by Bob Mauldin
Lucy looked at Marsha in sympathy. “I’ll tell him, all right—for you, for myself, and everybody else affected by this stupidity now and in the future. This is exactly what we should have expected, but idealists all, we thought we were past this pettiness. There should be no impact on our families. Especially, not in America, for Christ’s sake and I will make that plain in no uncertain terms!”
It was a fine, clear August morning when Lucy beamed into an alley not far from Union Station. She walked a short distance to a bank of pay phones and dialed Galway’s private number. The phone went unanswered on the third ring, and she was about to hang up when she heard the click of a completed connection. “Galway.”
“Lucy Grimes, here, Mr. Galway. We need to talk.”
“Ever the blunt one, aren’t you, First Captain? I can play that game, too. Name the place and I’ll be there. If it’s urgent, make it someplace close, would you?”
“Just sit tight and give me your address. I have a package I believe you should see. I’m having it delivered to you.”
Giving a suite number in the Department of Labor Building, Galway said, “It’s the best I can do on short notice. I understand I have you to thank for my reactivation.”
“Anything is possible, Mr. Galway. I’ll call back after you receive the package.” She hung up the phone and called another number. “This is Grimes. You can send the package out now.” After giving the messenger service the address she’d gotten from Galway, she was told it would be about an hour before the package reached its destination.
With an hour to kill, Lucy strolled out of the Station and up to the first taxi in line at the stand. “Air and Space Museum,” she said after a short hesitation. As many times as Lucy had been in Washington, D.C., she’d never been to see any of the sights or memorials that dotted the cityscape. This one was of particular interest to her since she’d been aviation crazy from her earliest memories. While other girls had been playing with Barbie dolls, Lucy had models of P-51 Mustangs and lunar landers hanging from her ceiling.
Maybe one day we’ll be in here, too, she thought as the cab pulled up at the entrance.
The hour came and went as Lucy wandered through the exhibits. The Spirit of St. Louis was gazed at in wonder and a Mercury space capsule with awe, while a mockup of the first space station brought chuckles. Finally, she wandered over to the phones and called Galway’s number, amazed that she now knew it by heart.
“Your package arrived two hours ago. I was beginning to think something had happened to you. It’s about time for lunch and I’ve been here since six-thirty. Can I buy you a cup of coffee and a bite?” Galway said.
“Sorry ‘bout that, Mr. Galway. I got wrapped up in some of the exhibits in the museum I’m in. How about I buy? Have you had a chance to look at the package yet?”
“I’ll be happy with any arrangement as long as my stomach quits having this relationship with my backbone. And yes, I have. I’ve seen something like it before. The former president had a similar one, along with a letter in his office some time back, I believe,” Galway said.
“True enough. Bring it with you to the Air and Space Museum. I don’t need to tell you to come alone, do I?”
“No, you don’t, Lucy. Can I call you Lucy? You got me back in the loop. I’m not going to repay that with some kind of double cross. I will say that I’m going to let my boss in on what’s up, though. Without the specifics, like where we’re meeting. If I remember correctly, it wouldn’t do much good anyway, would it?”
“No, it wouldn’t,” Lucy said with a chuckle. “Be prepared for a short trip, though, and this time you won’t need a bag. You’ll be back in time for dinner, I promise. Twenty minutes? Thirty?”
“Twenty should do it, I think,” Galway said.
Lucy stood near the entrance and watched as the taxi pulled up to the curb. When Galway got out, she strode out of the building and stood against the wall with every appearance of nonchalance. As Galway started to enter the building after paying off the cabby, she said quietly, “I forgive you, Mr. Galway. The last time we met I was in uniform. Unfortunately, I have to wear civilian clothes as a disguise.”
“This is an improvement, so ‘unfortunately’ isn’t a word I would choose,” he said appearing only slightly startled. “Black really isn’t your color.”
“But I’ve become used to it after so long. Let’s walk. Do you have the disk with you?”
“Yes,” he said simply, sliding it partway out of his shirt pocket. “What is it?”
