“Are you questioning me?” Archer demanded.
“No sir. I just want to understand your strategy so that I can be an asset and not a liability,” Park said, straightening up in his chair.
Archer cast a sour eye toward Admiral Park. “Don’t go blowing smoke up my ass, you’re not going to like the blowback. Now if you’re serious, then perhaps you might start thinking about how to lure one of their ships into striking range so we can get our hands on it. Even damaged, we would reap a whirlwind of scientific data from it, and I plan on getting my hands on one. Their technology will be the exclusive province of the United States of America, I will not let that technology fall into anyone else’s hands, so help me God. Do I make myself clear, Admiral?”
“Yes sir, General.”
“Good. Keep your mouth shut and I’ll bring you up to date when the time comes, understand?”
“Understood. Will there be anything else, sir?”
“No, dismissed,” the Chairman said, then swiveled his chair to put his back to Park as he left the office.
* * *
“Madam President, Lauren, there is definitely something up with the SECNAV, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. The live fire of that railgun was very impressive, like throwing a nickel in the air and hitting it with a pistol shot. But as much as my aide Alex and I moused around, neither of us came up with anything specific. Those military types can be closed-mouth sons of bitches,” Senator Murphy said in the President’s private office.
President Wilcox laughed, “No kidding. If the military is determined to attack the colonists, I really don’t have many options. I’m afraid of a repeat of General Kaminski’s mutinous order to deploy SEALs to the moon’s surface,” she said wearily. “Perhaps I should have the Chairman shot.”
When Senator Murphy looked up in surprise, Wilcox added, “Oh don’t worry. Nothing said in here gets recorded, trust me.”
“Well then, just between you and me, assassination is a longstanding tradition of political trade craft. The key is to never get caught. If something should happen to the Chairman, I would see it as just an unfortunate circumstance and I would have no problem saying so, Madam President,” Murphy said innocently.
First Light
It’s damn good to be home, thought Aidan when he dumped his bags on his bed. He opened the windows to air out the house. He then looked in the kitchen cabinets and the refrigerator to see if he had anything he could rustle up for dinner.
When he arrived, there were five boxes shipped from California waiting inside the door. He was happy to see them there, but he knew that without Valerie and Bob to lend him a hand, it was going to take a while to get the projectors installed and operational. As it was early afternoon, Aidan decided to see if Constance was available.
“Hey there, I just got in. Miss me?” he asked when she picked up on the first ring.
“Aidan! I’m so glad you’re back. Did you have a good time in the California sun?” she asked.
“I don’t know how much sunshine I really got, I was working the whole time I was out there. Anything unusual happen?” he inquired.
“Silas wants to give the server farm a healthy increase in storage capacity because our little community is now uploading movies to share. A couple of your students have increased the bandwidth of both fiber optic connections to the national data network by ten percent. We’re good on electrical power and methane through to the spring, and Andrew wants to build a new greenhouse big enough to grow herbs and spices to harvest through the winter. All in all, we’re looking pretty good. What were you and Val working on? Something VR-related?” asked Constance.
“It was, and I got to bring home the experimental bacon!” Aidan explained the VR projection system. They discussed the implications of the technology and how it could benefit their community and the others like theirs scattered around the country. Technologically they had amenities only the wealthiest could afford; network speeds usually reserved for the largest corporate conglomerates, electronic devices in their homes and offices that the average consumer would give their eyeteeth to possess, and the education that had not reached school curriculums outside the communities.
Prejudice and racism had done two things in the United States. The first was creating and maintaining a nonwhite underclass barred from competing on equal footing, the second circumstance was the creation of nonwhite super achievers who exceed anything whites could do easily, handily, and without breaking a sweat. Those drawn into or invited to join those few, hidden communities were the intellectual equals to those living in space and were doing on the ground that which Christopher and his cohort accomplished. Absent Christopher’s G-waves, their innovations were just as significant. The only difference was that those in America were shouldering an unspoken risk, the risk of discovery.
Several books had been written since the middle of the previous century about African Americans carving out their niche within the United States where they could live without interference, maintaining their own self-rule. But there was always some major literary fly in the ointment. In Sam Greenlee’s The Spook Who Sat By The Door, the beginning of black peoples’ liberation was armed insurrection by black street gangs throughout the major cities in America. In Edwin Corey’s Siege, an elite African American army occupies and claims Manhattan as retribution for black slaves’ construction of the country during America’s industrial revolution. Various black science and speculative fiction authors like Octavia Butler, Samuel Delaney, and others, tackled visions of the future where blacks carved out whole worlds where whites were not wanted, or even existed. But such realities were the dreams of fiction until the lunar colony was discovered and its racial makeup came to light.
