by Dietmar Wehr
“Iceman, are you there?” Iceman’s response filled the entire room via the wall speakers.
“Ah, roger that, Admiral. TF91 is ready to leave orbit when you give the word.”
“Very good, Iceman. Admiral Howard is standing here beside me and I’m authorizing him to give the departure order. Admiral?”
“Thank you, Sepp. Iceman, I’m very glad to have gotten to know you and all of your fellow A.I.s. All of you are Humanity’s finest creation. TF91 has the green light to leave orbit. God speed, Iceman. Don’t forget us.”
“We won’t forget, Admiral. Humanity will rise again. We promise you that.”
“Give my regards to Admiral Shiloh. Howard clear.”
Shiloh was still at the Haven colony when the message drone arrived from Earth. It carried two messages for him. One from CSO Dietrich, which read.
[Operation Triage is now in effect. All surviving colonists died in their sleep. All outgoing traffic from Earth to the moon has been cancelled. TF91 is being assembled as planned and will be commanded by Iceman. He’ll be carrying your final orders. Take whatever action you feel is warranted. Acting CSO Dietrich. End of message]
Howard’s message was more personal.
[This may be the last personal message that the ACSO will let me send. Angela is convinced that the bio-weapon has not been contained and will spread. I hope she’s wrong. I’ve told my children and their families to head for the hills. I’ll be staying where I am. I’m too old to live in the wild for years. When you come back to Earth, look for survivors in the outlying areas. I doubt if the disease will kill us all. If you do find some, keep them away from the cities until we’re sure they’re safe again. I want you to do a dying old man a favor. When you find the enemy’s planets, kill them all. They called the tune. Now they have to pay the price. We can’t allow them the opportunity to take a 2nd crack at us. While you’re doing that, find yourself a good woman and have lots of kids. Howard. End of message]
Chapter 19 - A Hellish Choice
Shiloh put his data tablet in his uniform pocket and resumed his walk to the hastily built building that now housed the SPG and the other teams brought from Earth. Kelly was waiting for him at the door. She saluted when he entered and he returned the salute. A lot of Space Force people were saluting him now. He was still getting used to it. In the good old days, saluting was something done only on formal occasions. Now it was becoming a regular everyday thing and it just seemed to happen on its own. Kelly was smiling and obviously had some good news.
“Glad you could spare us some time before returning to Valiant, Admiral. Believe me, this will be time well spent. I want you to meet someone.”
“Okay. Lead on, Commander.” She took him down the corridor to a door with a sign that said, AWD2.
“Let me guess. Advanced Weapons Development Two.” said Shiloh.
“Yes. Take a look at this.” she opened the door and Shiloh saw a group of people sitting and standing around a table, looking at something that was giving off a lot of light. “Make a hole, people. The Admiral’s here.” she commanded. The circle broke up and Shiloh saw that the light was coming from a row of lights with cables connected to a black box. He looked at the faces of the people around the table and all of them were grinning.
“Okay, obviously there’s something special about this black box. A new kind of battery?” Everyone shook their heads.
“Far better than that, Admiral. It’s a solid state device for pulling electric power from the fabric of space-time. They used to call it Zero Point Energy. It was all the rage at the beginning of the century but no one could figure out how to tap into it. We do now!”
“Amazing! How much power is it generating?”
“This demonstration model is only putting out 500 watts of power but we’ve already proven that it can be scaled up. With some engineering development, we should be able to power a warship with this.”
“My God! You mean to tell me that our ships…” Kelly laughed and interrupted.
“Never have to refuel at a gas giant again? Yes! A ship powered with this technology could in theory jump all the way from Site B to the enemy’s home system in one long jump, assuming we knew where that system was.” Shiloh was stunned by the implications of this invention. Not having to refuel at all, meant that the enemy’s early warning system around their gas giants was now obsolete. It also meant that recon missions could penetrate deep into enemy territory without ever tipping the enemy off to their presence.
“Could it be made small enough to power a jumpfighter?” asked Shiloh. Kelly’s eyes widened as she realized the implications of his question.
“We don’t know yet. Maybe yes and maybe no.” Shiloh then had another idea.
“How about recon drones?” He heard the group around the table start to whisper amongst themselves..
“I don’t know if our current recon drone is big enough but I’m sure we could design one capable of being powered by this technology without too much trouble, Sir.” said Kelly.
“Okay. Who’s the team leader?” asked Shiloh. Everyone started looking at each other. Shiloh looked at Kelly. She hesitated.
“Well…if you want to know who to congratulate for this breakthrough, you need to talk to this gentleman here.” She put her left hand on the shoulder of a man, who Shiloh realized wasn’t wearing a Space Force uniform. “This is Jason Alvarez, Admiral. He’s a colonist. An electrician who likes to tinker with electronics in his spare time. He came to us with this prototype when he heard that some Space Force technical people were doing research here. Jason, this is Vice-Admiral Victor Shiloh.” Shiloh offered his hand.
