“I love democracy, but I’m not sure I want to trust the fate of the solsys to the average voter.”
“I hear you with both ears on that,” Reena said. “And you’re certainly not the only one that feels that way.”
“So…” Corey wanted to lighten the mood. “You’re meeting with La Presidenta de Los Estados Unidos de Mexico. That’s so great, cuz it will give me time to do my laundry.”
“Oh, good. Could you do mine too?”
“Sure, but I only do undergarments.”
“I don’t wear undergarments.”
Corey paused. “Right…well, if it is your intention to leave this ship undefiled by me, don’t say that again.”
“Oops.” She opened her robe to tighten it, fully revealing a breast for a split second.
“Like I didn’t see that!” Corey said, putting his hands over his eyes.
“See what?” She looked at the floor, smiling.
“You are trouble, woman! I suspect you know that. I believe in the Three Denials, you know.”
“I know, and I do too, Corey, I promise.” She raised one eyebrow. “Apparently I got it bad.”
“Well, what a shame,” Corey whispered, stroking her hair. “Me, I’m in total control.”
“I seriously doubt that.”
“You seriously should doubt that.”
There was a pause, a look, and their lips pressed together again, parting slightly, tongues touching, hearts racing. Reena pulled away slowly, staring into his eyes.
“So, I guess I’ll go to my room now...just me,” she said, with a manufactured sad face.
“Yes, I guess I’ll do that too. Just...me.” His sad face.
Corey walked her to her room, which was about twenty feet from his. At the door, he stared into her eyes, kissed her only briefly, and joked, “now don’t get any bright ideas about hitting the fire alarm so I’ll come to your room to protect you.”
“You read my mind.” Another kiss. Corey turned to his room.
“Corey...” Reena said.
He turned back.
“When is the right time to say I love you?” she asked.
“Right now.” He wanted to fall to his knees, but he stepped forward to Reena and they kissed again, just briefly. They stood there, just holding each other for minutes, saying nothing, before going to their separate rooms.
17
EARTH
“Tallahassee four seventeen, this is Phobos approach, over.”
“Roger Phobos, Tallahassee reading you ten by ten.”
“Tallahassee identify and code.”
“Phobos, roger...squawk seven seven one, flight plan eighteen Megastar.”
“Roger Tallahassee, confirm flyby. Continue present course, verify vector at perigee and engage debris shield.”
“Roger Phobos, engaged.”
Corey had set the cockpit voice channel to turn on when the word Phobos was used. It interrupted a deep sleep that had been lulled into place by the Tranquility Orchestra performing An Evening of Radiohead, one of his favorite plates. Like a little boy on Christmas, he jumped out of bed, got dressed and walked quickly to the observation deck to check out the red planet Mars. Reena was there waiting for him, as were Jim and Pel.
“Am I late for the party?” asked Corey.
“We were just gonna cook some burgers,” said Jim.
“Got some Martian Kona for the occasion,” Pel said, as he sipped the brew.
Corey’s attention turned to the observation window. Mars was awaiting his approval, and with the fascination of a scientist and a boy scout he was studying it immediately. He stepped in front of the sofas and right up to the window, in front of everyone.
“Hey, down in front,” yelled Pel. Corey ignored him. He stepped up to the ledge to get right against the window, but that forced him to bend over to avoid hitting the ceiling.
“Is that Mars or Corey’s butt?” asked Reena, which sent Pel into a full spew with Kona flying everywhere.
“Shit, that’s hot!” Pel yelled, but he couldn’t stop laughing. Jim was laughing to the point of coughing.
“You guys suck!” said Corey.
An awkward silence.
“Wonder what Ari’s doing right now,” said Pel.
“He’s gonna be fine you guys, don’t worry about it,” said Reena. “Ari has to do what he has to do, and so do we.”
“I thought we were going to fly closer to Mars,” said Corey.
“We are,” said Jim. “I asked Tranquil about us swooping in a little closer and she said we could, it would only cost us about an hour. Didn’t want to say yes unless you boys were up for it.”
