by John Zakour
‘‘Why?’’ I asked.
‘‘They haven’t told the general populace,’’ HARV said.
‘‘Humans,’’ Priscilla said with contempt.
I should have thought of that. I rolled my eyes. ‘‘I’m just surprised I didn’t figure that out myself,’’ I told Ona.
Ona sank back a bit and lifted her arms and shrugged. ‘‘Since we couldn’t save most of them, we didn’t want to worry them. We figured their last moments should be peaceful and blissful.’’
‘‘And we didn’t want them rushing our shuttle,’’ Twoa added.
Ona focused on the screen. ‘‘Really, Zach, I doubt it would work.’’
Threa stuck her head back into the picture. ‘‘I bet it would.’’
‘‘We really don’t have anything to lose,’’ I said.
‘‘Speak for yourself,’’ Ona said.
I needed to come up with a way Earth could get their psi population to link in and help without alerting them how close they came to death.
‘‘Tell the people it was a mistake,’’ I said.
‘‘The government doesn’t like to admit to making mistakes,’’ Twoa said.
‘‘Blame it on a computer error,’’ I said.
The three of them smiled. ‘‘Now that we can do!’’ Ona said.
‘‘Great. It’s always the computer’s fault,’’ HARV spat.
‘‘We need to get the SOS out fast,’’ I said.
‘‘Faster than fast,’’ HARV said, getting his processors back on track, ‘‘both missiles are now within four minutes of impact.’’
‘‘We are broadcasting over the PIHI-Pod network now!’’ Ona said.
I turned to my psis. ‘‘Any difference?’’
At first there was more silence, then, ‘‘We have a clearer view now,’’ they all said. In fact, every psi on the planet said it. ‘‘We still can’t stop it. Too much momentum.’’
‘‘Keep working on it,’’ I said.
The minutes passed like seconds. The psis and HARV were each trying to lock on to their targets. It wasn’t easy, but it was all or nothing.
Finally HARV shouted, ‘‘I got it! I got it! I win!’’
I shook my head. ‘‘It’s not a contest HARV.’’
He smiled. ‘‘Of course not; though I’m still glad I won.’’
‘‘Just fire the beam HARV.’’
‘‘Already done,’’ HARV said.
There was silence.
‘‘And?’’
More silence.
‘‘HARV?’’
‘‘The beam didn’t stop it. It has too much momentum. DOS!’’
I turned to the ladies. ‘‘Well?’’
‘‘Same here,’’ Carol said. ‘‘The missile has way too much force to stop.’’
‘‘Then don’t stop it!’’ I shouted. ‘‘Squish it! Swat it! Stomp it! Make it go boom!’’
Elena and Carol both smiled. ‘‘Now that we can do!’’ the said.
‘‘Yes, we can!’’ every psi on the planet said.
‘‘Well?’’ I asked.
‘‘Look up!’’ Every psi on the planet said, pointing upward.
There was a bright yellow flash in the northwestern sky. I smiled. One down, one to go, but we didn’t have much time.
‘‘Okay, psi force,’’ I said with a smile, ‘‘We need you to knock out the other missile, pronto.’’
‘‘We don’t have it locked in yet.’’
‘‘HARV, feed them the coordinates through the PIHI-Pod system for the psis.’’
‘‘On it,’’ HARV said.
I waited. ‘‘Well . . .’’
‘‘Done,’’ HARV said. ‘‘Wow, tech and psi and Earth and Moon working together to save the Moon.’’
‘‘If it works,’’ I said.
Elena smiled. Her smiled rippled across the others. ‘‘That was easy,’’ they all said.
‘‘Then smash it fast!’’ I shouted.
‘‘No need to shout,’’ they all responded.
They all lifted their arms, pointing to the northeastern sky. There was a bigger yellow flash. We were safe.
A roar went out over two planets.
Priscilla looked Electra up then down. ‘‘She doesn’t look like she’s all that,’’ she whispered to me.
‘‘We did it, Tió!’’ Carol shouted, running up to me and then leaping into my arms. She gave me a kiss on the cheek.
‘‘Was there every any doubt?’’ I said.
‘‘Massive amounts of doubt . . . More doubt than even I could calculate,’’ HARV said.
As I put Carol down, Elena came walking up to me. She extended her hand. ‘‘Zach, I am so glad I didn’t kill you the four or five times I considered it.’’
I hugged her. ‘‘You have no idea how many times I’ve heard that.’’
Chapter 43
The next day, Electra and I took the first flight back to Earth. I had spent enough time on the Moon that I couldn’t get off soon enough. Carol, on the other hand, had such a great time linking with her fellow psis that she decided to spend two more weeks on the Moon. Being the good boss I am, I gave her the time, with pay. She and Elena wanted to hang out and see what they could learn from each other. No way I was going to argue with that.
