Teardrops In The Night Sky (Steven Gordon series) (31 page)

Chapter 48

A
fter their evening meal everyone gathered in the bar and Steven presented his proposals to break the deadlock.  For a few seconds afterwards there was a stunned silence then Komoru stood up and began to clap.  The applause was unanimous. 

Steven laughed and he and Buzz shook hands.  The plan called for a number of haulers and passenger liners and a string of hotels dotted around the moon’s surface including one on the dark side.  Proposals were put forward to supply bases purely for scientific research to be loaned out to interested governments. 

Everyone came to a quick agreement and tasks were allotted to all personnel.  The operations room became a hot bed of activity as plans were swung into action.  Babe and Ico were as keen and together they set up factories within the asteroid belt to begin building ships and extracting the necessary building materials.  They had a month until all their supplies were gone so; they set to with a will.

One of the first things to be constructed were tagged Moon skippers by the crews.  With them individuals could quickly cross the Moon’s surface to deploy small Army’s of   construction bots.  Just in case someone came along at a later date and claimed the land they were using, a small team dedicated themselves to searching the companies who were already selling plots of land on the Moon to potential future prospectors, and at home Mary and Brian under the strictest secrecy bought off any plots of land they could.

If anyone was unhappy about the whole thing it was the soldiers.  Their main concern was security.  They were worried that teams of soldiers could take over a passenger liner and use it to gain access to the Moon base.

So sever security measures were brought into play on every vessel built.  Everyone had sensors capable of detecting any form of Earth weapon, including disassembled weapon parts, to stop a slow infiltration.  There was also another built in the docking area for good measure.

None of the ships built were anywhere as near as fast as the two mother ships.  The liners would take two hours to reach the Moon and the freighters three.  That allowed for a thorough search from the bases own sensors. 

Slowly the day approached when Steven was to make the announcement.  He chose the day when the American President was to make his address on the State of the Union.  Everyone was gathered in the bar for the announcement except for Steven, Komoru, Buzz and Colonel Howe.

They stood on the bridge of Stevens ship.  The President finished his address with a reference to the ships; everyone of them listened intently.

The President turned over a sheaf of papers and took a drink of water, ‘as you all know, I have taken strict measures against the Pirates that stole the two alien ships from American soil and American possession.  Latest intelligence reports suggests that these bandits will soon run out of food and have to surrender those ships back to their rightful owners.’

The round of applause he expected didn’t come and he went a little red in the neck.  It was enough for Steven to pounce.  He nodded to Howe who pressed a button.

‘Good afternoon Mr. President.’  Steven smiled as the President jumped in surprise.  The President’s eyes fixed on to a large TV screen that he had been admiring himself on.’

His face went bright red, ‘who the hell are you?’

‘I’m one of those bandits you’ve been talking about, as a matter of fact I’m the head pirate or so you’ve been saying anyway.’

‘Cut that fool off.’

‘Oh yes Mr. President, you can switch off your TV if you want, that’s the prerogative of every free man.  But what you can’t stop me doing is broadcasting to every nation on the face of the Earth.  So if you do cut me off, you and the whole of the American congress will be the only ones left in the dark about our intentions.’

The President waved a negative signal to one of his aids and turned his attention back to Steven. 

Steven smiled and walked towards the screen, ‘you must be a very good chess player Mr. President.’

‘I’m a damn fine chess player actually.’

‘I believe that, but do you actually believe you can starve us out up here?’

‘I do and I will until you return those ships to us.’

‘I can guarantee you will never see these ships again Mr. President and that’s a promise.  However many others might.’

The President ruffled, ‘if you land those ships anywhere on the face of this Earth I will destroy them and anyone helping you.’

‘That’s check I believe.’

‘Damn right it is Buddy.’

‘Oh I’m not your buddy Mr. President as a matter of fact I’m going to make you a promise right here and now.  The next time you fire so much as a potato gun at us I’m going to do this.’  Steven nodded and Howe pressed another button. 

The President stood back in shock as something materialised out of thin air right in front of his face.  It fell at his feet with a thump.  He scrambled back in fear falling over and into a heap.

Stevens smile was grim, ‘don’t worry Mr. President it isn’t a bomb only an ashtray.  However the next time you fire a nuke or a missile of any description at us I am going to beam it straight into the oval office in Washington.’