“It’s a locator disk. We use it to beam people up who don’t have one of these.” Lucy said as she showed him the wristband that circled her left wrist. “At the moment the one you have is ‘slaved’ to my wristband. If you don’t let go of it, you’ll disappear from here and reappear on the Galileo when I signal for a pickup. Want to go for a ride?”
“As long as we get to have lunch. I’m free until I report back. How does it work?”
“Like so many things aboard the Galileo, we don’t know. As Simon once said, we’re in the position of a caveman in middle ages Europe. We can learn to use the technology and even duplicate it with the help of the ship itself, but much of it we just can’t understand yet. Could that caveman have understood ships and sails and compasses and such? Well, we can’t understand how the computers work because they’re a protein gel, nor can we understand antigravity, artificial gravity, or any number of other things. But we have learned how to use them.”
The older man and young woman made an unlikely pair as they strolled along at a sedate pace. “Do you mind causing a stir, Mr. Galway?” Lucy asked innocently.
“What kind of stir?”
“There are a few people who’d see us as we beam out, and I imagine some of them would find it necessary to report it to someone. Of course, if you’ve explained things to your boss, it won’t go past him, and he’ll have things under control by the time you get back. Wanna live dangerously?”
“What the hell. I’ve been out of the field for quite a while now. Let’s do it. How about getting back?”
“The disk is also a tracking device. When you said you had it in your office, we used it to get a lock. Now we can send you straight back there. No fuss, no muss. Good enough?”
“Sneaky. Deal. Let’s do it.”
“And a sense of adventure, too. I like men like that. Stand still. It’s easier that way.” Lucy pressed the button her wristband, and three people walking toward them stopped in amazement as the two people vanished in clouds of blue sparks.
“Welcome aboard the Galileo, Mr. Galway. I’ll take responsibility for the visitor, Lieutenant,” she said to the woman standing at the transport console. “You said something about lunch. Shall we?” She led him out the door and down a corridor brimming with people. Finally reaching the elevator, she said, “We’ll eat in the officer’s mess on level three, I think. Then a tour of the ship. In between times I have some things I need to talk to you about, things you probably need to bring to your boss’s attention. At least let him know that we know.”
“Like what?”
“Like, for instance, we know that Simon Hawke is alive and in custody. We want him back immediately, of course.”
“What?” Galway yelped. Lucy was glad they were alone in an elevator. “That’s not possible. We have footage from three different angles. They all show him being shot, damn it all. I wish I could change that, but it’s true. Somebody’s blowing smoke up your... skirts,” he finished lamely.
“We have good intelligence that he’s alive and in detention in Aurora, Colorado, along with Agent Daniels of the FBI. Remember him? We want them freed and returned to us.”
“If it’s true, and I’m not about to admit that it is at this point, I can’t guarantee that we can give you Daniels. Why do you want him anyway?”
“He has questions to answer in the matter of three of our members,” Lucy stated unequivocally, “and he will be turned over to us one way or another. I
promise not to let him get hurt, Mr. Galway.”
The elevator doors opened, and Lucy led him down another corridor. This one was wider, but still just as busy, it seemed. Shocked as he was at the news, Galway couldn’t help but stare at everything they passed. After three years of hearing about the ship that had taken on a near-mythic quality among the intelligence community, he was walking her decks. “So where are we going, First Captain?” he asked, trying to hide his eagerness with formality.
“You know, I really don’t like that title. Most people around here just call me Captain anyway. But you can call me Lucy for any informal occasion. Besides, if Simon is alive, I’ll be going back to captain sooner or later.”
“I’d like that, Lucy. And you can call me Brandon.”
“Okay, Brandon, I will. As for your question, I thought to show you some of the Galileo in hopes of catching you off guard and giving away something I could use to get Simon free. You’re either way too good at what you do, or you really are as surprised as you act. Either way, I lose. For now. Here we are, officer’s mess.”
