Thirty minutes after Tila's shuttle departed Skygarden they were preparing to land on the Commonwealth personnel transport Saint Christopher.

Her mother was, in fact, already aboard, having taken one of the first shuttles from Skygarden that morning. Too busy to speak to Tila, Grace waved her daughter away with a look that was part apology, and part I'll-talk-to-you-as-soon-as-I-can. Marcus had disappeared into meetings as soon as the shuttle launched.

Tila thought to explore the ship to kill time, but there was very little to see. As a personnel transport it was designed to shift bodies and not much else. There was a small mess hall, bathrooms, minimal medical facilities and no recreation that Tila could find. The transport was basically two thousand seats in a box with a bridge on one end and an engine on the other.

The soldiers and other personnel from Skygarden didn't even begin to fill the ship. The shuttles only carried fifty passengers at a time, and they quickly disappeared into the transport. The crew assigned to the Saint Christopher were worked on their final departure checks. The soldiers kept to themselves. Marcus was probably with them, doing whatever it was he did.

Probably something classified, she thought.

There was nothing else to see on board, so Tila found a seat near her mother and waited.

Soon after that she felt the deep rumble of the engines igniting. The sound settled into a low vibration. Tila couldn't feel the ship moving, but they must be under way by now.

A motion caught her eye, and she saw her mother smiling at her from the end of the row of chairs. Tila unfolded herself from the hard seat and picked up her bag.

"I'm sorry to keep you waiting. With all the last-minute changes to the mission there's a lot to stay on top of."

Tila swung her bag up on to her shoulder.

"Why is that your problem? I thought you were only an observer."

"That's because of the security breach. I was officially only an observer. Unofficially I'm here as a security consultant and subject matter expert on the Far Horizon. We've had to revise some plans on the assumption that information is now compromised."

"What difference does that make? I mean, who cares what your job is on this mission?"

"I'll explain more later. For now, I've got you permission to join me on the bridge. It's a better view."

Tila looked around the deck. Here were only metal walls and structural supports filled with clusters of chairs grouped in hundreds - ten rows by ten columns - in six groups.

"Better than this?"

The view from the bridge of the Saint Christopher was better, that much was true, but only just. Space is so defined because there is almost nothing in it, so while there were no more endless rows of chairs to count, there was nothing to see from the bridge either except the cold white stars.

Skygarden was long behind them, and by now the shuttles carrying Ellie, Malachi and Jayce to their respective destinations were also out of sight.

Eventually though, two stars appeared to separate themselves from the night sky and moved toward them.

Grace leaned over Tila's shoulder and pointed them out, letting Tila sight along her outstretched finger.

"There they are," she said. "Titan and Europa."

"How come we have to meet them all the way out here?"

"Those are military cruisers. They're not allowed within a hundred thousand kilometres of a civilian station when on active duty."

"Is that the whole rescue fleet?"

"We have seven ships in the fleet. Titan and Europa are the muscle."

"Muscle?"

"Better safe than sorry, Tila. We don't yet know what we are rescuing the colonists from."

"So how do you know two ships will be enough?"

"We brought enough fire power. Those cruisers just pack a bigger punch than most."

As the Saint Christopher adjusted its heading to an intercept course, one of the stars split in two as their relative parallax plane shifted.

Tila pointed at it. "Is that one more muscle?"

"That's the Northwind. Our flagship. That's going to be our home for the next few weeks."

Grace touched a control, and a larger image of the flagship appeared on one of the bridge monitors.

Tila was unimpressed.

"It doesn't look like much."

"What did you want it to look like?"

"I don't know. I thought warships were supposed to look more impressive."

"You shouldn't be so quick to judge things on appearances alone."

Tila ignored the criticism. "How long until we reach the Praxis beacon?"

"We'll group up with the other ships in a few hours, and then it's about a day's travel to the beacon here. Transit through Praxis will take us another two days. The rest of the fleet is coming via Jenovah. They are scheduled to arrive at the beacon to Baru the day after we get there."

"Four more days until we even get the whole fleet?"

"If you know a better way to plan and coordinate a mission like this I'm sure the Admiral would love to hear it. Some things take time, Tila. Just be patient."

"I'm always being asked to be patient! It took years to find out happened to the Far Horizon. That was months ago, and now we still have to wait days before we can start the proper mission. I just want it to begin. I want to be there. I want to be searching for him."

"So do I. And we will. Just a few more days, I promise."

Tila sighed. It was not her usual sigh of frustration or impatience. This was a sound that she was resigned to the wait.

"What am I supposed to do for the next four days. This ship is only empty seats."

"We'll shuttle over to the Northwind once we rendezvous."

"And then?"

Grace smiled. "You'll see."

"See what?"

"Be patient!"

"Ugh."