By the time they drove into the gray city, the ship was only a few hundred feet above ground, positioning for a landing outside the gates on the light side. Colonel Patterson, Captain Marshall, and several armed Marines rushed out to greet their mobile as Todd pulled to a stop.

"Don't shut it down, Doctor Knott," Patterson said as he and the captain climbed aboard. "If you don't mind, just go ahead and keep driving." The armed Marines scrambled to the top of the mobile unit and rapped the roof when they were situated.

"Any word?" Ethan asked as he made room for Captain Marshall to sit at the mobile's computer panel.

"Not a peep," Patterson replied. "They must still all be in cryosleep." He checked his rifle and looked at Ethan. "Or worse."

"The entire ship is operating on a preprogrammed flight sequence," Captain Marshall said. "My men were able to direct it to land. That's all we've attempted."

"I didn't want this one blowing up over our heads," Colonel Patterson quipped.

Ethan checked his weapons, then glanced out the front windscreen as they neared the other side of the city. A dust cloud was kicking up in response to the massive ship easing its way down to the ground, but it was the set of market stalls they passed that caught Ethan's eye.

"What happened here?"

Colonel Patterson glanced at the burned out shop spaces and shrugged. "There was some trouble last night. Some of the natives are taking an actively negative stance toward our little historical revelation."

"Actively negative?" Kathryn asked. "You mean they're fighting?"

The colonel looked at her. "It didn't involve us, but apparently, yes. There was a heated debate that got out of hand. That's what the gray council tells us, anyway." He looked at Ethan, then tapped his own forehead. "You're sure you aren't seriously hurt?"

"He's fine," Kathryn answered for her brother. "Just a bruise, thanks to his thick skull."

"And you say it was Eferia?"

Ethan shook his head. "I can't say for sure, no. She'd gone off to pick tea flowers and I didn't see who hit me."

"But she said Tolen wasn't happy about our findings, correct?"

He nodded. "Yes, sir, she did say that."

Patterson huffed. "Well, ignoring facts doesn't make them go away."

"It's down," Captain Marshall declared. "Fleet Ship Twelve has successfully landed."

Their mobile was passing through the city gates now, and the massive ship was taking shape through a huge cloud of dust several miles to their left. Ethan attached his com unit to his right ear and checked his vest while Colonel Patterson did the same.

"Still no contact from inside the ship," Marshall said.

"Just open the doors and don't touch anything else," Colonel Patterson ordered. "Doctor Griff, Doctor Knott, you can come in behind us after we've given the all-clear."

Captain Marshall swung around to face the colonel. "Fleet Ship Twelve was scheduled to carry CEO Reese and Senator Thompson. They'll be taking command now."

Patterson glared at the captain. "I'm not handing over command of this operation to a popsicle, Captain. If either man is on board, then we'll make that determination after they've been awakened and fully briefed."

"I'm not so sure they are," Kathryn offered quietly. "This ship shouldn't have launched for another several months."

Captain Marshall shook his head. "As you've all pointed out, nothing went according to plan back on Earth after the Solaria left. There's no telling who is on this ship."

"Exactly," Patterson said. "No telling."

Todd brought the mobile to a stop and Ethan led the way out of the small vehicle after handing his sister a portable communication unit. "Wait till we give the word," he said.

"Ghost, you're with me." Colonel Patterson started toward the ship. "Wingman, take the men and board the stern. As soon as you make contact, sound off."

Fleet Ship Twelve was a standard heavy transport, modified to carry a payload of frozen colonists fleeing a dying planet, and enough supplies to keep them alive for a few years. In the case of Ship Twelve, the payload was to be the ruling officials, three thousand other civilians and corporate executives, and a massive stockpile of fuel to ensure the continued growth and sustainability of the new colony they were joining.

Like the Solaria, it was programmed to land, then begin the process of waking the sleepers in a set pattern, beginning with the physicians and command staff, once the onboard computers had determined a safe landing on a habitable planet had been secured.