The United States of America was violently, racially polarized, and Constance and the rest of the other all-black community leaders were operating in stealth mode. Constance frequently discussed with the other leaders what they all were afraid of: what could a largely racist America could do to them? Could they be evicted from their homes, entire communities, small towns worth of blacks sequestered or interned like Japanese Americans during World War II? Or, in the worst-case scenario, would they all be killed by government forces with the murders covered up by a complicit corporate media? Remembering the destruction of Tulsa, Oklahoma in the early 1920s, some of the more militant community leaders were prepared to implement scorched-earth contingencies should determined whites try to take what was clearly not theirs. Constance relied on keeping Harmony’s head down to avoid notice, and so far, it appeared to be working.
“You and Silas think this inspector is serious about trying to find a place nearby to live?” asked Aidan after Constance described the white man’s inquiry.
“Don’t know yet. But since there’s no house or land for sale nearby, he’s going to have a hard time relocating here. By the way, some of our older teens want to have a sort of dorm built here. I guess it’s an intermediate living situation before some of them either move away or have a home of their own built,” she said.
“Not a bad idea. I guess it can be a little crowded when you are college age still living at home. Can anyone else live there? Like adults?”
‘I don’t see why not. Maybe we should just build an apartment complex,” she said, typing in a few notes on her tablet.
“Where do you want to put it?” asked Aidan.
“I thought maybe between town hall and the creek. It’ll be close to all the services of the town seat, and the area back there is beautiful. How long do you think it would take to build a thirty-unit, low rise with some really nice apartments?”
“Hell, I don’t know. I watched them do some pretty big buildings growing up in Cleveland in a matter of months. I’m not sure if we have anyone who’s done something like that, but in all the communities you’re in contact with, I’m sure we can get a design done relatively quickly. I’ll catch up with Silas while you see if you can find us an architect,” he said.
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“Done. I have a meeting in fifteen minutes. Maybe we can get together with Silas over dinner and do some preliminary planning for the dorm. What I like is that we can put our most advanced tech in the building, both electronic and environmental, really push the envelope in home living to the edge. Dinner?” she asked.
“What time?”
“Come by around seven. See if you can find Silas and let him know.”
“Sure thing, I’ll call him immediately.”
“See you tonight,” she said, then disconnected the call.
* * *
“Thank you for taking my call, General.”
“Not at all. I can always shake loose some time for GST. What can I do for you today, Ted?” asked the Chairman.
“I have engaged everyone in the railgun supply chain here, including the board of directors and there’s no way we can deliver your twenty-five DS500s for at least twenty months, and that’s with a fast delivery charge over fifty percent of the total order for the trouble of halting production on every other weapons line in the company. Assuming you would like to keep this order as quiet as possible, logistics informed me that we would have to spread manufacturing around to eighteen different GST plants instead of farming out some of the components to our partners.
“Additionally, the board expressed serious concerns about how you could pay for this order off the books, unless Congress and the President have secretly approved the billions of dollars for the hardware and the expediting fee. Have they?” Franks asked.
General Archer said nothing and when the silent stretched out an uncomfortable amount of time, he replied, “You just let me worry about the money, Ted.”
Franks answered quietly, “Very well, General. But the board is going to want a substantial deposit, if not the whole amount, in advance. If delivery is to be off the books, it is their belief that they’re taking a risk, a substantial risk.”
“Understood, Ted. I’ll be in touch.”
Archer cradled the phone, then sat back in his chair, “Fuck.” Not only did he have to find billions of dollars, he had to find some way to keep it off the books. If the U.S. was in the middle of a shooting war, there would be no problem at all. This time it was going to be a degree of difficulty greater than he had faced his entire professional career. But if it rid the country of threats from the colonists, it would all be worth it even if it ended his career; history would show he was right.
Ted Franks immediately called Jefferson Templeton, his usual board contact, as soon as he hung up the phone with General Archer.
“Mr. Templeton, Ted Franks here. I have some additional information on the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs’ order for twenty-five new DS500s.”
“What did you find out?” Templeton inquired.
“He says he will be able to get the money. And he barely blinked when I said we would want them paid for in advance plus a fifty percent expediting fee.”
“Good! Good! This is going to be fun to watch. Did he offer up any details?”
“None as yet, sir. But he did say he’d be in touch,” replied Franks.
“Keep me posted. If it at all looks like he’s going to screw the pooch on this deal, I want us squeaky clean as far as everyone’s concerned. That kind of negative publicity we don’t need.”
“Understood, Mr. Templeton. Will that be all?” Franks asked.
“Yes. Thank you very much for the update. I’ll let the others know.”
“Very good, sir.”
* * *
The relief crew at the colonial base station in lunar orbit, Jocelyn, Gabriel, Adrienne and Stirling, had settled in and were adjusting to their new routine. Stirling, one of Peanut’s engineers, had a pretty good understanding of the principles of radar. His goal was to figure out the best way to scan for and locate railgun projectiles before they became a problem. At the top of his list was trying to determine exactly what kind of damage the projectile would cause in a direct hit on the space station or a jumper.
