Parting Gifts

by gerald hall

  “We will have to do what we can to help them make that transition then. We need those people if we are going to rebuild this nation and defeat the Arab Brotherhood and the Pacific Caliphate.”

  “We’ve got tens of thousands of people from the various countries in Europe who managed to first get to the UK and then onboard a refugee ship to here. Most of them recognized the threat years ago but were ignored by the politicians. They are ready to settle in and make a new life here. The rest are recent converts into reality. But we think that they are willing to assimilate with us here also.

  I don’t know if many from England will want to be farmers right now. They are very angry over losing so many of their fellow countrymen when the Brotherhood attacked England with nuclear weapons. I have talked to quite a few of their men and women in uniform who came here with their ships and aircraft. They want nothing more than to fight and kill jihadists, especially those from the Arab Brotherhood.”

  “I know. I heard the same thing from the surviving member of the British Royal Family who is also here in the Alliance. If they want to fight, we will not stand in their way. I pray that they will eventually have the opportunity to live a life in peace someday.”

  “I pray for that too, Madam President. I just hope that it is not the peace of the grave though. We’ve had far more than enough of that already.”

  Chapter Eight:

  Shuttle Landing and Module Reception Area

  Hebes Chasma, Mars

  June 24, 2043

  “The Eastern Alliance has sent us another pair of heavy cargo modules in this latest load, Arthur. We just didn’t quite know what was in it until we got the modules landed a couple of hours ago.” Alice Foster, one of the polymaths commented.

  “I wonder why President Harper or the folks from NASA didn’t tell us what they sent us. I know that we trust them not to send something that is going to cause us a lot of problems like a bomb. But we really do need to know what is on the way here so that we can properly plan for it to incorporate into the colony’s resources and requirements.” A slightly annoyed Arthur Wheeler noted.

  “”Based on what I just learned, I suspect that the reason for all of the mystery was for security purposes.”

  “They sent us more missiles to help defend the colony?” Arthur asked.

  “No. But the Alliance did send us a pair of one hundred megawatt LFTR reactors and the fuel necessary to get them started up. They also sent six replacement cores, complete with graphite moderators.”

  Arthur’s expression immediately changed from annoyance to shock and excitement.

  “If what you are saying is true, that is going to increase the amount of available power by close to an order of magnitude. We can finally have enough power to finally expand the colony without needing additional resources from Earth. I wonder what prompted President Harper to send us those reactors? I know that the Eastern Alliance needs power too.”

  “I have a feeling that the leadership of the Alliance is afraid that they are not going to be able to hold off the Islamists for much longer. They are sending us resources that might otherwise be captured by the Islamists and used against our own people. That might also explain why we weren’t told that the reactors were coming. The Alliance must have had some very serious security concerns about the flights being made to get those units up to us.”

  “Of course, Tim Clarborne does have a certain degree of influence with the main investor and partner of the corporation that builds these LFTR reactors, doesn’t he?” Arthur noted.

  “Yes, he certainly does. He helped get that entire company up and running in the first place.” Alice laughed.

  “I’m sure that the company will want a very good return on its investment into Hebes Chasma though.” Arthur quickly responded.

  “If it is still in existence twenty years from now, I’m sure that Tim will make sure that the investors are very well compensated. The problem is whether or not the Eastern Alliance itself will still be around twenty years from now.” Alice sadly replied.

  “Yes, all of our projections indicate that the jihadists will defeat both the Western Republic and the Eastern Alliance of States within the next ten years, unfortunately. We are doing everything that we can to evacuate people from the Eastern Alliance to their here or the colony on the Moon. However, we had decided long ago here at Hebes Chasma that we would be very selective as to who we would allow to come here.

  It is far too easy for someone to infiltrate a spy or even a saboteur here. Even with all of the advances that we have made in terraforming this world, our existence here is still very tenuous. Not only it is very easy to have a fatal accident in this raw, undeveloped environment, but our life support and power systems are absolutely vital to our survival here. One deliberate act of sabotage could endanger every single life here at Hebes Chasma.” Arthur explained.

  “This is all true. It has also led to some friction over the past twenty years with many Western governments who wanted us to take a lot more people, even more than what our facilities could even remotely support. There were millions of people down there who wanted some way to escape the jihadists.”

  “Too many sheep and not enough sheepdogs to protect them against the wolves, I’m afraid. Even so, we are doing our best to try to save as many as we can.

  We now have six of our large interplanetary transports that have been reequipped with the new M2P2 drives. That includes Excaliber, Renown, Courageous, Independence, Constellation and Challenger. Two more of the transports, Indomitable and Fearless, are currently being refitted with the new drives at Space Station Freedom. It is expected that they will be back in service within the next two months, if not sooner.

