Ponife visited the recovering Outsiders at hour twenty four. Bubba Boom and Egan accompanied him. I felt much better. Almost optimistic, even. Amazing what a long shower and eight hours of sleep on a real bed could do.
Lamont and I answered his questions about his colleagues’ health. Then Ponife dismissed Lamont. Shooting me a significant look, she headed to her office.
“We have started to load the first transport ship,” he said. “In six hours all the residents of level four will be on board.”
I did a quick mental calculation. “The ships can fit over two thousand people?” I asked.
“They are designed for one thousand. They were intended to ferry people down to a planet’s surface and not to live on.” Bitterness laced his tone. “We have eight ships and your population is currently at 22,509 people.”
This calculation was a bit harder. “You’re going to put a little over twenty-eight hundred people on one ship?”
“You are fast. Seven ships will have 2,813 and the eight will have 2,809,” he said.
I glanced at Bubba Boom. Did he catch that? Ponife had counted everyone. Bubba Boom wouldn’t meet my gaze. Instead, he told Ponife he needed to speak with the doctor and went into the back.
“But that’s too many.” I tried.
“Not your concern. We are going to need you to do a sweep of each level and in all the ducts as boarding progresses,” he said. “No one is to be left behind.”
They were trusting me with an important task. Too important. There had to be a catch. “What if I miss someone?”
“We plan to fumigate before we move in. Anyone still here will die from the poison. Try not to miss anyone. We do not wish to dispose of too many corpses.”
Lovely. “Do you need me now?” I asked.
“We will start in two hours.” He gestured to my clothes. I had changed from my climbing suit to my medical clothes. “Make sure you are ready and the doctor has a suitable assistant.”
“Okay.”
Bubba Boom returned and, without looking at me, followed Ponife from the infirmary. Curious, I searched for Lamont. She was in the surgery, organizing supplies.
“What did Bubba Boom want?” I asked.
“He asked a bunch of strange questions.”
“Like what?”
“Questions I really couldn’t answer. Like how much food and water would two thousand people need to survive. I told him to ask Riley’s brother, Blake. He works in the kitchen and should know.”
Blake! I had forgotten about him and Riley’s dad. And if I thought harder, I could name a number of others who would support me. Unless they had been arrested? Too bad I couldn’t go anywhere.
“Bubba Boom also asked for… Trella, you have that gleam in your eyes. What are you thinking?”
“How are your persuasive skills?”
I had two hours, but we had six until the first transport left. Lamont ran around Inside, recruiting the people I named. They trickled in at first, Jacob, Blake, Emek, Rat and even Sloan came, although he didn’t look happy to see me. Then Domotor rolled into the infirmary, followed by the remaining free members of the Force of Sheep—Takia Qadim and Hana Mineko. Breana Narelle had already been evacuated. Kadar and Ivie arrived along with Wera and Cain—Sloan’s friends. And the last person to arrive was Captain James Trava.
They had come, but they sat or stood in little peer groups or alone as if they couldn’t trust each other. That would be the first thing I’d fix.
“Stop it,” I said to them. “Stop thinking about being a scrub or an upper. About being a Trava or an Ashon. We’re all Insiders. And we’ve been boarded by hostile Outsiders who are going to take our world and kick us out unless we stop them.”
I waited as their protests about not having weapons or access to the computer network dwindled.
“Doesn’t matter,” I said. “We’ll work around it.”
“How?” Sloan demanded.
“We have weapons. Blake, how many knives do you have in the kitchen?”
“Dozens,” he said. “And we have meat cleavers and some nasty serrated blades.”
“Can you gather them all and hide them in Quad A1?” I asked. It was a common area and would be the last level to be evacuated. His resemblance to Riley made it hard for me to look at him for too long.
“Hide them where?” he asked.
“The ducts should work. Can you do it now?”
“Sure,” he said.
I then turned to the stink bombers. “Kadar and Ivie, how many bombs can you make?”
“Depends on how much time we have, and how big of a blast you need,” Ivie answered. Dirt stained her overalls and she had a smudge on her cheek. She was a pretty girl with long golden brown hair twisted into an oversized bun.
“I need distractions that won’t injure people or damage equipment. Something like a stunner, but more widespread. You’ll have about five hours,” I said.
“One an hour.”
“When you’re done, bring them to Quad A1 and someone will tell you what to do with them.”
“What are you planning?” she asked.
I wasn’t sure, but it wouldn’t be good for morale for me to confess this. “A coordinated attack from all sides.”
“What about the air plant?” Domotor asked. “If we resist, the Outsiders will fill the air with poison.”
“We can disconnect the poison gas canisters,” James Trava said.