April 3: The Middle of Nowhere

by Mackey Chandler

  "Then all you can do is watch the East Wind facility in Jiuquan. They could drop it on almost any military airfield with a long enough runway, but that's where all their deep security space work is and the approach over the Gobi desert is secure in case you have a lander go down short. You can keep a real time watch on them using commercial services, or position your own cam. I wouldn't assume they will have to lift a ship to bring it down. They may divert something already up and transfer it."

  "Okay, thanks Marion. They must not have tried to open a generator. I wish they had. That would take care of the whole matter. I suspect they know now from the loss of the Home Boy that they are booby trapped. They will cut the generators out and separate them widely to work on each. Probably the same with the compensators until they get at least one open. I want to hit them within minutes of being on the ground before they can disperse the pieces to get open and study. I see no possibility they will back down. If I see them land that ship I'm going to destroy it on the ground to keep the tech from them. They may lump Home in with me and retaliate. If you have people here you might consider evacuating them."

  "Why do you expect them to retaliate? Busting your ship up shouldn't be that big a deal to get them all excited."

  "It's going to take out everything around the ship too," Jeff explained. At Marion's quizzical look he added. "For quite a distance around it, like maybe the whole base. And if they decide to get pissy about it with me I am prepared to systematically bombard the shit out of the People's Republic of China," he added, plainly.

  Louis looked alarmed for the first time. "My wife has folks in Scotland. I think it's a good time for her and the kids to visit. How fast should I get them moving?"

  "I'd do it today, tomorrow for sure if there are connections," Jeff admitted. "I guess I better talk to Jon about this too. Other folks might want to evacuate too, wouldn't they?"

  "Talk to him and maybe even do an all addy com announcement," Marion suggested.

  Jon agreed with Marion. "It's just the correct thing to do to make a public announcement if you feel folks are at risk." He refused to compose it or do it for Jeff however.

  April's pad chimed and she was mildly surprised. There were few people who could make her pad do a single chime and they had to specifically tag their message as urgent. When she saw it was a system wide message she was even more alarmed. Anyone could do an all addy broadcast on their net, but people were very good about not abusing it. There had only been two all system broadcasts since the war, one over a missing seven year old and one when an off station visitor turned out to have an active case of nasty drug resistant TB. The screen showed text and she read:

  Emergency Hazard Notice for Home issued by Jeff Singh: "As many of you are aware the People's Republic of China has seized the fast courier Eddie's Rascal, owned by Just on Time Services and operated by Lewis Couriers. It is a Home registered vessel and carries proprietary Singh technologies upon which Home depends for its defense."

  "The vessel was attacked in surprise by the People's Republic military ship The Moment of Tranquility at the public docking boom of ISSII. Two Home citizens died in the hijacking and an estimated twenty Chinese service members."

  "When contacted in protest the Chinese explained the legal theory behind their attack is that their former citizen Nam-Kha Singh has stolen her duty of work to the state and her education by an unauthorized defection and they own both her labor and the products of her labor and they intend to recover both, as well as punish and rehabilitate her. They do not intend to yield."

  "It is essential to Home's survival and my personal survival and ability to retain and use my property and intellectual property rights, that the technology in this vessel not be available to the Chinese. I intend to destroy the vessel Eddie's Rascal wherever it is found in near Earth space or on the Earth's surface. I have told China I will wage war upon them to at least the degree needed to accomplish that. Not Home, not the militia, just Jeff Singh. Being private property and not yet officially committed to militia service I'd prefer to respond to this without calling for an Assembly vote or militia aid at this point."

  "There may be considerable damage and loss of life associated with the destruction of the Rascal. If the Chinese decide to retaliate broadly against Home rather than just against me personally there is risk for anyone living in Home and thus I was urged by several people to post this public notice."

  The notice was copied to most of the news services and all the other habitats in Earth orbit. The next three shuttles leaving home were booked full and a few seats changed ownership at the lock for cash. Within an hour several people called for an Emergency meeting of the Assembly.

  The four people formally asking for the Assembly spoke to Mr. Muños briefly and sat near the moderator's table together looking grim. The time had been set between meals and the cafeteria wasn't shut down. There were a handful of folks by the coffee pots just there to catch a sandwich or snack, but eyeballing the free show. Muños didn't build an elevated platform like some previous Assemblies. There was not a huge physical crowd but he expected a good online attendance.

  When the set time arrived Muños opened a video site on the local net and asked the four to express their issues.

  The older woman looked at the other three and stood up. "My husband and I protest being put at risk by the actions that Jeff Singh publicly says he will take against the Chinese. We did nothing to be associated with him and it isn't fair we should be sitting on a bull's-eye because of things he did we have no control over."

  "Might you favor us with your name?" Muños asked.

  "I'm Anna Beedle and this is my husband Murphy. I speak for him too."

  Mr. Muños stared at his pad frowning. "I did not have a com call from any Beedles asking for an Assembly."

  "We're living with my daughter-in-law, Brenda Shindler. I called on her com."

  "Are they co-sponsors then?" Muños asked, genuinely puzzled.

