THE CHRISTA—named after one of the cosmonauts who had perished in the Challenger disaster of the twentieth century— was indeed an impressive ship, far outclassing the cramped Valen-tina. She could accommodate a crew of twenty, as against the eight which was the Valentina’s capacity. Every crew member had their own individual cabin. There was a mid-section centrifuge, working on similar principles to that on Ceres. It was twenty metres in diameter and designed to rotate at up to seven revolutions per minute. This would deliver artificial gravity at about one-half gee: essential to offset the adverse effects of prolonged weightlessness. Cosmonauts would be encouraged to spend one or two hours of each shift in the centrifuge.

  The main body of the ship would not be rotating of course: that would interfere with the working of the navigation and thrust systems.

  Unlike Valentina, Christa was not designed to make physical contact (one could hardly call it ‘landing’) with Titania, Enceladus, or indeed any sizeable heavenly body. She would remain in orbit, either directly circling the satellite, or by occupying the L4 or L5 Lagrangian point in orbit around the primary. Cosmonauts would be transferred to the moon’s surface by a small shuttle.

  As Vikki, now back home in Scotland, contemplated the holo display of the ship, which was in the process of being assembled in Earth orbit, she wondered what life on board, with a squealing toddler to manage, would be like. Would she be able to carry out her onboard duties as well as look after Lorna? Would the child’s separation from other children for a long period have a negative effect on her social development?

  Better if other children were on board as well, she thought. Surely the top brass of SSSA must have considered that option. Should she put through a call to Luis? Or Duke, even? No: it would only seem a bit too forward of her: rude, even. Let’s wait until the ship’s complement is complete and assembled for briefing, she decided.

  ---§§§---

  The briefing came sooner than expected. Lorna was now just nine months old, crawling everywhere, and generally becoming quite a handful. It was early winter and snow lay thick on the ground out-side their cottage. Indisputably a time for staying indoors in the warmth!—except when the weather was fine enough for them to have the toboggan out and swishing down some gentle slopes which were just a short walk away. Lorna would shriek with delight when she was taken for a ride down the hill—safely cradled in Vikki’s or Hal’s arms. Hal had built a snowman in the garden, with the customary adornment of carrot-nose and walnut-eyes and buttons—and a rather moth-eaten Glengarry, which Hal had discovered, inexplicably stowed away in the roof space, to serve as a hat—‘a genuine Scots snowman’, as he explained. But after a while Lorna’s enthusiasm had got the better of her, and she had demolished the snowman…

  How different was life here, from the frozen and forbidding surface of Enceladus! And the surprises—welcome and unwelcome—in store for anyone foolhardy enough to set space-suited foot there! Why had she so much wanted to venture out into space?—Vikki sometimes wondered.

  But then the summons came. A holo message from Luis himself, requesting that all three of them present themselves at Sacramento as soon as they could arrange passages. The crew and passengers on the Christa had been selected, and all were required to attend pre-flight briefing. And it made sense that those children who were to go on the voyage should attend as well.

  ‘Children’, plural, Vikki noted. So she had guessed right, and there had been no need to take up her concerns with Luis. Lorna would at least have playmates on the trip.

  The three of them disembarked from the maglev train at San Francisco, Lorna securely nestled in the carrier on Hal’s back (she was too big for the sling now), and made their way to the platform from where the local train would take them to Sacramento. Vikki spotted a familiar face among the waiting passengers. She ran forward enthusiastically to greet him.

  “Great to meet you again, Dr Ye! How have you been doing?”

  “Oh well, Vikki—I get along; I get along. Not so young as I used to be, but they decided I was just about fit enough for another trip. You heard about Alex? She couldn’t make it—didn’t pass the medical.”

  “Yes, I know. I’ve been to see her. I’m rather sorry for her, but she seems to have become resigned to her position.”

