We’re still painting the other fuser,” Tiger told the Colonel. “They’ve made a loop and are coming back toward L5.”
“Clever diversion,” the Colonel said. “The L5’ers may not notice them coming in from deep space.” He nodded to Tiger. “Thanks for getting the ship air operable. It’s good to be out of a smelly helmet. How’s the work on long-range communications?”
“Riley and I are just taking a break from it. We have a lot of cables to pull. Maybe another couple of hours, we’ll be ready to try.”
Riley was monitoring the pulsdar. “The warpods are on the move,” she said. “They’re skimming along the edge of the L5 rim.”
The Colonel took a look. “They’ve seen us, so they’re moving in to protect the station.”
The sheriff, feeling better, was strapped into one of the jumpseats. “What happens if they launch another asteroid to hit the moon?”
“We could chase it,” Tiger said, “but I don’t think we could stop it. Not without a nuke.”
“I read somewhere that nuking an asteroid wouldn’t do any good, anyway,” Riley said. “It would just break it up or knock a big chunk out of it. Either way, all the parts would keep going in.”
“Funny they worried about asteroids more in the early twenty-first century than we’ve done for decades,” Tiger said.
“But all they did was talk about it,” the Colonel pointed out. “After that the wars started that broke up the big countries, and threats from space were forgotten.”
“You didn’t forget,” Riley said. “You loaded L5 with asteroids ready to strike.”
“The dumbest thing I’ve ever done, Riley,” the Colonel confessed.
“Don’t beat yourself up, Colonel,” the sheriff said. “I thought it was a good idea too.”
“That should have been evidence that I was on the wrong path,” the Colonel replied. The sheriff, who knew the Colonel wasn’t joking, shrugged.
“How’s the stomach, Sheriff?” Riley asked.
“It’s coming around,” he said.
“If you’re feeling better, you should be running sims at the battle station,” the Colonel said.
The sheriff opened his mouth to argue, thought better of it, and clapped it shut. “Heading that way now, sir,” he said.
“You’re rough with him,” Riley said after the sheriff had pulled himself aft.
“The sheriff is a murderer, a thief, and what used to be called a psychopath,” the Colonel said. “But he’s absolutely loyal to me because he knows that I could dispose of him in an instant without anyone complaining.”
“Maybe he’s loyal to you because of who you are, Colonel,” Riley suggested, “not because of your threats.”
“What difference does it make as long as he’s loyal?”
Riley didn’t have an answer, but she had her suspicions that the Colonel was still suffering from whatever trauma had caused him to create L5. It was all starting to feel very much like a suicide mission. She would therefore bide her time, keep a close watch, and act if necessary. The Colonel might be heading toward death at fuser velocity, but she saw no reason why she had to join him.