by D A Buckley
“You get a lot of that?” Tony laughed, “People eating the moon dirt I mean?”
“You know sometimes, it’s the only thing I can think of that explains why people do the incredibly dumb things that people have a tendency to do here. Most days I think that Rie and I are the only two people here not eating moon dirt…and sometimes I wonder about Rie.”
“Ha. I understand. How is Rie? I haven’t seen her in probably a year and a half.”
“Rie loves it here. All the women love the one-third, more or less, gravity of the moon. Until they go home. Then the readjustment phase, even with the Cal-Tech re-gravitation protocol, is a bit uncomfortable for a couple of weeks. I know that she is looking forward to seeing you and Katherine again.”
A look of concern came over Tony’s face. “Katherine is here then?”
“Not yet. She is scheduled to arrive at fifteen-hundred tomorrow. There’s been a rather serious situation early yesterday that I need her to sort out. Another Cheechako to look after.” Meri put his right hand on Tony’s shoulder. “Let’s grab your bags. I’ve got us a stretch limo to take us to your new office.” Meri smiled as he motioned with his left hand to an extended twelve passenger electric cart.
“I’m overwhelmed at the top-notch service I’m getting here.” Tony placed his bags on the third row of seats as he and Meri took the second row. “I’m just an old log toad, Meri. Why bring me all the way up here?”
“That’s exactly why,” Meri replied as he touched a spring-loaded console door between their seats and it obediently popped open. Extracting a bottle of water he offered it to Tony. “Here drink this. Everyone gets a little dehydrated on the flight up. Its got some electrolytes and vitamins and other awful stuff. This is watermelon, I believe. You just said it perfectly. In fact, you’re the oldest logistics man in TRIAD. You know where every nut and bolt in the organization is, how to package and transport them safely and, most importantly, how to keep track of it. Obviously, things are not as tightly run here as I need them to be.”
“Isn’t Barry keeping things straight? I remember him being very disciplined about supply train procedures. In fact, when I certified him for LBA years ago I kept thinking that if I ever ended up working for him I might just come up short on my evals”
“You’ll never convince me of that, Tony. But something is going on with Barry…personal like. His attitude is slacking just a little. Besides you and I have been friends for a long time. I know what you’re thinking…most of the time. Barry needs some earth-side R&R. Also, we’re beginning the roll-up of the entire program starting next Tuesday. Ark II is nearly completed and we’re about to make a critical installation. It was scheduled for a couple of days ago but the primary component of that installation was part of the serious incident that I told you about. As soon as Katherine sorts that out we’ll get the installation completed and then we expect that the final construction work will proceed much more rapidly and mankind will be on the way to another solar system within, oh…six months…give or take.”
“I’ve never been read-in on the program Katherine has honchoed all these years.” Tony looked down at his hands and rubbed the ring finger on his left hand thoughtfully.
“That’s going to change starting right now, Tony. After you get settled in you’re coming to my place for lunch. My last two ribeyes and some great local Cabernet from our own aquaponics micro vineyard are on the menu. You know,” Meri and Tony stepped out of the transport in front of one of the penthouses, “if 87 Sylvia wasn’t scheduled to obliterate this whole place, we have carved out a substantial foothold here, this facility would make a great starting point for a permanent launching facility to the rest of the solar system. It seems like such a waste.”
“And you would be the first governor of the Lunar Colonies.”
A pained look crossed Meri’s face. “You know I don’t care for those kinds of things. Frankly, I'm surprised that you would even say that. You’ve known me too long to not understand that. Ah, here’s Rie now.” Meri pretended to reach for one of Tony’s bags.
“Tony! It's so good to see you again. How was the trip up?” Rie’s enthusiasm was warm and genuine. She hugged Tony and kissed his cheek. “Not a day goes by that I don’t think of you. My day is starting off so great just looking at your face.”
Turning toward Meri, Rie chided, “Stop pretending like you’re going to carry that bag. The valet is on his way. I’ll take Tony up to his room. Director Sachdeva is waiting for you in your office.” Rie’s face turned serious. “It’s what we had hoped would never happen. I’ve already forged your signature to approve the installation of the defensive batteries.”
Turning back to Tony her face lit up again, “Come with me, Mister. We have some catching up to do. How are the boys doing? Tony Jr is entering the academy this year, I know, but what about Aubrey?”
