If Jove Stray

Chapter 14: satellite

Cameron hurried down to the personnel bay, fumbling with her holo-rib to make a reminder to visit Harper in the medical bay. If she changed up her schedule, she was sure to forget.

"Cameron! You're here!" Libba called, waving her in. "Thank god, Matisse looks ready to give himself a heart attack."

Cameron nodded and skirted around the counter to the back. Most people had no idea how large this portion of the base was, but personnel housed all the effects of everyone in cryo, as well as records of everyone who had ever been on the base or either ship. It was a keeping of the history of this colony, and Cameron knew that it would be important for years to come.

Meanwhile, outside of record keeping, there was a small office filled to the ceiling with various pieces of tekcom strung together to create a monstrous machine. It reminded Cameron of Harper's used tekcom back at their berth, but this was reaching into the depth of space and procuring data being streamed there. Libba opened the door and the argument inside paused to see who it was.

"Hello Austen," Cameron said politely. "You're up early."

Lully's madre turned from Matisse to Cameron, her eyes narrowing. Matisse looked relieved to see Cameron. He was a short stocky man who wasn't much for conversations. Cameron had often wondered how someone like that could be in personnel, but he was happy among the tekcom and paper records. He liked organizing, he said.

"This is a tekcom matter and should be cared for under communications," she said. "You can't start projects out of your jurisdiction."

"I funded this project with my own resources and no one else was interested in reaching Earth until it started working," Cameron pointed out. "I'm not going to pull Matisse or Libba on a whim. Why are we having this argument now and not three weeks ago?"

"Because the tekcom in here is interfering with our satellite," Austen explained. "And we need that satellite because some of us have an earthstorm to manage. I don't give a venting noodle about reaching Earth. I don't want people to die because we don't have good information, if that's all right with you, Cameron."

Austen had been cold toward Cameron since Landing Day, and that had only escalated when Cameron was made branch leader. Cameron didn't understand it, but nothing she had said to Austen or Lully about the matter had made any difference. Austen's hair had started going grey since Landing Day, and her partner Ford had taken over most of the administrative responsibilities of the communication bay. Perhaps she was too bitter about Canary's involvement in Landing Day.

"I don't want to change the signal and risk losing the data," Matisse cut in. "Surely Austen can reprogram her satellite?"

"I have to go offline to do that, and we can't risk it," Austen snapped. "We're nearly the eye of the storm and we need to have clear data so we can do repairs in that time."

This was going to have to go to congress, Cameron realized. Dashiell would risk the earthstorm's damage over loosing data and Cameron was rather inclined the opposite way, even with Austen berating her.

"I'll call congress and we can vote on it this morning," Cameron offered. "How long until the eye passes over us?"

"Seven hours," Austen replied. "I'll have to go offline for three hours minimum if congress votes against me."

"We can make that happen," Cameron promised. "In the meantime, Matisse, has there been any progress?"

"It's slow," he admitted. "The data we have so far isn't readable."

"So we're risking lives on the ground for some imaginary connection to a planet that has never done anything for us?" Austen scoffed. "Cameron, this is asinine."