Confrontation

by William Hayashi

  “There’s too much that can’t take vacuum, and it may not be practical to try to fill one or more containers with sealed stuff. At least one of the containers is going to be completely filled with frozen stuff; food, pharmaceuticals, lab specimens, anything that needs refrigeration.

  “Most of the stuff has been ordered and will be shipped to a warehouse not too far outside Chicago, close to the Indiana border near the lake. When Lucius gets there he’s going to make sure the remainder of the items are shipped in and loaded up. I guess some stuff needs a person’s signature, or some such,” Chuck explained. “He also said he needs to bring some of our cash back too. Lucius is loaded, just not a hundred and eighty million loaded.”

  Everyone laughed, and when they quieted, Peanut said, “You just make sure you come back, with or without the goods!”

  “Bet on it,” Chuck said, slapping five with Peanut.

  They talked through the night, consuming another bottle of wine before switching to soft drinks or water to stave off morning hangovers. When they left to go home they all felt confident that not only was Chuck’s crew going to pull off the Earth mission, but they would also make sure Christopher had their support whatever happened when the Earth missions arrived. As far as the dinner went, a good time was had by all.

  Chapter 22

  WATCHING AND WAITING

  It was quiet a mile underground at Shelter 14; those services and projects that operated around the clock were now entering their day’s third shift.

  “Dr. Harris to monitoring, Dr. Harris to monitoring!” came the announcement over the intercom.

  When he arrived, Martin swiped his ID card at the door and burst into the room. He quickly looked around and could tell that something was going on near the separatist colony.

  “What’s up?” he asked the watch commander.

  “Sir, we have an inbound bogie traveling at—what’s it going now?” he asked everyone in the room.

  “According to the computer, more than eighty thousand miles an hour, and the speed is still increasing,” one of the headphone-equipped techs answered.

  “You know anything about this?” the watch commander pointedly asked Martin.

  “Um, no! How the hell would I know about what they’re doing out there?” Martin protested, shocked at the very idea.

  The navy commander at least looked embarrassed as he apologized. “Sorry, sir. I kind of figured with the captain dropping by to look the place over, something like this was expected.”

  Martin laughed. “Okay, you got me there. We were figuring that if anything was going to happen out there, it would kick off when those two ships arrived in their neighborhood. But they’re still about thirty days out. When did the ship depart the colony?”

  “About twelve minutes ago.”

  “And they’re already going that fast?” said Martin, amazed.

  “Exactly! Level with me, do those people have any limits that you know of? Because the briefing files on their tech when they left ten years ago described advances pretty unbelievable then, even for now!”

  “Commander, I will say this: we are nowhere nearer to duplicating their space drive as the day we discovered them,” Martin confessed. After doing the math in his head, he added, “If they keep up that speed, maybe a hair more, they’ll arrive here the same time Jove gets to the colony. That sound like a coincidence to you?”

  “Hell no. Excuse me, doctor, I have to brief NORAD and the Pentagon.”

  “Before you do, why did you call me?” Martin asked, puzzled.

  “To see if you had any idea about what’s going on. Sorry, doc,” he said, then turned away to make his calls.

  Martin sat down at the nearest empty console and focused the system on the inbound spacecraft. The speed was unbelievable, but nothing of its size or design was discernable. His detector was able to plot the location of gravitational anomalies, but there were no visuals to accompany the detector’s readings. It was going to be a long month until they could actually see what was on its way.

  * * *

  The nine members of the colony shopping mission settled in for four weeks of flight to Earth. Chuck and Lucius were ensconced on one jumper, Todd was the pilot of the other jumper with Neil, and Sondra was piloting the whale with Julius, Lena and Albert berthed in it. The ninth member of the mission was also berthed in the whale; the twin of the colony’s A.I. installed in a small, file-cabinet-sized console secured to the side of the main controls. The A.I. was connected to all of the whale’s sensors, including a wide-spectrum analogue/digital radio transceiver to facilitate communications with the outside world.

  As the mission traveled farther and farther away from the colony, Genesis and its twin, G2 were in constant, high-speed contact running countless simulations on their twinned existence, communications and memory protocols, as well as on probable responses to their arrival in Earth space.

  The communications lag between Earth and the colony was eleven minutes and shortening as the colony and Earth approached their closest passage. And even though at their closest, the communications gap would only be three minutes, in terms of monitoring near space for the mission, the gap was entirely too risky when seconds counted in a defensive response to an attack.

  The crew had drilled in their scuba equipment in the swimming pool for when they were leaving and entering the whale while it was moored under water. They also had disguised datapads that not only enabled them to maintain contact with G2, but G2 was able to monitor what was going on around each pad. Additionally, Peanut’s engineering team was able to copy the look of a popular Bluetooth earpiece that would keep the wearer in touch with G2 while on the ground.

  Lucius was going to leave completing his artificial aging until they were closer to Earth, and everyone had a drivers’ license in a fictitious name and credit cards connected to one of Lucius’ blind accounts to pay for incidentals. They all figured, and Genesis had confirmed, that their real names would trigger an avalanche of attention should they be run through any computer. Lucius was the only colonist unknown to anyone on Earth.