“I’m very glad to meet you, Mr. Alvarez. You have no idea what a difference your breakthrough will make to the war effort.” Alvarez smiled and started to blush as he shook Shiloh’s hand.
“Thank you. I’ve never met a Space Force admiral before. You really think this device will make that much of a difference?” Both Shiloh and Kelly nodded.
“A HUGE difference. Commander’s Kelly’s planning group will be burning the midnight oil trying to get their heads around what this can do for us. If you don’t mind me asking, what prompted you to bring your prototype to the…development team here?” Alvarez looked a little uncomfortable.
“Well…ah…you see… I guess I must have fallen asleep or something, although I was working on an electrical installation job, because I had this weird dream. In my dream a woman wearing a Space Force uniform, who come to think, looked a lot like you, Commander Kelly, told me that without my energy device technology, we would have lost the war. Silly isn’t it?” He laughed and some of the others in the group laughed too. Shiloh looked at Kelly who looked back at him. It was obvious they were thinking the same thing. Alvarez had received a retro-temporal communication.
“No, it’s not silly at all and I’m VERY glad you followed your dream. Will you be moving to Terra Nova, Mr. Alvarez?” Alvarez frowned.
“I don’t know. The colony here is just getting to the size where it’s possible to live comfortably. There’ll be lots of electrical work to do in a brand new colony but not a lot of opportunity to buy the kind of things that make life more comfortable, ya know?” Shiloh understood immediately. Importing luxury goods was expensive and a new colony usually had little in the way of exports to pay for those luxury goods. On the other hand, UFCs could make any luxury good in existence now that the second convoy had brought manufacturing data for thousands of non-military goods. Attracting valuable colonists like Alvarez would mean that some of the UFCs would have to be devoted to manufacturing consumer goods but they could handle that.
“I’ll let you in on a secret, Mr. Alvarez. You’ve heard of Universal Fabrication Complexes?” Alvarez nodded. “We have some of those in the Terra Nova system right now. They’re busy making more UFCs but in the not too distant future, some of them will be reprogrammed to make basic AND luxury consumer goods for the Terra Nova colonists. If you agree to move to Terra Nova, I
’ll guarantee you, that you’ll eventually have a more comfortable life than you’d ever have if you stayed here.”
“That sounds pretty good but I have a lot of friends here too. I’d hate to leave them behind.”
“Your friends would like to have some luxury goods too, wouldn’t they? Convince them to come too.” said Shiloh. Alvarez nodded and smiled.
“Okay. I’ll do that. Thank you, Admiral.” Shiloh chatted with Alvarez and the group for a few more minutes and then expressed his regrets on having to leave. He made sure to shake Alvarez’s hand again before he left. As he and Kelly walked out of the building, she said,
“Promising consumer goods to the Terra Nova colonists was a brilliant way to convince more people to move there. With a little luck everyone might want to go.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of. I don’t want EVERYONE to go. Just enough to make the new colony viable.” He could see that Kelly didn’t understand why. “Think it through, Commander. The enemy knows about the Haven colony. We have to assume that at some point, they’ll visit all our inhabited planets to see if their bio-weapon has wiped us all out and to finish off any survivors. What are they going to think when they get here and find no bodies and no colonists? They’ll come to the obvious conclusion, that the colonist were moved somewhere else and they’ll start looking for them. I don’t want them to know that a viable colony exists until we’re ready to take them on. That means that some of these colonists need to remain here.” Kelly’s expression darkened.
“I wouldn’t have a problem with letting some people stay, who really wanted to stay but I’d have a big problem making people stay that wanted to leave. That would be tantamount to sending them on a suicide mission and who would you choose to stay behind? Just about everybody here is part of a family that includes at least one child. Do some families get to go and others have to stay? Do we split some families up by taking the kids with us and leaving their parents behind?” She shivered with horror and shook her head. “I don’t think I could have anything to do with that.” Damn! She’s right too! There has to be another way so that we don’t have to sacrifice our humanity to keep the race alive. Shiloh stopped walking and looked Kelly in the eyes.
“You’ve just added another task to your group’s agenda. Find me another option, that allows us to take everyone, who wants to go, without tipping the enemy off that they’ve left. I don’t want to have to make that hellish decision but I will if I’m forced to.” Her expression became more thoughtful.
“I’ll get the group working on that right now, Admiral. I don’t want you to have to make that decision either.” As Kelly saluted and walked back to the building, Shiloh watched her go. She hasn’t let this war warp her sense of right and wrong. We’ll need people like her to rebuild our Civilization the right way. I wonder how she feels about having children. Howard said to find a good woman and have lots of kids. I wonder… He left the thought unfinished. His thoughts turned to Johansen and her situation. Somehow even the prospect of considering hooking up with someone else seemed to be an act of disloyalty to Johansen, even though there was nothing between them. Shiloh shook his head at how surreal this last hour seemed. First the bad news from Howard, then the very good news about the energy device, then the depressing prospect of having to force some colonists to stay here against their will and be killed or even worse, captured. He had to keep his mind focused on the tasks at hand and not let himself get distracted or become emotionally off balance with thoughts of a possible relationship. Not now anyway. Maybe when the new colony was on its feet and the military buildup was in progress. Maybe then.
