by Scott Rhine
“You have been given sufficient information to complete your task,” Snowflake said mechanically. After a pause, it whispered, “Happy Birthday.”
Chapter 24 – Elysium Fields
Lou referred to the next adventure as Baby Boot Camp, where Stewart trained his parents. The new parents took a leave of absence for six weeks and moved to the Hollow. They had typical camp chores but no astronaut duties. After Mercy dropped the bombshell about how to make the shimmer armor work, the project experienced a surge of creative breakthroughs and the other teams struggled to keep pace with the revised schedules generated by a series of successful tests.
Every time Yvette hinted about the Magi, Mercy would remind her of the gag order and hum a different song about a mountain. Eventually, Yvette made a point of talking about her renewed interest in hiking. By the time the nurse had to spend more time on duties more pressing than mother and child, she had nothing new to report about the Magi. Mercy considered learning Morse code to squeeze out messages, but Yvette would never pick up on that. Lou might, but she wouldn’t be able to use her hands because her fingernails linked directly to Snowflake. Using any other body part on Lou would only inflame his lust. We’ll have years to communicate, Mercy thought as she concentrated on her new role as mother.
She found an ancient Mayan design for an infant carrier—a wonderful invention either parent could wear. They made a sling for Stu, and he rode on her front as Mercy hung laundry out to dry. Although officially anything water-related was Rachael’s duty, the life-support specialist was busy designing bomb shelters in the canyons of Labyrinth. Johnny spent a lot of time teaching Mercy and Pratibha how to cook using locally grown materials. Once the landing team departed, someone would need to run the Hollow and send meals to Olympus. As mayor, Pratibha suddenly had too many responsibilities for one person. By volunteering to help her, Mercy hoped to mend some fences. Every night at the four o’clock feeding, she would make cinnamon rolls or other bread to rise, so others could pop them in the oven at breakfast.
One morning, a uniformed Oleander tapped on Mercy’s door in the caves.
Mercy woke with a start and whispered, “What time is it?”
“March third, 10:00 a.m.,” the tall, Nordic blonde said with a glance at her wrist.
“Stu slept for six hours. Bless his soul.” She picked the baby up out of his bassinet and showered kisses on him. “Who is the best boy in all the world?”
From his side of the bed, Lou grunted, “He’s bloody tired,” and covered his head with a pillow.
Latching the baby on, Mercy said, “Let’s sit in the dayroom so we don’t wake Mr. Cranky.”
Oleander’s eyes bulged when she saw the size of Mercy’s breast. “You could feed a village with those.”
“Tell Toby he still owes me a bra. My old ones won’t fit. I keep growing past the end of the size alphabet, like some adult version of that Dr. Seuss book.”
“Yeah, mission priorities got in the way. Everyone on the crew is pushing for more gear we’ll need for the first landing.”
“First? There’s going to be more than one base?”
“No, just the mesa. The river branches around the base and reforms on the other side. It’s like a really tall island and ideal for our purposes. We get the radiation shielding we need without having to guard our backs against the desert. That stretch is so narrow and shaded that almost nothing lives near the mesa. Our plateau sits just above cloud level, which will hide us from prying eyes.”
“Too bad the name Olympus is taken. What are you going to call this base, Shangri-La?”
“Sojiro lobbied for Bright Angel Lodge because that’s where he stayed on his trip to the Grand Canyon. In the canyon-bus-stop theme, Red liked Powell Point, and Toby voted for the Abyss. Everyone else wanted to pick a name that highlights the secret nature of our mission. We’re still deadlocked between Langley and Spook Central.”
Mercy stroked her son as he fed. “How about Elysium—the island of the blessed in the land of the dead? It’s where heroes and those favored by Zeus enjoy their reward.”
“I’ll suggest that at the next meeting,” Oleander promised.
“So you’ll be making multiple landings at the same base?”