As for Elena, I had a little chat with her before I left. I wasn’t totally certain she didn’t glean any knowledge she shouldn’t have from her cousin Lea’s last moments. Elena guaranteed me that she hadn’t, backing up that statement by noting if she had, she probably would have turned us all into turnips. Of course when I told her for all I know she did turn us into turnips and then turned us back, she laughed uneasily. For now, I had to trust her. Sometimes that’s all you can do. I figured this wouldn’t be the last I saw of Elena. I hoped that was a good thing.
Melda went with us with the intent to turn herself over quietly to the World Council. She confessed to her role in everything that went on. She even admitted that much of HARV’s and my unusual behavior on the Moon was due to her and Lea tweaking our interface. The scientist in her found it fascinating that while HARV did make me much harder to mentally dominate, the interface between us also made us more susceptible to bickering and violence. I told her that due to her role in saving the Earth they would go easy on her. DOS, the World Council might even give her a decoration for playing with my mind. Melda wasn’t sure she deserved leniency after what she did. Having lost her husband and her daughter, though, I figured she had been punished enough.
Shannon Cannon was declared innocent and offered a job as Ona’s bodyguard. Last I heard, she was still pondering the offer as she also had a chance to head her own reality show.
The World Council, in its finite wisdom, decided to make Shara the new Head Administrator of the Moon. They gave her a lot of credit for tipping them off to the Moon’s attack. I figured she was actually as good a choice as any. The really good news was that Priscilla would be acting as her Vice-Administrator. Maurice was to become the Moon’s special spokesape. This was a move to hopefully improve human, psi, and ape relationships. It seemed all sides were trying—finally.
The World Council even promised to strongly consider the Moon’s freedom next year, especially if none of their populace leaked their attack on the Moon. Shockingly, none of them seemed anxious to mention it. I guess there are certainly some advantages to a tight society. Though HARV would note that it wasn’t so much that the society was tight; it was that none of them wanted to cause trouble.
Earthside, the media had gotten a bit of a whiff of an idea that something more was up with the missile launch than a computer error. The John Stewart clone made fun of the entire situation on the Twice-Daily Show, doing a funny little enactment of Nixon blaming a computer glitch for his little Watergate problem.
Fortunately, before the story could really grow legs and run, some celebrity got caught rigging his automated car to drive over the speed limit and was arrested. While the officer, who happened to be an android, was re
ading the star his rights the star began ranting about how androids weren’t really people, and therefore were not fit to guard people. That story then knocked any hint of two worlds almost coming to an end completely out of the news. I don’t even think PBS-net was covering it.
As Earth came into view, Electra must have noticed the smile on my face.
‘‘What’s up, mi amor? You look pensive,’’ she asked.
‘‘Nah, just thinking,’’ I said.
‘‘Ha-ha,’’ HARV said in my brain, and Electra out loud, both unimpressed.
Someday, somebody is going to appreciate that joke.
‘‘Just summing things up,’’ I said to them.
‘‘Ah, the classic end-of-story information dump,’’ HARV said.
I ignored him.
‘‘Good to see Earth again, isn’t it?’’ Electra said.
‘‘I forgot how beautiful it is, in one piece,’’ I said.
‘‘Don’t tell me you were worried,’’ she said.
‘‘They say never let them see you sweat, but trust me, I was. Weren’t you?’’
Electra shook her head and smiled. She touched my hand gently. ‘‘Women don’t sweat. They glow.’’
‘‘So weren’t you glowing like you were radioactive?’’
‘‘Nope,’’ she said with a wry smile.
‘‘You must have been recovering from being frozen.’’
She gave me a little love punch in the arm. ‘‘No, I just have faith in you.’’
‘‘Glad somebody does,’’ I said.
She stroked my arm. ‘‘You did an amazing thing.’’
‘‘Actually the psis, gorillas, and HARV did most of the work. I just kind of managed.’’
Her smile grew. ‘‘You don’t get it, do you?’’
‘‘HARV does accuse me of being rather dense.’’
‘‘Rather dense?’’ HARV mumbled inside my head. ‘‘You make iridium seem fluffy and light.’’
‘‘You got the peoples of the Moon and the Earth to communicate, cooperate, and work together, to stop standing on the sidelines and to save two planets. That’s an amazing accomplishment,’’ Electra said.
‘‘Saving the planets, getting the people to talk and then getting them to do something?’’
‘‘All three, but I’m most amazed about the latter two.’’
‘‘They do say the word processor is mightier than the sword. So I guess communication is the ultimate weapon. We just need to know how to use it—for good.’’
HARV appeared next to us. ‘‘Don’t worry, Zach. As long as you have me by your brain, I’ll be able to help you communicate with the entire world! I guess that makes me the ultimate weapon.’’
‘‘As scary as that may be on some levels, HARV, it’s nice to know that the world’s most advanced, cognitive processor can do something other than balance my checkbook.’’
I smiled as I looked out on Earth growing larger and larger in the window. Yep, it certainly was a nice looking planet. I was going to make sure it stayed that way.