They should have boarded to find the computers beginning the process of thawing the first of the cryo chambers, even as the dust was still settling around the ship.

"Reaper, this is Wingman, we're just entering the stern section now. Everything looks fine so far."

"Roger that." Colonel Patterson paused at the top of the ramp leading into the bow and waited for Ethan to typed in a command code that would open the main airlock.

"You let Marshall bring this one down?" he asked the colonel as the airlock popped its seal and began swinging in.

"His men," the colonel replied. "I'm not convinced they had anything to do with the explosion of Fleet Ship Four, they were just following orders."

Ethan glanced back down the ramp, where Captain Marshall was standing with Kathryn and Todd, waiting for word they could come into the ship. He took a breath, then stepped through the open airlock.

They were in an assembly staging area, two decks below the bridge, where any children or passengers with special needs would disembark. It was also used for dignitaries to make a more announced exit from the ship, while the rest of the crew would disembark from the stern, unloading cargo and supplies.

Leading the way, Ethan walked down the corridor to the main lift, checking it before stepping inside.

"It's quiet in here," Patterson said as he watched the indicators on the lift. "Too quiet."

Ethan tapped his com. "Wingman, are you hearing anything?"

"Negative, Ghost," he replied. "The engines are powering down, but the onboard isn't making any announcements. We should be reaching the main cryo chamber in a few more doors."

The lift opened to the ship's bridge, and Ethan stepped out slowly. There was no one there, but the ship should have been audibly relaying status and equipment reports for the crew that would be waking up. He walked to the main controls, but didn't touch anything.

"We might need Marshall in here, sir. I'm no expert, but something's not right."

Colonel Patterson keyed his com. "Marshall, meet me on the bridge, and send Doctor Griff and Doctor Knott to the cryo chamber. The major will meet them there." He looked at Ethan. "Be careful, things are right here."

"Yes, sir." Ethan hurried back to the lift, passing Captain Marshall at the main corridor with little more than a nod, then jogged down the length of the ship to the main cryogenic sleep chamber.

He found Kathryn, Todd, and Wingman's group there, wandering around the thousands of frost-covered tubes lined in neat rows throughout the chamber. Not one had been opened yet, and the computer system monitoring the pods wasn't making a sound.

Kathryn was leaning over a pod, running her had over the top to clear some of the condensed frost. "Well, here's your problem," she said as she looked up at Ethan. "They're empty."

"What?" Ethan hurried over to see what his sister was looking at.

"The computer isn't opening the pods because there's no one here to wake up," she said. "They're empty."

"All of them?" Ethan looked down the row and found Todd gazing into another randomly selected pod. "What about the crew? Who launched this ship?"

Wingman approached, shaking his head. "It must have been automated, sir. We've just scanned every pod using the onboard computer, and not one of them is occupied."

"Reaper, this is Ghost." Ethan looked out over the sea of empty chambers. "Looks like we have an empty ship."

"Empty? You've checked every pod? How can they be empty?"

"According to the computer, there's nobody home," Ethan said. "We're checking them manually now." He nodded to Wingman, who stepped aside and let Todd access the computer panel behind him.

A few moments later, every cryo chamber lid began to lift, filling the room with a momentary chill and residual fog before the ship's environment filters could compensate.

Ethan shook his head. "Not a soul onboard, sir."

"Meet me in the cargo hold," the colonel ordered.

"We might be able to figure some things out here," Kathryn offered.

"Okay," Ethan nodded for Wingman and the others to leave, then looked at his sister. "See what you can find, we'll be below decks."

He followed the men to the nearest lift and they descended in an uneasy silence broken only by the lift doors opening.

"At least something went right," Wingman sighed as they stepped out into the massive cargo hold.

"Reaper, we're in the cargo bay," Ethan announced. "It's stocked."

"Well there's one piece of good news," Patterson replied.

The lift doors across the bay opened, and the colonel stepped out as Ethan was pulling up the manifest on the cargo bay's computer display. He scanned the listings.

