by Randy Moffat
“Admiral MacMoran!” The reporter was squirming up and down like a Joey just out of the pouch. Her calisthenics were not so remarkable as she was now in the center of a crowd of similar kangaroos. He would have had trouble picking her from that mob but she had removed her jacket in the heat of tight packed bodies and the bouncing up and down generated a study in counter rotating spheres that would have caused a dead man to point at her. Bear pointed. The rest of the reporters hushed to listen—pens at the ready. “Admiral!” She repeated, which was confusing with two admirals in close vicinity. “What is the mission of TESS? Can you tell us what mission statement you have adopted?”
Bear rolled back slightly on his heels.
“A great question!” He obfuscated, beaming around at the multitudes to buy time while his tired brain cells tried to catch up. “The mission of TESS is very simple really. It is . . .” He waited for the breath of a second desperate for inspiration and it came as from a hidden oratorical portion of his cranial lobes where a little switch clicked from zero to one and the accumulated wisdom of decades of space entertainment programs began to pour out. “The Mission of TESS to take mankind to the next level—to move man to his rightful place in the heavens themselves! TESS is intended to take all of humankind from this place that is home and go out to discover the outer edges of this universe . . . wherever they may be. The Terran Exploratory Space Service mission is in its name—To explore and expand the sphere of man beyond the tiny pinpoint of this mother world buried in an arm of the galaxy and let us discover the true potential of the race of man throughout space! TESS holds this sacred mission, not for any nation, but for all the people of the planet Earth.” He looked around, assuming all reporters were cynics and was mildly surprised to see only a few looking openly critical or sneering. Many were actively scribbling notes while almost all were actually listening carefully. A few were even nodding. It was great copy after all. Sensing that the opportunity was ripe enough to suppress headlines of murders and scandals with TESS’ own big print he pressed his advantage. “The men and women of TESS will be hand selected by my command to represent every corner of the globe . . . every culture, every color, every heart and every dream . . . the best and the brightest this old world has while we look for new ones. While TESS tries to find . . . new shores for Mankind to tread upon.” He was reaching now for more glowing verbiage. “We will explore all of space in time and spread the dream of humanity outward wherever the explorers go and whatever the difficulties!” Hints of Shakleton should get the adventurous sprits interested. “I also must make it clear that any nation . . . that is ANY nation . . .” They would make a banner headline out of that! “. . . any nation who contributes to TESS economically will later have access to transport on TESS ships for scientific and colonization purposes.” It was a veiled appeal for funds dressed in a utopian tuxedo. “As soon as our first ships are completed and tested for safety the solar system is open for all of us! Next stop—The stars!” Truly at a loss by that time, he assumed a stance with his feet apart and gestured grandly, his arms open as if to give away outer space itself and turned his eyes on the heavens represented by the klege spotlights on the ceiling if only to avoid looking at the reporters any more. He certainly did not want to imply he was ready for more questions. He was startled to hear scattered applause start spontaneously all over the room. It was the last thing he expected from hardened cynics of the forth estate, but he knew one thing about the stage—Once the audience is clapping, exit quickly, before they got bored and pulled out rotten fruit instead.
“Thank you ladies and gentlemen.” He said abruptly sounding as grateful as possible, mostly because he was grateful it was over. He smiled his best smile which was actually pretty good, one of his best features. “I invite you all to join TESS in this grand adventure.” Bear stepped decisively away from the microphone as a clear signal to the press that he was finished and to avoid further harassment. Not that they took the hint as the whole crowd of them started shouting before he had gone six inches. He stood like a statue beside Admiral Dyer resolved to shut the hell up. The President, who was only too glad to get back into the limelight, stepped up and began improvising again, lots of vague answers to lots of specific questions mostly somehow ending with the words ‘liberty’ and ‘justice,’ clearly his speechwriter’s theme for the week The two admirals, new and old stood there for perhaps three minutes of the repetitive nonsense until Dyer whispered out of the side of his mouth that they had done their bit for the cameras. He and Bear came to attention, pivoted in a military manner together and walked off stage without asking anyone for permission yet again. Bear did not need to actually, he was he realized extraterritorial now.
With continuing military efficiency Dyer had a car with shaded windows waiting. They jumped in and it whizzed them towards the airport which in Washington traffic meant that they occasionally went a whole block without stopping.
Bear was emotionally drained which left him so close to exhaustion that he could not tell the difference. He slumped in his seat.
“You realize you have made a lot of enemies today?” Dyer asked.
Bear pulled his lower lip.
“How bad is it?” He asked.
Dyer grinned at him, clearly pleased with his company. Bear did not squirm or argue, he accepted and analyzed a way out.