The first thing he did was to have G2 download all of GST’s public and the Navy’s secret specifications on the railguns for analysis. G2 also obtained the specifications on the three different projectiles the Navy developed for the weapon system. Stirling gathered all the technical data to transmit back to the engineering department at the colony. This would be the first time that the colony had to work on a defense for a specific weapon system. As a matter of policy, they didn’t do war, but that didn’t mean that they were going to leave themselves open to attack.
When Peanut received the data packet on the DS500 railguns, he called a meeting with his department heads to discuss the weapon, and to see who wanted to take the lead on developing countermeasures for the projectiles.
Once they convened, and in consultation with Christopher and the council, it took no time at all to decide to build a replica of the weapon to test its capabilities, with the assurance to never use it against man or machine. As Peanut’s engineers looked at the design, they all had various improvements to offer to enhance performance. Unfortunately, Peanut put his foot down and insisted their design be identical to the Navy’s to exactly duplicate the force of the projectiles detailed in the specifications. Though disappointed, the team assigned to build the replica started work immediately; Peanut couldn’t wait.
* * *
The colony’s new habitat sailed majestically into orbit around Saturn with no problems. The construction crew was ahead of schedule building out the interior decks of the massive structure. And with the technological upgrades over the systems in the original colony, many of the most sophisticated systems were simplified for installation. The engineering team had pulled off a design and installation of a force field that could hold in the atmosphere of the large hanger where the habitat’s auxiliary spacecraft were stored even when the main airlock door was open. However, no one was going to test out that particular system until they returned to the colony.
While the construction crew was still working furiously, many of the environmental team members were trying to locate ice asteroids in the rings. Saturn has four main sets of rings and several fainter groups, all separated by gaps. The hab was above the orbit of the rings so that they could observe them in greater detail. The scientists were looking for large concentrations of asteroids, hoping to find one like the one that Christopher’s crew snagged and brought back to the moon prior to launching the colony into space. This time, since they were literally at the source, they decided to look for the perfect size and shaped asteroid to test out their new collection ports.
Virginia made the last check of the radio receiver in the lab that would automatically collect mission data recorded by the instruments in the jumpers. When they were finished with the jumper prep, Benjamin called Ops to ask if they needed additional help in the survey mission before they took off. He looked at everyone waiting for his go ahead, “Time’s a wasting team. Saddle up and let’s get hopping.”
They all dashed for the jumpers, Lois and Joy joining Benjamin in one, with Sam, Piper, and Virginia in the other ship. Benjamin and Piper eased the ships up to the massive hanger door and waited for the air to be evacuated, then when the door opened, they smoothly exited the hab out into space.
Once they were away from the bulk of the hab, the view of the rings was spectacular. Each ring was clearly defined, the edges knife sharp. Saturn itself was huge in the forward view, the left hemisphere was brightly illuminated by the sun, the right hemisphere in shadow. The atmosphere didn’t show much detail and was in places a pale yellow or beige, with banding like Jupiter.
“To think, your dad and his collection crew were here decades ago, back when the colony was still buried on the moon,” Joy whispered reverently. “It’s kind of surreal that our people have now been here twice.”
“Like father, like son,” said Lois with a soft chuckle.
“I guess the nut doesn’t fall far from the tree. Jumper Two, how do you read?” Benjamin
radioed.
“Jumper Two reads you five-by-five. I don’t know about you all, but this view is unbelievable!” Piper replied excitedly. “I never thought to see if your dad and his crew took pictures when they grabbed that asteroid. Anyone see if they had pictures on file?”
“Funny, I never thought to check,” Benjamin replied. “Hey, look at that! You can see that Saturn’s flattened at the poles!”
“No shit,” said Sam. “I know there’s an expedition crew from the hab checking out the planet proper, but I’d give a lot to fly around at least the upper atmosphere. It’s not as volatile as Jupiter. Too bad there’s no storms right now, those would be extremely cool to examine up close and personal.”
“No doubt. Now, if it meets with everyone’s approval, can we set off for Titan?” Benjamin asked.
“Take lead, Jumper One,” Piper said, moving into right echelon position behind Benjamin’s ship.
Titan is the largest known moon in the solar system, larger even than Earth’s moon. Its atmosphere is mostly nitrogen, with ethane and methane clouds giving it its pale orange hue. It is the only moon in the solar system with an atmosphere and is larger than Mercury. The surface temperature of Titan is negative 179ºC, and though mostly composed of water, it does not freeze because of ammonia serving as an antifreeze. Rotating around Saturn at twenty radi away from Saturn itself, it is likely that it is not subject to the gravitational stresses that would lend itself to a molten or semi molten core.
“Our timing is perfect,” Ben radioed.
“How’s that?” Piper radioed back.
“We’re going to have a little over eight days of daylight for the mission!”
“That’s excellent,” said Joy, as she and Lois donned headsets. “How soon before we’re in orbit?”
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