by Mike Luoma
Damn… I need my head to clear.
BC struggles to get off the shuttle, trying not to look drunk or chemically altered. I’m not messed up! Well, I am, but I’m not on anything.
Everything’s foggy for BC as he gets off the shuttle and half-walks, half-staggers into the spaceport. He almost runs headlong into Anita.
“Woah!” She says.
“I have a headache,” BC tries to explain.
“You look horrible,” Anita tells him.
“Thanks. You look great, too,” he jokes, feebly. “Nice to see you.”
“Wow, lame sarcasm even as your brain is about to leak out of both ears. Impressive,” Anita says.
“I…” BC, trying to talk, ends up wincing as another dagger of pain shoots through his skull.
“You really are bad off,” Anita notes. “Why don’t you come lay down on my ship? It’s parked nearby. We can see if there’s anything we can do for you on board.”
“Sure,” BC weakly agrees.
Just trying to keep my shit together!
“Where is it?” he asks her.
“This way,” she says, grabbing his shoulder and steering him off toward the berth where her ship awaits. She lets go and walks ahead. He struggles to follow her lead, manages to follow her up and into her ship. Or my ship, really. It belongs to The Project, and I’m the CEO, now, after all. Right? Hard to think…
“Where can I lay down?” BC asks Anita once they’re aboard.
“Here,” she says, opening a door in the corridor wall. “Use this stateroom.”
BC half walks, half falls into the room and onto the bed.
… thought these things were done… now two in quick succession!? What the fuck?
BC closes his eyes and tries to sleep. He skips across the surface of sleep like a rock skips across the surface of a still pond, pain swimming behind his eyes. He can hardly think straight as he struggles past the pain.
Suddenly, everything shrinks down to a pinpoint. BC feels still, calm. His world begins to open up and expand. The walls fall away.
What? Where? Where am I?
IN THE CENTER, IN TOUCH WITH THE ALL THAT IS ONE
Oh… sure I am.
BC walks across an infinite ocean, a still, calm sea. The other voice echoes in from nowhere and everywhere, not heard by ears but heard, all the same.
LET THOSE WHO HAVE EARS HEAR
I’m listening…
ARE YOU? ARE YOU REALLY?
What… you doubt me?
I CHALLENGE YOU! QUESTIONS STIR THOUGHTS, ACTIVATE CENTERS WITHIN THE
MIND, OPEN THE MIND, AND CREATE POSSIBILITIES. THE DOORS OPEN. I CHALLENGE
YOU. I HOPE.
So… Who are you supposed to be? Jesus?
I AM… ASSOCIATED ENERGY, LET’S SAY. I’VE TRIED TO EXPLAIN THIS TO YOU BEFORE. HA! BEFORE IS NOT A CONCEPT I’M USUALLY ENCUMBERED BY. I AM JESUS. I AM
ALSO MANY OTHERS, SIMULTANEOUSLY. SOME OPERATE ON YOUR LEVEL, SOME ON
THIS LEVEL. YOU ARE ONE OF VERY FEW THAT HAS AWOKEN. YOU OPERATE ON THIS
LEVEL, BUT OTHERS NEVER AWAKEN.
So. Wait… Are you saying you’re me? That would make sense. This is all in my imagination, or unconscious, really.
IS IT? STRANGE… I’M NOT SAYING THAT I’M YOU… BUT WE ARE ALL ONE.
What… What is happening to me? These headaches? Are they related to… to you?
YOU ARE WAKING UP! AND I AM THE ONLY OTHER AWAKE.
“Awake?” BC asks as he wakes up. The vision and voice are gone.
“You awake?” he hears Anita ask from close by. “How’s your headache?”
“Huh,” BC says, noticing his head has cleared a little. “It’s gone. I’m better.”
“You’ve been out for about three hours,” she tells him.
“Three hours?” BC can’t believe it.
“What?” Anita wonders. “Did it seem longer or shorter?”
“Shorter,” BC tells her. “Bizarre dream. At least my headache is going away. Did you give me anything for it?” he asks her.
