wired."

"The 'other'."

"Last resort. It's need-to-know, if and when
needed. When you become aware of the
crisis to which it applies it will surface in your
consciousness and in the mind of one other member
of your team. You'll each know what to do."

"Sounds like a jolly crowd."

Ram grinned.

"I'm sure you'll all have a party. Back to comm:
the Log Depot and the Terminal work sites
have spunnel centers. Zolan will have the access
codes to the Log Depot. At all costs, keep the
construction site from becoming involved in
this intelligence operation. If word got out that
we used the Terminals for covert intelligence
or military transmissions, the Outer Region
governments would blow their collective tops.
We can rationalize using the Log Depot if we
experience piracy and harassment of our
transports and citizens. It'll be extremely
dangerous to go beyond that."

"No chance of using the Pluto comm center?"
Brad asked.

"Don't count on it." Ram replied grimly.

"What happens afterward, assuming that we
survive? Also, can what you're doing to each
of us be reversed so that we can return to
what, for us, would be normal?"

"In the order you raise them: first, after this
is over you will all be free citizens, records
cleared, and we'll help you to return to your
former lives, or reasonably close to what they
were; second, the mods are reversible and you
will all be de-programmed.

"You mention survival, Brad. You may be searching
for assurance that you'll come through alive. I
can't give you that assurance, for you or for your
team. In all sincerity, I think that you and your
team have less than an even chance for survival.
Understand then, the name of the game is dare,
but not stupidly."

Chapter SEVEN

Arms folded across his chest, Brad half-listened
to Hodak reeling off status from screens that lined
the Raven's flaked, time-battered bridge.

The indicators in Brad's line-of-sight, at least
those that still functioned, displayed erratic and
uncertain status of systems and accessories in the
main power plant, fluids pressure pumps, oxygen
generators and other vital gear. More than slightly
precarious, according to the dials and blinking
lights, but the records would show that the ancient
utility had been accepted at the spunnel gateway
in the void between the Asteroid Belt and Jupiter,
despite its technical difficulties.

Sneaking into the tail end of a crowded convoy of
Slingsho