“Do the crew members of the Jove mission know the true identity of Joy’s father?”
“From encrypted email messages exchanged with Earth, the U.N. ambassador is aware of the identity of Mathews. No one else is aware of his true identity.”
“Have you been able to find out who was responsible for installing the detective on the crew?” asked Maxwell.
“The directive came from the GST board of directors. Dr. Paul Milton, the head of the NASA Jove mission, was the person who directly arranged for the detective to take an assumed identity provided by GST and train with the crew. There are no emails or other written directives among GST board members or with the director of GST’s corporate security under whom Mathews worked, that discuss him. I can only conclude all such communications were verbal and unrecorded.”
“Maybe we should just ask him?” Phillip suggested, chuckling.
“That’s a good question. Do we bother to talk to them, or to the EU/Russian mission?” Maxwell asked those assembled.
Phillip sighed, then said, “Do we really have a choice? To ignore them is not only rude, but potentially troublesome.”
“How do you figure that?” Christopher asked with borderline belligerence.
“Because even though your original motivation was to grow a community without the influences of America, specifically white America, I don’t believe you wanted a de facto state of war to exist between us.”
“Do you remember them sending soldiers the last time they wanted a ‘meet and greet? Doesn’t that constitute an act of war?” Christopher said, getting angry.
Maxwell quickly tapped out a note to Genesis on his datapad when Christopher began to speak, wanting to forestall an ugly scene.
As Christopher was building up an angry head of steam, a knock came from the door. When the door opened Peanut and Patricia entered. Peanut was all smiles when he said, “Hi, everybody. We were wondering if we could sit in on the discussion on that ship out there. Hey Chris, hey Sydney, did they try to contact us yet?”
Christopher looked at Maxwell, who had an innocent look on his face. “Really? You called my best friend and my wife to ride herd on me?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. But hey, while they’re here, they might as well join in all the fun,” Maxwell said, gesturing to the new arrivals to take empty seats at the table.
“I’m sorry, did we interrupt something?” Patricia asked as she sat, looking completely innocent.
“Not exactly. We just started discussing whether or not we’re going to contact the ship, but nothing’s been decided yet,” Maxwell said, bringing them up-to-date.
“Did they send any message other than the one they’ve been broadcasting since they set out?” asked Peanut.
“Nothing so far,” Phillip replied. “To Christopher’s point before you arrived, the last time they tried to contact us it was with armed soldiers and Chris thinks our response should encompass his and our displeasure at their actions. That’s where we are right now.”
“I read somewhere, a long time ago, where there was a game, a diplomacy game where you negotiated or attacked and points were awarded only where you negotiated,” Peanut began.
“What in the hell are you talking about?” Christopher asked.
“I don’t remember everything about the game, or I guess it was a study where you took turns. But the strategy that gave the best points was always doing what your opponent did the previous round. However, those players who finally decided to negotiate accumulated the most points.”
“This isn’t a goddamn game, Peanut. These people are the same ones who brought guns and explosives to the moon,” Christopher shot back.
“Maxwell, is there any evidence that the NASA mission is armed?” Patricia calmly inquired.
“None. Genesis completely checked out the schematics of the ship and found no weapons aboard.”
“Okay, then they’re not here to attack. What else do we know?” Patricia asked.
Maxwell looked at Sydney, and when she nodded he said, “The father of Sydney’s daughter is aboard Jove under an assumed name.”
The look of surprise on Patricia and Peanut’s faces was priceless, causing a few chuckles around the table.
“I got nothing,” Peanut finally said.
“Neither do we. And it appears that Genesis is unable to locate any information on why he was included on the mission other than the fact that he knew Sydney quite well before she left. This is where we are,” Maxwell concluded.
“If we do decide to contact them, I volunteer to be the one to do it,” Sydney offered.
“Why?” asked Christopher.
“Because it’s obviously what they planned for, why else put John on the mission? There’s really no other reason for them to have done so.”
“How do you feel about that?” Margaret asked. “How are you going to handle seeing him again?”
“I’m not sure. I keep coming around to the question of ‘To what end?’ Why John unless because of me? The GST board is hedging its bet in a way that is intriguing to say the least.”
“I say, let them stew. There’s no rush to contact them. Let’s just see what they do cooling their heels for a few days, at least until Svoboda arrives. No sense in anyone thinking we’re going to play favorites,” Maxwell said. “And in deference to Christopher’s position, we’ll be keeping quite vigilant in the meantime,” he promised.
* * *
“Well, here we are,” Harriet said after engine shutdown.
“Optical and radar ranging has us one hundred miles from the colony,” Sybil confirmed.
“Now what?” David called out from below.
“Now we wait,” Susan replied. “Let them see we mean no harm, and that we’re content to let them make the first move.”
“Jesus, that thing is huge!” said Phyllis.
“They’ve got two thousand people living inside, probably more by now,” Chester quietly observed.
“Are you reading anything coming from the habitat?” Harriet asked Sybil, monitoring communications.