“As a minimum, all the intelligence services are gonna grab onto your ass ASAP. My guess is that agents from around the world are going to be put on you and your team like crazy glue in less than 48 hours. This extraterritorial thing works both ways, Bear.” MacMoran was startled to hear his nickname. Dyer had never used it before. “You have given up US sponsorship and in doing that, you have also shifted from an asset that was under US protection to one that is currently hiding something from the country that paid for it. Senator Blowhard and his whacky fellow theists and nut-ball fellow travelers will be mobilizing their forces to suppress the drive and to bad mouth you. The good Senator is personally an idiot but he represents some very savvy people who understand power when they see it and will want their hands on the node that controls it. Failing control of it they will at least try to neutralize any opposing nodes being in control. That’s you. They will start in sweating me tonight so I am going make myself scarce for a while, but I cannot avoid them for too long. I still work for the United States and they will eventually get to someone who will order me to answer questions. They will know in twenty eight hours or so that I do not have the drive’s technical data.”
“But . . .” Bear opened his mouth in negation.
“Oh . . . I know you think you sent me the data, but strangely enough when I went to look for it had been deleted . . . along with all the backups. The only copies that exist now are your copies. Still, I can keep some things secret, but not everything. Once they figure out I am a dead end, they will turn and come straight after you. You better be as ready as you can make yourself within that time.”
Bear smiled.
“I figured it would be something like that.” He hesitated. “Lee . . .” He savored the use of Dyer’s first name too—its time had come. “You were great today. I realize that you are the bone they will gnaw on for a while and appreciate how much the teeth marks will hurt . . . I appreciate everything you have done. I am worried you will actually be done in by this.” He waved his hand ineffectually in the direction of the world.
Dyer leaned back and smiled. He looked touched.
“Thanks . . . for worrying, but they won’t get me, kid. I outlast all the administrations and their admonishing ministrations. They need me too badly and I have a lot of cards in my hand. They will spank me for a while, but it won’t come to much. In the end though they will comprehend that you are the final team on the field—the one they will have to score against. Stay on the high ground and keep you head up, you just might spot them coming by the way the grass moves as they slither closer and closer!”
Bear smiled crookedly, really liking Dyer at that moment.
“. . . If you ever quit working for the US you’ve got my number.”
Dyer nodded with a crooked grin and handed him the car phone.
“I think you can use this. My team checks for bugs every day and we sprang this one on them pretty quick so I doubt they’ve had a chance to get down to serious wire-tapping. It is scrambled and may be the last phone you can trust for a while.”
Bear held onto it gratefully and made some calls.
CHAPTER 13—TESS TAKES OFF
He took a plane to Chicago and then bought a hurried ticket to Kansas City. There was little profit in hiding his movements; speed was the essence of the thing now.
He got to the airport and was surprised when it was Caveman Craig who met him in a rental SUV with another of his rent-a-cops. There was a shotgun on the dash and Craig cradled another in the back seat.
Bear turned and smiled gently at him.
“Thanks for coming, Caveman.” Craig was well aware of his nickname and gossip said he reveled in it. “. . . What’s with the club?” Bear said nodding at the 12 gauge.
Craig grunted—the universal acknowledgement of the Paleolithic.
Bear braced himself on the door as the other rent a cop pulled abruptly out into traffic with a screech that rocked the car and Bear glanced at his mirror. He realized that another vehicle had pulled out immediately after them. Craig had brought backup, just like a real body guard. Craig looked at him carefully between the front seats.
“Heard your speech . . .” The old man said.
Beat continued to regard him, not used to open statements from their prince of taciturnity.
“What did you think?”
Craig grunted gave a single nod.
“Got me all worked up.”Bear thought about that as Craig clammed up and they drove on in silence.
Later Bear stood in front of the hastily assembled Q-Kink team knowing this was a fight he needed to win too. They were seated in the cafeteria again and Bear had dismissed the cooks and locked the doors.
They all looked up at him expectantly. He studied their faces with affection. He knew them all now, loved some of them liked most of them and had a grudging respect for the rest. About as good as it gets in a group of humans. He saw encouragement on Maureen’s face and took a curious strength from that. It gave him a feeling of being alive and that life infused his words.
“All right, you lot . . .” He began. They were team mates . . . formality was not required. Several were grinning already. “First thing—your salaries are immediately doubled.” There was a ragged cheer and much back patting.
Several clapped, pleased to be wealthier, but it was Baxter who bit.
“How come, Sir?”
