“I strongly suggest you go into protective exile,” Mr. Piff was urging Mrs. Phelps, his squeaks translated for her by a bot hovering between them. His ribs were wrapped in a stark white bandage that made his solemn words all the more impinging as he fixed his four eyes on the tall human woman.
Lissa watched from a distance, pretending to be engrossed in her tinkering of the Forty-Five’s steam boiler. Her head was cocked to one side as she listened intently to her mom’s reply.
“Where would you place us?” Mrs. Phelps asked, seriously considering the idea. “There are quite a few inhabited worlds similar in atmosphere and gravitic strength to Earth,” Mr. Piff assured her. “A cultural hub such as Orion VI would be a perfect hiding spot—so many beings from millions of worlds; their very diversity will disguise you.”
Mrs. Phelps nodded her assent.
Lissa sighed softly in relief. Pausing in her pretend tinkering, she gazed out at the massive ball that was Jupiter, glowing orange and red above them as they orbited Europa, and contemplated the next move for them both.
When she had first brought her mom aboard, Lissa had been afraid she would try to take over the Forty-Five and order them all home. But her mother had quickly grasped the importance of staying in space and made no move to place the ship under her own charge. She seemed content to allow Lissa to act as captain, although the girl wondered how her mother would react when she realized Lissa was not coming with her into protective exile. She had no intention of hiding. Timothy Rocksquatter and the Earth president had already sold humans into space as slaves. There was nothing and no one to stop them but her—and she had come out here to Europa to meet with Mr. Piff and tell him just that.
But first, her mother needed to be safe. She hoped Stephanie would come with her, but if she was too afraid, the Lissa would go alone. Not alone, she reminded herself, looking across the deck at her crew. A spark of pride hit her as she saw Ash on the upper deck, listening to Octi’s instruction on how to use the sunsail telltales to know where the invisible solar winds were blowing from. Shika sat a short ways away with Lollipop on her lap, the latter telepathically implanting English into her mind like a sort of alien Rosetta Stone. Shiro had Rasta on his wrist, whispering softly to the eagle, who preened under his attention.
Yes, Lissa felt sure her crew would come with her, to the ends of this galaxy if need be. She knew from talking to them over the last four days that each loved Earth and would do anything to save their people from enslavement in the black of space.
As Mrs. Phelps and Arthur Piff made plans for their safety, Lissa finished her inspection of the steam engine and began to gather up her crew. They made ready for launch and secured their new cargo—a thousand pounds of fresh blueberries, which they had picked up off a blueberry farmer before heading into space. The farmer had been very happy to exchange his large crop for the solid bar of gold they had found in Captain Nask’s bedroom underneath his pillow. How he had slept soundly without getting a crick in the neck was anyone’s wonder, but Lissa supposed his greed must have outweighed any creature comforts.
It would take three days to reach Sagittarius Prime from Europa, and Lissa hoped to sell their cargo to the highest bidder. Sagittarius apparently had a large Corian population, and so Lissa had every reason to expect that, after thousands of years of embargo on Earth blueberries, the fruit would sell fast. Yet still she hesitated. A nagging feeling churned in the back of her mind, for she really had no idea what to do after that. She would have money, yes, and would have excited an interest in Earth commerce, but that was not really what she had set out to do. She needed to talk to Mr. Piff, she realized.
She waited until her mother had found a room to her liking in the guest wing of the Europa Space Tower. Once she had disembarked, the crew assembled and Lissa used Lollipop to call Stephanie and Mr. Piff aboard.
Shiro crouched in the darkness topside as the two visitors appeared via MTrans. They had left the deck unlit so as not to attract attention to their covert meeting. When the golden glow faded, he jiggled a hand in their direction until they saw him and jerked his head that they both should follow. First Stephanie, then Mr. Piff fell into step behind him as he led the way down into the cargo bay. Stephanie gave a little shudder as she passed the glass walls but otherwise was unperturbed to be once again aboard the slave ship that had kidnapped her.