  “But you’re coming, at least?” continued Dr Ye. “I’m delighted to hear it … and is that Hal I see making his way towards us?” As he spoke Dr Ye noticed Hal’s burden for the first time. “My goodness, is that your child? No-one told me…”

  “Yes. Her name’s Lorna. Not quite ten months old, now. And according to what Luis assures me, Lorna’s coming with us.”

  “A small child like that? On a space trip? Is that wise?”

  “Apparently it is. But maybe Luis and his colleagues will explain the rationale. Hal and myself, we’re just relieved not to be parted from our child for so long.”

  The train journey to Sacramento took about half an hour—it was a conventional train running on wheels, not a maglev—and Vikki, Hal, and Dr Ye were able to pass the time catching up on each others’ news. Dr Ye, it transpired, had been out into space once again since returning from Enceladus—though not to anywhere near as remote a destination as Saturn.

  “I was on that mission to intercept a comet last year. Comet Singh-Iqbal, it was named. It came inside Earth’s orbit. You heard about it?”

  “I think so,” replied Hal. “And yes—we did hear about the mission. Not that we could have volunteered—not with Lorna on the way. Not a very big comet, was it? I don’t think it ever got bright enough to be visible to the naked eye.”

  “No it didn’t. But there was a lot of interest, especially after the results from Enceladus. We were hoping to discover life on the comet itself—after all, many scientists still think that’s where life originated from. But we found nothing.”

  “Nothing?”

  “Not so much as a single bacterium. Completely sterile. It was rather a disappointment—especially coming after Enceladus.”

  “I’ll bet it was,” put in Vikki. “Well, just as well we’re off to Titania. There’s bound to be some life there. If not—well maybe one of our friends will drop in for a visit.”

  “Aha! You still eager to meet up with the Bala? I wish you luck with that. But it won’t be interested in landing on Titania unless it can find something to feed on. And remember: this mission isn’t only about the Bala.”

  “Dr Ye: please understand. It’s not a sort of ‘fixation’ with me. If the Titania mission doesn’t go anywhere near a Bala, I’ll live with that. But remember: Gustave and I are the only people who’ve actually communicated with the beast. We must be important to it. Which reminds me: do you know if Gustave is coming?”

  “No. They haven’t told me anything about the other crew members. But look: we’re nearly there. In a little while, with luck, your questions will be answered.”

  ---§§§---

  There was quite a large gathering in SSSA’s conference room. Vikki looked around, hoping to spot familiar faces. To her delight and relief, Gustave was there, and they greeted each other warmly and exchanged a quick kiss. Gustave was quite taken with little Lorna—and not as surprised as Vikki had expected upon learning that the child was to accompany them on the voyage.

  “I’ve met up with Estella—you remember, Stella, the author,” he explained. “It seems she’s coming too, though I can only guess as to what her role will be. And she’s brought her kids along too. Seems there’ll be a sort of nursery on board the new spaceship. By the way, isn’t Hal with you?”

  Vikki just then noticed that Hal was no longer by her side. “Oh, he was here a moment ago: I expect he just popped into the bathroom.”

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  Just then Hal re-appeared, and strode towards them. On catching sight of him, Vikki’s jaw dropped.

  “My word, Hal! I’ve never seen you dressed like that before!”

  “Just felt I’d like to look my best for the briefing,” chuckled Hal, patting his dark green-blue kilt and adjusting the sporran. “Genuine Clan MacManus tartan this is, no mistake! And I was going to wear it for our wedding—when that happens—but it seems it’ll be a long time coming. I won’t be bringing this along on the voyage though. Kilts and zero-gee are not a good combination!”

  “I see you have the knife tucked in your sock too, Hal. The—what’s it called?”

  “Skean Dhu,” explained Gustave, amused. “In his hose, not sock.”

  “Ah yes,” continued Vikki. “How’d you get that through security? And on the train? No-one stopped us.”

  “It’s only a dummy, I’m afraid,” explained Hal. “Plastic. I knew I’d never be allowed to bring the genuine article, so I left it at home. Still: all the rest of the dress is one hundred percent authentic.”

