by Randy Moffat
Qing Li shrugged and mumbled a final Chinese curse to himself. He would eschew violence and shift over to his long range plans. Humans, especially violent humans were too inefficient and capable of error. He would depend on technology instead. Technology was engineering—cut and dried. Technological fallibility could be reduced exponentially and errors removed in ways that could not be done with people. If designed and tested properly technology could be made to work. Qing Li smiled. He was an engineer at heart. He would stick to what he understood. It would take time, but another chance would come for him at a later time.
It was a very Chinese thought for someone as American as he was.
The TESS steamroller drove on despite the attack. Bear had taken to seeing groups of persons who were paying TESS’ bills instead of individuals. It was easier than one at a time—there were now 47 nations who recognized TESS as a potentially cheap date compared to a full up space program of their own. Another dozen countries were pending. Today his coordination meeting was with the representatives of the United Kingdom, the United States, Mexico, and Chad for a strictly enforced one hour meeting. Without the time limit they would ramble on and wander all over the map of their imaginations forever. With the time limit all Bear had to do was glance at his watch and they came right to the point.
TESS and its four clients were sitting around a big redwood conference table in a newly added ‘quiet’ room attached to the old concrete entrance to the Anglewood Cave complex. It was a temporary measure even at that. O’Hara was working on the construction of multistory headquarters buildings at Anglewood to be opened in 10 Months time. It was not well known, but she was also building a backup facility at Ulan Bator and was in final negotiations for a small island called Ua Fao in the Marquesas where they would put another as redundant backup. The islanders really liked the idea of having a free satellite to go with their dugout canoes.
Outsiders were still not allowed into the actual bat cave portion of Anglewood as a matter of security, but the official representatives of paying customers could at least come this far inside the wire—it was becoming fashionably sexy to get this close to TESS’ secrets . . . just beside the front door as it were. Q-Kink called it ‘The cloak room’ with a certain irony.
There was a certain sameness to the meetings now. Most of the nations had the same questions though the verbiage was different. The question was always, ‘When could they expect to get a return on their investment in TESS?’
Bear looked at them all. They all knew that TESS had been to Mars several times now. TESS had taken to distributing video to all the media outlets to make sure they were aware of the exciting things TESS was doing and their public relations firm was measuring international interest daily to make sure it was kept up. Everyone wanted in. The US representative looked especially dour today, he was a former NASA man and not so secretly hated that the MacMoran drive had been allowed to slip from national control. NASA had been planning a multi-zillion dollar mission to Mars for more than a decade that would have taken years to build, taken more years to execute, and employed half the Southern United states in doing it. Instead, TESS could hop to and from Mars in less than a day. Their budget was a joke next to NASA’s and not all of the money went to Americans. The view from NASA was that the US space program was rapidly becoming extinct and now stood hat in hand waiting for TESS to fulfill its commitments. It pissed them off.
Their hat may have been in their hands, but their position in line could not have been better if they had slept in a sleeping bag on the sidewalk outside the ticket office for three days. The US had been the first to publically support TESS financially, and therefore had first mission rights. What drove them to this meeting and slightly crazy was that TESS had yet to perform a single mission for anyone other than TESS and some of the original customers were getting tired to hearing the party line used again and again. The propaganda record the public affairs turntable played kept repeating that TESS was still testing equipment and concerns for human and passenger safety were its first priority. Nor was that message a complete lie from an organization whose flagship leaked atmosphere like a sieve. Bear could personally speak on the topic of safety with great conviction, using the visual image that the SS Gaia was more appropriate for straining pasta than holding air. Still, even TESS’ excuses became stale and repetitive the more often they were necessarily repeated and signs of restlessness had begun to creep into meetings with customers who had come around more than twice. The Mexican was only marginally behind the US representative in being a little ticked off. The Brit was too, but he was polite about it as only the British can be when they set their minds to it. Chad was the exception. They had only just signed on and come up with the cash ten days before. This was the Honorable Mr. Amir’s first meeting and he looked around dreamily. Chad in space was his political motto and he was looking at the doorway to his dream.
Bear looked around at the faces again tiredly. It was his fourth meeting today and the twelfth this week. Mentally he had taken to calling the people at these meetings by their country. It was awkward, but not nearly as awkward as trying to remember all their names.
