by F Stephan
More cheers followed and the mood shifted at last. The celebration began in earnest.
“Thank you, Jeanne. Thank you all for making this possible!” Tasha’s hands encompassed the whole audience. “I heard someone today in a corridor, grumbling. We are no better than ten years ago, he said.”
Murmurs of assent answered her. Andrew had been on the lunar station at that time and remembered that sad evening.
She shouted, startling him, “I disagree. Ten years ago, we closed our only space settlement. Today, we have three functioning stations. Sara and her team are mining the ores our planet desperately needs.”
Kalgoorlie’s crew launched a cheer, which was echoed by workers on the moon, and the room erupted into laughter.
“The moon base is reopening and Jeanne has agreed to support operations there.”
This produced a stunned silence. She can do it. She can restart the farms. Food. We can have fresh food. Andrew looked around and saw the same thoughts reflected in everyone’s expressions, everyone in awe at the miracles the Spider had delivered.
“We have a central hub here at Acheron to trade with the stars and the Earth. We have a spaceship and a great crew linking all our settlements.” Tasha pointed to the corner where Charon’s crew had gathered with the tall Hawkeyes Noul. Applause exploded in the room. “And we have Emily and Brian, the son of common workers in NorAm, and the daughter of an old family, now on Alkath, soon to become our first interstellar starpilots.”
Andrew didn’t like the Cattlins, who were fierce opposers of space activities. But he whooped in delight at the images of Emily and Brian that appeared next to Tasha.
“I say this is not the same. Yes, Earth is once again turning away from us. Yes, Earth is not supporting us as we had hoped. And yet we continue to grow our activities. We are close to one hundred here in space. We have never been that many. Old-timers and newcomers joined today. We are up and fighting and tonight is party night!”
Andrew raised his glass and shouted at the top of his voice, “To our Pilot. For delivering this miracle.”
This time, his toast was met by a roar.
Wilfried
Space station Acheron, January 1st, 2141
The next morning, it was hard for Wilfried to leave the station and fly off to the moon with the shuttle, leading Jeanne. But they couldn’t wait any longer to get the farms going.
“Do you have a plan for the moon?” he asked Jeanne.
“Yes, I do. I’ll tell you in time,” she answered softly, her voice trailing as she fell asleep within a minute. How old is she? She’s far older than she seems. With his co-pilot snoring beside him, Wilfried called Tasha, just to hear her voice.
Hours later, they joined Taisir and Katharyn in the main command center. The station had changed. They had cleaned the corridors and great solar traps lit the whole complex. The place was not alive yet, but neither was it the cemetery Leopold had described.
“Young man. Would you mind paying attention?”
Wilfried was playing with the unusual gravity, enjoying the pull from the moon. He stopped short. “Yes, Madam,” he answered meekly.
Taisir, now the chief of engineering on the Lunar station, smiled at them.
“Good job, Chief, as I expected. You’ve prepared good soil, seeds, and there’s no remaining bacteria in the station.” As expected? From what I’ve heard, they had to run it twice to get it right.
“But we need bacteria to cultivate. And we’ve killed every one of them on this station. How do you plan to grow anything?”
“We’d hidden stores, separate from the station. They’ll be ready when I retrieve them. We had planned for such an occurrence.”
Wilfried was stunned. “How long ago did you plan for this?”
“Twenty years ago. In space operations, you’ve got to prepare a long time in advance. Otherwise, the first storm will tumble all the castles you’ve built. You’re nice, young man, but you don’t plan enough in advance.”
Later that day, Wilfried drove Jeanne across the lunar landscape to the first of her caches.
“If you’re nice,” she said, “I’ll give you the other locations.”
“What else have you hidden?” Her secretive habits scared him. They were unnatural to him. This woman worked differently – she had been in the spotlight all her life, and at the same time, had hidden caches everywhere she had worked.
“You wouldn’t want to know. But no nanites. Don’t be scared.”
On his arrival, he had discreetly scoured the lunar installation for traces of nanites, confirming their absence.
“Jeanne?”
“Yes, young man?”
“If a starship had dropped a satellite in the outer solar system, one to produce drugs, and sent it flying to Earth, where would you hide it? If you had planned it long in advance.”
“A satellite? Easy enough. And it’s the wrong question.”
Wilfried gaped at her, unable to respond to her irony.
“I’d hide it in the asteroid belt. And I’d send chunks of rocks with the drug hidden in it. It’s very effective, because you’re sending ore nuggets to Earth anyway. So, they would be hidden in the flow. What you need to find is the transponder that directs the asteroids back to Earth, in the traffic. It’s somewhere on the station.”
“We have had regular interference. I’ve been looking for such a transponder. But I found nothing.”
The old woman gave a raucous laugh that echoed in the small cabin. “We’re talking about travel that takes three months. They just have to adjust course with very short communications. Bursts. Look for dead outside equipment. Not live equipment.” She pointed to her right at a small rock outcrop, indistinguishable from any other part of the moon. “We’ve arrived. Stop on the next rise.”