“The first trip will be a scouting run and to cut some foundations into rock with the COIL. We’ll plant a few explosives to shape the landscape and detonate them during the next storm. The second trip will carry just the distillery and construction materials for a spaceport. We found a cave system that’s almost what we need. The Herkemers will rig a cool room with breathable air and a few bunks while the eye in the sky and I keep watch. Then we’ll camouflage the refinery on the plateau. The Zeisses will spend all this time waiting in Sanctuary’s landing bay. Once it makes enough fuel to replace what Ascension consumes on a run, Red will fly in the microfabricator, more people, and more supplies. Nadia will rig us with renewable power, and Toby will begin work on perimeter defenses. The fourth trip will be cargo for our first few Earth-months as an outpost.”
During the long speech, Mercy detached and burped her son. “This is too much information for the assistant cook and chief bottle washer. I’ll be keeping the home fires burning while you guys make all the history.”
“God, he’s cute,” Oleander said.
“Want to hold him?” Mercy offered. The taller woman scooped up Stu without hesitation. “You’re a natural.”
“I took care of my brother, Johann. I had a boyfriend before I went to prison. Who knows what might have happened if Johann hadn’t planted that bomb? I might have been a mother by now, too.” Oleander sighed and inhaled over the crown of the baby’s head. “I love their fresh smell.” She paused before asking, “Do you have any regrets about motherhood?”
“Only that I miss my own mother more every day. She would have loved Stu, and there are so many things I want to ask her.” Mercy had to blot back tears.
Oleander gave her a hug. “I meant career-wise. Look, I know you’re not officially back till tomorrow, but Yvette has cleared you for duty.”
“Desk duty. My abdominal muscles are still pretty sore, but I haven’t had a seizure in over a month.” Mercy knocked softly on the wood of the doorframe for luck.
“The language team won’t have any work to do until I begin my scouting. Zeiss has hinted that he could place you on another team temporarily, and competition is stiff.”
“For me?” Mercy asked with a laugh. “I still have rancid milk stains on my nightshirt, and my uniform won’t fit.”
“We need your brain, woman. You see things from a twisted perspective. Magi tech comes naturally to you.”
“I owe it all to Thomas the Tank Engine.”
“Seriously. I needed to come early because Yuki is planning to ask you to join the panda anthropology team tonight. The Parks and Zeisses take turns, but someone always has to be watching—five shifts a week with no vacations or sick time.”
“That explains the dinner invitation. And you want to recruit me for the landing planners?”
Oleander leaned close as she passed back the grunting baby. Smells were rising from the diaper. “Actually, I want you to help the shimmer-armor folks. I can’t do my job scouting without it, and it’s not quite soup yet.”
“I can’t ask Snowflake any more questions.”
“I know, but you’re a great engineer. If you can’t find a way to improve the armor, I’ll know it’s the best we can do.”
“Flattery always works,” Mercy said.
Oleander suggested, “You could also extort that bra and uniform top out of their team’s allotment.”
“Even better. Although a dress and babysitting for a night might be useful, too. Lou’s been hinting a lot since the doctors cleared me for other things.”
“Yvette’s my roommate. We’ll watch Stu for you regardless.”
Mercy kissed her on the cheek. “Thanks.”
“Anything I should know about the little one?”
“I made him a sock bunny he’s fond of. Before I leave him with you, I’ll pump some milk in case he’s hungry. Somehow he never cries when I leave the room like my sisters did when they couldn’t see Mom.”
After saying good-bye to Oleander and putting on pants and a lab coat, Mercy woke Lou so they could catch breakfast before the cafeteria closed. Even arriving by the posted deadline, they had to finish their coffee and rolls outside because Pratibha needed time to clean before lunch. Mercy asked her husband, “Could you start feeding the chickens with Stu? I need to ask Sojiro something.”
“Sure. Give me that sling.” She helped her husband into the baby carrier and then tucked the baby inside. Lou kept up a running commentary in baby talk. “We’ll even feed those silly gobblers. What sound do they make?” The pilot grabbed the side of his own cheek and wiggled it as he blew. He was a natural mimic, and the baby loved it.