Lucy and Galway walked onto the bridge following a leisurely lunch and interrupted a discussion between Robert Greene and Mustafa Morgan, the Galileo’s Captain. “Hello, Robert, ‘Stafa. I thought I’d chaperon our guest through a short tour of the ship. Brandon Galway, meet Captains Robert Greene of the Niven and Mustafa Morgan of the Galileo. Mr. Galway is associated with the Office of the President and could be a great help if we don’t alienate him, so let’s play nice, okay? So what did we interrupt?”
“I was just filling Captain Morgan in on your transfer to the Niven, Captain,” Robert said. “He was of the opinion that there wasn’t enough space for your suite until I explained the restructuring.”
“You could enlighten me, too, Robert,” Lucy said, sitting down at the navigator’s station. “I’ve heard about it but haven’t been filled in on all the details. That’s what happens when someone takes over without a full briefing. So much gets lost that the replacement has to work with incomplete data. I’m going to make sure that never happens again, trust me. Once Simon is back in charge, he’s going to keep his successor up to date if I have anything to say about it. Have a seat, Mr. Galway.” Lucy waved her hand at the station next to hers. “Don’t worry. All controls are offline when we’re at standby.”
“I was just explaining that the ceilings have been lowered,” Robert said, uneasy in the presence of Galway, “which gives us an entire extra deck that the Heinlein and the McCaffrey don’t have, so there won’t be any trouble fitting your staff into place. As it stands, we have you just about completely moved out of the Galileo already. Actually, there will be even more room than you have now, ma’am. And there are other... modifications that I’ll brief you on later.” He shot a meaningful look in Galway’s direction. “As an extra bonus, Captain Gardner sent along a special gift. It seems that he anticipated the loss of the transporter when the Galileo is off building Taurus Base, so he sent you a redesigned shuttle. Its crew complement is four and has been specifically designed for passenger service. It seats one hundred and twenty, so it won’t take too many trips to get a crew of new arrivals aboard, once we can land openly, that is.”
“That was very thoughtful of him,” Lucy said, pointedly ignoring the sarcasm. I’ll have to send him a thank-you note. Who’s going that way next?”
“I think Marsha is, ma’am. She’s supposed to stop at Vesta and see what progress the machines we left behind have made. It should be almost completely hollow by now, we think.”
“Wait a minute!” Galway groused. “I know a little bit about our solar system. I have to now, thanks to you folks. And I know that Vesta is one of the biggest asteroids in the belt. Are you saying that you’ve hollowed it out? What on Earth...what the hell for?”
“Why, Brandon, we need a space station, too,” Lucy said coyly. “And since we operate at a greater distance from Earth than NASA’s astronauts, we need a base farther out. It seemed perfect, except that it was solid rock, so we set some machines to hollowing it out a year or so back. The Galileo will probably go there and outfit it before returning to Earth orbit permanently.”
“Why would she come to Earth orbit permanently?”
“Once the major construction jobs are done, what do you think we should do with her, Mr. Galway?” Captain Morgan asked. “We thought to use her as a staging area for the new ships being built. And training areas, of course. Volunteers can beam aboard and train for however long it takes before being transferred to a new ship. It will work for personnel transfers, too. People getting tired of space or just wanting a vacation need to be replaced. Consider it a waystation between Earth and the rest of the galaxy.”
“Captains, I’m sure you have a lot more to discuss. I’ll take Mr. Galway on the rest of his tour and then send him home. What corner of the Niven do you have me tucked into, Robert?” Lucy asked, standing up and effectively ending the conversation.
“Just beam into the reception area, ma’am. Your Lieutenant Ross will be a comm call away.”
The three men got through the ritual of handshakes and unmeant pleasantries, and Lucy led Galway off the bridge.
“Well! I’m glad to be out of that testosterone storm. First, how about a visit to the flight deck? I believe we have a Mamba or two for you to see.”
