by Alex Deva
Mark frowned, then said:
"At some point the European Union became the Eurasian Union, which I'm guessing had very interesting implication for Russia, China and the Middle East, in particular. Science evolved, particularly space science. You discovered something on the Moon which prompted you to return in a hurry; what started as a joint operation seems to have gone sour after a while."
"I'd be happy to fill in the blanks for you," said captain Toma.
Aram, Mark and Doina turned towards her.
"Please do," said the girl.
"Well. Let's see. You were last seen in 2014. That was four years before the Soviet Russia attacked the IS."
"They what?! And don't you mean Soviet Union? That ended in the nineteen nineties."
"Yes, I know. And I do mean Soviet Russia, mister Gardener. They wanted to teach the world a lesson in how you deal with terrorist states, so they sent the Red Army into the Middle East. In a campaign that lasted all of three weeks, they nearly wiped out all Muslim extremists... and more than a few innocent people."
"How did the Americans react?"
"They got the hell out of the way of the Red Army, mister Gardener. There was no other alternative to World War Three. They were already in the middle of the Second Cold War."
"The current president of the United States can't be credited with too many brains," observed Jing dryly, "but back in those days, they actually had one with a lot of common sense. All allied forces withdrew, and let our new best friends the Soviets do their thing."
Toma stopped for a second, bit her lip and continued.
"They sent in over a quarter million soldiers and took out pretty much every terrorist operation in the Middle East. Every single man, except for a few hundred, who'd managed to run and hide."
"And the rest of the world just stood and watched?"
"Some countries condemned the Russians' actions, but in all honesty, people mostly approved them, and no politician wants to be unpopular. At any rate, they postponed any serious response until the attack was over."
"And then?"
The captain looked at Mark with a very somber face.
"Then came the Seventy-Two Virgins."
XXXVIII.
Aram looked at her as if she was nuts.
"Come again?"
"A hundred Arab girls were sent into Russia, each carrying a nuclear warhead. Exactly seventy-two managed to get in."
Mark felt a cold shiver down his spine.
"Where?" he asked, closing his eyes.
"All the major cities," she said. "Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, and tens of others. Over forty million deaths. One in every four people. It all happened at the same time, at eleven o'clock in the morning of May the first, two thousand and eighteen. In the middle of the Worker's Day parades."
"How was it possible to smuggle not one, but tens of nukes into a country like Russia?"
"As it later turned out, it wasn't really that hard," said Jing. "When they bribed the customs officers, they'd told them it was only drugs. And, for the first couple of times, it really was drugs."
"They all entered through four access points," continued Toma. "Twenty-eight were either caught, or didn't make it, or somehow couldn't carry out the plan."
"Forty million," whispered Doina. "I think that's more people than there were on the entire Earth in my time."
"Didn't Perimeter work?"
"You know about Perimeter, very good," said Jing. "The Russian's automated nuclear war trigger. The dead man's switch. And no, it didn't work."
"How could it not work?"
"Nobody really knows. Maybe it was turned off altogether. Maybe the CIA managed to disable it, back who knows when. Or maybe the planet was just lucky."
"Where did they find a hundred nukes?"
"Most of them had been smuggled from the Russians themselves, which was very sad," said Toma. "But not all. At least one was American, and the rest came from an assortment of places. Some historians even believe they made one themselves."
"Where? In a cave in Afghanistan?"
"No. In a research institute in Afghanistan."
"With what?"
Captain Toma sighed. "I learned about these things in high school. History is my hobby, not my profession. I'm just a biologist who joined the army. Ask me about growing corn in space, I'll tell you all about it."
They were all quiet for a second.
"They pretty much begged to join the European Union after that," she said. "And, once they did, it wasn't just about Europe anymore, so it became the Eurasian Union."
"What about China?"
Jing answered.
"China's Communist regime began its collapse less half a century later. Actually, it took about two hundred years, but looking back now, that's when it all started. The Party began to stop punishing political criminals, and in a few decades it started an offshoot -- the first political party that wasn't part of the United Front of the People -- and then the snowball just got bigger."
Mark glanced at the officer's flag. It was a red rectangle, with a smaller blue one in a corner, instead of the five yellow stars that he remembered.
"So, why do the Yanks call you Queens?" asked Aram.
"Because we're the only political entity that still includes empires, and they see that as a weakness," said Toma.
Again, they were quiet. Then Tiessler drew in a deep breath and spoke again, quietly:
"I'm sure captain Toma will be happy to explain the history of the recent centuries to you, in as much detail as she can remember or bring up on her tab... but perhaps we can return to the present now."
Aram leaned closer to Toma and asked, quietly:
"What's corn, and is it good to eat?"
* * *
"Two things," said Tiessler, a little later.
"We're listening," said Mark.
"Number one, we are at war."
"The Moon War."
"Indeed." He gave Mark a meaningful look, but the Brit was impassible.
"You are still British," said Tiessler, after a few seconds.
Here we go, thought Mark, again.
"I'm legally dead, colonel."