“No… We thought it would be better to wait until you came around again. Do you need something?”
“Nah,” he reassures her. “I feel okay now.”
He sits up on the bed and looks around the stateroom. Standard gray walls, blue stripe running around the walls about 3 feet off the ground. Fold down furniture, including the bed he’s laying on. Anita sits about a foot away on a chair folded down from the wall opposite the bed. She leans forward to see how BC’s doing.
Huh... She smells good.
“Are you wearing a new perfume or something?” BC asks her.
“What?” Anita is surprised by his question out of left field.
“You smell good,” he tells her.
Is she blushing? Hard to tell in this low light.
“It’s jasmine, kind of… you like it?”
“Yeah,” BC says. Their eyes meet and lock. “You smell damn good, Anita Capituna,” he tells her. He stretches up off the bed toward her. She leans forward. Their lips meet in a kiss. It’s electric!
Wow! Fuckin’ A… Wow!
BC and Anita kiss for a solid minute before they each realize what they’re doing and pull back, away from each other.
“Um,” she starts to say.
“Don’t,” BC stops her. “Don’t say anything yet.” He looks her in the eyes. She looks away, and then looks back at him.
“Hmmm…” BC says.
“That was…” Anita looks for a word, “Electric!”
BC shakes his head in disbelief at what’s happening, and then realizes Anita might take it the wrong way. He says, quickly, “Yeah it was.”
“Yeah,” Anita says.
“There’s always been something there, though… hasn’t there?” BC asks her. “I mean, even when you were trying to kill me, there was some electricity between us.”
“Oh, you mean like when you were clobbering me over the head with hatch doors?” Anita counters.
“Touché,” BC admits.
The conversation has dispelled some of the magic between them. BC backs off and leans back on the bed as Anita leans back in her chair.
“Let’s not…” Anita starts.
“No, not right now…” BC finishes. Each of them is somehow saying more than they’re actually saying out loud.
“I think I need a little more sleep. To clear my head,” BC says. Anita nods and stands up.
“Good idea,” she says. “I’ll take care of some other things while you rest. If you need me, the com’s right here,” she tells him, indicating the obvious com controls in the wall next to the bed. She looks at BC
again, and then glances away quickly. She ducks quickly out the door. BC settles back down in the bed and lets sleep wash over him.
He wakes up a while later feeling much better, ready to go. He thumbs on the com.
“Anita?” he asks.
“BC?” she answers. “You’re awake?”
“Yeah. But I could use refreshing.”
“There’s a refresher just down the corridor from your stateroom,” she says. “Just take a right when you leave the stateroom, and go in the second door on your right.”
“Great!” BC says, “Thanks!”
BC finds the refresher easily and gets his act together in the small room. When he finishes and leaves the refresher room, Anita is waiting for him.
“You okay to go out in public now?” she asks him. “You don’t want to look too ‘out of it’! I think we got you into the ship here fast enough that no one recognized you, but it’s a long way from the spaceport to the Vatican Mission. You’re bound to be seen, spotted, recognized… We can’t have you looking like crap, right?”
“Thanks for all your concern for my image,” BC says, slightly puzzled by the angle of Anita’s concern.
“Why the PR pep talk?” he asks her.
“Whether you know it or not,” she starts, pauses. “Whether you like it or not, you’re a s
ymbol now, BC. A symbol of strength. The new Pope! Still healthy in the face of the plague! The new leader of The Project, too, and all that entails. It’s important you look good, BC. Don’t you see?”
“I see,” says BC. “Thanks for reminding me. I thought I was traveling incognito?”
“You were traveling incognito,” Anita informs him. But now they know you’re here on Lunar Prime. The media began to report a suspicious absence on your part; until your Vatican people informed them you were coming here, not missing.”
“Missing? Damn,” BC says, realizing he can no longer make a move without someone noticing. Second time they’ve noticed, now. That’s depressing… and oppressive. And Anita’s all business now, none of the closeness we had last night… What gives?
“The governor would like to see you, too,” she informs BC, “Whenever you can fit her into your busy schedule.
“The governor?” BC says, confused for a minute.
