"There's something we don't have - evac and personnel carriers," Trudy said. "The observation deck detaches and descends to the planet when she's sending people on a mission, but dropships for quick extraction or reinforcement delivery we don't have. Not ships that are capable in atmosphere and vacuum. In fact, with the way Galilee is shaping up, we may need extraction sooner rather than later. We lost comm contact with our team on the surface just before podpop."

The people down on that planet were more than capable of handling themselves against a small force, and even against a medium-size force. But if Galilee decided that the crew of the Trans 9 was more trouble than it was worth, Trudy didn't have a very good feeling about their chances. "One of my pilots is down there," she explained. "I'd feel better if I knew there was a better chance of him coming back in one piece if the explosions start."