As she requested, he parked on the rim of a crater and watched the frail woman go for a moonwalk. Under the shadow of the surrounding mountains, she approached an old door, surmounted by a satellite dish. Astronomical station. She used everything she could find. Wilfried watched the sun move above them and the shadows change in the dreary landscape. I should bring Tasha here.
An hour later, Jeanne brought back two briefcases. “In perfect condition. In less than two months, you can expect your first crops. Now, did you use that time to think ahead? How are you going to trap people who have time to evade you?”
“No, Madam. I was watching the scenery.”
“And you think you’re going to catch your smugglers that way? I will sleep while you drive us back. Use that time. We will talk about your plan when we arrive.”
Wilfried turned the moon buggy back toward the station, thinking silently. Things were now improving. In two months, they would get most of their food from the moon instead of Earth, with less effort, and they would begin rotating teams down here for rest periods. Tasha would get more time off and they would be able to explore more of what they had started before the year’s end.
And, finally, he knew how he would track the smugglers.
Susanna
Panama, January 3, 2141
The volcano Baru loomed high above the jungle, its dark fumes rising into the clear blue sky. Behind Susanna, Mayans with golden masks danced to the rhythm of traditional songs. She too wore Mayan garb, her partial nakedness always welcomed by her audience.
A warrior carrying an antique spear approached her, his blue eyes level with her. Those eyes were abnormal in this setting, but who would notice? She found them attractive, though.
“This is a sign of the gods!” he bellowed to her.
“A sign of what, great warrior?” Her answer was a murmur, a mouse facing an ancient god.
“The gods are striking at us again and again. The Ancients went to the stars and died. We have gone to the stars and we’re dying because of their drugs, our bees are dying, our planet is turning against us. The students we are sending to their planet are maimed and damaged for life. Can’t you see the truth? They bring us death and miser
y.”
Echoing his words, a new rumble shook the Earth, casting Susanna to the ground, to be caught by the big man. Unplanned. Hmmm!
He lifted her back on her feet with no apparent effort. You dislike their drugs, but how could a normal human do this without nanites? How hypocritical – I love it.
“I’m talking with Great Warrior Apachapac, who has joined forces with the Ecowarriors to ask us to return to our planet and take better care of her. Will we listen to him? Stay with me as I drive through the devastated jungle. You’ll see how one of the last shelters of Central America can no longer host human activities for a long time. Currently, the United Organization has launched a relocation effort and we’re calling your help to support this effort. Another migration has begun, this time here.”
She had already flown over the valleys on her way in, and she knew how stunning the sight would be. Due to the different plagues, fifteen million inhabitants had concentrated in this small area, now burned by the lava. It would be such a great human drama.
An image appeared over her, a prompt for conversation. She accepted it, as if opening her personal life to viewers, and Isabel Mascherano, a spokeswoman for EarthFirst, walked to stand beside the Ecowarrior.
“Susanna, Earthfirst is standing by our friends here in Central America. All our resources will be devoted to helping them.” Her voice was a little too silky. “But, dear Susanna, we need to stop this folly. Send someone to put the station to minimum activity until the situation gets better. This has to stop!” Her eyes were glistening slightly, emotions betrayed perfectly, as had been planned for the show.
Anaru
European Confederacy, Zurich, January 5, 2141
Reluctantly, Anaru had traveled to Central Police headquarters. He found the place cold and haunted. And I’m becoming too old for this. Time to get someone to replace me. Their new nanite sniffers had arrived, and he had wanted to see the demonstration now that they would deploy it to local police forces, beyond the normal CPC forces. They had dismantled the processing plant, but new ones would soon be built, and they needed to be ready before then.
He watched the show for an hour and then shook hands with all the officials who had come to the ceremony, before he had some time with the Chief.
“Yasmina, your men have used those sniffers for a while. Will they make a difference?”
“Yes, and no. Yes, we have arrested dealers. No, the range is too limited, and we are only finding low-level guys. Anyone higher up is protected by layers of insulation.”
“Are dealers usually that organized?” inquired the diplomat.
“No. Usually the structure leaks one way or another. The guy who has set up the operations has set this as a spy network. Independent cell working with dead drops, all that stuff.” She twisted her fingers, signaling her discomfort. “We have known this type of organization for a long time, but they are applying it systematically at a scale I haven’t seen anywhere in the past. It requires a lot of trained operatives and money to keep such an order across the world.”
“Can we catch those operatives? They have to know the cells, if they are to keep order.”
She shrugged. “We are trying. I have pursued one across Africa, but he wriggled out of our reach. They don’t have many.”
“Whoever is behind this must be backed by a powerful nation or conglomerate,” concluded the aged man. “At least, Chief, it narrows down the number of our enemies more and more.”
Tasha
Space station Acheron, January 4, 2141
Leopold entered the main conference room, beaming. “We’ve got good news. With Kimi’s proposals implemented, the whole structure will be finalized tonight. The wheel, complete tonight. And without a glitch!”
Tasha relaxed back in her chair. “At least that’ll improve our situation. We need it, with a maimed pilot coming back to Earth in the coming month. Leopold, can you imagine how seeing him is going to hurt us?”
He winced. “What’re we going to do about it?”