The President struggled to his feet amidst some nervous chuckles, ‘you wouldn’t dare?’

‘Oh doubt me not, and not only will I put them into the oval office but I will drop them in to your living room at home or anywhere else I may think you are at the time.  Since the end of the Second World War you’re the only man who has ever ordered the firing of a nuclear weapon in anger, and it just so happens those weapons were fired at me, my friends and members of my own family.

To me that makes you one of the most evil men in history and I will not hesitate to kill you if provoked again, do you understand?’

‘Your dare threaten the United States of America?’

‘Oh no, not the United States, just you.  As far as I’m concerned this is personal.  You ever try to hurt anyone I care for again and I will beam you out into deepest space and leave you to rot, deep freeze style.’

A hint of fear appeared in his eyes for the first time, ‘don’t you dare threaten me.’

Steven was satisfied, knowing he had hit home, ‘oh it isn’t a threat Mr. President it’s a promise.  However I am willing to go for a compromise.’

‘Never,’ the word was coated with hatred.

‘Now, now, you won’t be considered a good politician if you don’t even listen to me.  You have ordered that we should be fired upon if we ever enter Earth’s atmosphere again, correct?’

The President was shaking with rage, ‘yes.’

‘Ok, then in the interest of World Peace I will accept your decision on this matter and never take our ships back into Earth’s atmosphere while that law still stands or you are still President.’

A gasp went round the assembled members and a look of triumph crossed the Presidents face, ‘good, I hope you all starve.’

‘Oh we won’t starve Mr. President, you have outlawed us from visiting Earth but you never said anything about people from Earth visiting us.  You see in the last month we have been very busy.  Now I know the satellite we have orbiting the Moon has been blanking out all of your surveillance equipment, so I’ll tell you what we’ve been doing and show you at the same time.’

He sent a silent message to Babe and the picture on the big screen changed; Steven was reduced to one small corner.

‘What you’re seeing now is a picture of the new base we have constructed on the Moon.  It is over a mile square and capable of housing thousands of people.  Of course you must be asking yourself how on Earth would people get here?’

The picture changed, ‘these are the transport craft we have constructed.  As you can see there are three freighters and three passenger liners.  We will lease these out to anyone who wishes to have them.  The terms of that lease will be very strict.  For example, any attempt at investigating the technology used to build them will result in an immediate loss of contract.  The ships have a built in safety mechanism which will detect tampering.  That will result in the craft taking off and heading straight for the sun with whoever is on board, so be warned.’

Steven paced a little to let his words sink in, ‘ten years from now we are going to release technical details of these ships which will enable those countries with the resources to build their own, so until then I suggest you behave yourselves.

The space station has its own automated defence system, as do all the ships.  They can detect weapons or even weapons parts so don’t try that either, the results will be fatal.

Now for the Moon base itself.  Any company on Earth who wishes to lease out space up here, will be quite welcome to do so.  Not only have do we this base but we have also constructed a couple of dozen others, which would make excellent Hotels or research stations.  Of course all of this space will be leased at reasonable prices.  I can guarantee all of you now that we will consider applications from every country, with no bias.

Again there will be strict rules governing the operation of all business and controlling the conduct of visitors.  There will be only one punishment, immediate banishment from the Moon, but of course all of this will be made clearer in time.

For now, I would like to give you a tour on what we have to offer.  First I would like to introduce you to Captain Komoru Kaizu of the starship Ico, who will begin the tour.’

Steven sat down and Komoru took his place.  She took them on a journey over the lunar landscape, visiting all of the new complexes they had built with detailed footage of the interiors.  Steven smiled; they had researched this project well, basing many of the designs on some of the world’s most famous hotels.  Some even had working fountains. 

When she finished Buzz took over and described the type of vehicles that they would be using to cross the lunar landscape and the type of activities that would be available to visitors.

When he sat down Colonel Howe took over.  He gave details of the type of people wanted to run the operational side of the main complex and gave an over view of some of the security measures that would be in use.

At last they were finished and Steven stood forward once more.

‘As you can see we have much to offer the people of Earth and we are here to ensure that no single company or government shall ever monopolies this valuable resource.  The Moon will be open to all comers and we will set the price of travel to and from the Moon so it should be affordable to anyone who wants to come and visit us, even if it’s only for a day.