“Erskine?” she reminds him. “She wants to see you.”
Is that jealousy I hear?
Nah… can’t be. You have a vivid imagination, BC!
“I should check in with the Vatican, too, back at the Mission,” BC says. He starts to go. Anita looks worried. “I’m okay!” BC insists, trying to reassure her. He straightens his clothes and makes his way off The Project ship.
Once in the spaceport, BC knows his way around. He walks through the port, through the atrium, and down the corridors to the Vatican Mission and the offices he left not long ago. BC smiles as he opens the door and sees his replacement as ambassador sitting at the desk.
“M’Bekke! You old dog, you! How the fuck are you?”
Cardinal M’Bekke smiles, and then frowns. His eyes glance deliberately sideways. BC follows his eyes and sees Amanda Erskine is standing there in the office.
“Sorry, madam governor,” BC says. He regains his composure. “How are you, Governor Erskine?”
“I’m fine,” she says, then stops. “What should I call you?” she asks.
“What? Here, now?” BC asks her. She nods. “BC is still fine. I prefer it, actually.”
“Okay, then BC, ” she says with a little emphasis, “You’re certainly not the usual, um, papal type, are you?”
“Thanks, I think,” BC says, taking it as a left-handed compliment. “Sorry about the ‘F’ bomb,” he apologizes.
“I’ve heard it before,” she says with a laugh. “Not to worry.” She sits down on the couch behind her.
“Come, sit down, BC,” M’Bekke says warmly. “Welcome back.”
“Thanks,” BC says. He sits down.
“Glad to see you’re not ‘missing’, BC,” M’Bekke says.
“I never was,” BC insists.
“Image control,” Governor Erskine says.
“What?” BC asks.
“You need to work on your image control,” Erskine says to BC. “You might want to travel incognito…
but ‘The Pope’ really can’t,” she says. “Can he?”
BC bristles a bit, but takes in what she’s saying. “I did… at least for a little while.”
“Fine, you did,” Erskine says, “but then your absence created a news story. You’ve got to manage your image better, be aware that your actions have consequences,” she explains. “You’ve conducted yourself well when you’ve been in the media spotlight. Good image management there. It’s important to present the image of a young, strong, and healthy leader of the New catholic Church. It plays well.”
“I’ve been trying to be good,” BC says. “I bottle up all my incivility until I can unleash it on my friends,”
he jokes.
“Oh,” she says, “am I a friend, then?”
“I didn’t know you were here,” BC says, a bit more coldly than he means to.
“Ouch,” she says. “How long have we known one another? A couple of years, isn’t it?”
“I guess,” BC says. “Sure. And you weren’t one of McEntyre’s lackeys, were you?” BC asks with subtle sarcasm.
“I was not!” Erskine insists. “Not even from the same party. Simply lieutenant governor to his governor,”
she says, “And now, governor.”
“Governor of Lunar Prime,” BC muses. “That position has a checkered past, you know,” he jokes. “I hear the last one left in some disgrace.”
“You enjoyed that business, didn’t you,” Erskine accuses BC, playfully.
“Yes. Yes, I did,” BC admits with some glee.
Like I should even pretend to feel otherwise! Nothing to apologize for…
“I thought your God was all about love and forgiveness,” she presses BC.
“Touché,” BC agrees.
“It’s time to move on, anyway,” Erskine says. “McEntyre’s the past. I’m all about the future,” she claims.
“We’ve been pretty lucky here on Lunar Prime. Not so many deaths from the plague. But it has passed through here. People have died. It seems to have started here,” she pauses, clears her throat. “That’s why I’m here, actually,” she admits. “I’ve been told you know something about it,” she says, leveling her gaze at BC.
“About what?” BC plays dumb.
“About the plague!” she says with a touch of exasperation. “About how it started. What caused it and why it started here,” she says, getting in BC’s face, “And I want to know just who and what this
‘Project’ you’re suddenly in charge of is. Here on my Moon!”
“Ah… The Project,” BC says, nodding. He doesn’t say any more.
“Well?” Erskine says, finally, when BC doesn’t continue, exasperated with his silence.
