Colby and Charlie were with a group around the console handling the Hawaii link, which was showing Idorf on one of the screens. He was looking suspicious. The atmosphere seemed confused. Idorf spoke before Keene or Cavan could ask anything.
“I was told that you were having trouble with one of the shuttles, that only one had been launched. How is it we have two craft approaching? I hope this isn’t some kind of trick, I’ve seen enough of them already.”
The Launch Supervisor, who was standing immediately in front of the screen, shook his head. “The other Boxcar is still here. . . . We’re as baffled as you are.”
“Did our delegation leave in the one that was launched?”
“Yes, of course they did.”
“How do I know that? Something strange is going on here.” Idorf moistened his lips. “I’m deploying an X-laser as a precaution. It can be recovered later if this is a false alarm.” He proceeded to issue orders to others off screen.
“What is it?” Keene hissed at Charlie.
Hu indicated a display showing the projection of a hemispherical radar plot being generated by the Osiris’s radars. “There are two ships closing up there. One’s leading the other by about a hundred miles. Nobody can figure it.”
“Which one is the Boxcar?”
“We don’t know.”
The Supervisor turned around, saw that Keene and Cavan had joined them, and shook his head. “We don’t have any ground-station or satellite data to go on anymore. What can I tell him?”
“Maybe there was something up there already that latched onto the Osiris’s beacon,” Cavan mused.
“Maybe.”
Idorf looked back. “So far we have had no identification response,” he said. “Why are there two if you only launched one? How can we even be sure that either of them is the one that you launched? Once again, I have to take precautionary action.” As he spoke, a blip detached itself from the Osiris symbol on the radar plot and began moving away toward a standoff position. Keene felt his stomach tightening. He had seen this before. Visions raced through his mind of a ghastly mistake about to unfold.
“We think one of them might just be something that picked up your beacon,” the Supervisor said. “Don’t do anything hasty, for God’s sake.”
Idorf’s brow creased. “What are you implying? I can assure you that I don’t relish being in this position. But need I remind you that one attempt has been made already to take this ship by armed force?”
“What?”
“It happened yesterday,” Colby said from the back of the group. “Four of them. We’re not sure where they were from.”
The Supervisor glanced back, read the confirmation on Keene’s and Hu’s faces, and looked again at the screen. “I . . . didn’t know about that,” he told Idorf.
Idorf looked away, off-screen, suddenly. “Just one moment. . . .”
“What happened?” one of the techs next to Hu murmured.
“They didn’t get even close,” Colby answered. Idorf looked back. “Apparently we have just begun receiving an identification transmission . . . BZ650 . . .” He glanced away again. “Which is as we were given to expect.”
“That’s it! That’s the Boxcar!” the Supervisor confirmed. Exhalations of relief came from around the room. Keene’s muscles untightened. He moved forward into the viewing angle of the screen where Idorf would see him.
“Hello, Captain. It’s no trick. Who the other ship is, I don’t know, but I can vouch for these guys.”
Idorf’s expression relaxed. “Ah, Landen Keene! You, I know I can trust. Why didn’t you tell me sooner that you were there?”
“I only just arrived. We’ve been kind of . . . busy down here.”
Idorf nodded. “I can imagine. . . . A moment, Lan. . . . Yes, okay, we’re getting a beam from them too, now.” Again, he looked away to follow something that was going on nearby. Then, tension around the control room rose again as his face took on an ominous frown. Evidently, all was not so well after all. “They’re saying they have an emergency,” Idorf reported. “They’re being pursued by an armed vessel that’s attempting to use them as cover to get to the Osiris. They have weapons trained on them. They’re asking us to fire on it.”