by Rob Buckman
“Yes, Devon, we’ve all been thinking about it since we first looked at it, would you like to see our list?”
“Oh, yes please! By the way, you do know how to build these thingamabobs, gateways, or whatever you call them?”
“We should be able to,” Karl said, being deliberately vague.
“Good, what the smallest practical size you can build?”
“I don’t know, we haven’t tried yet, why?”
“Why? Good heavens, man. One of our biggest problems is building power plants for the larger ships. This way we don’t have to, we can build them anywhere in the solar system and use the gateway to run a power conduit up to the ship. That way we can construct better shields, weapons, everything!”
“What happens to the ship when it goes through the warp point?”
“Good heavens, hadn’t thought of that.” Devon whipped out his notebook and started scribbling again, his mind elsewhere. Karl left him to it, and stepped across the ring into the shuttle and looked out the port. Stars blazed at him, and he felt the wonder of the universe for a moment.
“Should I start heading back, sir?” the pilot called down from the flight deck.
“Yes, might as well, we have what we need for the moment.” He looked out again as the stars wheeled though the turn, the sun flashing past for a second. “If you guys want to step into the hangar for a coffee break, you can.”
He chuckled at the absurdity of what he’d just said. They were a million miles from the hangar, yet no more the five steps away. Even the guards got the joke as one by one they stepped across the ring. Janet arrived, and seeing Karl and Devon beckoning her through the ring, she stepped through.
“Kim said you’d be in here, what do you … Oh my god!” Janet exclaimed as she realized she was now inside a shuttle, seeing the star field out of the port. Stumbling to a seat she sat down, her knees suddenly weak.
Karl laughed, and spent the next twenty minutes trying to explain as best he could what the rings were, and how they worked. She muttered darkly about black magic, and kept looking at Karl suspiciously to see if he was kidding, but in the end, she had to believe the evidence of her own eyes and immediately began to talk about security. She suggested that one ring should be placed on the moon, in an underground guarded vault with restricted access, and Karl said he’d think about that. Then she asked about the one possibility none of them had thought of.
“The professors told you he built six sets of rings. We have four, one ring was destroyed in the explosion, so where is the last one?” That got people thinking. “What if the people who have it figure out a way to control the exit point and step out through one of ours one day?”
“Woman, you have a suspicious mind, and I love you for it. Will you marry me?” he said, half-joking.
“If that’s a serious proposal, you already know the answer.” Janet murmured, blushing slightly.
Karl’s head snapped around, and he looked at her for a moment. “If the answer is what I think it is, we’ll talk about that later,” he said, grinning and blushing slightly himself.
“To cover that possibility we’ll have to put in a two-way security system,” she said, recovering quickly.
“Yes, I can see that.”
“Where will you be working on the other one?”
“Here, I suppose, why?”
“Vulnerable,” she commented.
“It might be that whoever is after them might only want to stop us duplicating them. In which case, they’d want to destroy these two sets as quickly as possible, probably by sticking a nuke through the ring. If they can find plans to make one that is.”
“What do you suggest?”
“Same thing. Put the R&D on the moon. It’s ten times as difficult to get at it there, and a lot easier to guard if it’s a hundred feet underground.”
“The trouble is, distance isn’t a barrier,” he said, pointing out the viewport.
“Christ on a crutch!” Janet muttered, thinking furiously. “We have to have a foolproof system of checks, so we can shove something nasty back where it came from, then close the door.”
“Then we need to find a way to control the rings as quickly as possible.” It was a daunting thought.
“One thing I need from you immediately,” he said, “is a security detail to guard this data pad. It needs to be locked up and under guard at all times, and not unlocked in an unsecured location.”
“The moon is still the best place. If we start from scratch, we can locate a place to build these… whatever you call them, and eliminate any possibility of spy cams or unauthorized people seeing how they’re constructed,” Janet said, looking pensive. “It might be better if each component was manufactured in a different location,” she added, “with none of the workers knowing what they’re doing, or seeing any other part of the ring.”
“That might work, but robot-controlled machines would be better, under our direct supervision. The only people who see the whole thing would be the assembly crew, and those we can vet and control.”
“I’ll let you and your security people work that out. All I’m concerned with is keeping the data out of the hands of those cocksuckers … the people who almost killed Professor Ellis and his wife to get the secret.”
“You and me both, Karl. I’ll make sure that never happens, trust me.”
Early next morning they presented the plan to Scott, but other than adding additional security measures, he could find nothing wrong with the idea. In many ways, it would make life easier transporting equipment and personnel back and forth to the moon, and the added security of knowing they could work in complete secrecy.
“So what are you waiting for?” Scott asked with a smile.
