"What time is it, Daddy?"

Olsndot laughed, still looking at the underside of the cargo shell. "Local midnight."

Johanna had been brought up in the middle latitudes of Straum. Most of her school field trips had been to space, where odd sun geometries were no big deal. Somehow she had never thought of such things happening on the ground… I mean, seeing the sun right over the top of the world.

The first order of business was to get half the coldsleep boxes out into the open, and rearrange those left aboard. Mom figured that the temperature problems would just about disappear then, even for the boxes left on board: "Having separate power supplies and venting will be an advantage now. The kids will all be safe. Johanna, you check Jefri's work on the ones inside, okay?…"

The second order of business would be to start a tracking program on the Relay system, and to set up ultralight communication. Johanna was a little afraid of that step. What would they learn? They already knew the High Lab had gone wicked and the disaster Mom predicted had begun.

How much of Straumli Realm was dead now? Everyone at the High Lab had thought they were doing so much good, and now… Don't think about it. Maybe the Relayers could help. Somewhere there must be people who could use what her folks had taken from the Lab.

They'd be rescued, and the rest of the kids would be revived. She'd been feeling guilty about that. Sure, Mom and Dad needed extra hands right at the end of the flight — and Johanna was one of the oldest children in the school. But it seemed wrong that she and Jefri were the only kids going into this with their eyes open. Coming down, she had felt her mother's fear. I bet they wanted us together, even if it was only for one last time. The landing had been truly dangerous, however easy Dad made it look. Johanna could see where the backsplash had gouged the hull; if any of that had gotten past the torch and into the exhaust chamber, they'd all be vapor now.