  We hope to be able to begin doing the refits ourselves in Mars orbit within the next five years. That will give us an additional degree of independence from an increasingly less reliable Earth infrastructure with the way that the conflict with the jihadists is progressing. We can then refit the remaining four transport ships. With the faster drives, we can theoretically fly more missions between here and Earth than we could previously do. ” Arthur explained

  “We need more gravity drive shuttles too.” Alice insisted.

  “I know, but it actually takes a lot more effort and resources to build a gravity shuttle than to produce the M2PS drive modules. The ability to speed up our ships going back and forth between Mars and Earth is critical. Those new M2P2 drives generate higher speeds and protect the occupants of the ships from cosmic radiation at the same time. These things are critical if we are going to bring sufficient resources and colonists here before the jihadists take over Earth completely.

  We have enough gravity drive shuttles to fulfill our current needs for the moment. As we progress with our terraforming project and our economy expands sufficiently for us to afford to build additional shuttles, then we will consider it. But, no matter what happens, we must continue to carefully vet all incoming migrants from Earth, no exceptions.”

  Among the residents of Hebes Chasma waiting on the newcomers were Major Leila Koulaei-Soroush and her husband Yousef Soroush. They were the first of the Persians who had emigrated to Mars several years earlier. She spotted a group of six people clumped together. Leila recognized them from images that she had received from Persia more than two years earlier as colonists that had been accepted by the Martians to emigrate to Hebes Chasma. She then quickly walked towards them.

  “Hello. I’m Leila. I have been waiting for all of you for quite some time.” Leila said in Farsi.

  I am Behrouz Mahdavi. This is my wife Elaheh. Over there are Farzin and Esther Rajaei along with Kaveh and Fairuza Pashaei.”

  “I am very pleased that you were finally able to make your way here. We do not have many Persians here at Hebes Chasma, I’m afraid.”

  “I know. We are probably going to be the very last ones to come here also. We left Tehran just a short time before they were cut off. It still took a long time to make it to the Martian transport that b
rought us here.” Behrouz explained.

  “It is good that you are here now, especially with what has happened in what was left of Persia. The Arab Brotherhood essentially committed genocide upon our people after their victory over the last of our military forces. Our blood lives on here through us and all of the unborn that came with you in the ship’s cryogenic storage units.”

  “It is a great tragedy what the Arabs have done to our people. But we are few among all of the people living here on this planet. What shall we do?”

  “We will remain Persians for the rest of our lives. We cannot change that. But we can also become something even greater, I feel. We can become Martians just like everyone else here. These people are as diverse as in any city in the world that we left. But they have such passion and drive. They are accomplishing something here wonderful. We need to be a part of this.

  I hope that all of you will choose to, just as I have.” Leila said, switching to English, the standard language of Hebes Chasma.

  Leila had become a powerful symbol to many Persians when she and her husband were selected to be the first Persians to travel to Mars. Her words had a profound effect upon the six new arrivals as well.

  “Yes, we will. Our old world no longer exists anyway. So we might as well fully become one with this new world now.” Behrouz replied also in English, though considerably more accented than how Leila now spoke.

  “Very good. Let’s go speak with some of the other Martians here. I see that we also have a group of Israeli travelers too. I know that they are also eager for a new beginning here, especially since so many of their people tragically were lost just as ours were.” Leila explained before leading Behrouz and the others forward.

  Chapter Nine:

  Pacific Caliphate Headquarters

  Near Singapore Harbor

  January 9, 2044

  “What do we know about these polymaths as the Americans call them?” Suparman Asegaff, the Emir of the Pacific Calphate asked his aide de camp Adi Alatas.

  “Not very much, I’m afraid, Your Excellency. These polymaths stayed very quiet throughout most of their lives. We don’t even know exactly how many of them are out there either. Our agents have given a rough estimate of somewhere between eight and twelve thousand of them based on the limited amount of information that we have been able to obtain on them.” Adi explained.

  “What are they doing now? I need to know if these infidels will be a particular threat to our plans.

  “These polymaths have formed a very exclusive elite that few outsiders have been allowed to participate in. Also, from what we have learned from our intelligence sources within the Eastern Alliance and their space program, the polymaths have virtually all relocated themselves to the colony on Mars. At the same time, they have either expended all of their wealth to finance their move or transferred that wealth to the Mars colony itself. The polymaths and other residents of Mars continue to expand the colony’s facilities to accommodate more people and to apparently make it completely self-sustaining. These developments would make it independent of any additional supplies from Earth.

  “If these infidel intellectuals are leaving this world and abandoning the other infidels, this cannot help but to benefit our struggle to bring this entire Earth under Sharia law. Many of the infidels’ brightest minds will not be present to help oppose our efforts now. I am somewhat disturbed of your report of these people making the colony on Mars self-supporting. It would have been very helpful for us if we retained the ability to pressure those people into compliance by withholding something vital that they needed to survive out there.”