Of course we will have little control over the prices retailers will charge for their products but I can assure you we will keep a close eye on them and if we believe they are overcharging anyone then we will retain the right to take action against those companies.

Now you may be able to prevent us from coming to Earth Mr. President but you won’t be able to stop the individual rights of your own countrymen from coming to visit us, and you certainly don’t have the right to prev
ent any other person from wherever in the world they hail from to come visit us either.

However just in case you’re tempted to try I would like to give you one more demonstration of our resolve in this matter.’

There appeared on screen an asteroid of gigantic proportions.  ‘This footage was filmed from Ico earlier in the week.  What you’re looking at is an asteroid of over fifty square miles in diameter.’

The ship went round the whole of the asteroid and then pulled back out of range.  The suddenly Babe streaked in.  Green fire lanced out towards the asteroid and it disappeared in a fantastic explosion.  When the dust settled there was nothing left of it but a large cloud of space dust.

Steven reappeared filling the screen, ‘just a little demonstration of what we are capable of Mr. President and a promise to you.  If you ever step on my toes again I’m going to grind your face right into the ground.’

He began to turn away then swung back, ‘I believe that’s check mate.’

Chapter 49

I
t had almost been a full year since Steven’s historical speech and they were finally ready to begin deep space exploration.  Buzz joined Komoru in Steven’s quarters.  She was standing by the window that stretched right across this whole level of the building, giving an unparallel view of the lunar landscape.  She smiled as he joined her at the window.

They were all a lot wiser than they had been at the beginning of their adventure.  Both ships were now fully manned and the crews trained to a high standard.

The American President had unwisely tried to introduce legislation to prevent anyone from Earth from taking up on Stevens offer, but the great capitalist steamroller had left him flattened in its wake.  Impeachment had followed and now he was a retired broken figure that campaigned endlessly on the fringes of government.  His cause was a lost one and even the papers treated him as a figure of pity.

The passenger liners had been raised to six and the freighters seven to accommodate the large numbers of visitors each week.  No one had ever tried to bring a weapon to the Moon and was considered a free port from all forms of terrorism.

Two months before a new university had been built in one of the mountain ranges and within a few weeks its great halls were expected to be filled with Earths brightest young scientists.

Not only was it the Moon that had benefited from the new technology.  With the removal of the President the ships had visited some of the poorest countries and cities in the world.  At each Steven had began a building program of schools, universities and hospitals, and money had been loaned to staff them.

The Moon was now the favourite place to be married and honeymoon and a huge business had sprung up around it.  There were two distinct parts to life on the Moon.  On one hand there were all the holidaymakers and the fun of exploration.  While on the other there was the operational part that supported the ships and their crew.

The crew’s quarters were strictly off limits to the tourists except by invitation.  The operational staff were also quartered separately from the tourists, and were considered very much a part of the team, although that which had to remain a secret, remained so.

The crew’s doctors had also been hard at work.  Their results had been startling with the almost complete eradication of Cancer and the dreaded Aids virus.  The profits from the drug companies ran many of their existing Hospitals.

Komoru had that lost dreamy look in her eyes as she watched the figures below.  Buzz smiled for it was a look he knew well, for it was reflected in the eyes of his friend every time he looked at the woman before him.

He hated to disturb her, ‘sorry to bother you Komoru but have you seen Steven?’

She pointed to the figures below, ‘you’re not disturbing me Buzz, he’s down there.’

Buzz burst out laughing at the sight, ‘so that’s where he went this morning.’

She laughed with him, ‘yes, it was a surprise to me as well.  I never thought he was serious.’

Buzz rocked back on his heels; ‘well that’s Stevie for you.’  His manner became more serious for a moment.  ‘May I ask you a serious question Komoru?’

‘Please ask me anything Buzz.’

‘Are you in love with Stevie?’

She turned liquid eyes up towards him and Buzz felt the magic of them slam into his soul, ‘yes.’  She turned back to her vigil a hand coming up to gently touch the glass before her, ‘how could I not fall in love with a man who even keeps a promise to a dog.’

Far below two figures attempted to race across the Moon’s surface in pursuit of a brightly coloured ball.  Steven roared with laughter as the similarly suited Rex crashed into the back of his legs causing both figures to disappear in a cloud of dust. 

Rex broke free from the tangle first and raced off yipping with excitement after the ball, leaving a still laughing Steven far behind.     

The End