“Look,” Rachel said, “Accelerando said that my vitals aren’t showing anything unusually wrong. If we’re going to go to Mars, let’s go. I’d rather take my chances with alien tech. Except maybe for Magnus, we may be Earth’s greatest alien tech experts now. We’re not the greatest experts on the Nine. Let’s go. The sooner we get this done, the sooner we meet with Paladin.”

“That,” Marcus said, “she’s right.”

Jaclyn shook her head, “I don’t like it, but you’re making sense. I’d still like to look at Rachel before we get to Mars.”

“I guess that’s it then,” Cassie stepped over to stand with the rest of us. “I reset all of the Abominator’s security. The moment we’re out of here, it all comes on again—monkeys and everything. I’ve turned on a few things Victor didn’t bother with. I’m sure he hoped visitors would find him–so it was more for show.”

“I like the idea of preventing people from getting in here,” I said, opening up a connection to Hal through my implant. “I’ll ping Hal so we don’t have to wait to leave.”

I did it and fifteen minutes later we were in the air, or more technically, flying through the Moon’s thin atmosphere.

This time I took the controls and plotted the course to Mars. It wasn’t in the most convenient spot, almost exactly but not perfectly, on the other side of the sun. Earth’s current technology would have taken a year plus to get there. Our standard drives would take hours, maybe even a day if we wanted to be cautious.

I cheated. One of our faster-than-light options allowed us to be out of phase but still connected to our universe, allowing us to hit a significant fraction of light speed.

It took us a little over half an hour to reach Mars, the stars turning to long streaks of light—which made me vaguely happy if only because of the resemblance to Star Trek.

Slowing down so we could transition back to normal space took more time than the trip, but it was worth it. Why? Because even hitting a pebble at 40% light speed would ruin your day.

Best to slow down.

In the meantime, Jaclyn did a quick examination of Rachel—which had its awkward elements. The League jet had essentially three rooms—the bathroom, engines, and passenger area. Only one of them had room for an exam. That meant that for privacy’s sake, we all looked forward.

We’d spent more than a week together when we flew to Hideaway. It wasn’t a new thing.

Aside from that, it went well. Jaclyn ended the exam with, “Nothing seems broken. You’re turning black and blue all over your body, but you’re not badly hurt. Rocket, is that the way it’s supposed to work?”

Watching our speed drop on the dashboard as our engines slowed the ship down, I said, “The armor’s designed so that any force that gets through will be spread out as much as possible. So, I guess you could say it’s working perfectly?”

Rachel sighed, “I don’t have any right to complain, but it looks like someone threw me down the stairs and every part of my body hit except for my head. It’s better than being dead, but my version of ‘working perfectly’ is different.”

Noticing that we’d finally hit a safe speed, I started the transition out of “near space” into what you might call real space—phasing into our actual real universe.

Mars changed from a fuzzy red disc into the red world I remembered from pictures, complete with craters and none of the straight lines that astronomers assumed were canals in the late 1800s. Mars’ moons appeared to be on the other side of the planet.

It reminded me of the Master Martian. The Mars of his universe must have had seas and canals. We’d sent him back there only a few months ago. I wondered how he was doing. Hypothetically, we could have checked in with him using the Starplate on the Moon, but it wasn’t the right time.

The jet’s systems registered a beacon for an Abominator base near the equator. I turned back to everyone else since Rachel had suited up, “We’re in normal space and making our descent. Hal detected an Abominator beacon that’s still broadcasting. I assume we’re going there. I might need Cap to negotiate with it.”

Cassie sat down at the weapons console, “Let’s do it. I’ll let you know when we’re close enough for me to connect.”

The planet grew closer as I aimed for the Abominator beacon, becoming bigger and redder by the second. I’d visited the Moon already this today and now I was about to land on Mars only because I had to. How had I owned a spaceship for more than five years and not visited every planet in the solar system already?

“Hey,” Cassie said, “I know you’re focused on the beacon, but I’ve been scanning ahead. Look at what I’ve got.”

She sent a link to what she’d captured through the sensors and not just to me—to everyone with implants—basically everyone but Rachel.

The Abominators hadn’t even tried to hide their presence on Mars. They created a wide disc out of Martian soil. Though piles of dust filled in the edges and small hills covered parts of the structure, there was no question that it was artificial.

Worse, three spaceships stood in front of it. I might have felt better if I’d seen the white, blue, and red striped flag of the Russian Federation on any of them. If that had been true, I’d have a chance of finding a reasonable person there.

Instead, I recognized the familiar cigar-with-fins shape of the League jet. Except these spaceships weren’t silver, they were black. Outlined in grey, the logo of a crow-like bird appeared on the nose of each one of them—a rook.

“Seriously?” Jaclyn shook her head, “I was wondering just yesterday if we’d ever see him again.”

Rachel looked around the cabin, “Do any of you think it’s even a little bit rude to leave me out of these conversations?”