  The three ships were outfitted for the extended trip, a month to Earth, hopefully no more than a week Earthside, then another month home, with the crew playing the greatest proxy Santa Claus in the colony’s history.

  While in transit, the crew spent a sizable amount of time reading the news of the United States, catching up on current events and checking out current social conventions. In the intervening decade, the online world had exploded. Most of the more popular social networking sites struck the colonists as fairly silly, especially when it was apparent that the vast majority of people using them were masquerading as someone other than their real selves. And the rampant exhibitionism in light of the near universal masquerade was a dichotomy that merely amused the crew. Since everyone living in the colony knew everyone else, the desire for that particular nonsense was completely unknown.

  The other social trend uncovered in their research was the sad popularity of graphic sexual content everywhere online; American culture hyper-sexualized everything, including advertising aimed at children. Chuck had them in stitches when he announced in the middle of a discussion about the trend, “I just don’t understand it myself. If I was hungry, I wouldn’t log on to watch other people eat!”

  The other disturbing trend in America was the hyper-militarization of the local police departments.

  The only standing orders Genesis could find on what to do if one of the colonists were ever discovered on Earth was immediate detention for government pickup. As for the colony’s spacecraft, interdiction and capture were the military’s orders. Though “shoot on sight” was not mentioned anywhere, that wasn’t going to lower the crew’s or the A.I.’s vigilance. Their top priority was ensuring that none of their technology fell into the hands of anyone on Earth. By doing so, the entire solar system was undisputedly theirs and Chuck
was aiming to keep it that way.

  “Lucius?”

  “Yes, G2. What’s up?” he replied.

  “I have a reservation for your team at a motel close to the warehouse. I have three rooms, a single for you assuming you might want to conduct business from there instead of at the warehouse.”

  “Very good. How much of the equipment has arrived and is in storage?”

  “I estimate about seventy-four percent with another twelve percent awaiting your arrival, as a live signature is required. I also reserved a cargo van for the pickup and transportation of perishables; the equipment needed to convert one of the shipping containers into a freezer has been delivered and only needs to be assembled.”

  “That’s excellent news, G2. Is there any additional information we need to be informed of?”

  “The American military forces are going on high alert once this spacecraft gets within one day of near-Earth space. They have not announced the imminent arrival of this spacecraft to the other governments of the world. The probability of the military trying to capture any of the three ships for its own development and use is ninety-seven percent,” G2 replied.

  “And the chances of them trying to destroy any or all of the ships?” Chuck asked.

  “I calculate that possibility at thirteen percent.”

  “How can that be?”.

  “There is overlap where the military, in the process of attempting to capture one of more of these ships, would destroy any spacecraft in danger of falling into foreign hands.”

  “Thought so, “said Lucius. “The more things change, the more they stay the same. According to the information I read, the U.S. knows where our G-wave technology is in use, but the ships have stealth capabilities as far as normal radar and heat detection is concerned, right?”

  Chuck nodded and said, “That’s right. When we came to pick you and Sydney up, Angela had a few missiles fired off at her but they couldn’t lock onto her jumper. According to the data, there’s nothing to suggest we’re any more vulnerable this trip than we were back then.”

  “So it’s just when we’re on the ground that we really have to keep an eye out?”

  Chuck laughed and clapped the older man on the back. “Lucius, my man, there’s no way any of us are going to let anything happen to you. The boys all know how to run a forklift, and they will have the portable G-wave lifters to move those containers into the whale. When we get back, remind me to ask Peanut how he rigged the self-destructs on those things. We really should think about doing the same thing to all of our tech.”

  “I didn’t know about that. What’s going to happen, are they going to explode or something?” Lucius asked in alarm.

  “Nothing like that. If anyone else gets their hands on them and switches them on improperly, they squeeze down to the size of a golf ball. I saw Peanut test one of them. It was the slickest thing!” said Chuck excitedly.

  The relief was plain on Lucius’ face, as he’d initially imagined something catastrophic happening while they were underway, or when one of them was in the process of using one of the lifters.

  “Good to know. Anyway, you already know I brought some of yours, Chris’ and Peanut’s cash for groceries and other incidentals. It’s just easier to go to food wholesalers and pick up what we need instead of trying to arrange deliveries to the warehouse. Besides, the guys are going to need at least a day to get one of the containers insulated and equipped with the refrigeration hardware. If we need to, we can rent a reefer truck to keep things cool while we check out the best places to pick up what we need. Did you see on the inventory where Genesis managed to order a scanning electron microscope?” Lucius asked.

  “I did. Is there anything we don’t have eyes on?” Chuck asked.

  “Some of the luxuries, Belgian chocolates and such. But nothing really exotic. I personally want to see if we can get some live seafood to bring back, so would you help me look into mounting some tanks off to the side in the hold or freezing some eggs?” Lucius asked.

  “Sure. Any other livestock we getting?”