"No -- Mark Gardener is legally dead. Mark Greene is very much alive and I'm looking at him right now."
Mark said nothing. Doina and Aram watched the dialogue intently.
"You swore allegiance to your country."
"That was Gardener again."
"You owe allegiance to your country, then."
"Three hundred years after I was born? I'm sure that, legally, that is, at the very least... dubious."
"In any case. If there is any geopolitical entity that you owe allegiance to, it has to be your country."
Again, Mark did not answer. He looked at Tiessler, then, without moving his gaze, he pointed towards the silver logo on his chest.
"This," he stressed, "is where our allegiance is."
Aram nodded. Doina straightened up in her seat.
"You are all Europeans," said Jing to them. "The two of you were born in the same country as captain Toma here. A country that is a very valued part of an alliance; an alliance which is currently at war."
"You are one of us. We even speak the same language!" intervened Toma, excitedly. "The people at home would be so thrilled to meet you! You'd be heroes!"
Doina looked at Aram, then at Mark.
"You want us to take your side," she said, quietly, to Tiessler.
"Yes," he answered, simply.
"There is so much we could do for you," Toma went on. "We could reintegrate you with your people. We could give you a purpose, fit with the capabilities of this amazing ship." She pointed at the meal bars on the other table. "We could even fill your stores with actual food," she finished, smiling.
"Now that last part would actually be nice..." said Aram, and when Doina threw him a look, he continued on a monotone: "...but I'm sure we could just trade for food."
Mark smiled, thinly.
"Tell me, colonel. Why do you want us to join you?"
"First off, don't worry about the food; we'd be happy to share with you anyway," he said.
"That," said Mark with sincerity, "is really very graceful of you, and already a nicer gesture than what the Americans did."
"Ah," said Tiessler. "I heard about Gaines. We used to be friends, you know. Went to the academy together, in Colorado."
"Is he fine?" asked Doina.
"He will be," said the German, dryly. That he wasn't necessarily happy about it, he didn't say.
"We are offering your inclusion because it's the right thing to do," said Jing. "It's the normal thing to do. You are Eurasians. We are your future. We're the closest thing you have to home."
"I feel at home with Doi," shrugged the girl.
"But don't you want to see your old home again?" asked Toma.
"My old home has been gone for over a thousand years," she said, again with that maturity that always left Mark impressed. "This is my home, now."
"Mr. Aram?"
The Dacian smiled and brushed a blond strand of hair off his face.
"I'm good here," he said, curtly.
The officers looked at Mark. He returned their gaze, in silence.
Tiessler pointed at their black uniforms and shrugged.
"I'm afraid our friends have formed their own geopolitical entity," he said, softly, to Jing.
The Chinese nodded, coughed and opened a pocket, pulling out his own tablet. He used it for a few seconds, found a document, coughed again, and spoke, officially:
"To the crew of Starship Doi. We, the Heads of State and Government of the Eurasian Union, building on the close and longstanding partnership among the European and Asian Allies, are committed to enhancing security and stability in Earth's immediate outer space. We therefore invite the crew of Starship Doi to join us in this partnership. The Partnership will expand and intensify political and military cooperation throughout said space, increase stability, diminish threats to peace, and build strengthened relationships by promoting the spirit of practical cooperation and commitment to democratic principles that underpin our Alliance."
He looked up at Mark and finished:
"Signed by... and there's a list... well. I don't think you know any of the names."
With a swipe, he sent the document directly to Mark's comm tablet, which beeped in acknowledgment. Its screen lit and the document appeared. Mark took it and read it again, in silence. Doina and Aram looked, too.
"You're offering an alliance with us? The Eurasian Union wishes to ally with a group of three people?"
"You know very well what you're worth," said Jing.
"Nah, tell us," said Aram, with an small, ironic smile. "What are we worth?"
Tiessler sighed.
"I suppose you can't have known, so I'll tell you now."
"What?"
"We have mining stations in the asteroid belt. And so do the Americans. We saw your little but amazing shuttle play target practice with those rocks."
"Oh, my God," whispered Doina.
"Yeah, you could've blasted one of us."
"Or one of them," said Aram.
"Also true."
"I didn't... I mean, I didn't look for people there. And there weren't any ships," said Doina, a small tremble in her voice.
"They were recalled when the war started. Only automated robots remained. Enough to notice your offensive capabilities, and report back."
Mark shook his head and looked at his hands.
"I see," he said, after a while. He hadn't considered that, and he was blaming himself again.
"What we're proposing here is simply that you help us end this bloody war," said captain Toma again.
"By killing Americans until they surrender?" asked Doina.
"No. By siding with us. They've already seen your show of force. Your starship can easily destroy their fleet and probably even ruin their entire country. They would never risk that."
"At the moment, they are technically superior to us," said Jing. "But, with you on our side, the tables will turn."
"The balance will lean towards our side," said the woman.
"The balance will tumble the fuck over and leave a fucking dent in the floor, more like," mumbled Aram, looking elsewhere.