“Nothing publicly. Prepare for another budget cut.”
“So, increase private funding? Is this allowed in our charter?”
“Technically, no. It took me a week to find the hole in the charter. We cannot depend on a non-governmental source of funding. But here, the budget has just been cut officially due to the emergency on bees. So, we would not rely on private funds permanently. Just as a temporary emergency.”
“Thin.”
She nodded. “Any other ideas?” When he didn’t answer, she continued, “We’ll hold a grand charity ball to celebrate the creation of the foundation.”
“At least EarthFirst couldn’t block it. If they demonstrate, they will bring even more attention to it. When will it be?”
“Two weeks from now. That will give us time to organize it and gather the wealthy, without granting too much time to our opponents.”
“Seems like a good plan. I’ll be back in the belt but Wilfried will be back. Anyway, I’m a poor dancer.” Leopold laughed. “God, I don’t want to be in your shoes, Tasha.”
“Me neither. Can you help me with your network?”
He nodded. “I’ll start making calls straight away.” He turned to leave. “And I’ll ask the crew. They have a network of their own on Earth.”
“Well I’ll do the same. I haven’t taken enough time to call friends lately.” She opened her commlink, sending out meeting inquiries.
“Mrs. Cattlin?” On her first attempt, Tasha had reached the middle-aged, dark-haired, plump woman with a haughty attitude. She was in Chicago, seated in an antique salon rebuilt in a classical Viennese style. Behind her, at the edge of the screen, Tasha saw another woman, younger but of the same family, playing piano. She disliked both of them instantly. They were expecting another call. I must take my chance.
The older lady nodded reluctant approval, and Tasha went on to explain quickly the purpose of the ball and why it would be very helpful to her daughter if she could take part.
The elderly woman snorted in response. “Support this abomination? Certainly not. I won’t send a copper to support a degenerate mutant like you. And that Emily is no better.” Then she closed the connection so fast that Tasha couldn’t utter a word. Woah – no wonder Emily wanted to fly far from home.
She took a few minutes to catch her breath before she tried to reach Elisabeth Evans. When she was allowed through, the executive was in an office overlooking a cornfield. Behind her, a glass window overlooked a shop floor of space assembly lines.
“Miss Podorovski, what can I do for you?” She looked worried and had closed another connection before opening this one.
“Is there a problem? Is this the wrong time?”
“My daughter has a fever. It should be over by tomorrow. But you didn’t call to inquire about her health. What’s happening?” Elisabeth’s tone became cold and professional again.
Quickly, Tasha described the plan for the foundation and the ball.
“I can try to raise funds in the Wyoming Complex. My family isn’t well off – I presume Brian told you?”
Tasha agreed.
“But father and mother have made friends over there. Some may help. We can also call on Li Bao’s foundation.”
“The one for her parents?”
“Yes, it’s been supporting a lot of space projects since she returned.”
“We’ll take any help we can get.” Tasha liked the idea and would call Li Bao directly as well.
“Give me a couple of days and I’ll let you know what I can find.”
“I know how hard corporate life can be. Don’t put yourself at risk helping us.”
The executive brightened. “I wouldn’t want my little brother to fly back home with nowhere to dock. Some of our leaders within the Conglomerate may support me. As for the ones who don’t, let’s just say that if they win back the executive council, I’m out. So, this won’t change anything for me. In fact, it may even help me.” She’s fast on her feet, this one. If s
he’s fired, I’ll get her to run some company for the Podorovski clan.
“Thank you.” Tasha bowed. “We’ll be in touch.”
When the connection closed, Tasha massaged her forehead, pushed herself from her desk, and went looking for a meal. It wasn’t going very well. Without the Cattlin family, she had no way to reach the Old England billionaires. Any other support in NorAm would be so tiny it wouldn’t make a difference. And without the Cattlins and their connections, she wouldn’t convince old Europe and prudent China.
Wilfried
Space station Acheron, January 5, 2141
“It’s hard to reach you, O Mistress of the Academy.” Wilfried’s tone was half-serious, half-joking as the connection opened with Li Bao. Then, he stopped short. She was dressed all in white, hair bound behind her, and her expression was grim. Why don’t you answer Tasha or Leopold? You were closer with them, before.
“I’ve a lot of work to do, Pilot,” she answered formally with a little bow. “What can I do for you?” She was in the office Kris had used, still at the small side table. The large desk he had used remained empty.
“We need to reinforce our crew for lunar activities. Do you have a few trainees that could help us? Four or five students.”
“Wil, our students are highly valued for many positions on Earth. They’ve got career opportunities everywhere. Why would they choose space? Apart from the ones doomed to die on Alkath. No one really cares for space down here.”
Wilfried blurted, “Because the Earth Academy has been founded to train future pilots.”
“And nothing else. Every other student is free to do as they please. This is guaranteed by the Federation charter.” She spat out the words with a venom he had rarely seen in her. “All governments are backing me. We’ve better things to do than send highly skilled professionals to waste their lives in space. I’m sorry, Wilfried. This is final.” With that, she shut the connection, leaving him standing open-mouthed.