The Outer Moon (A Sapphic Sci Fi Adventure)

Chapter 12

The realization that the government had lied, and that they were really going to be at risk, put everything into perspective. No longer did they have the luxury of taking their time. The candidate selection became the top priority, and the last people were debated and chosen as quickly as possible. In some cases, it was as simple as a perfect candidate being married to someone who wouldn't fit in, so they were skipped. In other cases, there were no perceptible differences, and they flipped a literal coin to pick between two candidates. But within two days, they had winnowed down the list, and sent them all messages on how to get to the pick up spots.

Two cruise ships were hired, both short term party boats, one out of Cocoa Beach, Florida, and the other out of Sydney, Australia. Plane tickets were bought for all of the people who were told that the strictest secrecy had to be maintained. Six people backed out once they realized how serious they were, and so six more people were chosen in their place. The only problem then became sleeping space.

At first, the worry was that instead of the estimated 300 people, there were 332 at final count, but Emma explained the concept of 'hot bunking' where people would sleep in shifts to maximize bed space. It wasn't ideal, but it would get them through a month long trip to the other planet. But the real problem was that Lena still had a flight back before they could load the passengers onto her ship. Considering she was supposed to be transporting a quarter of the new settlers, that was going to make things a little more difficult.

It meant that there would be some discomfort while they waited, but it would be okay.

That discomfort was inevitable if they were going to get the people off the planet too, because it had to happen right now. The first step was going to go get the other large ships from the Atlantis, as they would be needed to pick everyone up. They'd held off on doing that in the past because they didn't need the governments of Earth to discover just how many functional ships there were. The trip wasn't hard, as Pepper and Vanessa ferried Emma, Nash, Tilly, and Zay there as the primary pilots for the two larger ships, and two smaller fighter types. Emily and Xavier had reclaimed their smaller ships, which Emma was happy to turn over since she was happier getting her own new one.

Viv, Bree, and Lexi came along on the trip as well, because Bree refused to be apart from any of them, and Lexi was too anxious about being on her own too. Emma and Viv hoped there would be a few other young adults once the final group was complete, but they weren't sure about the final composition of settlers that had been selected.

All of the newcomers were stunned when they got out there. Pepper and Vanessa forgot just how amazing the view of the planet and the rings were, as well as the shocking bulk of the other alien ships. It took a day for the new ships to be removed from the second hangar bay, and everyone got some space suit practice other than Bree, who didn't have one that fit, and so she got to go through the portable air locks that they had like the tiny princess that she was. Emma, Viv, and Lexi had a blast tumbling about in space though.

The other people that came out were Abby Garza and Yasmin Dawson, a pair of striking black women that were scientists working with Jason back on the PASSpace station and would now be using the old sleds and space suits to bring over as much gear as they could from the Atlantis to the Uranus space station while all of the other civilians were collected back on Earth. Abby and Yasmin liked the plan, as they were engaged, and they would have the run of the space station where they would have a lot more privacy than the PASSpace station afforded them. Pepper and Vanessa shared a smile as they remembered their old zero G antics, and hoped the other women had just as much fun.

All in all, it was a good trip, and they were returning with a complete armada of ships. If anyone wanted to come attack the spacecraft picking up people, there was going to be air support this time. However, Emma did decide that she would be nice and tell General Barnaby that it would be stupid to send more fighters after the ships again before they went to get the rest of the settlers. He'd blown up her phone with messages and calls while they were in orbit and still in range of the communications satellites, but thankfully the messages couldn't reach Uranus.