Then she wandered toward the old computer lab, which had morphed into shimmer armor central. Sojiro greeted her at the door. “Mother Hen lives! You just missed our ninety-minute daily team meeting.” He dipped his forefinger into his cheek in sign language for ‘boring.’ “The team is hard at work adjusting design mark five on the Herk mannequin. The real Herk is on the right.”
The security chief waved as he held a stepladder for his wife. “I help with welding.” The crude mannequin beside them modeled his combat exoskeleton.
Risa ran another wire along the helmet, arduously tucking it out of sight.
During Mercy’s time off, the others had cobbled together a steam-punk monstrosity. The wired-together shimmer armor resembled a sandwich board used for advertising. Someone had cut the pyramidal robot in half and added armholes. Kneepads and forearm bracers attempted to provide invisibility for the limbs. The shoe covers were pitiful, and the helmet cover resembled the Tin Woodsman cap from Oz. Mercy shook her head. No one would be able to walk in that, even if they could manage to fit. While the others shook her hand and took care of the social niceties, she computed the square inches of space the armor provided and knew what she’d suggest.
“We had to change the design to make it spear proof,” Risa grumbled. “Those are the failed prototypes.” The materials engineer pointed to the corner where several wire-covered helmets and a Kevlar vest were piled.
“But we lowered the warm-up time from thirty minutes to three seconds and reduced the power requirement enough that a belt pack could run it for an entire L day,” Nadia bragged.
“I’d love to see it work,” Mercy said.
Nadia looked at the clock on the wall and weighed her options. “Ten minutes to demonstrate our progress. Sojiro, film this for Zeiss to watch later.” She barked orders at each team member and pulled Mercy behind the safety barricade. “It rarely catches fire or explodes anymore.” Mercy grabbed a pair of safety goggles without prompting because Risa dove for a pair. On the table, she glanced at Sojiro’s sketchbook and saw images of ninjas and samurai armor. One was an Islamic woman with a veil made of large sequins.
On the counter, she noted the handheld material sensor Risa had customized to analyze the blending armor. It looked like a common stud finder for houses. Such a gadget might be useful for Yvette in her search for the Magi. If she hadn’t found entry tunnels by now, they might be concealed by similar technology. While the others were distracted by the whir of generators and the countdown, Mercy slipped the detector into her lab-coat pocket.
At the touch of a button, Nadia caused a span the size of a basketball to vanish in the center of each ceramic panel. Everything at the borders remained white. The same was true of the limb padding and footwear. Every item vanished in spherical patterns.
“Impressive,” Mercy said, “for a fundraiser.”
The team went silent. Nadia’s face clouded. “And you could do better?”
“Step outside with me,” Mercy said in her best daughter-of-the-man-who-runs-the-company tone. When they were alone, she continued, “I’ll be honest with you. I want the panda-observation team so bad I can taste it, but I’ll need to spend a few weeks with you guys to get you on the right track.”
The project leader fish-mouthed with shock.
“You’re one of the best scientists I’ve seen, Nadia, but this is the real world. Compromises need to be made for product engineering. It’s time for this project to transition from R&D to production style.”
“You are taking my team?”
“No. Good Lord, I’m trying to help. You don’t need another engineer, and I would only slow you down while I tried to learn. You need a manager. That’s something I did on the shuttle project. I’ll take over the paperwork and complaints while you stay technical lead.”
The Russian woman closed her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. “I would love for that to happen, but our schedule is too tight. We ship in a month.”
“No, you need longer. I can argue for three, and Z will settle for two months. What possessed you to switch from lightweight, insulated Kevlar to that tank? It won’t matter if they can only see half of Herk because the aborigines will hear him coming. The scout design should be exclusively for the two operatives slated for field duty: Oleander and Toby. If Herk deploys in combat armor, the only way there won’t be evidence is if he kills all the witnesses.”
