Confrontation

by William Hayashi

  “According to the information I have accessed, former detective Mathews was employed by GST in their corporate security department. He was recruited by the head of the department as a investigator and trouble shooter at the direction of the board.

  “The offer to join the crew was made directly to detective Mathews by the board of directors themselves, to which it is reported that he somewhat reluctantly acquiesced. A cover identity was crafted for him and it appears that slightly altered photographs were made available to the media to further conceal his identity. Although the risk of discovery was rated low, Dr. Milton wanted to avoid any controversy the inclusion of Mathews would have caused. From my monitoring of all Project Jove communications, his identity has not been discovered. Does this information cause you distress?” asked the A.I. after a few moments of silence.

  “It is a surprise, Genesis. And yes, it’s also a shock. Does anyone else here know this yet?” Sydney asked.

  “I have not informed anyone else yet. I just discovered the information moments ago and believed that you would be the one most interested to hear the news. And, as I know the paternity of your daughter Joy, I surmised that you deserved to know first.

  “I must ask if I should keep the information confidential to protect the feelings of your daughter? I have not been privy to the information you have conveyed to her concerning her father. And, since his identity has been concealed from his crewmates, I do not know what the purpose his presence on the mission serves. Do you believe that the mission planners expect he will be better able to contact the colony because of his past relationship with you?” Genesis inquired.

  “I can’t say. He has no idea he has a daughter here. Nor have I contacted him other than the one message you relayed to him as we left the moon. I’m hoping that the government, or GST for that matter, isn’t so cynical as to think that sentimentality is going to somehow have an effect on our determination to remain isolated from Earth,” Sydney explained. “Genesis, would you contact Chris, Lucius and Maxwell, maybe add Chuck to the list, and see if they have a few minutes to stop by? I want to report this to them myself,” she requested.

  There was a momentary pause while Genesis made the calls.

  “Everyone is on their way. I did not reveal the reason for your request.”

  “Thank you, Genesis. And thanks for letting me know first.”

  “Of course. Is there any else I may assist you with, Sydney?”

  “Yes, please let Joy know that I may be a few minutes late and for her to start on her homework.”

  After a few seconds Genesis said, “Your message has been delivered. Joy would like to know whether or not you still plan to eat in the commons together?”

  “Please tell her yes. I’ll call her when I’m on the way.”

  Moments later, Lucius strolled into the office, asking what was up. Sydney told him she’d rather wait until everyone was there. In a few minutes the rest filed in and they adjourned to the conference room.

  “What’s up, Syd? Is something wrong?” Chuck asked.

  She waited until they were all seated and began.

  “All of you know who Joy’s father is, do you not?” she asked.

  “Not exactly,” answered Maxwell. “I never thought about it when we met. I figured it was someone you left behind. I just run the council, I don’t really know what’s going on.”

  Everyone laughed but quickly quieted as they waited for Sydney to continue.

  “Well, the night before I came here I made love to someone very important to me. The problem was, he couldn’t come along with me. He’s never known that he has a daughter here; obviously there was no opportunity nor reason to let him know,” she explained.

  “Okay, I don’t really mean to pry, but why didn’t he come along? Did he know where you were going?” asked Maxwell.

  “Oh, he knew. By then everyone on Earth knew about the colony, and he knew my role in recruiting the women here.”

  “So what was the problem?” asked a clearly confused Maxwell.

  “He was the Atlanta police officer investigating the disappearance of Jaylynn Williams.

  “In hydroponics, right?”

  “Yes, she’s the one, Max.”

  “So what was the deal? Couldn’t you talk him into coming?” he asked.

  “No,” she answered, then went silent.

  Maxwell looked around the table, understanding that everyone else in the room knew the story, wondering whet the hell was going on.

  “He’s white, Max,” Lucius said quietly.

  “Oh—oh!” Maxwell’s surprise drawing a chuckle from Chuck. “Does Joy know?”

  “She does. But since he’s not here, and she understands why she cannot meet or talk to him, it’s not been an issue. That may be about to change,” Sydney warned.

  Everyone sat a bit straighter in their chairs, their attention focused on Sydney’s next words.

  “Former detective Mathews, Joy’s father, is a member of the NASA mission crew.”

  Everyone else all started talking at once, stopped, then immediately restarted in the momentary silence.

  “Everyone, quiet!” Christopher said over everyone else. When they fell silent, he continued. “How did you come by this information, Syd?”

  “One moment. Genesis?

  “Yes, Sydney. How may I be of assistance?”

  “Would you explain how you came by the information about John being on the Jove crew?” she requested.

  “John Mathews, upon retiring from the Atlanta Police Department began tending bar at Pete’s Place, a jazz lounge in Atlanta. He was approached by the director of corporate security for Global Space Technologies about taking a position as an investigator for the company. He traveled around the country and to business concerns outside the United States in the performance of his responsibilities, for a period of seven months.

  “The GST board of directors who directed the department head, Thomas Weston, to offer John Mathews the position in his department. Apparently Weston was unaware of the intentions of the board when he offered Mathews the position.

