“I don’t have a lot of lithium,” Holly explained, handing some pills to Heather and Brendy. " You’re not really getting stupid, just so euphoric that you can’t think straight, and I don’t have enough to get you completely sorted out, but I can get you calm enough to function.”

“We were all genius-level when we left Mars,” Leeson said, swallowing her pills. “I don’t remember a lot of the trip, but what I do remember I’m pretty much ashamed of.”

“The less said about the trip, the better,” Heather noted. “What about this damned horniness?”

“I don’t have the proper suppressants for that,” Holly said, sitting down. “There are four bedrooms here, so whatever you guys need to do in the quiet of your own rooms is your business. This is my sister’s place. She won’t be needing it for awhile.”

“Why not?” Yoko asked. She was the only one of the women sitting up at this point. Twelvetrees and Leeson were still a little weak and the heavy gravity didn’t help.

“Mandy’s locked in the Theta-One lab on Titan with five other women. They encrypted the door locks but none of them can figure out the key to open them. Besides, they’re kind of... busy.”

“Mandy?” Yoko asked. “You’re Amanda Richards’ brother, aren’t you?”

Holly nodded, refilling Leeson’s empty water glass. “Stepbrother, yeah. Mom got herself a mail-order groom from China when I was a kid. Mandy was part of the deal. Smartest girl I’d ever met, although you three may be in her league. I was visiting Mandy when everyone started freaking out around here. I mean, I’m no dummy, but suddenly I was the smartest person on Titan.”

“Why weren’t you affected?” Brendy asked. She struggled to sit up like Yoko. It took her a few tries, but she managed.

“I don’t know,” Holly admitted, shrugging. “Could be any number of reasons. As far as I know, I’m the only man around here, so that may be it.”

“You’re the only man I’ve ever met,” Brendy said, eyeing him up and down. “And cute, too.”

Holly blushed.

“That’s enough of that, Leeson,” Yoko snapped, sliding to sit on the edge of the bed.

“Sorry, Captain,” Leeson said sarcastically. “I didn’t know I was intruding on your territory.”

“Look,” Heather interrupted, “we’re all pretty horny right now. Just keep your pants zipped and concentrate on our objectives.”

“Which are?” Brendy asked, fighting the urge to touch herself.

“Learn what we can, for one thing,” Yoko said. She slid a leg down and tenatively touched the floor. “Why all the communication silence, Holly?”

“I’ve been in the comm center off and on for weeks,” Holly said, taking Yoko gently by the waist and easing her down to the floor. “I keep sending out messages, but no one replies. Station-wide comm is down too. I’m no RF engineer, but I’d say we’re getting blanketed with static on just about every frequency.”

“Not static, just dead,” Heather corrected him. She slowly sat up in bed. “What do you know about what’s causing this, Dr. Richards?”

“Well, Mandy mentioned some sort of alien artifact that was discovered on the opposite site of Titan. I’m guessing that’s the reason for everything. She was pretty excited about it, as you can imagine. So far we haven’t found anything that proves the existence of aliens, so this is pretty major. It’s supposed to be hush-hush.”

“So how do you know about it then?” Leeson asked, inching toward the bed’s edge.

“My sister kept going on and on about it,” Holly said. “Every breakfast was one long lecture about aliens and living metal. Mandy never could keep a secret. I’m surprised she has a C-12 clearance.”

“Where’s the artifact now?” Yoko asked, steadying herself.

“Brandy Norquist has it, last I heard,” Holly said, helping Brendy also slide off of her bed. “What she’s doing with it, I haven’t a clue. It’s not like she can sell it. Besides, she’s a pretty well-known alienologist. Her rep’s going to be shot to hell over this.”

“Do you know where she is?” Heather asked him as she slid to the edge of her bed and shooed away Holly’s attempt to help.

“No,” he admitted. “She could be anywhere on the colony. There are about fifty-eight women assigned to Ardeen-Col, and they’re all a bunch of bimbos at the moment. Brandy doesn’t seem affected, and I discovered why when I checked her med records: She’s bipolar, so she’s been on lithium for years. She’s struggled with it her whole life. She’s probably the most coherent person on Titan at the moment, which must be a novelty for her.

“Wherever she is, she has the artifact and we don’t want her getting off of Titan with it. That’s why I set your ship adrift. I programmed the autopilot to repeat the docking procedure when I send it a command, but with all communications down, we really are stuck until we get our hands on that thing.”

“How long before you can get us back up to Titan?” Yoko asked, taking a few tentative steps.

“I’ve got the only functional skimmer here,” Holly said proudly. “I shut down the rest to keep the women on Titan from taking joyrides to oblivion.

“Once Norquist stole the artifact, Mandy ordered a quarantine. They have Titan locked down pretty tight,” Holly said when all three women were standing. “That’s been a blessing. Otherwise, those women would have killed themselves weeks ago. All it takes is one airlock breach.”

“That’s what happened to the Farragut,” Brendy said, walking stiffly around the room. “We have the holovid of that.”

“I saw that,” Holly told them as they all sat down again. “I found it in your comp system. Something bothers me about that transmission.”

“What do you mean?” Yoko asked.

“According to your logs,” he said, “you haven’t been able to contact Mars-Col since you left. The RF silence, remember? If you couldn’t get a message back to Mars, how did the Farragut?”

“Are you saying the Farragut message is fake?” Heather asked.

“I don’t think so,” Dr. Richards said. “I know my vid technology. That’s the real thing, but why were they able to broadcast when the Iphis couldn’t?”

“Jones,” Yoko sighed. “She must have tampered with our comm system as soon as we left Mars-Col. The radio silence is only local.”

Holly looked at Heather and Brendy for a reaction. “So you two agree with Yoko about this Dr. Jones person?”

Yoko shot him a whithering look. “Jones was there. I said so.”

Holly walked over to a computer console on a desk. He pushed a few buttons and a video of Yoko in her quarters aboard the Iphis appeared on the screen.

“Let’s get one thing out in the open first,” Yoko’s voice said. She was looking at an empty chair beside her. “We were never friends, (zzzzrt), and I don’t expect us to be in this situation either, but I am your commanding officer and I expect you to do your job.”

After a pause, Yoko said, “That’s the kind of thing that holds you back in the service I’ve seen your record. Ever wondered why you can’t get past louie-commander, bitch? You never could keep your opinions to yourself.”

Another pause, then, “Sickbay’s sealed off. You’ll need to know some algebra to get to it.”

Holly turned off the vid display. “The logs are full of things like that. The way everyone’s been acting around here, I thought maybe you had all re-found your childhood imaginary friends.

“If that Jones woman can alter vids like that, she’s not just a medical doctor. She’s a first class computer nerd, too.”

“Why would the bitch do that?” Leeson asked. She was still tired and stifled a yawn. “We all know she was there. She’s not fooling anyone.”

“We can discuss all of this on the way to Titan,” Yoko said, rising wobbly to her feet. “This gravity is killing me.”

“Mandy’s having her dreamhouse built here on the surface,” Holly said, standing up with the others. “Land is free on Saturn, like it was on the moon when that was being colonized. And no aboriginals to screw over in the process. Once someone builds a strong enough ant-grav system, this place will be colonized in a year.”

“Well we can’t stand this for extended periods of time,” Yoko muttered. “Get us to Titan before we collapse.”