*****
Katherine took her seat on the LBA One shuttle, really Meri’s personal space yacht. She took a moment to exhale before fastening her seat belt. The twenty-three-hour flight in a pressure suit would have been very uncomfortable on one of the crew ferries from Dead Horse. On Meri’s yacht, the rules were suspended, though her pressure suit, which was packed inside the required ever-present yellow backpack, was placed in the cabinet directly in front of her. She closed her eyes and imagined what Suki would have to endure at Dead Horse. The Director of Security at LBA had decided that it was prudent to not have two high priority passengers on the same transport craft considering the attack on LBA-0139A and insisted they proceed from different facilities. Those long TSA security lines were always trying times. She smiled when she recalled that the TSA was the conception of a Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel working for President Reagan two centuries ago. She had read that the colonel had bemoaned the fact that he had not named the agency the American Security Service, especially after they had earned a rather ignominious reputation for incompetence and rudeness in conducting their business. The TSA had changed little over the years and, in her mind, was an obvious argument against the old adage – time heals all wounds.
“Dr. Mathis, this is the Captain.” Coming over the cabin intercom the announcement brought her out of her musing. “As you have requested, the passenger compartment is now sealed off from the rest of the ship. If you are ready I can activate the gas discharge system now. The medical team will wake you when you arrive at LBA.”
“Yes, that would be fine.” Whether she dreamed at all during the trip she would not recall.
*****
“That is so funny,” Rie said as she rocked back in the overstuffed chair across from the couch that Tony was seated on. “Aubrey actually said that to the governor?”
“Word for word, I swear. He has my good looks and his mother’s wit. God bless him.”
“You don’t think his mother is good looking?” Rie asked with a knowing grin.
“That’s my point, Rie. He must have gotten his good looks from me because his mother still has hers. The last time I saw her anyway.”
Rie laughed. “Well, you can check her out soon. Meri told you she’s on her way?”
“Yes, yes he did,” Tony’s voice indicated a question was about to follow. “Should I make anything out of that?”
“No.” Rie breathed out slowly. “And…yes. Meri feels personally responsible for your break-up. You two are his favorite people on earth…and now on the moon. He is bringing you both here because he legitimately needs you both. He needs your expertise certainly. But he really just needs his best friends. You both give him such a sense of confidence. We are at a critical juncture and he wants not only his best people but those whom he most natively trusts. When he gets worried he yearns for the comfort of his best friends. Truth be told. You two are the only family he acknowledges.”
“But…”
“But…he is hoping to push you two together. Please don’t fault him for that, Tony. He loves you both so dearly that he just cannot help himself.”
“Sure
. There won’t be a problem…but I don’t believe that he will get the results he’s after. Far too much water has gone under that bridge.” Tony shifted a little on the sofa. “I was sorry to hear that Barry was leaving. Some sort of personal issues I heard.”
“That’s news to me.” Rei frowned. “I’m sure he would have confided in me if that were the case. I’ll check on it though.”
“Don’t bother, please. I’m sure that the rumor mill here is quite active and that I just got a hold of some of it.”
“As you wish,” Rie stood beaming a bright smile. “Tony, I just can’t tell you how happy I am to see you and how much I look forward to seeing Katherine. But Meri is lost without me and I had better get back to the office before he does something disastrous like sign a document or something. I’ll stop by Meri’s after you’ve finished lunch.”
*****
“Okay Ansh, you’ve completed you’re investigation then?” Meri asked as he poured himself a single malt from the mahogany liquor cabinet. “What’s the skinny on our little mishap…that actually isn’t so little considering the four lives we lost?”
“You’re not going to like it, Meri. It's bad…really bad. In fact, I couldn’t imagine much worse.”
“The freighter was shot down,” Meri said, taking a slow sip from his glass before turning to face Ansh. “I’m sorry, where are my manners.” He turned to pour another.
“Thank you, sir. I think I could use one. You knew?”
“I knew something was cooking under the surface, so to speak, when we were made aware of that circuit board. I know we haven’t cracked it yet but my gut tells me that board is what this is all about. In point of fact, speaking of under the surface, let me show you something we just received. It’s a high altitude photo we finally managed to get just recently.” Meri picked up his data controller from the bar and began typing in a series of commands and passwords. On the far wall, a large monitor illuminated with a picture of an ocean. “Let me zoom in a bit.” As the resolution increased a very large shape began to appear beneath the water.
“They are building a ship…under the water?” Ansh swallowed his drink in one gulp, placed his glass on the table and walked to the monitor to get a better look.
“We considered that as well initially. But, well, to be honest, I took advantage of the political atmosphere at the time and convinced everyone to let me build my childhood dream of a base on the moon. The technology existed or was nearly in existence and the difficulties of concealing our labors here actually were more easily mitigated than going all Jacques Cousteau. We made the right decision to come here. It appears that the Southern Hemisphere folk chose the ocean. We picked up some intel that they had also achieved some degree of success in developing an electronic signature obfuscation device…a radar occulting technology. I’ll bet my bottom dollar that that is exactly what that board is.”
“And they have now demonstrated its capabilities on their attack craft. Well, that certainly adds the final piece to my little puzzle.” Ansh quickly retrieved his communicator from his pants pocket and activated it.