"Fuel," he said as Colonel Patterson approached.

"That's good."

Ethan shook his head. "Not exactly." He looked up at the containers filling the bay. "Just fuel, nothing else. No supplies, no building materials, just fuel."

"Well, now I'm even more relieved Captain Marshall didn't blow this ship up right on top of us."

____________________________

"It's been two weeks. Are you telling me your people can land a ship remotely, but they can't get into a computer that's right in front of them?" Colonel Patterson was glaring at Captain Marshall with such intensity it made nearly everyone else in the conference room squirm a little in their seats.

"I’m telling you there's nothing in those computers to get out," Marshall replied curtly. "There's nothing to explain why the ship was launched unmanned, only evidence that the launch sequence was initiated and carried out." He slapped the table with the palm of one hand. "We've been all through those computers. There's nothing else there."

"It's true, Colonel," Todd offered. "My people have been trying to find answers as well, and we've come up empty. All we know is, Fleet Ship Twelve launched from Earth and followed the predetermined path that all the other ships used. The cryo chambers activated on time, and operated normally throughout the journey. The payload was secured months ahead of launch, before our ship even left. At some point in time the manifests were changed and the payload became strictly fuel. There's no mention of why that change was made."

Ethan was sitting back in his seat, watching everyone during the late evening meeting. Kathryn and Todd were the only other people there who didn't have a tendency to visibly wilt under Colonel Patterson's stare. Privately, Ethan gave his sister's love interest a lot of credit for that display of bravery.

"Well that's just fan-fucking-tastic, isn't it?" Patterson continued. "This entire mission is once again dipped into another level of hell." He stared around the room. "So we're just going to have to make the best of it, as always."

"I seriously doubt, at this stage, that we'll be seeing another ship," Doctor Theron said. "This is Twelve, and according to those from One, we know that Fleet lost ships Six, Eight and Ten on the launch pads. We have One here, and Four exploded on landing. If this is Twelve parked outside, then I can't imagine any of the others are coming. They would have been here by now."

"Agreed," Colonel Patterson nodded. "I want the cargo bay emptied out as soon as a suitable storage facility can be found. We'll need that fuel in the future."

"Why not leave it where it is?" Captain Marshall asked. "We can use the ship as a storage facility."

"Have you been outside lately, Captain?" Ethan asked quietly. "The ship was attacked again just last night. We're just lucky they don't know what they're doing."

"It's out of the question," Patterson agreed. "This is the fourth attack on that ship in a week, and the mood around this city seems to be changing every day. Those from the darkside are the most vocal, and potentially violent, although there are many from the light who haven't taken too kindly about the Gray Bird and their origins."

"We've had equipment damaged, verbal threats, and that mob incident two nights ago," Ethan added. "So far no one's been hurt beyond a few bruises, but I've increased armed patrols."

"What is the gray council doing about this?" Marshall asked. "It's the locals spreading this hate, not our people."

Ethan rubbed his forehead. "Ara and her people are working as hard as they can to keep things from getting out of hand, but it still comes down to us being the intruders here. The smartest thing we can do is not to react rashly."

"This is a community in flux," Kathryn added. "We have to be sensitive to what they're going through, and try to show them that -- regardless of where we all come from -- we can live here together without issues."

"Can we?" Marshall asked.

Patterson let out a snort. "Do we have a choice, Captain?"

"Yes, I believe we do."

Ethan blinked, as did nearly everyone else at the large table.

Captain Marshall cleared his throat and glanced at Doctor Theron for a moment before continuing. "Ship Twelve arrived undamaged, and loaded with fuel rods. It would be very simple to place those fuel rods back into the engine wells and send Fleet Ship Twelve back to Earth."

"You're joking," Kathryn laughed shortly and looked from Marshall to her brother. "He's joking."

"He's not joking," Doctor Theron said as he thrust his chin forward slightly. "The cryo chambers are all in perfect working order, and with a fully fueled system, they could sustain sleepers for another trip without incident."