  "We didn't say anything to them about it. Anytime we try to talk politics with the kids we end up yelling at each other and her husband gets rude about it. We just moved up here and don't have a place of our own yet so we were trying to keep the peace."

  "Madam, I do not see any Beedles listed as tax payers. Have you or your husband taken on Home citizenship?"

  "Well, no. We will I assume, but we just got here and I'm not even sure what we have to do to become citizens. But certainly we should have a voice in anything that affects us!"

  "The Home site on the local net details in very plain language what you must do to become citizens," Muños explained in a voice suitable for small children. "It is quite possible to register and assume citizenship within the hour of your arrival. I'm afraid that if you are citizens of another nation you have no standing to call an Assembly of Home or to participate in the debate or voting on any issues."

  "We're from Canada," she said. "I understand most of you here are from North America."

  "Yes, we were from, North America. We are no longer. The distinction seems to elude you."

  Ben Patsitsas, the author stood and asked to be recognized. Muños was happy to do so.

  "We have two foreign nationals interfering with our internal politics. They have already wasted many man hours of our time. I'd like to put it to a vote to end this farce, instruct them to remove themselves from this danger zone and return to Earth."

  "Second the motion, banish the idiots," Paul Sweeny from maintenance said immediately.

  "It has been proposed and seconded that the Beedles be banished from Home, how do you people say?" he asked the nation. It was a light vote, but 1,127 for, 6 against.

  When the younger couple were invited to present their petition they had a quick whispered conference afraid now of how a similar proposal would be received even from citizens. They decided sentiment was against them and withdrawing any motion and left quickly.

  In Environmental the Beedles' mortified son-in-law got somebody to cover his console so
he could hurry home. When his in-laws arrived there shortly thereafter the door code was changed and their luggage was sitting in the corridor. Nobody doubted how he had voted.

  * * *

  The com was extra shrill just like he's set it and it would get louder each time until he answered it. "Lights up," Jeff said, then added, "medium," after they dazzled him.

  "You need to see this," his hired man Louis said and split the screen. "See these back-ups and private vehicles making u-turns?" He circled them on the screen. "They have almost completely shut down the road that run between Jiuquan and the launch center. Very little traffic is getting through and when it gets to the base not all of it is being allowed in there. We have a little car park both inside and outside the base entry and they have accumulated quite a few vehicles being held."

  "How far from the town to the port?" Jeff asked, scrunching his nose up trying to remember.

  "About a hundred kilometers. It's way out in the Gobi desert."

  "Good, if I have to bombard them that should keep casualties down."

  Louis was at his office where he had some serious screens and better facilities than his apartment. After his dad got married he moved out of their shared tiny two bedroom so he could remodel it to one bigger bedroom and a second closet for Nam-Kha. The new place was hardly more than a hot slot, but he'd tried sleeping at his office and found he couldn't stop working if everything was just a few steps away.

  "I'm going to come up there. Do I have time to take a shower?" Jeff asked.

  "Yeah, I don't think anything is happening that fast, maybe in a few hours, but I have other stuff to show you too."

  "Okay, make a fresh pot of coffee in about fifteen minutes and I'll be there soon." He stumbled in the shower and cleaned up, but kept telling it cooler until it was waking him up. Should he wake April or Heather? Somehow he didn't think they'd appreciate getting up in the middle of the night. Would they land during his night just to make it difficult for him to react? No, surely that was being too paranoid. They'd land it just as soon as they could do so safely.

  He dressed in comfortable loose clothing, in case he had to stay at it a long time. The corridor was almost empty on the back shift. The Hazard Notice he'd posted to the local net was released to Earth news agencies too, but he had his doubts any of them would feature it. A search returned one story on a site that specialized in man bites dog sort of bizarre news features.

  It framed the story as a single man declares war on the largest nation on Earth. It was illustrated with a line drawing of a shabby looking fellow with a lance on a horse facing a windmill. He didn't get the reference at all. The firm implication was he was a mentally deranged person and implied that wasn't uncommon among spacers. It suggested that was a natural consequence of their isolation. He refused to let it irk him. He needed a level head and not to be carried away with anger to deal with this.

  When he palmed the door and entered his offices Louis was talking with Happy. He hadn't expected him to be here. He was dressed in one of those Aloha shirts and had a mug of coffee.

  "What brings you out in the middle of the night?' Jeff asked.

  "I was out late at a poker game. I know things are about to break with China so I came by here to check before going to bed. I'd really like to stay if you don't mind. I won't be jogging your elbow unwanted. You know the defensive crew on the Rock and the Militia are on a little higher state of alert?"

  "That makes sense," Jeff admitted. "I'd rather not suck them into this, but I fear it won't be my choice. You're welcome to stay. I might need some advice even." He had his coffee now, so he told Louis, "Okay. Show me this other stuff."

  "Besides the base being cut off there are some internal changes too. Down here at the end of their long runway there are a couple hangar buildings that are cut off from the surrounding area today. See these two buildings?" he drew a yellow line around two large square hangars. "They have guards not just at the doors but at each corner suddenly. It looks now like they are sandbagging a temporary emplacement at each corner. And the open tarmac between all the surrounding hangars is cut off with a light armored vehicle or two," he pointed out one by one in a ring around the center buildings.

