NaNoWriMo: Chapter 8 Excerpt

Down on the third deck, the six engineers had been relegated to loading cargo along with the Ambassador and Dmitri. While it didn't please them to be stuck with Eloise's company, they all took a little delight at seeing her struggle to pull her own weight. In the midst of their work, they were discussing the upcoming launch and their overall chances of making it to Mars. "You know what the real problem is right?" Ricardo Luiz asked after dropping a crate into place.

"We have only one?" Alice Tracy, while appearing sprite and ill equipped for manual labor was dragging in pallet after pallet of food under Mario's watchful eye.

"The aliens gotta have ships out there in orbit." Ricardo ignored her jab and plopped down on his crate as he continued. "So assuming we get past the smaller fighters here and assuming we get outta atmo and assuming none of these otherwise untested systems don't fail on us..."

"Ricky, you wanna bitch, do it while you're working. We haven't got time for sittin' on our bums." Frank scolded.

Ricky jumped up and left the hold to retrieve another crate so it was silent for a few moments until he returned. "Assuming we survive all that, they're just gonna blow us out of the sky once we get out there."

"Not if they don't see us." Arizona Kowolski said as she shoved a box full of clothes into a storage bin. When she turned around, everyone had stopped working to stare at her.

Even Frank Canton had been caught off guard by her suggestion and paused, with a heavy crate in his arms, to look at her expectantly. "How do you suppose we do that missy?"

Arizona looked startled and a few people began to mutter that she didn't actually know what she was talking about before she responded. "How do you live with those brains?" she asked without jest. "The same way we've hidden from them thus far."

"I don't think we can take the mountain with us Arizona." Camille Rice said slowly. Of all the engineers, Camille was the most tolerant of Arizona's personality quirks and most of them turned to her when it came to dealing with the genius.

"I'm not talking about the mountain." Arizona rolled her eyes. "A dozen holographic emitters conceal the launch site, making it appear as the side of a mountain. Seeing as they haven't detected the opening thus far, it's unlikely they have the technology unless they did an in depth scan. If we take the emitters and affix them to Unity, they can project a low level holographic image to shield us from view."

"And what about scans, I'm sure they could still detect a large object coming their way even if it is hiding." Ricky pointed out arrogantly.

"Of course they could. That's why we use the satellites to bounce a scattered signal to the other side of the planet, drawing their attention." Arizona said, a small smile on her face.

"It could work" Frank admitted slowly. "At least long enough for us to get away."

"You're assuming they haven't destroyed the satellites though." Alice pointed out reluctantly.

Arizona shook her head. "They haven't or our HHADs (hand held access devices) would be useless outside of the facility. They still connect to everything."

"She's right of course." Dmitri said, smiling appreciatively.

Ricky grumbled under his breath. "She's always right."