the terrorists. That the media just wanted to scare people to drive up ratings, and the Emperor had no plans to go into orbit for his safety.
    “Jake’s gone to Vacation Station to get Rani,” Char said.
    “Good. Now listen to me, Char. I’ve sent directions to your com. I need your help with something before the Emperor gets here. Please come. Right now.”
    Please. A word not usually found in Mike’s vocabulary. “Sure. I’ll be right there.”
    In the corridors the friendly green lights blinked like little pixies beckoning her on. After several passages and two Ppods, the voice said, “You have arrived at your destination.” Char was in a docking bay with one aircraft, a hybrid runabout, part personal jet and part old-fashioned racer. Mike waved to her from the pilot’s seat.
    She climbed in beside him. There was room behind them for four more, but Mike sealed the bubble canopy before she had secured her harness.
    “What about your bodyguards?” she said.
    He winked like he was getting away with something. “There’s no security risk.” The racer lifted off without noise or force, and they floated toward the opening bay door. “We’re going to check a glitch at the hydroponics annex. It’s completely automated, but we’re picking up some odd readings. The agronomist has gone down to the planet, so you’re really helping me out here.”
    The runabout broke free of the station. Char felt like a mosquito compared to the massive complex. It was huge, really, an actual city in space. Ships hovered about its perimeter, from passenger shuttles to cargo transports, and more kept coming.
    They were dayside now, but from where she sat she couldn’t see the earth. Four nuclear bombs wasn’t the end of the world, right? A hundred and fifty years ago, the Americans dropped two nuclear bombs in the eastern hemisphere. The world recovered.
    The world was already adjusting to this. The Emperor would relocate. She would help Mike take care of glitches in the hydroponics annex. Fertility entrepreneurs would avoid the northern hemisphere.
    But god.   Ten million people in a matter of hours.  Ten million were annihilated by the TU in LA/San Diego, but it had taken months to a year for the deaths to add up from fallout sickness. This was a new standard. Another degradation of civilization. Now we would count mass murder by the tens of millions.
    Jake was right about people getting off planet. Once word spread that the Emperor was coming up, orbit was going to be crammed.
    “I’ve