“Well, we’re way ahead of schedule, let’s do it!” said Corey. Pel agreed.
“I’ll let her know.” Jim got up and headed toward the cockpit.
“Hey Jim, you can use the com, you know?” said Pel with a fiendish smile. “Tranquil? Not, the co-pilot?”
Jim flashed back a smile of his own. “Just seeing if I can get some free flying hours in sometime,” he said.
“And what type of flying would that be?”
Reena looked over at Corey, smiling.
“Nothing you’d know about,” said Jim.
Mars moved slowly from the right side of the window to the center and began to grow. Corey sat down next to Reena and they held hands, fully engaged at the picture in front of them. Once again, they marveled at the speed of the ship, watching Mars grow from the size of a skyball to the size of a beach ball in only twenty minutes.
Jim returned, and co-pilot Tranquil came on the com. “Hey everyone, welcome to the Martian perimeter. Our flyby approach will take us at an angle good for viewing the polar ice cap, as well as the western Telcom moon, which is the white golf-ball looking station you see to the upper left of the planet. If you look right beneath that, you can see the construction project for the City in Space, which is being built by the Tharsis Corporation and Boeing X. As you may know, it is almost completed. It will contain thirty-five thousand living spaces and over four hundred companies are currently bidding on office space. Telcom, Medcom and Nutricom will be available in every square inch of this magnificent new habitat, which will also house twenty sports parks, twenty-two community centers, ten shopping malls and an amazing variety of entertainment complexes, including the newest and most hi-tech Disneyland to date.”
She sounded like she could be a tour guide at Disneyland, Corey thought. She had an enthusiastic and commanding voice, despite the mundane subject matter. Corey noted that flying those routes day in and day out must get pretty boring. Pointing out the sights to the passengers is probably the best part of the whole gig. He pressed the com button.
“Miss Pacaru, what is the flash coming from the left side of the site?”
“That’s a Google test; they use the light as a visual VOR tracer, but they’re actually testing gravi-directional hyperdata beams, probably the new 350G stream. It’s all part of the buildup to quantum com!” Corey thought this would be a good time for Ari to be here.
“I don’t know what in the name of apple-what-the-hell-pie she just said,” said Corey, and he pushed the com button again. “Oh, yes, of course, thank you,” he said, winking at Pel.
“There’s something you don’t see every day,” said Jim. He was looking out the left side of the ship. The other three joined him, and they witnessed a Flying V formation of 26 United Earth fighting ships, F-175 gunships, it appeared. They were doing maneuvers, twisting and turning in unison.
“That’s pretty impressive,” said Jim.
“I suppose we’ll be seeing a lot more of that,” said Reena.
“Well, I hope you enjoyed our little flyby, but it’s Mother Earth here we come!” That came from the pilot, Nuke. He tried to sound as exciting as Tranquil, but...not so much.
* * *
“Presidenta Murillo, with respect, I need the list done and she’s the last one,” said Andrew Cardigan. “Where is she?”
“Mr. Preside
nt, she’s very close, and she knows we are waiting for her. She’ll be arriving just in time for the meeting. You should know Ms. Coolie wants to meet with the Cerean Foon personally; this is what I learned in my conversation with my advisor just before they left Titan. She and I did not speak of that, only of the meeting.”
“The Foon...she wants to speak with the Foon? She can do that? She doesn’t think we can do that?” said Cardigan.
“She believes we will not be speaking, but ‘interrogating,’ and she believes it will be fruitless. She has a companion with her that lived on Ceres2 for four years, not too long ago. He is a friend of the Foon, and she believes he can talk to them more effectively than we.”
“She didn’t tell you any of this? What’s your source? No, never mind, don’t tell me.”
President Cardigan stood up and began his walk around the conference table. All eyes were on him as he paced, wringing his hands and breathing rapidly. This president was never able to hold his cards close to his chest. He was emotional and easy to figure out, and it worked well for him, for the most part. You could trust that what you see is what you get.
