Free Freedom's Challenge by Anne McCaffrey

Bubble, we need to calculate the speed and direction of the new satellite that the Eosi have put in place. We can then figure out where to leave the Bubble without being detected.”
    â€œYeah,” Aarens said in a dubious tone of voice, “but that sat would see the scout’s ion trail, wouldn’t it?”
    â€œNot if the speed of the scout is sufficient to get it behind one of the moons. Its direction would be unknown.”
    â€œWhat about if there’s a fast ship just waiting for us to try something like that?”
    â€œThere are ways,” Zainal said with a grin. “That scout is much faster than anything but another scout. Such ships are never used as watchers.”
    Aarens shrugged and sat down.
    â€œThat is the first step,” Zainal said.
    â€œIf you’re going back to Barevi, I’ve a long shopping list,” someone said and received a chuckle.
    â€œNo, Barevi would be too hot for us right now,” Zainal said. “We go to Earth and we use two ships; the scout and the KDM which will be renamed and altered to look as if it had been hit by space…stuff.”
    â€œThat metal’ll be hard to dent,” Gino said, shaking his head. “You Catteni make a good hull.”
    â€œIt’ll be camouflaged,” Hassan Moussa said and grinned. “I’m a past master at that.”
    â€œBut going back to Earth?” Aarens asked, stunned.
    â€œLast place they will expect us.” And Zainal turned to one of the Victims who nodded agreement. “Ricky Farmer here was senior air controller for O’Hare airport while there was still Human air traffic. When all your planes were grounded and he was victimized, he took notes on Catteni routes and procedures. He has code words—though his Catteni is about what my English once was,” and that rated some chuckles from the audience, “and these will help us get into some of the landing places now used by Catteni transport ships. I understand from Jeff Fawcett,” and he gestured to the other Victim, “that large amusement areas have been built around the landing sites for the crews. These would be useful places for us to find out more information.”
    â€œYou mean, that cool as a cucumber, we’re going to reinvade Earth?” Lenny Doyle said.
    â€œWe also intend to…” and Zainal had the merest smile on his lips, “invade Catten.”
    That provoked a widespread eruption from the audience,more an elated one than fearful, although quite a few faces bore skeptical expressions.
    â€œHey, ain’t that pushing our luck?” Lenny Doyle asked, raising his voice to be heard above the babel.
    â€œOnly volunteers,” Zainal said with a sly grin. “And mostly to learn what would be impossible to learn on your planet. More codes are needed and Catten is the only place to go for that.”
    Kris waited for someone to ask what was so obvious to her: if Zainal was going to contact Catteni dissidents. She didn’t know how many people on Botany—besides Chuck Mitford—knew anything about that facet of his grand scheme. Surely Zainal would have confided in Ray his hopes that he could muster assistance on his home planet to help overthrow the Eosi.
    â€œWe got to have information we can’t get any other way,” Ray Scott put in. Kris heaved a small sigh of relief. Ray did know and seemingly approved. “We’re also going to ask for volunteers to remain on Earth and contact the resistance groups.”
    â€œI don’t know all of them,” Jeff Fawcett said in a voice still hoarse from his recent ordeal. “But enough for us to get the word spread.”
    â€œJeff’s also going to need a volunteer to go with him,” Scott said, “preferably from the First or Second Drops…”
    The number of hands that shot into the air gave Kris a thrill of pride. The most eager had jumped to their feet, to establish