As I walked to my car I saw that Jessica was in the front seat. I went around to the driver’s side and opened the door. As I got in my small 2000 Ho...da Accord I asked “What do you think you’re doing?”“Sitting in your car, duh,” she replied in a sarcastic tone.“I know that, but you need to go to the back seat.” I replied just as sarcastically. “You know I pick up Ashley on my way to school.”“Why can’t she sit in the back?” Jessica asked trying to win me over with her puppy dog eyes.“Because she. It was a relief to see that we were all alive and apparently fit enough to run after the train and hop aboard one by one. This had been a very dangerous encounter and we had been lucky. Out in the open with no cover and too many people to protect, against a larger pack of these creatures the result may well have been a little different. The whole fight from the moment we first spotted the beasts till jumping back into the train took no more than three minutes. An eternity for us. On the train. I emerged from the jungle to adeserted beach. Palm trees ran along the fringes of the sand, andbehind me steep cliffs rose for hundreds of feet into the air. I lookedaround, wondering where Jim could be. Then I stopped. From somewhereoff to the left I heard a mewling sound, sounding for all the worldlike a lost kitten calling for its mother. Wondering what it could be,I stepped softly through the white sand and crept over towards thethick hedge of bushes that hid what ever was making the noise. ” The holograph zoomed out, showing a representation of the spiral arm, “The Sa’arm incursion is not anticipated arriving in this system in anything under twenty-five years and it is hoped that they will never get here. Therefore system defence is not considered a priority.”Andrew, still frowning, asked, “So the plan is to dump us here, as we are, for at least a year and than come back and see how we are doing?”“Not exactly,” replied the AI, “though it may seem like that to the colonists who.