“Red thought it was a good idea—”
“Stop. One of my jobs in my old life was telling Red ‘next release,’ so the work wouldn’t kill us all.”
Nadia chuckled. “I work from six in the morning to midnight, and it is never enough.”
“Let me take the management load from you. We can even get rid of the daily meeting to free up more time. I manage by walking around and chatting.”
“It’s easy for you,” Nadia said. “They all like you.”
“They respect me because I let them do what they do best, and I only interfere when it is a matter of safety. If we go to the surface with this design, the mission is going to fail. Am I wrong?”
Sighing, the chief scientist said, “I have no arguments.”
“It would be better for everyone if the request to transition came from you. It won’t damage your power base or your working relationship with the others as much.”
“You’ve done this before.”
“Yeah, but I promise as soon as you’re on track again, I’ll move to panda-monitoring duty. That way I can have Stu with me while I work.”
“You are Yuki’s friend. I did not think you would be so nice,” Nadia said quietly.
“I make it a point to make friends with whoever is getting picked on. At the moment, that’s you. The people in there have a lot of great ideas. After you make the announcement, I want to talk to each of them privately for an hour.”
Nadia stepped inside and bellowed, “I begged and looked pathetic until she agreed. Mercy is the new project manager. I am going home for nap while she meets with each of you.”
Sojiro bounced and clapped. Risa muttered a thanks to the Virgin in Spanish. Herk volunteered to break the news to Lou and celebrate with a beer.
That evening before dinner with the Parks, she haggled with Zeiss over the scope and schedule of the project. She asserted, “Plate mail isn’t the best defense. Sojiro’s idea of smaller, overlapping discs will make the armor flexible and less detectable. Not to mention the protection that the Kevlar will provide against any malfunction. We’re ninjas, not samurai.” She paused, giving her final incentive. “Nadia already had a light that came on when the suit knew it was being observed. When shimmer armor remains immobile, the camouflage effect is much better. Herk calls this the Predator effect, based on this violent movie he makes everybody watch. The idea was that when the light pops on, the scout freezes until he can find what’s watching. With the array of smaller discs, I can triangulate feedback from each disc to plot where an observer might be. The system can also be utilized to self-test the armor, reporting back any damaged panels that don’t detect the common point.”
“Okay, sold,” Zeiss said,
holding up his hands in surrender. “You’re a genius at applying technology.”
“I gave Nadia credit for the idea in the paper. We brainstormed it together. After another taste of real science, she’s decided she hates managing.”
“That message came across loud and clear.”
“Will the team be able to meet my salary request for the consultation?”
Zeiss wagged his hand. “Risa kicked in her spare bra. We really can’t spare the fabric right now.” Mercy’s face sagged. She never was good at contracts. The commander continued. “But . . . Nadia decided to step in and sweeten the pot because she really enjoys working with you. When she leaves for Labyrinth, she’s giving her house to your family.”
Mercy blinked, unable to process the generosity.
The commander smiled at her speechlessness. “Nadia says it’s too big for one person. Since you’ll be holding down the fort for all of us here, you deserve some kind of compensation—especially since you’re delaying your time with the pandas and Stu.”
“I’d be honored. I’ll ask Mr. Park at our get-together tonight what he wants for his half. He helped build it, after all.”
“Already covered. Mrs. Park says to tell you it’s karma.”
Chapter 25 – Meet the Greens
The extra two months in the schedule gave everyone breathing room. Soon Stu was sleeping through the night, and Mercy felt more human. Lou normally cared for his son during the four hours a day Mercy interacted with engineers, although she sometimes carried the baby with her near feeding time. Her husband also helped take up the slack with laundry and bread duty. Fridays, she reported directly to Zeiss. On her second lunch report to the commander in the Olympus dining room, she summed up, “We fixed the last major technical problem in the prototype armor—that dark fringe at the edge of each cut. Risa found a deposit of white sand behind the waterfall that’s almost the same composition as the ceramic—with traces of zirconium and calcium thrown in.”