“Gentlemen . . .” Bear began. “You are a challenge to me. The real problem I am facing now is the various sizes and the astonishing variety of requirements surrounding your missions. As you understand, TESS is essentially the transporter here. It is still a national requirement that each country develops and builds payloads themselves and the requirements list each of you has provided me are widely different. For example, the United States desires initial transport for . . .” He scanned a list in front of him. “An entire lunar colony of a dozen buildings, associated supplies and material, and repeated resupply missions over some years. Chad on the other hand has made initially modest requests that essentially deploy two satellites in geosynchronous orbit over Chad.”
He smiled at Chad, but US-guy interrupted him.
“Mr. MacMoran . . .” It was a calculated slight that he thought better of with a flicker of his eyes over Bear’s uniform. “Excuse me, Admiral MacMoran. We cannot possibly proceed with payload design until you provide us with transport space specifications. I do not understand why it is taking so long. The taxpayers of the United States deserve . . .”
Bear did not get to find out more about the impatience of the US taxpayers because the taxpayers of Mexico interrupted them.
“Admiral!” Said Mexico. “I understand we are 19th in the line for movement, but I am under increasing pressure at home to . . .”
Bear held up his hand and glanced at her majesty’s representative of Great Britain—number 4 in the TESS queue. He was looking politely bored as usual, but Bear knew he was sharp as a tack when it came to the mercantile commitments of her Majesty’s empire.
“Gentlemen!” Bear interrupted the Mexican people by pushing the firmly forestalling hand forward. “I think I can save you all some pain and comments if I simply tell you that TESS would like to inform you that as of today we are ready to begin transport missions for those nations who support us. I apologize for not saying so earlier.” An apology cost him nothing and he was not humbled by it. A lesson he had learned early.
That caught them by surprise and they all stared at him like a two headed Janus while he handed them a two sided sheet of paper. “On this paper you will find a specification of the cargo capacity of the SS Gaia. As you can see she has three cargo holds. I should make it clear that they are external to the hull. They are unpressurized and currently only marginally heated to about 5 to 10 degrees Celsius while in space. We use solar energy to heat them with blankets, but the system is new and while we have tested it, like anything so new it may be subject to unexpected failure. I therefore recommend you make your loads moveable at temperatures that match those of space in case there are any problems with the heat during transit. TESS cannot be responsible for any damage if you do not. In addition, for the time being we are
limiting movements to areas of the solar system between Mars, Venus and their satellites. Additional missions will be available later for movements further in and out system, but we are still feeling our way with the ship and its systems and do now want to risk missions that go further until we have more time to perfect our equipment . . . or that we have the ability to field more ships.”
It rolled off his tongue glibly by this time, but he need not have bothered.
He had already taken their breath away for a moment. It was the first time they had ever heard anyone talk casually about going to two other alien planets and the enormity of what he had just said sank in only slowly. Even the NASA guy thought it was pretty cool. They were all sitting and staring blindly at the pieces of paper in their hands. They had gotten used to coming back empty-handed and were all busily retrenching mentally around the reality of TESS actually moving some materiel for them. That time was suddenly at hand and equally suddenly they had to get off their own dimes.
It was Mexico, a former NAFTA negotiator that spotted the obvious.
“Admiral . . .”He had a charming Spanish accent. “These are the dimensions of an 18 Wheeler tractor trailer!”
Bear smiled encouragingly at him.
“Exactly! As the representative from the Republic of Mexico points out these are the dimensions of North American tractor trailers because that is precisely what we have just finished welding to the outer hull of the Gaia—Three trailers to be exact; two abaft the water tanks at the stern and one at the bow. If you will please build and measure your loads to fit inside those specific dimensions we would appreciate it. In addition, we have a weight limitation that is annotated on the back of the sheet as well as weight and balance requirements that out loadmaster . . . but you can see all that. The overall weight limit is strictly planetary because we will load the boat in the water on Earth and can only afford so much weight while buoyant in the water. We can certainly move more weight if you choose to load in orbit instead.”
It was an empty promise.