“Who is this companion? How can you live on Ceres2 for four years?”
Murillo nodded at the young man sitting behind her, and he stood up to speak.
“Mr. President, his name is Jim Matthews; he’s a drifter but a professional, a few warrants, no major incarceration, has held some leadership jobs in the service sector. He’s the manager of the club in Zubrin that Ms. Coolie’s been frequenting this past week on her hiatus, and now he’s with her heading here. They have a work history together.”
“And son, who are you?” asked Cardigan.
The young man was visibly nervous but finding his confidence. “I am a new crisis advisor to Presidenta Murillo, Mr. President. My name is Zoomer Perry.”
“Mr. President, my advisor is strong in the area of public conversation. He has top intelligence clearance and he knows what most demographic groups in every country are thinking. That is why he is here,” said Murillo.
President Andrew Cardigan was over his head with this situation, but he took comfort in knowing that any president, past present or future, would also be over their head. He had only been in office for a year, but he knew he had just as much chance of doing this right as anyone in history. That would get him through it, knowing that his leadership, his commitment to bringing all available resources to the table, and his open mind would be his legacy. He hoped that it would be enough to save the solsys from its first invader.
“Dave, get me everything we have on Matthews, now.”
Security chief Dave Ramesh swiped his wrist, pulled his fingers over his tablet and produced a complete bio on Jim Matthews: birthplate, schooling, employment, locations, DNA plus, genetic tree, follows, likes, privos, targets, RF profiles…with one hand movement he floated it into the air and enlarged it for everyone to see.
“Sir, nothing scary that I can see here,” said Ramesh, “a couple of outstanding warrants for running antique firearms, one in New York Upper, one in Archimedes. Nothing here about him living on Ceres2.”
“How do we know this Ceres information?” Cardigan asked, but to no one in particular.
“Cerean affairs are capped, sir, it’s not public info,” said Perry. “NSA has this documented. Mr. Ramesh was accessing a quick file.”
“Mr. President, that’s true. I couldn’t go deep that quickly.”
“One more thing, Mr. President, Ms. Coolie is also traveling with two other companions. One of them is a new boyfriend. The other is his brother. They are musicians as well, and moving up in popularity very quickly, most likely because of the relationship,” said Perry.
“Playrocs...well, that could be useful,” said Cardigan, his voice fading as he examined his fingernails. “Meeting dismissed, and thank you, everyone. Presidenta Murillo, please remain with me briefly.”
* * *
“Earth approach, this is Tallahassee long-range, flight pattern eighteen Megastar, acknowledge.”
“Tallahassee, this is Earth approach, station Luna Seven, we are tracking.”
“Roger Luna Seven, request instructions.”
“Tallahassee, set auto-approach to six, six, nine, three and decelerate to point one, smartly.”
“Roger Luna Seven, auto-approach to six, six, nine, three, to point one, smartly.”
“Oh God,” Jim muttered. He heaved into the disposer.
“Maybe they didn’t do it that smartly,” said Pel. He was relieved to not be the one to launch his dinner this time.
“Well, now that co-pilot owes me,” said Jim, with one more spit into the receptacle. Pel snickered.
The four were seated in the observation lounge, having set their alarms for the one million-kilometer approach beacon, and were watching the little blue and white crescent grow and grow in the window. Approaching Earth is not like approaching anywhere else in the solsys; it is home, it is history, and it’s a bustling air space. The area around Earth is an orbiting obstacle course, and a pilot has to be sharp to navigate it.
They broke out food, drinks and a zingzing for the occasion as the ship approached the planet from the dark side. Two UE scanner ships engaged them left and right, as Pel and Reena were bumping butts to Earth Wind and Fire and Corey was wrist up and filming. Jim grabbed a binoscope to see the lights of the orbiting cities coming into view. Los Angeles Upper, Vegas Upper and Denver Upper were visible, but still just a flicker.
