***
At NORAD, when the second image from Phaeon completed downloading onto the wall display in the command center, General Davis muttered, “I’ll be doggoned. What do you make of that Mac?”
“Looks like they’ve got most of their complex functional again,” MacIlvain replied. “I’d have thought that would take decades to do.”
Holly Lewis added, “They must have much more capability up there than we’ve been thinking.”
“Whatever we do from now on,” Davis said, “we had better not underestimate them.”