Only Russia and the US had the slightest chance of putting enough of a load in orbit on their own and the whole point of hiring TESS was to save that cost. Bear drove on.
“I should reiterate that we will be loading them at sea so we recommend you bring them on a boat with a derrick or crane capable of lifting them in a maximum of a two foot swell and swinging them to the mouth of the container. The reach required on the crane is on table 1. Water proofing is recommended as the trailers tend to take on water from spray and waves; especially when the weight goes aboard. We have installed winches to pull loads into the containers, and others to pull them out. I would also like to remind you that we cannot yet agree to land anywhere on the surface of any other planet than Earth. The Gaia is not rigged for it yet. Your loads will be placed in orbit where it pleases you, but you will still be required to move the loads from orbit to the surface of a planet or planetoid like Luna or Mars.” The NASA man smiled at that. He might still have a job after all if only in building orbital approach vehicles.
Bear went on.
“Obviously this is a much easier for you to solve than leaving Earth’s gravity field. Falling into a gravity well is much simpler problem than climbing out of one. I should alos point out that we can however offer you very close approach to most low gravity bodies—the moons of Mars for example. By ‘close approach’, I mean a few feet off the deck as it were. We can drop out of driven flight, offload in a few minutes, and then reapply the drive before the minor gravity of such a small body can pull us in. Unfortunately, a planetary mass with greater gravity would pull the ship down to its surface once the Petrovski effect is annulled. The ability to land even on planets may come in time once security on Earth is better and TESS can get to a yard for the necessary modifications . . . in safety.” It was a not so subtle dig at the countries who had not been able to protect TESS facilities and the ship fully. So far, the remark was a solid poke in the ribs of the United States, but the lunatic and his vest full of explosives had been part of a larger global problem and in his own way Bear was enlisting their enlightened self interest. Perhaps their influence with their own security and counter-espionage operations might bear later fruit. They all knew the distant whiff of blackmail like good bureaucrats. The Brit even sniffed. “Good news. At some near future date soon, we hope to have a loading boat specially built for the ocean transport and lifting tasks and it should be available at a modest rental cost, for those nations which do not possess naval instruments of the quality of the United States, United Kingdom, and the Republic of Mexico.” He smiled at Chad who smiled freely back as only a land locked nation could to such a comment.
Bear figured he still had some months to go before movement work would be required. The bureaucratic inertia of the leading nations implied a wait of at least that long.
He was wrong, as he had been about so many things.
“Your cousin Murray?” Bear demanded skeptically of Craig. “You seriously want to put your cousin Murray in charge of my counter espionage effort? This sound like a bad farce . . .” Bear said.
Craig shrugged.
“He’s a smart guy . . . used to work as a G2 in a reserve unit. Talks real perty too. I ain’t never heard anyone who could analyze things as clear as him. Figure he might have contacts in the US government that can lead to contacts in other governments that can lead to contacts . . . you get the idea. We . . . TESS . . . need an international effort. Murray may be the guy to kick start it.”
Bear looked like he had bitten a lemon. It was too early in TESS history to make nepotism the staffing method. Still, there was a certain Kharmitic smack in the face in hiring a cracker cousin named Murray of a caveman to try and find desperately evil people who wished TESS less than well. Talk about low profile. It was the kind of name that ran a delicatessen, not a counter espionage service. Besides, he owed Craig a shot at least.
He shrugged.
“Call him. I will talk to him. Tell him tomorrow.”
“Where?”
“Where’s he live?”
“Next to some town in upstate Illinois called Antioch.”
By a miracle Bear knew where that was. His car had broken down there once and he had been stranded there for two days waiting for a part to filter up by osmosis from Chicago. They had a really big Walmart . . . over the city father’s dead bodies. He made a mental note never to build one on any other planet . . . ever.
“Perfect, I was going to Chi town tomorrow anyway. Tell him we will meet him opposite the something-or other giant mall just down the road in Gurnee. He’s bound to know the name. The Panera bread place has good coffee. I can reserve a meeting room there for free. Who the hell will look for TESS’ new espionage unit in a Panera Coffee shop over genteel pastries and latte?”
Craig looked at him like he was spooky or magical. How could any human know the remote area in Northern Illinois that well without even looking at Google maps on his cell?