Ethan glanced at Colonel Patterson and saw the muscles of his jaw flex in an effort to control his anger.

"That ship is under my jurisdiction, Colonel," Marshall said. "There is room for three thousand passengers, plus my crew."

"To go where?" Patterson stared at the captain, ignoring Doctor Theron and the handful of others who'd been nodding and muttering agreement as quietly as they dared. "Earth?"

"Of course, Earth," Marshall replied, undaunted.

"It's a dead world," Ethan said. "Not only is it a dead world, we have no idea what's happening back there now. The last thing anyone knew was that ELM was rioting all over the place and ships were blowing up on their launch pads. What the hell do you expect to find now?"

"That's the point," Doctor Theron said, directing his words at Ethan instead of the colonel staring at him. "We don't know. For all we do know, Earth has begun to recover. Perhaps ELM won, and everyone's gone. Perhaps only our ships launched, and it's still a mess down there. The point is, all this took place twenty years ago, and by the time we get back, it'll be over forty years since we left. We don't know what we might find."

"Why in the hell did you leave in the first place, Marshall?" Patterson demanded. "You really want to go back to that shit hole? It's polluted beyond tolerance, the land hasn't supported crops in years, and the amount of livable space is severely limited."

"Was," Marshall corrected. "What if it's all recovering now? What if the population has been as drastically reduced as we suspect, and humans are practically extinct, just like ELM was striving for? After forty years, the planet itself will have begun to heal."

"And if it hasn't?"

Captain Marshall glared back at Colonel Patterson, but it was Doctor Theron who replied.

"Truth is, Colonel, many of us have lost the desire to be here while our families are -- well, God knows."

"They're likely dead," the colonel quipped.

Ethan took a breath and looked at Theron. "We left twenty years ago," he said quietly. "It'll take at least another twenty for you to get back. What do you hope to find? Your family will be forty years older than when you left them."

"No, this is bullshit." Colonel Patterson slapped the table with his hands, then stood, pushing his chair back noisily. "I want those fuel rods unloaded and stored. We'll ask the council for a suitable building we can use. That ship isn't going anywhere, and neither are any of you." He looked around the room. "If anything, we'll use it as a monument to human ignorance and futility."

Ethan watched as everyone slowly stood and left the room, muttering things under their breath and to each other. Kathryn and Todd were the last to go, leaving Ethan and Colonel Patterson alone in the large room.

"They can't possibly think that's a choice," Ethan said as he gazed out a window, watching his sister as she walked back to the white council building.

"It's madness born of desperation," the colonel replied. "Marshall just wants a command, and he's apparently willing to go to any length to get one."

"By flying four thousand people back to a dead planet?" Ethan turned around and leaned against the windowsill. "It's suicide. The only future any of us have is here, that's why we left in the first place."

"More proof the man's gone insane. He has no power here, and I've left orders he not be allowed to carry a weapon." He waved a hand dismissively. "The man's harmless."

"Unless he starts stirring up trouble," Ethan cautioned. "You don't need weapons to be dangerous."

Colonel Patterson nodded. "True enough. We'll keep an eye on him, make sure his people are unloading the fuel. In the meantime, keep up the patrols. Hopefully this local unrest will burn itself out soon."

"Ara assures me the council is dealing with the issues every day. As long as things don't escalate beyond the shouting and occasional vandalism, we can deal with it." He pushed away from the window and walked to the corner of the room to retrieve his rifle and vest. "I just hope it doesn't boil up into a full blown war."

"War? Is that a concern?"

Ethan shrugged. "Just something Ara was talking about last night. More and more of the darksiders are leaving the city, and our people have been barred from digging anything else out of that cemetery. Tolen's people have been guarding it around the clock."

"Let them," the colonel said. "There's nothing there we need. I'll talk to the council about a storage building in the morning."

"Yes, sir." Ethan hefted his gear and started for the door. "Good night, Colonel."

"Good night, Griff."