The Unscheduled Mission by Jonathan Edward Feinstein

order.”
    The next two days were long ones and everyone pitched in and got the base ready for Jance’s arrival. Veronica Sheetz was reluctant at first to step away from her other work on spaceship defenses, however. “Still haven’t figured out how to make stasis plating that doesn’t also put the contents of the ship in stasis as well,” she admitted to Park when he came to ask for her help on the HMMWVs.
    “Hollow walls, maybe with each piece in stasis independently from the others?” Park suggested.
    “Wouldn’t work,” Ronnie shook her head and ran her fingers through her short graying blond hair. “Well, in a sense it would, but each piece would have to be   isolated with a non-conducting material, and that means that while the plates would survive they would likely be blown all over the system.”
    “Non-conducting,” Park noted. “Does that mean the glass portholes and, well is it still a windshield in space? Anyway, if the stasis field needs a conducting material why do our stasis tubes work with the glass windows where our faces are? And would the posts be weaknesses in our ships?”
    “I could show you the formulae,” Ronnie replied, “but what they come down to is that if the field is sufficiently powered and only a small percent of the containing vessel’s skin is non-conducting, the field will sort of fill in over the non-conductive elements. Actually the glass on our personal stasis tubes is safety glass with the internal layer made of a mostly transparent, but conductive layer. That’s why it looks silvery from an angle. The glass in the spaceships is similar although in their case the glass was made that way so it could be polarized by a series of electronic signals. I planned to use that layer as part of a stasis defense although the field would probably cover   those areas anyway. Wouldn’t want to guess wrong though.”
    “No. Well, thanks, I had wondered, but always had more important things get in the way of asking,” Park explained. “Now about those Humvees…”
    “It will be a waste of time,” Ronnie predicted.
    “I certainly hope you’re right,” Park replied. “Firing on a diplomatic mission isn’t exactly the way I was brought up either, you know, but even Dannet doesn’t think this precaution is unreasonable, so long as we don’t shoot without provocation.”
    “The green kid said that, did he?” Ronnie laughed. “Maybe he’s not as wet behind the ears as I thought he was. You got to admit he was wrong about the Galactics respecting our claim to Luna and the rest of the system.”
    “Can’t argue with that,” Park shrugged. “He was brought up to believe that’s the way it’s supposed to work, but evidently he hasn’t run into many sore losers until now. The kid’s a quick study, though and he’s all right.”
    “Hmm, you know we have some pretty good rockets that can be launched from a Humvee,” Ronnie considered. “Armor-piercing, high explosive jobs. Should be perfect for bringing down a spaceship. Is that what you had in mind?”
    “I didn’t really have much of anything in mind except the old Boy Scout motto,” Park admitted.
    “Be prepared?” Ronnie grinned. “Well, I think I can prepare you pretty good. Yeah, I’ll put a team on it right away.”

Thirteen
     
     
    “Three ships?” Park asked as he strolled into port control two days later.
    “Yes, sir,” the young man at the flight controller’s desk replied.
    “Now what the heck do they need three ships for on a diplomatic mission,” Park wondered out loud, suddenly not feeling quite as silly about the security arrangements he had been making. The Humvees might have been a few miles north of town and under a tent at the moment, but he did have men posted in concealed positions on the hill overlooking the spaceport.
    “I don’t know, sir,” the controller replied, too deeply concentrating on his job to realize Park had been asking a rhetorical question. “But these are big