“Let’s do it!” Karl said, grinning at the sudden feeling that he would breathe a lot easier soon.
* * * * * *
It didn’t take long to find a newly excavated tunnel on the moon, with the automatic deep-boring machines working twenty-four hours a day cutting tunnels and looking for minerals and water ice. Karl was also in luck in finding a cavern of massive proportions a thousand feet below the moon’s surface. Janet had the idea of installing one ring in a dead-end tunnel and using it to ferry all equipment and supplies to the moon. With Devon’s enthusiastic help, they installed a series of airlocks that were earmarked for a new battleship. Once they’d blocked the one tunnel leading to the cavern, the installation wouldn’t be accessible from anywhere on the moon. The only way in or out would be through the rings.
Originally the airlocks were scheduled for installation on the New Zealand, and designed with integral defense shields to withstand a major assault from heavy weapons. That done, a bio-filter system was constructed in front of the Alpha base half of the ring, and the gate activated. They had anticipated the first implosive rush of air to fill the first airlock, and built a cushion system in the filter. Even so, the engineers checked them out before they cracked the airlock and Earth air was permitted to flood the cavern.
Devon watched his pressure meter and the computer curve to detect any overlooked cracks or fissures that might leak air, but the gauge and the curve remained steady after twenty-four hours. He shook hands with the inspection team leader who’d gone over the cavern with a fine-tooth comb. The cavern was nothing more than a giant bubble, created long ago when the moon still had volcanic activity. Any volcanic gasses had long seeped away through the porous rock, and by sealing the dome with a polyconcrete sealer, it would prevent the same thing happening to the air when it was let in. They resurfaced and leveled the cavern floor, and covered it with anti-grav matting to increase the gravity to simulate Earth normal gravity throughout the cavern. Devon didn’t fancy being blamed for sucking all of Earth’s air off into space, and without any control over the gate, or airlock system, he had visions of a runaway air evacuation from Earth if a rupture occurred in the cavern, but this deep, there was little chance of that happening.
Karl’s team had installed a redundant pr
essure sensing system in each airlock, the tunnel, and the cavern against that eventuality, and they were fully automatic with independent backup power cells. Poking a hole in space to connect two distant points had its advantages, but it also had an inherent danger they were all well aware of; none of the safety precautions were taken lightly.
After the cavern was full of air and the air filters reset to circulate the air in and out to keep it fresh, they got to the business of moving in, breaking down the equipment and moving it through the ring for reassembly on the moon. One of the first items on Karl’s list was to construct a pair of rings, one hundred feet in diameter, so large objects could pass through without needing to be broken down. For the security force, Janet picked all the people from the old marine force, the Brits, and the Japanese. She knew this indicated a lack of trust of the new people, but as this was a secret, and only those involved knew what was going on, she felt safe about hurting any of the newcomer’s feelings. After the security was in place, everyone breathed easier and they got to work building the gateways in a variety of sizes.
After a few false starts in setting up the milling machine and auto lathes, all of them worked perfectly, from the smallest one, a foot in diameter, to the largest, which was a hundred feet across. Anticipating the need, R&D programmed microbots to build rings down to pinhead size.
* * * * * *
Driving around the sprawling base the next week, Scott was amazed at how much it had grown without him really noticing it, yet there was nothing haphazard about it. He made a note to himself to congratulate the person who’d taken the trouble to plan it out. Whatever else might be going on, he had to admit that all of them were settling well into this new life, and if anyone was bitching and complaining, he never heard about it. On one occasion he stopped by a schoolyard, and watched kids of all ages playing together, his people and the newcomers. Even some of the new recruits from outside were married and had children of their own. Yet he wondered how much of the old conditioning was still there, under the surface. With his people, they had no choice but to treat them as equals, or else, but what about the women from outside? Would they be able to treat them with the same respect? It was a question he’d have to answer, since more and more of the outside female population had found their way here, against all the obstacles set in their way by outside authorities. Most simply dressed up as males and boarded the shuttle, keeping their true identity secret until they were processed.
Taking the Humvee, Scott headed for the beach, thinking he could sneak away for a few hours. No such luck. Within seconds, he spotted his ubiquitous escort bringing up the rear. If that was all of them. He’d long suspected there were flankers on either side, and a group running point ahead of him. He couldn’t complain, not after two attempts on his life, so he ignored them as much as possible and let his mind wander. Sitting in the shade of a tree, he relaxed to the sound of the waves and wind washing over him. One by one, thoughts popped into his brain, and he noted them on his wristcomp, finding that one or two of them were definitely important. So few big ones bothered him before; he’d been able to step back and see the long view, and plan for many of the obvious possibilities. Now he couldn’t. Thinking about that brought the revelation that before, there was an entire military/industrial infrastructure for him to work within. All he had to do was bring the diverse elements together to make something happen. Here he was now, creating it from scratch, yet he shouldn’t have to. The elements were there, he could see that, but he’d failed to use them.