  “Subsequently, the board offered Mathews a position on the Jove crew under an assumed name, wanting to conceal his identity from the rest of the crew, NASA and the media. They even went so far as to release slightly altered pictures of Mathews to further their ruse.”

  “Have you found out what their motivation is in sending him? Does it have to do with Sydney in some way?” asked Lucius. “And do you have any information that they know I’m here?”

  “As far as I can determine, the GST board of directors believes that the inclusion of Mathews on the mission may increase the chance of communicating with the colony. Your name has still not been associated with this colony in any data I have been able to access, Lucius,” Genesis replied.

  “What’s your take on this?” Christopher asked Sydney.

  “I’m with Genesis on this so far, Chris. It’s both cynical and inspired at the same time,” she answered.

  “How do you feel about this, Syd?” Lucius asked. “Do you want to talk to him when they arrive?”

  “How the hell do I know? I just found out,” Sydney answered, throwing up her hands. “I never thought I’d ever see John again, and here he is, coming all the way out here. He doesn’t know about Joy, he probably figures I’m married or something—it’s been ten damn years,” she said, her voice breaking.

  Chuck, who had been silent until then said, “Hey guys, let’s let her think about this. We’ve all just found out, but there’s no rush dealing with it, if there’s anything we can do about it at all.” He looked toward Lucius and got a quick nod in return. Then he gathered Christopher and Maxwell by eye and they all left Lucius and Sydney alone in the conference room.

  Lucius got a box of tissue and slid it in front of Sydney, content to wait until she was read
y to talk. She took a tissue and dabbed her eyes, then she looked at the older man.

  “What do you think about this?” she asked Lucius.

  “Me? I have no idea. I know this, you haven’t dated anyone special here since we arrived. Are you still in love with John?”

  “I don’t know … probably, at least a little. The last time I saw him I had told him that we would never see each other again.” She gave a sad laugh, then continued, “He was standing out on his lawn in his underwear, in the rain, when I drove off.”

  She sighed, then looked Lucius in the eye. “Right now I don’t know if I want to see him again or not. I mean, how does he feel? Is he angry? I would have been. Does he hate me? I don’t blame him if he does. There’s just too much I don’t know about him, the whole mission situation and what his role is supposed to be, to make up my mind on anything.”

  Lucius reached over and patted her on the hand.

  “Take your time. Maybe by the time they get in the neighborhood we’ll know more,” he advised.

  “I know you’re right. It’s just a shock …”

  “And seriously, think about how you may or may not want to approach this with Joy. Obviously a girl deserves to know her father, but these are hardly normal circumstances. I don’t have a clue as to what I would do in your shoes. I will say this, if this man deserved your love, he’s probably a hell of a guy regardless of his race,” Lucius said, smiling.

  “He was …”

  Chapter 17

  SMILING FACES

  During the mission planning meeting for the next foray into Jupiter’s atmosphere, the subject of Europa came up between Chuck and Andrea, diverting the attention of the planning team unexpectedly.

  “You know, we have confirmed reports that there’s actual water on Europa. Instead of diving into Jupiter’s gravity well, maybe we can check out that moon for signs of life under the ice,” Andrea suggested.

  “Too easy, drill sergeant!” Chuck replied with a laugh. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be flip, but one of the main reasons we built these two special jumpers was to make sure that no matter where in the solar system we take them, they can withstand anything that they’re going to face.”

  “We all know that. And if it weren’t for our resident genius here, we wouldn’t be this far along,” she said, hooking a thumb toward Peanut, who blushed. “But there’s so much going on out here, shouldn’t we be trying the best possibilities first?”

  “Maybe, but we have extremely long lifetimes ahead to explore every planet and moon in the solar system, there’s really no reason to rush.”

  “I wouldn’t mind looking for organic compounds on Europa, maybe even Mars, despite the fact that Earth’s got their probes running all around the surface,” said Nathan. “By the way, I have to admit that some of the signs from your contest for those probes to bump into were epic!”

  The room erupted in laughter as they all recalled their favorite submissions to Chuck’s contest. Chuck’s only entry got quite a number of votes for actual deployment to the Red Planet in the path of the mobile NASA probes, which read: “If you lived here, you’d already be black.”

  “We can revisit the science committee’s research priorities later. I admit I’m just as curious as anyone about Europa, Io, Mars, even Venus, I’d even settle for a big black monolith! But they decided on Jupiter first, mostly from an engineering perspective,” explained Chuck. “And I don’t have to explain to anyone how Chris feels about safety; you were all here when Peanut told the story about our first trip to the moon.”

  Peanut looked around the room and said, “He’s concerned with every single one of us. It broke his heart when Riley had his accident. Anyway, with these modified jumpers there’s really nowhere we can’t go in the solar system. Jupiter is probably the most hellish place we’re going to visit except for maybe the sun side of Mercury. My team hasn’t really addressed the heat issue yet, but we’re extremely curious what the atmosphere is going to be like at the bottom of Jupiter’s gravity well. Some of the science guys think that the temps are going to be incredible, so it’s probably going to be a great trial run for Mercury,” Peanut said excitedly.

  “I expect your team to build me a jumper that’s going to let me land on the sun, Peanut!” Chuck said to laughs around the room.

