Metafire

That evening the tug caught first sight of the Metafire colony. Scooter piloted the tug around the colony. He was invited to join with the Metafire Two capsule, but he stayed clear. Erisa now contacted the main console directly, with Ferguson listening in. "I'm on board here. Jack, my Jack, is here too. Scooter, our pilot, has told me to tell you to disable the bomb immediately. If you don't we will start to punch holes in Metafire. If you blow up the bomb in New Boston, we will carve you up like a turkey."

Then they heard it, "You have twenty minutes." It was George.

"What?"

"Tell your people you have twenty minutes to move the bomb from New Boston. We will explode it. The motion sensors are disabled. You can move the bomb right now."

Immediately Ferguson established a communication with Jim Edenfield. "Is that supply tug still there?"

"Yes. We've been partying. Greg brought wine."

"You've got fifteen minutes to move the bomb into Earth atmosphere." Jim looked at Greg and they both scrambled through the hatch into the tug. Then Jim realized that he was to go with the bomb. He radioed back, "John, I'll stay with the bomb."