“I’ll answer you in a moment, before I go any further here, I want you to very clear on something though . . . as of my little speech this morning in Washington, none of you are primarily citizens of the United States anymore—or more correctly, none of you are only citizens of the US anymore. You are instead citizens of TESS and TESS is an extraterritorial agency that is bigger than the United States . . . .” Their attention was caught. Jeeter and Pinta were looking particularly dour as it sunk in. Gaston too had fought hard to get his US citizenship in the past and looked dubious. Bear pressed on. “I want to be very clear. The social contract between us has changed. Yesterday you were soldiers and citizens of a nation and all your paperwork was in order. Now you are soldiers and citizens of an organization that is outside of any nation . . . above all national interests. If you buy into this you are buying into being a citizen of the whole damn planet instead of a corner of it. In short, I spoke for all of you yesterday. It was something I had no right to do, but I was improvising at the time and had to make decisions quickly. You do not have to go along with it. The purpose of this shindig is to ask you point blank if you want in. This is the bottom floor of a world shaking future, but we have to settle this here, settle it now and settle it decisively!” He chopped a hand downward as if to knock the concept out with deft Karate. “I am not apologizing. I did not step out of here three days ago to construct a super-territorial, extraterrestrial organization. Nor will I lie . . . this thing is full of all kinds of hazards for you but my decision is in the past. I cannot change the past. I also make damn few promises about the future of this thing, but I can tell you this . . . it will be exciting. Understand . . .” He held up a cautionary finger. “. . . excitement comes in all forms, this may be the kind of excitement you get on Space Mountain at Disneyland, but it could just as easily be like the kind of excitement you get when the cliff crumbles out from under your feet and you are hanging by tree root over a chasm and that little bit of rootstock is all that’s between your living and dying on the cold hard dark rocks below . . .”
They looked properly serious if only in respect for a rotten simile.
“What I need now is your help. I am asking for it. You will help TESS by remaining loyal to it. To be loyal to TESS is to recognize that TESS, whatever she becomes, will emphatically not be the United States of America. I cannot in conscience pussy foot around that. I am asking you to blow off the Red, White, and Blue off and take on the black, white or grey of the space service. This is not something you can or should do lightly. It will be the weightiest decision of your life. I want it to be weighty, because we are deciding your future and the future of a very new thing at the same time. This thing of ours . . . . This . . . this . . .” He waved his hand randomly, out of words. “This Cosa Nostra of cosmonauts. I want it to be something you will have to search your soul about. The pay will be good . . .” That brought a couple tentative smiles. “. . . But this ain’t about money. From what I know about you, you are anything but mercenaries . . . I hope.” He was looking at Aziz pointedly. “We all more or less blundered into Q-Kink. From this point on though, you must actively decide if you want to stay under the condition that you are going nation-less. If you do not chose to renounce your old ties, I will ask you to leave us tonight with no hard feelings . . . a bit of bonus severance pay and a pat on the back. Hell, I’ll even give you a beautifully printed certificate of appreciation on behalf of the siblinghood still wet from my printer. I want you to think, think twice and then think really hard again because once you make the decision, I do not want you ever to come back later and say that you have second thoughts. There can be none! Ever!” He finished his portentous introduction with a verbal flourish.
There was dead silence now. The faces were suitably grim. They knew the bastard was obviously serious.
Bear smiled.
“I can give you lots of time too . . . one hour. Take that hour to think this over and talk to each other, but at the end of the hour, I will ask each of you to stand up and state publicly to the group that you are in or out. Now! I will not minimize the risks here so pay attention. In the next few hours every intelligence service on this planet will be trying to access and gain information on the Petrovski effect and its associated technical data. I will not screw around and try to fool you; one of the nations whose intelligence services will seek the data is that of the United States of America. Whether the service belongs to your former country or that of any other, by signing on with TESS you are signing on with . . . well . . . with the faces in this room and rejecting any overture from anyone outside of this group. Ever!”
Most glanced around involuntarily seeing the circle of faces in a new light that had nothing to do with ambient candlepower.
Bear finished.
“The way ahead is pretty clear to me. As I see it these spies will initially try to take the easy route. This means they will see if they can steal it. Mr. Van Zeigler, Mr. Craig and I will do everything we can to prevent that by locking up the data in our machines and physically preventing access to the caves. You must do so too. If they cannot steal it physic
ally, they will want to get their hands on the data through other means instead. That means they will approach you using a perceived weakness to try and lever it out of you. They will try money first which is why I raised you salaries; I want you to feel free to resist money as a form of leverage. If they cannot bribe you then they will try another route which is usually sex or dope or something worse like . . . sex under the influence of dope.” Someone tittered. “If they fail at bribing you and seducing you, then they will threaten you with blackmail. If you feel there is some social stigma you carry, I want you to know right now that TESS will have no rules about it. I don’t care if you sleep with goats and corpses there is nothing in your background right now that will make you susceptible to coercion here in this room if it happened previously. I don’t care if they have movies of you quoting the bible while snorting magic mushrooms, reading Das Capital, and dressed in SS lingerie . . . Nothing will sway us if you come clean now . . . Understand?” They nodded dumbly, trees in the wind of his reasoning now. They were all thinking furiously about past naughtiness, wondering if it was worth mentioning. He had obviously thought this through more than they. “Once they exhaust themselves trying to turn you around personally and fail, then they will look very hard at your external levers . . . other people who can influence you like your family, lovers and friends. If you have family members who are somehow vulnerable to coercion economically, socially or otherwise, you should warn them and you must air it with Mr. Craig and myself in private. I need to be very clear on that. They will stop at nothing so there is some risk to your loved ones. Once the intel services figure out that Q-Kink is resisting normal means of acquiring what they want then they will decide it is worth any desperate measure on their part—that is when it will likely get really ugly.