Pel pulled away from the dance and picked up a binoscope. Space traffic was always a fascination for him. He had a Glancer subscription and was on com quite a bit with it, which drew constant heckling from Corey. Pel could spend hours just watching the shuttles, ferries, trucks, and trains maneuver their way through the orbital and suborbital lanes and the Earth-Moon freeways. Now here he was seeing it live again, and he was like a kid in a candy store.
“Do you guys ever think about what this was like three hundred years ago?” he asked. “Just Earth, nothing else. No housing spheres, no factories, nothing orbiting at all. Must have been weird.”
“They probably could see the stars a lot better,” said Jim.
“I’m sure they didn’t have satellite-chasing lawyers,” said Corey.
“I think Pel is having a moment you guys,” said Reena. “Are you having a moment, Pel?”
“No, seriously! I mean, you were stuck wherever you were. You couldn’t fly to the moon, and if you could, there wasn’t anything there! Your friends had to live close to you, and the only information you could get was from a newspaper or a book. I don’t know how I could have even lived back then.”
“You could have lived,” said Jim. Hell, I didn’t even have one of those wrist implants ‘til I was ninety. Got it for my birthday, but I barely even use it. You youngsters need all that stuff too much.”
“Well, I think it’s swift that you think about stuff like that, Pel,” said Reena.
Following the designated approach pattern, the Tallahassee turned to the starboard, bringing Earth slowly to the port side of the observation window. Chicago Upper came into view, followed by Philadelphia Upper. A minute later they could see New York Upper, with lower Manhattan visible far beneath it.
“Pel, look, the statues! There you are!”
Pel adjusted his binoscope and trained it on New York Harbor. There they were, the Statues of Purity, Equality, and Liberty.
“Brings a tear to my too-big eyeball.”
“Pel was named after the statues, P-E-L,” said Corey.
“Oh my moons, I would never have thought that,” Reena said. “That makes your name even smacker, Pel!”
“Thanks. But I think that’s more smack, not smacker.”
“And just how pure are you, my friend?” Jim added with a laugh.
The New Jersey Orbiter would be their docking point, so the Tallahassee banked right and slowed one more time in its final approach to the space station.
A voice came over the
intercom, “Telcom local engaged, E-fi connected.”
Corey raised his wrist immediately, “Connect Dad.”
“Connecting.”
“Corey! You boys are here?” Roy’s face hovered.
“Hey Dad! Looks like we’re docking over New Jersey. We’ll hop a cab right away...it’s inside Copenhagen, right?”
“Yes, I’ll send you the info, it-”
“Dad, how’s mom doing?” shouted Pel, leaning over Corey’s shoulder so Roy could see him.
“She’s good, boys, she’s ok. She goes in at 6:30 pm Earth Standard so you can’t visit after 3:30, ok?”
“Yes no problem, we’ll be in a cab in an hour or so. We’re traveling light, so we can shack our gear at the orbiter. We should be there by about 10:00 am and we’ll buck right in.”
“OK, so link me with the receipt and I’ll cover it. Mom’s glad you’re here, and so am I.”
“Ok, we’ll be there.”
“New Jersey approach, this is Tallahassee long-range eighteen Megastar, final vector request.”
“Tallahassee, this is New Jersey, approach one three five, one hundred thousand, five five nine, commence.”
“Ok, dad, we’re gonna go, be there shortly!” said Corey.
“Looking forward, boys.”
“Bye, dad!” The image of Roy Jagger-Seven disappeared.
“Dad looks tired,” said Pel.
“Yeah, I can imagine. He’s probably a mess. I don’t know what he’d do without mom.”
“Tallahassee long-range, you have an incoming transmission from Mexico City, do you wish to take it?”
Reena slapped the com button, “Yes Andre, please take it.”
“Tallahassee, this is Zoomer Perry with the office of Presidenta de Los Estados Unidos Mexicanos Murillo; we wish to speak to your passenger Reena Coolie.”
Reena double-tapped the com, “This is Reena Coolie.”
The Cosmotix 2198 Page 16