“Nothing, zip, nada. Anything in the radar band, John?” she called below.
“No radar aimed this way. Except for some faint echos coming from the inbound Svoboda spacecraft. No microwave, or anything else,” John reported.
“Our orbit is stable, the engines are cooling down and I’m hungry. Who’s for some lunch?” Harriet asked, chuckling.
With the engines shut down, the spacecraft was in zero gravity again. The crew regained their weightless reflexes fairly rapidly, and when someone zigged where they should have zagged it made for a somewhat playful atmosphere.
Once they were all seated, using seatbelts that had been unused for the entirety of the trip, the conversation turned to speculation about what might come next.
“Given no invitation to talk, the first thing we should do is a complete inspection of the ship, inside and out while we wait,” Susan suggested.
“Good idea. I really want to look closely at the engines now that they’re shut off. I have to say, I’m pretty damn proud of Jensen’s designs. They held up remarkably well for a system completely untried. I’m damn glad we didn’t go nuclear like the European mission, I’m betting you can’t get anywhere near their engines by now!” said Rachel.
“After lunch, John, would you and Bianca join me so we can go over strategies for making, and more important, sustaining contact with the colonists?” asked Susan.
“I was going to help Phyllis with hydroponics. If it’s all right with her that will be fine. I’d be happy to give what meager contributions I can come up with,” he said, causing a spate of laughter to break out at his self-deprecating delivery.
“Good,” Susan said without further comment.
The conversations were wide-ranging, from the possibility of visiti
ng the colony to returning home in a month or less if they could harness the separatist gravity-based space drive. When everything was cleaned up, John went to Susan’s quarters and knocked on the closed door. When it opened, he saw that Bianca was already there. He was impressed by the extra space the she had compared to his own room, giving her a sort of mini-conference room.
“Have a seat,” Susan directed as John floated into the room. “Coffee, or anything else?” she asked.
“I’m good, thank you,” he demurred.
“I think it’s time we laid our cards on the table, John. Is John Parker even your real name?” Susan asked without a preamble.
John cut a quick glance at Bianca and saw nothing. She wasn’t giving anything away with her eyes, or anything else.
“Don’t look at her, whatever your name is. This isn’t coming from her, I want to know why GST put you on this mission and what your orders are.”
John was silent, still not sure if Bianca had spilled the beans or not.
“Judging by you expression I am correct, aren’t I?” Susan asked. Looking at Bianca, she continued, “And unless I miss my guess, you know something about John that NASA either wasn’t privy to, or they decided I didn’t need to know about.” She gave Bianca a long, hard look waiting for either of them to say something.
“Okay, it’s not Bianca’s fault. She wasn’t told either. Although somehow her investigative folks found out. My first name is John, but it’s not John Parker, it’s John Mathews,” he confessed, waiting to see if the name meant anything to Susan.
“No shit?” she asked.
“No shit.”
“So GST put you on the mission to see if you could talk to your former girlfriend,” Susan said casually.
John had to admit he was impressed.
She continued, “And do you have any orders about taking over the mission, maybe something that I’m going to be made aware of shortly?”
“Not at all. I was given two responsibilities by the board, and endorsed by Dr. Milton; I am to help facilitate communications with the colonists as directed by you, and I’m to keep an eye on the crew in the event one or more of them have been subverted by an agency other than NASA and back your play no matter what.”
“And what about you?” Susan asked Bianca.
“I have no secret orders. I am the number two negotiator, empowered to offer certain protections for the colony and to invite them into a cooperative relationship with my home country should they not want a formal relationship with the United Nations. Brazil is offering a safe haven from which their people can come and go freely,” Bianca explained.
“I’m surprised you didn’t mention your counteroffer in our discussions on the way out here. Does the U.N. know about this? And are they okay with a single country making that kind of offer?” Susan inquired.
“They are. Failing to come to an agreement between the colony and the United Nations—in other words if they decline membership as a sovereign state—then the Secretary General has authorized me to try to make any deal possible, even on behalf of Brazil.”
“And what do you know about John here?” Susan asked.
Bianca looked over to John, smiled and said, “Just about what you know. I received a transmission about him that probably contained everything you know, except they found out somehow that John was on the mission.”
“By the way, what do you know, Susan?” John asked.
“Everything that was in Sydney Atkins’ file. And the addendum about your investigation into one of her students that went missing and ended up across the way,” she said, jerking her head in the direction of the colony. “I don’t like secrets, as you probably know from your reading the transcripts from Bender’s commission. But I always have on my big-girl panties, so let’s move on.” Her expression slightly softened as she asked, “Okay, John, what do you know that I don’t? Have you been in touch with the dean since she left Earth?”
“That’s what Bianca asked me when she found out, and I’m telling you the same thing I told her: I have not. I didn’t hear anything from Sydney once she left that night.”
“So why are you here? Does GST really expect your presence here to make some miraculous difference in the success of the mission?” Susan asked.