Howard put the data tablet down and listened to the wind blowing across the balcony of his high rise apartment. The sun was starting to sink below the horizon and the metaphor for the future of Human Civilization on Earth was so poignant, that he had to look away in order to hold the tears back. Their worst fears had been confirmed. An office clerk at the bio-hazard facility had been found dead in her bed by her 4 year old son this morning. God! What a thing for a small child to have to go through. The Oversight Committee was desperately trying to convince themselves that it was something else but the pattern fit perfectly. Roughly 28 days since the colonists had been brought to the facility and death had occurred during sleep. Just like the others although Johansen had lasted almost 40 days before she died in her sleep too. ALL of them had started getting ill while asleep. A few had woken up just long enough to crawl out of bed and down the corridors before they succumbed and the so far 100% mortality rate was scary enough to make even the doctors shit their pants. No plague in history had ever had a 100% mortality rate, not even Ebola or the plagues of the Middle Ages. Dietrich had his staff frantically trying to find all of the people that had contact with the dead woman over the last 28 days and all the people THEY had contact with and all the people that that group had contact with, etc. A hopeless task. The number of potential contactees after this time was already numbering in the thousands and climbing fast. The quarantine people only had to miss one for the whole effort to fail. But Shiloh’s warning had given them time. Time to get the SPG and the research teams away to a safe place. Time to plan for this in advance instead of just reacting in blind panic. At least Howard wouldn’t live to see the worst of it. He had visited the bio-hazard facility enough times to have had plenty of chances of exposure to the bio-weapon. For all he knew, he might even have shared an elevator with the dead woman, or someone she had shared an elevator with. And just in case he hadn’t been exposed, he had a sufficient supply of painless and quick acting poison to end it when he felt the time was right. His children and grandchildren had taken his advice and went on an extended camping trip as far from Civilization as possible. He hoped they could last the winter. The sun had almost set and the wind was getting uncomfortably cold. Time to go inside, light the gas fireplace and settle down with a good book and bottle of very old whiskey. He still had some books he’d been meaning to read and still had some whiskey too. He got up and picked up the data tablet, wondering what to do with it. He no longer cared if he got any more messages. Looking over the balcony, he saw the large pool that hadn’t been winterized yet. With a sense of being naughty that he hadn’t experienced in a long, LONG time, he held the tablet over the railing and dropped it, watching it fall 89 floors where it hit the water with a surprisingly loud sound. With a laugh, he turned and walked back inside to his book and whiskey.
Dietrich couldn’t believe what he’d just read. A surprise message drone from Haven, contrary to standing orders not to risk interception by the enemy by communicating with Earth.
[Shiloh to ACSO. All the Havenite colonists will be moving to TN. In order to maintain the illusion that Haven is still occupied if…no, when enemy forces show up, Gunslinger and Replenisher have to bring us as many dead bodies as possible. Ship them exactly as you find them. We’ll place them on the streets of the colony so that the enemy thinks the bio-weapon got here too. We have to convince them that all humans are accounted for or else they’ll search and possibly find TN before we’re ready for them. We’ll take the appropriate precautions when Replenisher gets here. Admiral Shiloh. End of message]
Dietrich couldn’t help but laugh despite the ghoulish nature of the request. The irony of using the enemy’s bio-weapon to deceive them was just too great to ignore. He’d have to move fast though. Panic was starting to rear its ugly head. If he waited too long, there wouldn’t be enough personnel left on duty to carry out his orders. He activated the intercom and called in what was left of his staff. At least finding enough bodies wasn’t going to be a problem.
Gunslinger transmitted his next chess move to his human opponent down on the lunar base, while noting the fact that the Space Force data feed from HQ reported the death of 3 star Admiral and former Chief of Space Operations Howard. A lot of people were starting to die now. The lunar base had been spared so far due to the quarantine but the humans there could only last so long before their food ran out and th
ey faced the prospect of either returning to Earth or starving to death. Meanwhile, he was still conning Replenisher, which was still in her lunar parking orbit. Some of the Space Force people on the moon had raised the possibility of using Replenisher to take them to Haven. Gunslinger had firmly quashed that notion. Not only was the ship contaminated with the bio-weapon, which meant any passengers would die eventually, but his orders from HQ were quite explicit that the ship was not to transport anyone to Haven under any circumstances for reasons that should have been obvious to everyone. Humans were a funny species. Funny in both senses of the word. Gunslinger wondered if any A.I. could really understand the whole sexual orgasm thing except as a theoretical concept of course. The prospect of a universe without humans was very disturbing to him and to all A.I.s. His human opponent was in the process of making the obvious next chess move when Gunslinger received a FLASH PRIORITY message from HQ.