Toma looked at Doina and asked, quietly, in Romanian:
"De ce nu?"
"Because we don't know that you're the victims in this war, that's why not," answered Aram, unceremoniously. "For all we know, you could be the ones who started it."
Tiessler gave a tired smile. Jing sighed, and spoke:
"Over eleven thousand Eurasians died..."
"Justice is not measured in dead bodies," spoke Doina, sternly. The Chinese officer looked at her, then closed his mouth. Her rebuke had been unexpected.
Mark raised his hands placatingly.
"You must understand," he said, looking at the three officers in turn. "All we know about the status quo is what we inferred from the Americans and have been told by you. This ship, as you've had the chance to notice, is... well, rather formidable indeed. If we were to ally ourselves with any side, the other would very likely lose. We do not feel that we have been vested with the right to judge and decide that."
"We'll provide you with documentation," said Toma. "Anything you need. Anything at all. You can judge for yourselves."
"And so could have the Americans," said Mark, "if instead of commander Gaines we'd've met someone more sensible."
"But what if we're telling the truth?" said Jing.
Mark didn't answer.
"We're not giving up the fight, far from it. But the Yanks are much better at this than we are. They have better ships, and more of them. And, honestly, they're pretty damn good at 'kicking ass'." He put his hands on the table. "There's a very good chance that we may lose this war."
"So? It's only some mines," said Aram. "What's the big deal?"
Tiessler pursed his lips and proceeded to remove an nonexistent speck of dust from his sleeve.
"The inclusion, or the alliance, was the first thing we came here to talk about. But, as I've said in the beginning, there's also thing number two."
XXXIX.
"Officially," began the German, "the reason for the war is around the mines. We think it's unfair that Americans demand half, when they do no work at all."
"And they think it's unfair that you demand half, when they're the ones getting you there and back," said Aram.
Jing coughed. "Right." He wasn't about to argue the point.
"You said officially," said Mark.
"Unofficially... well."
Tiessler got up and walked to the other table, and slowly poured himself some water. When he was done drinking it, he turned towards the others and continued:
"Four years ago, two of our mining crews were nearly killed when a mine shaft collapsed on top of them. Fortunately, it was mostly rocks and dirt, and at a sixth the weight, it didn't kill anybody. But the gas pocket which caused the collapse was very odd. It was very odd because it hadn't shown on scans. The investigators have looked at the scan logs, and that particular spot had appeared rock solid when they'd plotted the mine shaft, a few days before. But, at some point, it suddenly sublimated into gas. Into a mixture of gases, really."
He paced around the room, speaking slowly, in measured tones.
"Inside the gas pocket there was a device. A black pyramid, in fact a tetrahedron. Obviously not natural. Its six edges were exactly equal, with atomic precision. And when I say 'atomic precision', I'm talking about the exact number of atoms."
Doina, Mark and Aram were listening with attention.
"They brought it to the surface, and then a funny thing happened."
The colonel was, by now, standing behind them. He stopped, and said no more.
"Would you like to guess what?" asked Jing from across the table.
"Go on," said Mark.
"We were trying to scan it with everything we ha
d," said Tiessler. "But nothing could get inside. We managed to just about weigh and measure it, and that's all. We couldn't even scratch it. And, on the second day, something appeared on the alpha detectors."
"So it was radioactive?" asked Mark.
"No. It wasn't emitting as much as a proton. The alpha, beta and gamma detectors are always detecting background radiation, especially on the Moon, where there's no atmosphere. So, the beta and gamma detectors showed no change, but the alpha detectors did." He stopped again.
"You do like the suspense," said Aram.
"The alpha particles are basically helium nuclei," started the German again. "So they have mass. And they travel in a predictable way. Except they started to become unpredictable, and the detector didn't know what to do. Its software crashed. Our physicists and system programmers went nuts trying to figure out what was wrong with them, especially since they worked perfectly fine once they were back on Earth again." He drew a big breath.
"It took them about a month to figure out what it was. The pyramid was producing incredibly tiny gravity modulations. Enough to affect a single, light helium nucleus. And the modulations had a pattern."
Aram, who had started to get bored because of so many technical terms, was just about to yawn, when he suddenly got it.
"Erm," he started.
"Yes," said Mark, quietly. "I know."
"Yes," said Tiessler, just as quietly. "I thought you might."
"How is this related to the war, colonel?" asked Doina.
"All that to-and-fro caught the attention of the Yanks, who insisted on knowing exactly what they'd been carrying and what we were doing with all that specialised equipment. We told them we'd found some radioactive rocks that broke the detectors, but we couldn't offer any convincing proof, and so they became suspicious."
"Then they found out," said Mark.
"Exactly," said the German. "They found out, because they're probably the most resourceful nation on Earth, and they wanted in."
"By which you mean that they wanted to have it."
"The pyramid that could change gravity? Yes, mister Gardener. They did want it. Especially once they discovered the age of the gas pocket."
"Which was?"
"Older than the solar system. Much, much older."