John laughed and said, “That would be the height of foolishness, wouldn’t it? A white former flatfoot as the magic bullet on this mission. Rather delusional on their part, wouldn’t you say?”
Susan was silent, thinking over the permutations of possible roles John could play. She briefly considered throwing him out the airlock toward the colony to see what they’d do in response, but none of that showed on her face.
“What do we do now? Tell the rest of the crew?” John asked, curious to see where Susan’s thoughts were headed.
“Not yet. I can easily explain why you’re here undercover. It was obvious to me when I figured out you weren’t who you said you were, it’ll be obvious to them too. But let’s talk about the problem at hand. Other than the transmission we’ve been sending since we left Earth orbit, do either of you have any suggestions on how we draw the colony into a conversation with us?” Susan asked.
“If you think it would help, maybe send a video message from me asking to speak to Sydney? I’m more than willing to do it,” John offered.
“Not yet, I’m going to leave you as our ace in the hole. But Bianca here should record a message containing the U.N.’s offer of membership to replace the message going out now. Let’s see what that gives us,” directed Susan.
The three of them worked on Bianca’s script for a couple of hours, getting the wording and tone to their satisfaction, then filmed the presentation with Susan’s tablet. Once finished, they uploaded it to the communications network and set it to repeat, replacing Susan’s greeting. Once the message began to transmit, Susan said, “Let’s see what they think of that.”
Chapter 24
NEW DAY FOR YOU
Chuck opted for a cautious approach, well aware of the fact that their course was currently being monitored by the U.S. military. He guided the assembled ships to the Earth’s L4 LaGrange point and stopped, then called for everyone to gather in the whale for a last review of the plan, and to have a meal together before they traveled the final leg of their journey.
While they ate, the conversation centered around the changes in the United States since they had departed, and what appeared to be the same. Chuck even humorously suggested they stop off at the moon and land just outside the outpost where the SEALs were stranded and wave. However, once the meal was over and they had cleaned up, he immediately got down to business.
“I know we’ve been over the plan time and time again, so I’m not going to rehash it, but I do want everyone on the ground team to take to heart that Lucius is to be protected at all costs. And it’s not because he’s older than dirt,” Chuck said to laughs. “But it’s because he’s the only one with the genuine credentials necessary to get some of the critical items on the wish list.
“Thanks to Genesis we have working identification for the four of you that will pass a cursory muster should you be stopped for a traffic violation for example, but if someone gets curious and decides to dig into your past, the IDs won’t hold up for long. Anyone have any last minute thoughts?” asked Chuck.
Lucius spoke up and said, “I do. I know how important this mission is, but for those of us on the ground, everyone, try not to look like an episode of some TV spy show. Relax, and try to look like you’re enjoying yourself.”
Julius, Neil, Albert and Lena all nodded, grinning. They were excited to be coming home, not because they missed it so much, but because the idea of participating in a secret mission where the whole world would just love to grab them was seductively intoxicating.
Chuck passed out the disguised earpieces that would keep everyone in touch with each other and G2. He also passed o
ut the disguised tablets for everyone to test and acquaint themselves with the audio and video hardware.
“When we take off for Earth, I want everyone strapped in, you can skip the suits this time. We’re scheduled to hit atmo right around midnight Central Time. We’re going to descend just north of Alaska, skim Canada, driving down from the north and drop the whale in Lake Michigan. Then, Todd and I are going to haul ass for the coasts drawing anyone sent after us away. Lena, keep the boys in line; sometimes they don’t have the sense of a bucket of sand,” Chuck cautioned with a grin.
He and Todd were going back to their respective jumpers while the ground team stayed behind to travel in the whale. Chuck gave everyone a hug before he donned his helmet, as did Todd. The two of them were going to pilot their jumpers toward each coastline of the United States, and then dive underwater to avoid detection by the authorities as they waited for the ground crew to complete their tasks.
Once back in his jumper, Chuck sent word to the colony that they were going to be landing on Earth in a few hours. He then waited twenty minutes for a response and was pleasantly surprised when he received a message from Christopher describing the arrival of Jove. He laughed long and hard when Christopher briefly cussed him out for having Peanut and Patricia make sure he behaved. By the time the message ended, Chuck was satisfied that the situation back home was well in hand.
As he was dropping off to sleep, the last thought on his mind was a fervent wish that everything go smoothly on his probable last return to Earth.
Seemingly moments later, Chuck was awakened by G2, informing him that he had an hour until their scheduled departure time.
“All call, G2,” Chuck announced, once he was dressed and fed.
When everyone was on the line, Chuck said, “Godspeed, ladies and gentlemen, let’s keep it simple and safe.”
“Will do, Chuck,” Lucius replied.
“Take the con, commander,” said Todd as he and Sondra slaved their controls to Chuck’s jumper.
Chuck nudged the connected spacecraft out of orbit and set course for Earth. Knowing that their progress was being monitored, he asked, “G2, what is the state of military readiness in North America?”
Confrontation Page 38