  “I don’t think so. There’s been some good back and forth about the ethics of raising livestock for food. There’s even a few uncomfortable with us stocking fish. I wish Pat’s guy Marcus was closer to cloning tissue from pigs and cows. Can you imagine a real steak?” Lucius imagined, his mouth watering at the thought. “Old tastes are hard to change. I plan to have a couple good meals while we’re there, no offense to Sherman’s.”

  “None taken, I’m sure,” Chuck said with a laugh. “You know, Peanut told me to bring back some tips from Ribs ’N Bibs!”

  “You’re kidding? Is that all he had on the wish list?” Lucius asked in disbelief.

  “No, there’s some technical stuff in the mix, but while we were doing the EVA inspecting these ships it came up.”

  “I see. Is there anything special you have on the list?”

  “Some tech; a banana tree, I really miss bananas. And I want to get something special for Iris, something unexpected. You have any ideas?” asked Chuck.

  “If it’s jewelry, I have a couple of contacts we can check downtown. But I thought you were going to stay with the jumper. How’s that supposed to work?”

  “Shoot. I hadn’t really thought it out. Hey, you knew the Boston area, I could anchor the jumper and swim to shore.”

  Lucius shook his head. “That’s not going to happen, son. Not unless you have a backup pilot along with you. No one leaves any of these ships empty for the duration. Tell you what. If you give me an idea of what you’re looking for, I can make a run and pick it up for you. Hell, with these datapads, I could show you what I’m looking at!” Lucius was excited thinking about how they could use their technology to pull it off.

  “That’s beautiful! That’ll work. Hang on a second. G2?”

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

  “Given your current capabilities, will we be able to all communicate with each other once on Earth. I mean with me buried in the Atlantic Ocean, the whale underwater in Lake Michigan and Todd somewhere off the West Coast?” he asked.

  “According to all the simulations Peanut ran, and the fact that all the data networks on Earth have been compromised, unless any of the spacecraft are in deeper than two hundred fifty feet of water, there should be no difficulty for me to maintain real-time communications between every member of the crew.”

  “Good! Thank you. So there you have it, Lucius. I’ll even be able to chat directly with you should the need arise.”

  “That’s a good thing in case one of us gets in a jam,” Lucius said soberly.

  “Best not dwell. Hell, we’ve planned this thing out to the last detail. Really, what could go wrong?”

  “That’s the thing. You won’t know until it happens. Remember, the authorities are going to know we’re hanging about. They’re going to be curious why we came back, and you have to know they’ll be looking for us. We shouldn’t take anything for granted on the ground.”

  “Tell you what, why don’t we all get together on the whale and have dinner. We can go over everything, what’s at the warehouse, what’s left to collect, and the prep we have to do before we leave. As we get closer we know things are going to change. Besides, we don’t know what kind of condition all the stuff is in, we only have the fulfillment peoples’ word. We have to eyeball it ourselves to make any good guess on how long it’s going to take to load up. We should be getting together anyway,” Chuck suggested.

  The connected ships flew on through the void, getting closer and closer to Earth as the Jove and Svoboda missions approached the colony. And more and more people were getting concerned over what might happen over the next few weeks.

  * * *

  “Mr. President, it appears that the inbound ship from the colony will arrive in Earth space at exactly the same time that the Jove mission will be matching o
rbit with the colony,” Dr. Milton said over the phone.

  “Yes, that is what I am told. How did you find out? You’re not on any of the distribution lists for any such secret information. Would you mind telling me just how you found out, Paul?” President Laughlin asked.

  “By encrypted call from my good friend Martin Harris at Shelter 14. We served together on President Bender’s commission,” Milton explained. “I do hope the fact that he called me will not get him in trouble?”

  Laughlin laughed. “No harm done, Paul. I was going to inform you in the course of this call. I wanted to discuss what you thought their reason for heading back to Earth might be.”

  “The timing is pretty telling, isn’t it, Mr. President? After all, they’ve pretty much left us alone for a decade, and when we finally send a mission out to their neck of the woods, they head in our direction. And look at their capabilities! They will be here in less than five weeks where our two missions will take more than seven months to get there. It’s just not fair, Mr. President!”

  “How so?”

  “Look, they have technology that we’d give our eyeteeth to have here at NASA, and we can’t have access to it because this country is an abysmal place for blacks. They have technology that we may not have for a half a century or more; we may never be able to duplicate their gravity technologies without their help. I think we can agree that the odds of that happening are nonexistent,” Milton explained.

  “I agree. Because of our country’s collective hatred, we have truly lost something priceless that could have changed so much.”

  “That’s bullshit, Stuart!” Milton said, shocking Laughlin.

  “I’m sorry?”

  “I said, that’s bullshit. If Europeans hadn’t been so keen on the slavery of nonwhites, those people would have never come in the numbers we have today. And even if they did, chances are they would have suffered the same slights, insults and deprivations visited on blacks today. Look how racist all of Europe is today. It’s ingrained in our genes. I hardly think the colonists would have achieved at the same level as they did in isolation had they been mixed in with the rest of us. And frankly, they are better than we are, and by ‘we’ I mean whites,” Milton concluded.