  Just then Joachim made his way towards them and greeted his former crewmates, somewhat perfunctorily—but then he was ever a man of few words. He explained that he would be in command of the forthcoming voyage. Vikki had some slight misgivings over this: she had never got on particularly well with Joachim—but she remem-bered how she and Alex had had their differences in the past—and were now the best of friends. Anyway, she accepted that Joachim was the best and most experienced man for the job. She would be comfortable working with him.

  One figure in particular, amongst the assembled crew and officials, stood out. An imposing giant of a man: he must have been over two metres tall and broad in proportion. He had a dark, broadly Austronesian complexion, and Hal felt sure he’d seen him before—somewhere. He made his way over to him.

  “Excuse me: do I know you from somewhere?”

  “Possibly,” the man replied, modestly. “Perhaps you’d recognise me if I was wearing my cap?”

  “Let me think. I’m Hal—Harold MacManus, that is—by the way. And you?”

  “Christopher Atutahi.”

  “I knew it! You were in the All-Blacks. I saw you in action against Scotland at Murrayfield, once—some years ago. Of course, you trounced us…”

  “I guess we did,” replied Christopher, a bit shyly. “I was tight-head lock forward then, for five seasons—but I’m retired now. I’m pleased that you remember! So you’ll be with us on this little trip then? I haven’t been told what my role will be, but I’ve been through all the training of course. My first space trip. Yes, SSSA had to work hard to come up with a space-suit to fit me!”

  “Glad to meet you. I’m going as drilling and mining specialist—and my partner Vikki as geologist. We were both on the Enceladus trip. And our little daughter is coming with us this time—I don’t really understand why yet.”

  As he said this, Hal couldn’t help wondering what Christopher’s place on the team might be—unless there was some strongman work involved. Could he beat off the Bala should it come and attack them? Perhaps all would be explained when the briefing started. Hal excused himself and went back to Vikki and Lorna.

  The three of them went to seek out Estella—and sure enough there were two small children clinging fearfully to her skirt: a girl who appeared to be about two years old, and a boy who was about four. Vikki put Lorna down on the floor and she crawled towards her new playmates with delight.

  “They’ll get on all right,” remarked Vikki. “So these are your children?”

  “My grandchildren, actually,” replied Estella, blushing slightly.

  “Grandchildren? But surely you’re not old—” Vikki checked herself. She could do without committing a faux pas here.

  “I’m forty-five, if that’s what you were about to ask. Don’t worry,” she added, sensing Vikki’s discomfort, “I’m not offended. Yes, I guess I am a bit younger than the average granny, but my daughter was born when I was only seventeen.”

  “And your daughter isn’t—?”

  “I’d rather not say any more just now—not out here, with all these people. Just that I’m legal guardian to Mark and Octavia here, and they’re coming along with us. And there are two other children coming as well. It’ll be quite a nice little playgroup on board the Christa. Luis’s idea, apparently. But I can see him just coming in. Perhaps we should take our seats.”

  ---§§§---

  The briefing began with the crew members introducing themselves. Besides Vikki, Hal, Gustave, Dr Ye, Joachim, Estella and Christ-opher, there were two exobiologists: Annemarie van Ravenswaay and Jaleh Navabi; one navigator, Wei Qiang Fang (he asked to be addressed as ‘Qiang’, pronounced approximately ‘chiang’); three engineers: Marcel Brouat, Peter O’Halloran, and Judy Rosen; a communications officer, Ranjan Mehta; and last but not least, second-in-command Winifred Thomas.

  This last was a formidable-looking lady who looked like she would stand no nonsense, and Vikki admitted to herself, she felt a bit scared of her. Ah well—having survived under Alex’s captaincy, she was hopeful that things would turn out all right. She wasn’t that insubordinate!

  Fourteen adults in all, and a fairly multinational group, Vikki thought. Not just her and Winifred: she hoped everyone would get along. At least everyone spoke English fluently: she wondered how SSSA had come to select poor Murielle without testing her command of the language.