  "You think they are going to bring the Rascal into one of those and start taking her apart?"

  "Seems like a real possibility. I mean, unless somebody rented it for Homecoming. What do you see here?" Louis asked and highlighted an odd angular object a good kilometer away.

  "I have no idea. You'll have to tell me what it is."

  "A mobile air defense unit. They moved these puppies in about four hours ago and set them up at the compass points around the hanger. They have short range ballistic intercept capabilities too. That seems like a bit of overkill. They already have two permanent systems protecting the base. So if you are going to shoot at those hangars, be aware of how well they're protected."

  "Thank you. I rather anticipated that," Jeff admitted. "I've had some additional weapons made in the last few days, beside all the dumb rods I've been accumulating. I have a strategy formulated. We'll get to see soon if it works I'd say," nodding at the screen.

  Nothing much happened for several hours. There was some concealed placement of heavy main battle tanks at the kilometer radius. He couldn't see the rationale for that. Home had no Earth shuttle capacity. They were not going to drop some rapid reaction force on the base and take the Rascal back. Not that that wouldn't be a nice capacity to have. He wondered about it aloud.

  It was so much later that Louis replied he'd shifted gears mentally and he didn't connect what the man said at first to his question.

  "The Chinese don't expect us to drop a force. They can't possibly think that any of our allies have the ability, much less the will to project that kind of force in the middle of the Gobi desert far from any coast or border that would afford safety in retreat. No, I have to say that the heavy security says there are untrusted forces known to exist internally. There have to be factions who would snatch such a prize in their own military, because that heavy armor and security perimeter aren't meant to keep out a rabble of irate peasants." Happy just gave a nod of agreement.

  Jeff was impressed. Louis took his time getting to his conclusion, but he'd formulated it and expressed it much better he'd have been able to do himself. He just had no skill at all at putting himself in the shoes of an Earth politician and empathetically feeling what they would do.

  He thought a bit about his strategies and issued orders to his rods to bunch up. He didn't do that lightly as they had little fuel for maneuver or station keeping. He just decided he needed to be able to drop big enough groups to force them to reveal all their anti-ballistic launch sites and not let them conduct interceptions from one source until it ran dry.

  Towards the start of main shift April called and asked if anything was happening. He told her that activity made them think the base was going to receive the Rascal, likely within the next day, but didn't detail why. It was getting near dawn for the site. He would lose the good infrared images showing even single soldiers soon to the desert heat. But visible light would reveal other things.

  April and Heather both showed up with Gunny in tow and forced breakfast upon them. The room was getting crowded and they had to go get extra chairs. After so long with nothing happening he pulled up a CAD file on one screen and did some easy design doodling for the generation of ship that was far from assembly yet, breakfast plate balanced on his free hand so he could take the occasional bite. He didn't see the look that passed between Happy and Gunny. He'd have been surprised they found it unnerving he could turn off his attention to the unfolding drama and work on something relatively mundane. It helped him avoid the building stress.

  "Earth Control shows a one line notice relayed by the CAAC from their military about descending traffic for Jiuquan," Louis said.

  "Orbital elements?" Jeff asked.

  "No, no details. No time frame even. I guess even the Chinese are afraid to dip low over
Pakistan or Persia without saying something. Those suckers are trigger happy, but I'd expect them to leave a shuttle alone obviously lined up to land at a Chinese base. They have to see regular traffic down that corridor."

  "Yes, everyone sane is scared of China, aren't they?" Jeff asked rhetorically.

  There was a funny feeling of motion and Jeff saw his freshly filled coffee cup do something strange. Heather had just refilled it over-full almost spilling it over and as he leaned over to suck a little up without lifting the mug his coffee climbed the last couple millimeters to the edge on his right and dipped on the left. He just stared at it wondering if it would spill over the edge but it stopped just short of that.

  "Did you feel something?" Jeff asked the others.

  "I had to take a step because I felt off balance, but I thought it was just me being clumsy," Heather admitted, standing with the coffee pot still in her hand.

  Jeff looked around and pointed at the chain April was wearing, the one her brother had left her. "April, let me borrow your neck chain please."

  It was an odd request, but April took it off over her head silently. Jeff adjusted one of the small articulated lamps over the desk and tugged down a loop of the wire running up the arm. He undid the lobster clasp on the chain and clipped it on the wire so the other end just missed dragging on the desktop.

  He fumbled around in his pocket and got one of the platinum one Solar coins like he's sold April. He positioned that as centrally as he could under the chain. They all were watching it expectantly. Nothing happened for a bit and then the chain slowly swung from the center to near the rim.

  "April, you have such a good relationship with Jon. Would you give him a call and ask if Home is experiencing some, uh, acceleration?"

  She said nothing, but pulled her pad out and entered a text message. After a very brief pause she laughed and entered more. "He says - No way could you feel that! – So I told him breakfast slid off the table and the furniture is all against one bulkhead."