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to.”
    “We could go Japanese-style,” Ryder encourages. “Set
up a communal tub.”
    Matthew smiles at her, but it only shows how much
he’s hurting.
    “How long until we can actually move around enough to
do any of the hands-on work?” I push it. “I want that
section-by-section survey done. I need to know just how bad we were
hit. And I’d like to know how deep we’re buried.”
    “Plus we should run full maintenance on the air and
water systems,” Staley lists, finally sounding weary. “And get the
reactors back online—that should solve the power problem—but that
probably means going outside. And I need to properly pick
apart MAI, see if I can get to whatever’s wrong with it, get us
some answers.”
    “A few more days,” Ryder allows cautiously. “We need
to try to keep to the rehab protocols. I respect your priorities,
Colonel, but we are in rough shape. Still, I agree: We’d all
feel better if we had some answers and could do more than basic
rehab. The not knowing is unbearable for all of us.”
    “All right,” I decide. “Can we coordinate with the
other chambers and put together some initial work and survey teams
out of whoever’s recovering best?”
    “I’ll talk to Halley and Shenkar, have them put
together lists of who’s good to go soonest,” Ryder seems to
brighten.
    “Let’s give ourselves one more day,” I allow, “then
at least get all the seniors together—officers, NCO’s, techs and
supports. We need to wake this place up, make sure it’s running
enough to keep us alive and comfortable, then see what it will take
to get up on the surface and set up a new uplink.”
    “You’re the boss, Mikey,” Matthew agrees with lazy
enthusiasm. But then he stays put when Staley and Ryder drag out to
get back to business. “You thinking about Lisa?”
    “ Lieutenant Colonel Ava and I haven’t had that kind of relationship for a long long time, Matthew,” I
answer him coolly, not that he isn’t well aware of our history
(both the good and the not so good). “But, yes, I’d like to know
she’s in one piece, and not just because she’s now technically
third in command. I’d like to know Rick’s okay too. He’s actually older than you are. ”
    “But I’m more fun.”
    True.
     

 
    Day 5:
     
    “Reviewing what we saw and heard before we lost
communications, this is what we can put together about our likely
situation,” Lisa begins her part of the briefing immediately after
we all get settled around the biggest table in the Officer’s
Mess.
    We’re all slowly working our way farther and farther
from our beds (and now two -thirds of us have been released
from Hiber-Sleep back to our beds). Walking any distance is still a
Herculean endeavor , though today I can actually walk several steps
in a row without hand holds. And our intimate little face-to-face
briefings are growing: Today we’ve added Doctors Halley and Shenkar to give us reports from their respective patient loads, and
Captain Kastl from Operations, who’s been working with Anton in
getting into MAI. And, of course, there’s Lisa—Lieutenant Colonel
Ava…
    She doesn’t even give us time to get our wind, and
I’m not sure where she’s getting hers. She looks like death—like
the rest of us, zombified versions of our pre-sleep selves—despite
how incredible she still looks at sixty-six (and it’s not just the
cutting edge military-elite health care slowing down the aging
process: I can still see the headstrong smart pretty young woman I
fell for all those decades ago). And I catch myself looking. And
make sure she doesn’t catch me looking. Because we manage to be
friends and work together like professionals but I hurt her way too
badly to have the right to ever think about her that way again.
    “We know Ares’ Station was lost—we saw it fall.
Hopefully the crew and any transferring travelers managed to get
off and get to someplace safe. Phobos Dock wasn’t fairing well, and
if they did survive