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but as
long as they behave themselves, that will be the extent of it.”
    “Good,” replied Dennis. “Since
we can handle as many as 1,200 passengers we’re in no danger of over-crowding.”
    “Thomas is still working on the
CAS software,” Adam responded. “From what he said after working through the
night, they’re very close. They actually generated a singularity earlier this
morning for approximately thirty seconds.” He paused, checking his notes
carefully. “The shuttles are up and running, four of which are currently out on
patrol as per your orders, sir. They’re attempting to get as close to Earth as
possible. Two of them are due back within the hour.”
    “And then we’ll know how bad we
got hit,” Dennis commented. “What about the fighters?”
    “That project is progressing
and that’s all I want to say for now,” decided Adam. “There are earlier
versions of the software stored in our computer system. We’re trying to find an
update that was issued before the ‘backdoor virus’ first appeared. If we can’t,
we may end up having to assign Thomas and friends to review the current code
and see if they can correct it.” He shrugged. “Either way, I’d say the fighters
are out of commission for at least seven… maybe ten days.”
    “That’s not good news,”
the Captain said grimly. “Since the Pathfinder itself is for the most
part unarmed, we can’t put a single fighting ship in the air until well after
the primary attack is over.”
    “There is a bright
side,” Adam said. “Normally we have a complement of twelve fighter craft
aboard. One of them developed computer problems a month ago and was transferred
to the Avenger during its last orbit of our base. That means we should
be down to eleven fighters.” He paused, smiling. “But I found out from one of
our deckhands that the Avenger ’s crew has been working on maintenance to
its landing bay… plus they were asked to haul a substantial amount of cargo
back to Tauron, So her Commander asked if we would store half a dozen of his
fighters on the Pathfinder until their planned return trip next week. I
guess he needed to free up some room.”
    “Seventeen?” guessed Mary.
    “That’s right. We have seventeen fighters on board,” Adam confirmed wryly. “None of which can fly yet.”
    “Hold the pessimism please, my
friend,” chuckled Kaufield, holding up a cautious left hand. “I’ll take what I
can get, at this point.”
    “As far as ordnance goes, we
should be okay for some time. The shuttles each have a rail cannon mounted on
their dorsal hull, and the fighters, once up and running, are fully combat
capable. Hopefully we won’t see a lot of action, but if we run out of bullets
we can always use the manufacturing facility in the Lab wing to melt down our
old silverware.”
    Kaufield laughed again, and
this time everyone at the table joined in. “Okay, I guess under the
circumstances we’ll permit some pessimism, as long as it’s subtle .”
    “All of the Marines are armed
with side arms and rifles,” Colonel Neeland pointed out. “We were able to bring
our ordnance stores aboard along with some of the heavier stuff prior to
the evacuation. So you’ve also got a limited ground force capability at your
disposal if we manage to approach Earth.”
    “Which brings us to fuel,”
continued Adam. “I was hoping we’d be better off in this category… but our
tanks are only 65% full. That’s enough to keep the support ships up and running
for almost six months, but not if the Pathfinder continues to use
it.”          
    “Again, I’m not too overly
concerned with that right now,” Kaufield replied. “Just so everyone knows,
we’ve got a small-scale refinery built into the Lab wing. We’re not capable of
competing with a planetary-based fuel, water, and chemical company in terms of
production, but if we find resources we should be able to adequately replenish
our supplies. There are lots of planets and