“Janet!” he called, knowing she had to be close by.
“Yes, sir!” she answered from not more than ten feet away.
“Need to get back to base as fast as possible,” he said, standing up. “Suddenly I found there are a few things I need to do in a hurry.”
“Aye-aye, sir,” she called, smiling slightly, and a moment later her shuttlecraft settled down. Janet detailed one of the security team to drive his Humvee back to base, then took off in an arrowhead formation, in a beeline for the base at treetop height. That was just like the old man: one moment as calm and peaceful as you like, the next a ball of energy that wanted instant action, and most of the time for a good reason.
“Can you get me the PM on this rig?” Scott asked, pointing to the communications setup.
“Yes, sir,” the comm tech answered.
“Good, get his nibs on the blower as soon as you can. After that, if we aren’t back at base, get me Colonel Brock.”
“Yes, sir,” Janet snapped.
A rather grumpy prime minister came on after a while, yet his hair was carefully combed and he looked as fresh as a daisy. “Did I wake you, Patrick?” Scott said.
“Would it matter if you did?” the Prime Minister of England growled back, sipping on a mug of something. “Besides that, I doubt you would call me if it wasn’t important.”
“Well sir, I need your army, navy, and air force.”
That made the PM sit up and take notice. “Are you under attack?”
“No, sir. Not right at this moment.”
“All right then, drop the other shoe!”
Scott did, spending over an hour before the PM hung up, and by that time they’d reached base and it was Brock’s turn.
The security detail pulled into Alpha base just as Scott finished talking, immediately heading for Brock’s office, and continuing the moment he stepped through the door.
“Well?”
“You’re right,” Brock said, a dark look on his face, “the defense positions are still the same as after the last attack. Damn! I should’ve thought of that.”
“You aren’t the only one.”
“What do you have in mind, Scott?”
“An overlapping defensive perimeter, each one able to fall back under complete cover of the next one, plus safety shelter for all critical personnel, noncombatants, and the children.”
“I’m on it.”
“Good. How many tanks do we have now?” Scott asked, seeing Brock shake his head.
“Not that many. We’ve been concentrating on equipment for the fleet.”
“That’s the conclusion I came to. We’re not thinking clearly on this, but I’m going to save the rest of my comments until our guests arrive from England.”
The suborbital shuttle would still take six hours to arrive, and Scott sent a memo to R&D to have a pair of transport rings installed in England as soon as possible. He knew this was opening a door on the security aspect, but it couldn’t be helped. They needed the ability to move about quickly, and the rings offered the best choice. Later that evening the conference room was full, with representatives from all three British services, plus the base commanders.
“Thank you all for coming at short notice, and for taking time out from your pressing duties,” Scott began, “but I think after you’ve heard what I have to say, you’ll understand why I called this meeting.” He stood up so everyone could see him.
“We have a problem, ladies and gentlemen. And that problem is, we have no unified command.” That set them to thinking, and he could see one or two nodding in agreement.
“England is the only country to have any semblance of a joint command, small as it is. They’ve kept the structure of the three elements: army, navy, and air force.” He held his hand up before someone reminded him of the Marine Corps. “As of this moment, army and Marine Corps separation will stop. They will be combined into one element, except for special operations groups, SOGs: like the SAS, Green Berets, and the Royal Marines.”
“Why so, Scott?” Brock asked immediately, more for the benefit of those around the table who might not know much about such groups, or understand Scott’s reasoning.
“Simple. From now on, all our combat is going to be one of three methods. Ground, transatmospheric, and space. So there is no need for a separate army. Everyone in the army and marines will be incorporated into the new Marine Corps with SOG to handle any special assignments outside of normal Marine operations.”
“Makes sense to me,” announced General Mackenzie, commander of the British army. “From what I can see, we have no need for conventional ground forces as such, as most actions would be from space in one form or another.”
“I agree, General Brock, but we do need a rapid reaction force so we can put boots on the ground, to take or hold strategic objectives, hostage rescue, and so forth. Which is why I suggest the US Marine Corps or Royal Marine models.”
“Good point,” Mackenzie said. “They can be inserted from space just as easy as from the ground. The trick, of course, is having air domination over the LZ. The landing zones must always be protected,” he explained to Patrick.
“Agreed, which is where our combined air wing will come in,” Scott said, nodding toward Air Vice-Marshal Beal. “I will leave you and Colonel Brock to work out the details.” Brock and Mackenzie nodded to each other in agreement. “If it’s something the air wing or military can’t handle, we can always drop rocks on them from space.”