"That's preposterous," Captain Carter rebuffed. "What would the public say when they found out what we'd done? They'd never accept it."
Amila Santana, still standing with her palms on the tabletop, knitted her brow in an expression that Lamont read as communicating something like, "Be careful!" It wasn't the first time that he sensed a dynamic between Ed and Amila that he couldn't quite account for. His experience as a keen observer of human behavior told him that he was missing important information, but he couldn't begin to guess what it was.
"What do you mean, Mr. Spratt?" Amila asked. It was a question, but her tone made it sound like a threat.
Ed, for his part, either didn't notice the subtext, or didn't care. "The mission of Westward is to benefit the Free World. We set out to do that by establishing a colony in a location that has two essential criteria: First, it needs to support human life. Second, it needs to have resources that can be extracted for the benefit of Earth. Right?" As he crafted his argument, he ticked the list items off on two of his rather short extended fingers.
"Go on," Amila nodded.
"Everybody assumed that those criteria would be met by depositing the colonists on a planet, sure. But here we have an existing habitat that is ready-made for human occupation, and it's attached to a moon that is a treasure trove of gas and mineral deposits. In what way, exactly, does this scenario not meet the technical criteria for colonization?" The chief technician sat back and folded his arms defiantly.
"That's preposterous," Captain Carter rebuffed. "What would the public say when they found out what we'd done? They'd never accept it."
"That's rich," Ed smirked, "coming from the man who founded Earth's first off-world colony in the technological carcass of a long-dead civilization. Are you actually going to tell me that this situation is any different?"
"Of course it is," Francis objected. "The colonization of Mars was a desperate action taken by desperate people. It was the only viable choice we had given our technological limitations at the time."
Ed leaned toward the captain, placing an elbow on the table. "The technological advancements we've made as a result of colonizing Mars are the only reason we're able to be out here discussing this little dilemma at all, Carter. I don't exactly relish admitting it, but Martian technology pushed us forward hundreds of years in a couple decades. Are we really going to thumb our noses at an opportunity to leap forward maybe thousands of years?" As he made his point, he gestured his free hand in a forward chop.
"You're suggesting," Lamont rejoined, "that we should leave our people here at the mercy of a construct that has a completely mysterious past and demonstrably dodgy intentions. It's completely irresponsible. I don't think that anyone would object to our planting a flag here and coming back later with a dedicated expedition. But this is no colony, Ed. Surely you must see that."
"You see it that way," Ed retorted, pivoting on his elbow toward Lamont. "But how sure are you that the colonists are going to agree?"