“Where do I begin?” BC asks rhetorically. “M’Bekke, what have you been telling the governor here?”
“Nothing, BC!” M’Bekke protests. “She’s been persistent, yes, but she’s been told nothing you wouldn’t want her to know, BC,” M’Bekke says, shaking his head.
Erskine clears her throat.
“What?” BC asks.
“I’m getting kinda pissed off here, boys!” she says sternly. “I don’t care how ‘holy’ you folks are! Cute is cute. But there is too much shit going on for me to just ignore it. So don’t patronize me!”
“I’m sorry,” BC apologizes. “We need your help, Amanda. We need allies. I’ll tell you what I can, governor. Let me fill you in on a bigger picture than I used to know existed.”
Where to begin? And what to say?
“The Project,” BC begins, “is a UTZ subsidiary. The Project developed the Transpace Drive for the UTZ military. Once the military got to Mars, they left the Project alone. But The Project kept going, first on its base here on the Moon, later out at an undisclosed base in the Asteroids. I’ve just been named CEO of The Project, replacing the recently deceased Van Kilner, who had been in charge of The Project since its inception.”
“Van Kilner? The scientist?” Erskine says in surprise, “My God, he must have been a hundred or something! He must have been ancient!”
“He was,” BC admits, “and living in low gravity out in the asteroids.”
“Right,” Erskine says, but she’s shaking her head. “But we haven’t gone past Mars!”
“The Project has. Van Kilner lived in the asteroids, on a secret base. It’s a nice place, I’ve been out there,” BC tells her.
“So… we really have been out past Mars?” she asks him.
“We have,” BC assures her.
“Then how come no one’s heard about it?” she protests.
“They’ve been vewy quiet about it,” BC says, in an Elmer Fudd voice.
“Don’t mock me!” Erskine chastises him.
“I’m sorry,” BC says. “Look, I didn’t learn about all this until just about a week ago. I’m just trying to keep this, um, light, you know?”
“Go on,” she says, calming down.
“Evidently, once The Project developed Transpace ships for the UTZ military to use to get to Mars, the UTZ military left them alone.
They stayed under the radar after that, but kept developing the Transpace technology. They headed out to the asteroids to keep working unseen and unmonitored by the UTZ. They’ve been going back out there ever since,” BC says. “Even the UTZ council had lost track of them. When I told the UTZ council about The Project, they had no idea what I was talking about… which I used to my advantage to get them to name me the CEO of The Project. They didn’t have much choice,”
BC says with a chuckle.
“Nice,” she says. “Go on.”
“The Project base was here on the Moon,” BC says. “But now the asteroid base is their main base of operations. They do still maintain their base here as a small outpost… right under your nose, as a matter of fact. They’re still here,” BC tells her.
“What, The Project?” she asks incredulously.
“Yes, The Project,” BC tells her. “You must know about the UTZ base on the other side of the Moon?”
“That? I didn’t think it was used much, if at all,” she admits. “An old frontier survey lab.”
“They keep a low profile,” BC tells her.
“What? That’s ‘The Project’?”
“Yup,” BC confirms it. “They still work out of there. Have you ever heard of ‘flashers’?” BC asks her.
“Flashers?” she asks. “Sure. Everyone has. Superstition at work! Alien myths, legends…”
“Not exactly,” BC informs her. “Not quite. Those flashers are Project ships. Using adapted alien technology.”
“Alien tech?” She’s taken aback.
“Alien,” BC assures her. “The Project’s been in contact with alien races. Worked with a couple of them. Adapted some of their technology. The Flashers are us.”
“Really? So they’re real?” she asks.
“They’re real,” he insists, reinforcing it. “And I know of at least three alien races we, or The Project, has been in touch with.
“There are The Domo… according to the Project, they’re kind of like Vampires, but they have helped us. Then there’s the Flaze; they look a lot like the classic UFO aliens, but they’re quiet, keep more to themselves than the Domo.
“The Eldred I don’t know that much about,” BC pauses, “well, except that they probably brought the plague to the Moon.”