  But then she remembered: Murielle had spoken perfectly good English when under stress. It was mainly in more relaxed moments that she would lapse into her half-English, half-French.

  Luis addressed the gathering, with Lavinia Morel, Joachim, Winifred, and Qiang seated beside him. “You will all have been notified that the objective of the Christa’s maiden mission is to visit Uranus’s moon Titania. That is still in our plans but we may make an extra stop on our itinerary. As our navigator,” (he nodded to Qiang) “has pointed out to me, although the use of Jupiter’s gravity-assist to set the ship on a direct path to Uranus is feasible, it would entail expenditure of a lot of fuel as well as significantly prolonging the voyage. Uranus is better-placed for this kind of manoeuvre than Saturn, but it is still not in the best position.

  “We were already aware of this, of course. But we have another objective. The primary purpose of this mission was to seek out further examples of the primitive life-forms that turned up on Enceladus. This you are already aware of. But there is a secondary purpose, and this concerns a matter that has hitherto been kept secret from the public at large, and even from some of the people gathered here. I am now about to disclose some information but I still want it to be kept within these four walls. Any comments so far?”

  There was a murmur of assent, and no-one spoke up.

  “I shall have to explain at some length,” continued Luis. “Apart from the microorganisms and small invertebrates, the Valentina’s crew encountered a very different life-form on Enceladus. This was a sapient being apparently originating from outside the Solar System—thus of a species which has mastered interstellar travel. Quite apart from the fact that this was a first contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence, the prospect of interstellar travel is of course of tremendous interest to SSSA. It is a large being, about the size and shape of a blue whale, and we have provisionally named it the ‘Bala’. Opinions are divided as to whether it is a living creature or an artefact, but most views favour the former, so that’s what I’m assuming for now.

  “Furthermore, some of the Valentina’s crew managed to communicate with this being: it has somehow learnt to display English text.”

  There were gasps of astonishment from among the audience. Someone (Vikki couldn’t see who) shouted out: “This is a hoax, surely!”

  “Indeed we have considered the possibility that this is a hoax,” continued Luis. “But we can find no evidence to confirm this. So we’re treating it as a genuine extraterrestrial. Now, only one ‘Bala’ has been directly encountered by cosmonauts, the one resting on Enceladus’s surface. But we have already established that there are several others—at least six—scattered around the outer reaches of the Solar System. They cannot venture inside the orbit of Jupiter, it seems, so they cannot pose a threat to Earth or to the inner colonies.

  “So we propose to seek out and rendezvous with one of these ‘Bala’s, and, hopefully, establish contact. It may be that we shall find one of the ‘Bala’s on Titania—or it may be that we’ll have to look elsewhere. Any questions?”

  “Yes,” put in Hal. “If I remember right, you mentioned at our earlier meeting that the Uranian Bala was on Miranda. But now we’re aiming for Titania. Do I understand that right?”

  “Yes. The Bala was originally observed on Miranda, but it has since disappeared. It may have relocated to Titania, or it may not have. We propose to take that chance—slim though it is.”

  Vikki had kept silent during the meeting. She was somewhat puzzled. It didn’t seem like SSSA’s recognised practice to take such a wild gamble. Was there something Luis was holding back from them?

  No point in putting the question directly. Luis was surely a master at evading awkward questions. There was a lot else for Vikki to take in, and she could barely conceal her excitement. She had noticed two more small children at the meeting: two boys, Judy’s sons it seemed, toddlers who appeared to be twins. More company for Lorna. So, including children, there would be nineteen aboard the Christa. A nice little nursery-school on board. She hoped they’d remember toys…

  Since nothing had been said, she was wondering what Estella’s role in the mission would be. Probably as chronicler, to write up a detailed log, she thought. And perhaps also, to look after the kids. And then there was Christopher. His role too was undisclosed. Ah well—she would find out in time.