On their final return, shuttles passed through a decontamination process inside and out.“As each shuttle gets within a kilometer of the ship the AI ...akes control. The AI controls the removal of the containers, their disassembly and the movement of the pods through cleaning and decontamination. All equipment cleaning, decontamination and subsequent maintenance is undertaken by the AI.“This is the last pickup for the entire fleet. We are now ready to go. You will see the big irises closing and. Would you like to join us?”“I’d love to.”Claudia looked around her but could not see the blond woman. She followed Julia to the main hall and as soon as they entered she saw the woman in a loose group gathered around Barricelli and Gianina Strozzi. There were ten or twelve other people but at the core of the gathering were the professor and his star pupil.The contrast between the tall, willowy Strozzi and her short, rather portly teacher was distinctly comic; mainly due to the fact that Strozzi. Over time he taught Thomas to track and hunt as well as spot the types of plants and roots that were edible. Thomas had picked it up quickly, but Walter realized that he would rather be reading or reciting poetry to his mother.Grace made sure that she used the time she had with Thomas wisely and felt it was very important that they not be interrupted. She found a place off the beaten path; a beautiful lagoon with a water fall, where they could have uninterrupted time together. There she worked. "I really wasn't trying to pry, I'm just trying to explore with you how freely we can talk." Pretty freely, unless there's something else," I said, easing back a little.One of the other guys cleared his throat. Brodine had introduced him as somebody Garson, but nothing more, but from the way the marshal immediately deferred to him I figured he was either his boss or at least somebody up higher in the food chain there. "May I ask why you're here, Mr. Costain, why you wanted to see us?"It was my.