“What are you doing?” Meri asked while pouring himself another drink.
“Your shuttle, with Dr. Mathis on board, just left the dock at Fairbanks. I’m ordering them to return immediately.”
“No, don’t do that. I have assigned four gunships to escort the shuttle. I very much need Dr. Mathis here.”
“You’re taking a big risk, Meri.”
“I think that the requirement of Dr. Mathis to communicate with J-Squared in person requires it. Don’t you?”
“Yes, I suppose I do.” He pocketed his communicator. “You're going to put her in Buckshot aren’t you?” Ansh grinned a knowing grin.
*****
“LBA Approach Control this is LBA One, midpoint sit-rep to follow.”
“Roger LBA One. Send your sit-rep.”
As an extra security measure while LBA One was transmitting a rather rambling midcourse situation report they were also transmitting, on a very close alternate frequency, a text message alerting LBA Approach Control that they would be ready to fire the experimental hypervelocity drone they called Buckshot in exactly twenty minutes. The message was acknowledged and the LBA One crew went to work. Extracting the sleeping gas from the passenger compartment a medical team entered the compartment. Before Katherine could regain consciousness they administered a hypodermic containing a paralyzing agent and a strong sedative to keep her unconscious. They then put her in her high-pressure suit and carried her weightless body to a lower part of the shuttle where a rather sleek looking craft was waiting with open carapace. Katherine was placed carefully into the craft. An oxygen line and a telemetry harness were attached to her suit and helmet and a silk curtain was drawn over her face. Once the carapace was closed foam began to fill the compartment surrounding her completely in an elastic cocoon of sorts. On the flight deck, a dark launch panel illuminated once the crew had left the compartment, sealed the door, darkened the compartment, and depressurized it. Then the Crew Chief depressed a series of keys on the door panel control point. On the flight deck launch panel, a fifteen-second countdown began. When the panel countdown reached zero the pod was silently ejected from the bottom of the shuttle using compressed air. The launch panel then displayed a single red circle. The shuttle Captain touched the red circle and four plumes of intense blue fire shot from the back of the pod and within ninety seconds accelerated the pod to more than twice the speed of any known craft.
“LBA Approach Control this is LBA One, Buckshot is away with all telemetry green. I say again, green. We are RTB Fairbanks. See you all next time.”
“Roger LBA One. We have telemetry and controls show responsive. FedEx is going to be jealous. See you next time.”
What would have been an eleven hour second half of the trip to LBA was now completed in just over three. The remotely piloted drone, the first of its kind, landed safely at the docks. Dr. Mathis was extracted and taken directly to the infirmary where she was administered antidotes to both the paralytic and the sedative.
*****
“Where am I?” Katherine asked groggily.
“You’re alright, Doctor,” a friendly female voice answered. “I’m Doctor Ogawa. You are in the infirmary at LBA. The fog will clear in a few moments. When you are able, I need you to drink this.”
“How did I get here? Was there another accident?”
“No Katherine, everything is fine.”
Tony’s voice surprised her.
“ I’m afraid you’ve been another one of Meri’s guinea pigs,” Tony said warmly. “Meri wanted to be here when you woke but there is quite a hubbub going on with his security department so he sent me. You really must drink this. According to Meri, it’s just water, electrolytes, and some other awful stuff. It's good to see you again, Katherine.” He handed her the bottle of water.
“Tony…why does he do these things to me?” Katherine asked rubbing her eyes with both hands. “The man has no sense of personal space.” Katherine sat up a bit too quickly and immediately fell back unto the gurney.
“Take a minute and then try that again slowly.” Dr. Ogawa instructed.
“Could you please give us the room Doctor and turn off all recording devices as you leave?” Tony asked firmly.
“Are you going to tell me something above your clearance level, Tony?” Katherine seemed a bit fuzzy still.
“Meri raised my clearance level to TS with J-Squared Compartmentalization, Katherine. I know what you know about J-Squared – finally. And I know what you are about to learn from me concerning the shootdown of LBA-0139A.”
“Shoot down?” Katherine bolted up in the gurney and immediately had to steady herself by grabbing the lowered side rail. “Oh, my head is spinning. Did you say shoot down?”
“Yes. Our Southern friends have apparently leaped ahead in the area of stealth technology and have developed an active radar masking system. You know that they have developed their own vers
ion of J-Squared and their own Ark and now they have demonstrated an ability to approach our freighters undetected and shoot them down. And…I’m sorry about Ramos, Katherine. I know he was a friend.”
“How did the world separate into two hemispheres like this?” Katherine lamented rather academically. “I mean, I know the history, but history doesn’t tell the whole story, does it? We’re all people. We’re all the human race. And now, at this enormously critical juncture in human history, the entire brain trust of humanity is once again wasting its capital with war, with divisions. Why have people never been able to simply get along?”