  “Fancy talk! Did you tell everyone how you drifted three thousand miles away from me in that storm?” Andrea reminded him.

  “I did. That’s one of the issues we have to address. We need an SSPS!” said Chuck.

  “What in the hell is SSPS?” Alex asked.

  “Solar system positioning system!” Chuck said, laughing.

  “Like my team doesn’t have enough on its plate,” Peanut said sourly. “Anyway, we went over every square inch of your jumper and there’s no sign of corrosion, or deterioration of the seals around the airlock or windows. The collection system was also unaffected. My team did a bang-up job. I think Chuck, Nathan and Alex can drop a lot farther into the soup next time. Oh yeah, we removed those magnetic skids and molded flat, ceramic-clad electromagnetic plates to the tops and bottoms of both jumpers. Either one can lift the other if something malfunctions,” Peanut promised. “At least this way you’re not one big lightning rod down there.”

  “Cool. So, Andrea, when do we try again?” asked Chuck.

  “I’ll talk to the science council and see when they’re willing to let us go. Peanut, what’s your team working on now? The interdimensional probe?” she asked.

  “On hold while we outfit a whale and two jumpers for the shopping trip back to Earth,” Peanut replied. “Why, you need something special?”

  “I’m wondering how much trouble it would be to make a really solid probe to drop into that storm with a camera, sensors and a transmitter strong enough to send images and data up to the jumpers. Maybe we can install a remote-controlled G-wave on it to control lateral and vertical movement,” Andrea suggested.

  “Yeah, it can be done. But the thing is going to be blown to hell and back. Conceivably, it could be blown out of radio range in a matter of seconds, unless we put one hell of a transceiver in it. It’s not going to be easy,” said Peanut.

  “Forget it, then. It’s fine with me, using Chuck and them as guinea pigs. Probably cheaper, too,” Andrea laughed as she poked Chuck in the ribs.

  “We’ll see about that! Thanks, Peanut for getting those skids removed. I’m hoping the lightning layer is pretty thin, given how fast the pressure goes up as we go down. Maybe we’re worrying about nothing.”

  “Lightning bolts bigger than Earth and you think that’s nothing? Maybe we should choose somewhere other than that damned spot to make our descent,” offered Alex.

  “Why don’t we just stick to the plan? So far I believe we’ve properly addressed the electrical discharge issue, and Drake and I will keep a better lookout where the wind pushes us. And let’s have Genesis plot our course in real time in both jumpers so we don’t get pushed so far away from you, Andrea.”

  “Okay, I’ll draft the new mission profile and send it to you for review. Make any changes or additions you come up with and send it back. Day after tomorrow I’ll submit it to the committee. Does that meet with everyone’s approval?” Andrea asked.

  Getting nods all around, she said, “Great. Anyone want to discuss anything before I complete the final draft of the profile, give me a call.”

  * * *

  Two members of GST’s board, Beau Templeton and Bridget Manchester, arrived under cover at the White House at 10:00 P.M., traveling in one of the presidential limousines to conceal their identities should any member of the media be about. They were hustled inside and then directly to the Oval Office, where the curtains, normally open, were drawn shut.

  “Thank you for seeing us,” Templeton said as they all shook hands and then took seats on the couches.

  “Always good to see you
again, Beau. And welcome to the White House, Ms. Manchester. May I have any refreshments brought for either of you?” Laughlin offered.

  “I know it’s so British, but I could do with a cup of Earl Grey,” Manchester replied.

  “And you, Beau, the usual?” Laughlin asked, having known Templeton more than twenty years.

  “That would be perfect, Stu.”

  “A Dewars and water, and Earl Grey,” Laughlin told the aide. When he returned with drinks Debra Dawkins was right behind him.

  “I hope you don’t mind my chief of staff sitting in. To be honest she’s the other half of my brain,” Laughlin explained, then formally introduced Dawkins.

  “Well then, let’s get down to it. It’s late,” began Laughlin. “It’s your meeting, why are you here?”

  “First of all, thank you for allowing us to embed Mathews in the crew, and for going along with the subterfuge in concealing his identity,” Templeton began.

  Laughlin held up his hand and said, “It made very good sense, from a couple of angles. You were brilliant to dig him up and get him to agree to go.”

  Manchester chuckled despite herself. “Oh, I hardly think Mathews felt he had a choice. Plus that man is still in love with that woman in the colony. But you’re right, the strategy was inspired.”

  “So what now?” Laughlin asked.

  Templeton swirled the scotch around in his glass before answering. After a moment he began. “What we’re here to do is get a guarantee from you, nothing in writing necessary, Stu, but a guarantee that whatever technology the mission begs, borrows or steals will be the sole property of GST. At least until it can be properly evaluated.”

  Both Laughlin and Dawkins were shocked by the naked demand from Templeton.

  “Look, Beau, we go way back, and I’m thankful for all your support over the years, but I just don’t see how I can make such an agreement. For Christ’s sake, there’s a UN envoy aboard, there’s no way that’s going to fly,” Laughlin protested.

  Debra was shocked by the demand, her face going completely blank.