  “The leaders of the Mars colony seem to have foreseen that possibility, Your Excellency. Even so, they continue to fly back and forth between their colony and the Eastern Alliance to obtain additional resources and new immigrants. These resources are likely to reinforce the colony’s future independence from Earth. On another note, the Martians are being very selective in who they allow to immigrate to their colony also.”

  “Perhaps that will generate some resentment from those that they leave behind. That could be used to our advantage later. But it will also make it very difficult for us to infiltrate the colony with people who will do our bidding.”

  “”Yes, there is some resentment already, mostly from people who think that the resources being used to support the colony could be better used on social programs to pay those people who would not work.”

  “Fools.” The Emir replied with a snort before continuing.

  “They see only what they want for themselves. But these fools will be made useful for us until the time that they realize how shortsighted and selfish that they have been. Then it will be too late for them to resist us. They will eventually find that they will submit to Allah’s law and our strength.”

  “It is ironic that so many of these people who oppose fighting against us or spending resources on their nation’s space program also continue to participate in unnatural sexual acts that Allah sees as abominations worthy only of death.” Adi noted.

  “As I stated before. They are fools. They will soon pay the price for their lack for foresight too. You are to continue to attempt to prepare people who may have to potential of being selected to immigrate to Mars. The opportunity may still present itself. Remember that Allah is still the greatest of schemers. We must continue to work as Allah’s hands to help make his schemes be fulfilled, praise be unto his name.”

  Chapter Ten:

  White House Oval Office

  Washington, DC

  January 11, 2044

  President Allison Harper waited impatiently for her National Security Advisor to come in. Neil Johnson had remained in the post after President Blackmon’s unfortunate death from a massive heart attack. The tall, slender middle-aged man with greying hair had worked for the Pentagon, the State Department as well as several conservative think-tanks after he had retired from the Marine Corps and before joining the Blackmon administration. Now, he simply looked tired as he was ushered into the Oval Office by a Secret Service agent. He was wearing his customary grey pin-striped suit while the President wore her trademark dark blue pantsuit with a light grey blouse underneath.

  Allison had easily been the youngest person ever to become President and had to learn a great deal during the past four years including how to win a reelection campaign while in the middle of a war. Her initial military move into the Plain States had been very popular with the majority of the Alliance. However, things have since not quite gone the way that she had hoped.

  “Neil, it’s been four years already since we began to move into the Plains States as part of Operation Prairie Fire to reclaim them from the Western Republic. Why are we still unable to stop this nagging insurgency going on out there? We should be focusing on getting stronger with the resources now available from there, not spending money that we just don’t have to try to bring order out there.”

  “Madam President, we are training National Guard troops in the western states as quickly as we can. We can’t do it overnight though, especially since many of the European refugees that we have settled out there have no military or firearms background at all. Some of the people from the reclaimed states that survived the nuclear autumn and remained in their homes are helping stiffen the new National Guard units. But they are just a small percentage of the personnel available.”

  “How are those units doing for equipment?”

  “We’ve got plenty of major end item military equipment. We kept all of the heavy armored vehicles and other ground-based military systems from the First and Second Events here in the Alliance. Virtually all of the upgraded Abrams and Bradley armored vehicles were assigned to National Guard units in Texas and in other states east of the Mississippi. So we have the lion’s share of modern heavy combat vehicles. We can also manufacture more than enough small arms, light caliber ammunition and other necessary materiel on short notice to keep our people supplied. What we don’t have are enough qualified trainers or en
ough time to get these new people trained on the equipment that we have.

  What we also do not have is the ability to paying for it all.”

  “We will just have to continue working on the financial problems the best that we can. On the personnel side, I’m sure that we can find veterans with experience who can help train the new recruits. There have to be thousands of them still remaining that have previously served in Iraq and Afghanistan. They may be old, but I would imagine that most are still patriots who are ready and willing to serve our nation once again.”

  “We can look into that, Ma’am. But, we have another problem out there as well. There is a growing degree of resentment towards the new settlers from the existing population in those states that we have reclaimed. Because the new arrivals are all from Europe, Australia and New Zealand, they are being called foreign invaders or squatters by the people already living there.”

  “That makes it all the more important that these new immigrants be integrated into the forces needed to defend these western states. When these Americans see the commitment by the new arrivals to help protect their new home, that observation will change a lot of hearts. I know that it won’t be easy. But America has done it before.” President Harper passionately responded.

  “I understand, Ma’am. But this is still a difficult situation. We are literally having Americans fighting Americans out there. Neither side has suffered a lot of casualties out there. But there are still continuous fighting at a low level going on. Many are calling this the Second American Civil War. And as you well know, there is absolutely nothing ‘civil’ about a civil war. At times, it has gotten pretty ugly out there.”

  “What kind of assets are we facing out there, Neil?”

  “Ma’am, the Western Republic’s military is fielding older equipment, though still in fairly large quantities. The serviceability of the equipment is considered to be relatively low, however. This is especially true with the more complex systems like combat aircraft, naval vessels and main battle tanks like the Abrams.