“OK.” He said slowly, as if favoring the spirits to avoid bad Juju.
“Tell him 1400 . . . we’ll miss the lunch crowd.”
Craig grunted.
“Unless we can get him to wear a carnation you better come with me so I will recognize . . . uh . . . our . . . Murray.”
Craig grunted again.
It was a good thing he brought Craig along for the ID. Murray outward appearance was eminently forgettable and Bear would have certainly overlooked him altogether if only in embarrassment. His socks did not match and his shirt had coffee stains on it in two places, one just where the swell of his big gut stretched the material against two mis-buttoned shirt buttons and hung over a badly worn belt buckle. He wasn’t expecting much capability from the guy anyway and had planned a recruiting junket around his real objective of recruiting physics personnel from three universities throughout Chicagoland. After a half hour
with Murray he had brushed them off. The quick initial visual impression of Murray suggested that the acquaintance would digress wholly into a courtesy to Craig in five minutes. It came as a surprise then when it turned out Murray was their guy. You could have knocked Bear over with a feather—so much for looks as an actual measure of a man.
Murray’s apparently casual approach to hygiene made you want to sit farther away. What he came out of his mouth ended up making Bear lean close instead. The raw exterior concealed a first class mind. Murray knew a lot and rattled it off while Bear went and refilled his coffee several times. Bear liked what he was hearing so much he bought him Bear Claws without a trace of irony and listened intently. During the trips for fluids he thought about what he heard. The part that really stood out was that Murray knew lots of people; lots and lots of people actually. He got over two hundred e-mails a day and 500 tweets from the whole world and actually read them. One contact who rocked Bear was Bear’s old battalion S-2 who was now a Divisional G-2 in the US army and one of the most reticent and uncommunicative intelligence bastards Bear had ever met. If Murray was to be believed, that particular clam stood with open maw when talking to Murray. Murray rambled on and what astonished Bear was not only what people revealed to him, but how much Murray was able to read from between classified lines too. He would then access his encyclopedic mind and paint accurate wiring diagrams of units, strengths and motions with a casualness that astonished. He could make more from cryptic greetings than anyone Bear had ever met. For example the message, ‘Murray Baby, Just saw John for half a day, helped his guys out over in Qatar. He is pissed, short Lieutenants as usual and hurting in 76 dudes. Doing the usual boring shit here in U town. Have a good one, Al.’ From that Murray clarified that ‘John’ was part of the 3rd of the 95th MI battalion, which was part of the 2nd Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division, and was enroute to supplement the 895th MI detachment with additional capabilities because their abilities to analyze intelligence and even generate it was limited. The ‘76 dudes’ were military occupational specialty personnel who handled telemetry for unmanned aerial systems. The ‘short Lieutenants’ Murray explained casually he interpreted to mean a 50% shortage in key junior officers and probably the same in senior officers. The correspondent was a supply officer at Udari, the ‘U Town’ in the message, who was making sure that their basic load list of equipment and Military Table of Organization and Equipment were up to speed. The fact that they were ‘helping’ the 3-95 meant several things . . . the MI guys were shorthanded in troops as well as equipment. Their experience and training was low, and that they had left the US short of supplies and equipment that were therefore reflective of similar shortages for all deploying units. This equipment consisted of . . . well . . . etcetera. The whole display of interpretation just went on and on. After that it went on some more. It was scary. Murray outlined the equipment and personnel shortages, inter-relationships, and morale of that unit, its subordinates, superiors and lateral units based on just a few casual lines of text. Bear let him have his head for almost an hour and he never stopped. By the time Bear held up his hands in surrender he had a working picture of current US, British, French, Russian and Indian military operations overall, and detailed analysis of several small units. He asked about the Chinese which started Murray up again like a YouTube video whose resume button has just been clicked and gushed out a non-stop look at the Chinese People’s Army. Bear was convinced and doubted the Chinese people knew exactly what their army was up to with anything like this kind of precision. Murray did. Bear stopped him and asked him if he had anything on civilian organizations seeking intelligence in the West which got him an education in the Intelligence networks of at least three nations, before he looked at his watch and stopped him for the third time.