Lucy stood with Galway in Transport Control after sending the technician out and said, “I have one other thing to bring to your attention, Brandon. We know that some of our relatives are being detained for no other reason than that they are related to us. Mine are among them, and so are two of my captains’, and it’s all I can do to keep a lid on the... level of emotional stability around here. If this situation doesn’t rectify itself immediately, I will not be responsible for the consequences. I don’t want to bandy around the word ‘mutiny,’ but I can’t be everywhere at once, know what I mean? You tell that to your bosses, Brandon, and make sure they get the full impact of what it could mean to push us. Remember Lake Burgess? Now, none of us are angry at you, personally. Just don’t let us find out that you had anything to do with this one!” Leaving the threat hanging, she called the technician back in to send Galway down to Earth.
As soon as Galway disappeared, she beamed over to the Niven, commed her aide, Lt. Diana Ross, and walked around the reception area while she waited.
“Welcome aboard the Niven, Captain.”
She turned toward the speaker. Diana Ross, half of a pair of twins, had been appointed her aide when she was first promoted to First Captain. The young lieutenant, along with Commander Kimura, worked hard to keep her boss from having to deal with the minutia that would take her mind away from the necessary work of keeping the dream of the Alliance on track.
“Thank you, Diana,” Lucy said to the flame-haired woman. “I understand you know where our quarters are.”
“Yes, ma’am. Follow me. And you have a communiqué from Commander Pike in Zurich. It’s marked ‘urgent.’”
“No rest for the wicked,” Lucy sighed. “But I haven’t had time to be wicked, so I don’t know why fate is landing so hard on me.”
The grumbling was good-natured, but Lieutenant Ross knew the sentiment behind it was no less valid for all that.
Lucy strode through the door marked with the now-familiar plaque beside it and couldn’t repress the shudder she felt every time she read it. Turning her attention away from her own discomfiture, she looked around the room. A desk to one side was occupied by Commander Kimura, who stood guard over the doorway to her private office. There were chairs lined up along the opposite wall, fronted by a low table that was covered in the magazine effluvia that always occupied level spaces in waiting rooms. There were pictures on the walls, and a waist-high pedestal holding a single, head-sized rock in one corner caught her eye.
“It looks good, Rukia,” she said to the woman behind the desk. “Takes talent to do this on such short notice. Diana, take the rest of the day off, and
Rukia, you will too, as soon as you bring me up to speed on the rest of my day. And why do we have a rock on a pedestal in the waiting room?”
Her secretary blushed. “I, uh, found it among your personal possessions when we moved you over here, Captain, and I remembered something you said about the first thing you retrieved when you started flying missions during the construction of Libra. I thought it fitting to have it in the anteroom. If I’m out of line, ma’am...”
“No, you’re not, Rukia,” Lucy hastened to reassure her. “I’d actually forgot about that thing. It does fit.”
Kimura relaxed slightly. “Thank you, ma’am. And if you don’t mind, both Diana and I would like to stick around.”
“But I do mind, Commander,” Lucy shot back. “If as you say, I only have one appointment today, I think I can handle it myself. And if you haven’t noticed, I have only one secretary and one aide. I hereby declare August 9th to be the First Interstellar Aides and Secretaries Day, so you can’t be here. Out!”
Lucy stood there, trying her damnedest to look imposing, and pointed at the door. Only after the door had closed on the two young women did she drop her arm and walk into her office. Huh! She thought. I wish everything went that smoothly.
She opened the door to her office and looked around at the bare walls and desk heaped with papers. I don’t think people will ever get away from the need for keeping records on paper. Look at how much paper gets used in a “computerized” office downside.
Lucy sat down in the chair and picked up the paper that lay centered in the small, bare space directly in front of the chair. “To: First Captain Grimes, Niven. From: Commander Lloyd Pike, Zurich,” she read. “After returning from a Security Council meeting, Baron von Schlenker requests the pleasure of your company at his castle. He has left transportation standing by for your use. Come soonest.”
Shaking her head, Lucy beamed over to the Galileo. “Send me to the Zurich coordinates, would you, Ensign?” Lucy asked the technician on duty. She beamed into the hotel suite and was immediately met by Crewman Wilson, one of the two men assigned as gopher and guard for her Zurich staff members. “Where is Commander Pike, Crewman?” she demanded.