The Commander (11 page)

Luke interrupted the awkward moment and spoke to the ISS crew. “We’re going to leave you here for a few minutes so you and Mission Control can get each other up to date. Let them know that we’ll have you back on Earth tomorrow, around five in the evening Mountain Time, at the spaceport in Baggs, Nevada.”

# # #

Roth sat down in Luke’s office to fill him in. “Annie called Hawley, Hepworth, and Kidwell and told them to get down to Baggs. Lots of new legal ground here. Amanda and her team will fly down in just a few minutes. I’m going to send someone to bring back the Gulfstream. I wouldn’t be surprised if the government or the military show up. We don’t want anyone trying to confiscate anything.”

“I don’t want to leave Annie down there alone,” Luke said. “The place is going to be overwhelmed with media and who knows what else. I’ll go with Amanda.”

Roth nodded. “I’d just as soon you stayed away from that madhouse, but I assumed you’d be going down regardless.”

“I have to be there for this one. It’s the big reveal.”

“I understand. What else?”

Luke thought for a moment. “We have a recruiting ship scheduled for tonight, don’t we?”

“Two, actually. One in Baggs and one in that small airport near Austin.”

“Okay, let’s reroute the Texas flight to Baggs. I think it’s time to mothball our 737. This would be a good time to introduce our new passenger shuttle.
Sunni’s
ready isn’t she?”

“Good idea,” Roth said. “She’s configured for five hundred passengers at a time so capacity won’t be an issue. The new look might scare a few people from getting on though.”

“The entire world has seen our place here now. Amanda did a good job getting everything broadcast into the news feeds. Wonder what the talking heads are saying?”

“I don’t even want to know,” Roth admitted. “But Amanda said she kicked off Operation ‘
Hello from Moonbase
’ with the first video of Carrie lassoing the space station. She’s got our own experts on all the talk shows right now. We’re sending feeds from our broadcast center down on level seven.”

“Should we leave her here for now?” Luke asked.

“Might be a good idea. She’s the face that people are getting used to, along with our experts. Take the PR ground team, though, you’re going to need help yourself. George? Can
Sadie
be configured to carry passengers?”

“Not a problem, Professor Higgin,” George replied. “It is being done now.”

“Taken them down with
Sadie
,” Roth suggested. “Amanda told me your new hotel convention center is open for business so you can have them established there. I’ll send Amanda down tomorrow when we fly the astronauts back.”

“Okay,” Luke agreed. “Tell her to start pushing the opportunities for colonists. And have someone tell our recruiters that our secret research center is actually on the moon.” Luke gave Roth a worried look. “Mostly, I just hope all this works out.”

“Just remember what you told me. Big government will hate us, but the public will eat it up.”

# # #

Sadie
gently settled onto the Baggs tarmac. Linda was on the ramp in Luke’s pickup. When the PR team got out of the shuttle, Luke had them pile into the back of the pickup. He told Linda to get them checked into rooms at the convention center. Annie was pacing on the flightline and she looked upset.

“We don’t have enough security guards,” she said. “People are starting to show up all along the fence line.”

Luke gave her a quick hug. “Okay, don’t worry about it. We can call Wehrlite to send more.”

“I just did. You were right to hire a big international firm. We’re going to need everything they have.”

“They used to do a lot of government work,” Luke said. “George did his own background on them and they’re solid.”

“If George recommended them, it’s probably a good choice.”

“We’ll find out tonight,” Luke predicted.

“I told them who I am when I called,” Annie said. “I suggested they look at CNN, that we were the group rescuing the space station people. They’re probably just now realizing that we’re not simply a little airport.”

“When are they arriving?”

“They should be here now. I told them to come with the biggest damn team they could.”

Their chartered aircraft is approaching now,
George told them.

Luke and Annie gazed toward the end of the runway. Bright landing lights could be seen in the distance.

“What about the lawyers?” Luke asked.

“I fired them just before you landed. Some idiot attorney told me they couldn’t get here until next week so I said don’t bother.” Annie’s cell phone rang. “Just a second,” she muttered. Then she smiled. “It’s them. Maybe they had a change of heart.”

Luke walked out onto the aircraft ramp to greet the security team and to give Annie a chance to work things out with the law firm. They would be crazy not to jump through hoops. How many law firms had the moon as a client?

Annie tugged on his sleeve. “
Now
they’re bending over backward. They’re trying to get a charter aircraft to get here tonight. I told them I’d pick them up at their office in five minutes. I’m going to take
Sadie
, you okay with that?”

“Yep. Go ahead, and I’ll see you when you get back.” As she hurried toward their shuttle he called after her. “Annie! You might want to bring back a news crew.” She gave him a thumbs-up and disappeared inside
Sadie.
The shuttle rose quietly into the sky and one second later disappeared in the distance, accelerating toward Seattle.

Moments later the Wehrlite Security aircraft landed. Luke was pleasantly surprised that it was a C-130 Hercules, painted in a white, gray and black camouflage scheme. The venerable aircraft pulled onto the ramp, the rear clamshell doors opening even before it came to a stop. Three military grade Humvees rolled onto the tarmac and thirty men in combat gear poured out behind.