Mr. Piff’s eyes were wide and alert as he took in Ash and Shika standing guard, ray pistols in holsters at their sides, wearing matching black microbot armor. Shiro took up position on Lissa’s right, and Octi clung to her shoulder like a rather odd shawl.
As the two guests stopped before her, Lissa said, “I’ve asked you here, Mr. Piff, for two reasons.” Her words were confident, almost sharp. Piff’s four eyes never left hers.
“I want Stephanie aboard when we sail tonight.” Her eyes flickered to her friend. Stephanie nodded solemnly as though she had already guessed. The two girls were not best friends for nothing.
“And,” Lissa added, “I want to know what you think of all this political nonsense, and what you think our best course of action would be.”
“Space Patrol is not a political entity.”
“Sure,” Ash started, “but—”
“You know a lot about the current state of the galaxy,” Lissa interrupted. “Not just this galaxy. You know about the universe—who is out there, what they’re up to. You were not surprised at the attack back on Earth.” Her eyes narrowed at him. “You thought they might try something like that.”
It was just a guess, but it was proved right when Mr. Piff grinned and nodded his head.
“I would have been more surprised if Timothy Rocksquatter had not tried some way to get leverage over his planetary representative. He is a cruel one; that whole family is.”
“You're not just a law enforcement dude, are you?” Stephanie crossed her arms, “What I saw on board your ship...you're like, not even from this galaxy.”
“Space Patrol is based in the Andromeda Galaxy,” Mr. Piff admitted, “Our purpose is more than law enforcement, it's true—but more than that I cannot say.”
“Because its confidential,” Ash guessed.
“Indeed.”
“Fine. So you know a lot about space politics. What do you think the Jesters will do next?” Lissa asked him.
“They will pretend it never happened. They will solidify their position on Earth using their connections in the press. Probably they will give some excuse to Anubis not to ratify your contract and simply go back to selling slaves on the side.”
“How do we prevent it?”
“You want to prevent them from selling the slaves? Or you want to remove them from power entirely?”
Lissa smiled grimly. “You said it.” She leaned forward, emphasizing her words with an unblinking glare into his four almond eyes. “I want Earth free ... Did you see the way Rocksquatter creeped out on Stephanie the moment he saw her? And then he went after my mom.” Her hands shook with fury. “There is no way he’s gonna touch my family.”
“Earth should live by her own production, not sell her people off to be dog food or slaves,” said Shiro.
“We have a lot we could offer this galaxy,” Lissa added. “There must be someone out there who would deal with us fairly. I want to find that someone, or several someones. We need allies. That’s how the Allies won the World Wars—they brought in friends.”
“There’s always a bigger fish,” Octi chimed in.
“Indeed,” Mr. Piff agreed. He looked thoughtful for a moment. “Your first choice should be to appear as a legitimate representative. Take your cargo to Jeropul and the bazaar there—sell your blueberries to the highest bidder. You will need credits. I will contact Anubis and tell him you are coming to Sagittarius Prime. I will tell him you are still Earth ambassador, that you have the contract, and you are going to file it with the GTC Office on Sagittarius. They will have no choice but to endorse it. But...watch out for assassins...” His eyes rested particularly on Ash and Shika. “You two must keep Lissa safe. And Stephanie as well, as I expect you will want to take her with you.”
“Damn straight!” Steph interjected. She jutted her chin out, a hand on one hip.
He shook his head. “Such stubborn pups.” But Lissa could see he was secretly pleased with them. To her, he said, “What will I tell your mother?”
“Tell her the truth,” Lissa said, her throat tight. She knew her mom would ground her indefinitely when they got back, but ... “We have no other choice. Would she really want me to let all of Earth be sold off, manipulated, and fed to the wolves so I could be safe?”
“She is your mother,” Mr. Piff pointed out. “Of course that’s what she wants. But I will tell her nonetheless.”
When Piff had disembarked again, they raised anchor and silently floated away on the first rays of light over Jupiter.