A tall, rugged-looking man approached. “Hubert Sheppard,” he said shortly. “I’m looking for Annie Daniels.”

“Annie is in Seattle at the moment. She’ll be back in a few minutes. She asked me to get you started. I’m Luke Blackburn.”

Sheppard gave a curt nod. “Orders?”

Luke smiled inwardly. Mr. Hubert didn’t suffer from verbosity; he was a no-nonsense kind of guy. Luke pointed to the fence line. “Keep sightseers from coming over the fence. Also, at eight this evening we’re expecting several buses from Reno. I want them admitted through the security gate without delay.”

“Got it.”

A couple of V-22 Ospreys flew over the runway at a thousand feet and circled to downwind. “Are those yours?” he asked Sheppard.

“Not mine. Looks like the Nevada Guard.”

Luke wondered why the Guard was here. He didn’t imagine it was a good thing.

Sheppard was evidently wondering the same thing. “I know the feces hit the fan over this space station thing but I can’t go up against the military. Are you on their bad side?”

“I really don’t know,” Luke said as the lead Osprey turned to base from downwind. It rolled out on a final approach for landing. “But it looks like we’re going to find out.
George, put me through to Roth,
he said mentally.

Connected, Commander.

“Higgins, here.”

“Roth. The Nevada Guard just showed up. I’m not sure what this means, but it would be nice to have some backup handy.”

“Understood, boss. I already asked our new navy CO to be on standby. Give him another ten minutes and he’ll have all five of our new warships in orbit over you. From there he can be on station in seconds if you want him.”

“Good plan. Thanks, Roth. You’re earning your keep today, that’s for sure.”

“We’re trying. By the way, Annie called. She’s picking up a news crew in Seattle. I sent Amanda down after all. She’s better at handling that kind of thing.”

“Yeah, bringing a TV station here was my fault,” Luke confessed. “Just a spur of the moment idea.”

“Well, if the military is there, it may be a good idea to have a news camera on the scene. Might keep people from making bad decisions. Our media support team here is doing a great job. I keep watching CNN and the other news channels. So far everything is staying positive. I never knew we had such great bullshitters. But a few of the politicos are starting to make grumbling noises.”

“I don’t like the sound of that. We need to counter it, and do it quickly.”

“Already started,” Roth replied. “I’m reaching out to a couple of K-Street firms that I’ve dealt with in the past. I’ll make sure we sic them on anyone who steps out of line. Anything else?”

“Not at the moment. Stay close to the phone.”

“Will do.”

Hubert Sheppard stood quietly while Luke was talking. If Sheppard wondered why Luke appeared to be speaking only to himself, he gave no indication. Once Luke turned to him, Sheppard spoke up.

“Guard is landing.” He pointed further down the aircraft parking ramp.

The two Ospreys taxied off the runway, their giant propellers blowing desert sand everywhere. The connecting taxiways were too narrow for the Ospreys and their eighty-five-foot-wide rotors, canted forward at a forty-five-degree angle, kicked up dust devils and sent swirls of dirt and rocks across the tarmac. The Ospreys pulled onto the parking ramp two thousand feet down from the Wehrlite Security Hercules. A dozen men jumped out of each of the Ospreys and set up a perimeter around their aircraft.

One of them, flanked by two heavily armed soldiers, headed in their direction.

Sheppard responded with silent hand signals of his own, and four of his men took up positions around Luke.

Maybe we could have done this better
, Luke thought.

Instead of trying to get the NASA people back in a methodical orderly fashion, maybe he should have taken them back right away.
We could have just dropped them off in the parking lot at Houston’s Mission Control Center.
Too late now.

For a brief moment, Luke hoped that since it was the Guard, maybe the guy in charge would be a dentist in real life. Sort of an overweight weekend warrior.

No such luck.
The guy walking toward him looked as no-nonsense as Sheppard. He came to a stop about five feet away. Luke looked him over. A gold embroidered oak leaf was visible on his chest.

“You look like that Lucas Blackburn guy on TV.”

Luke stepped forward and stuck out his hand. “I prefer Luke. Major…?”

The man evaluated Luke’s hand for a moment before giving it one firm shake in return. “Nick Key,” he said. “You’re trespassing on federal property. I need you to come with me.”

Luke stepped back and smiled. “Nice to meet you Major Key. This is my associate, Hubert Sheppard. I have to say, Major, I think you’re misinformed.” Luke made a show of pulling his wallet out of his back pocket. He took out one of his business cards and handed it to the officer. “I’m the airport director here, as you can see. The airport is not federal property; it’s owned by
Nye County.
My office is in the terminal building. In fact, that’s my secretary standing there. Linda Cummings.”

Linda, bless her heart, had returned from delivering the PR team to the hotel and was standing outside the back door of the terminal. She was holding one of her knitting balls. Luke gave her a big wave and she grinned hugely and waved back. She pointed to her chest and walked her fingers toward Luke. He held one hand straight out to tell her no.

Major Key watched the exchange suspiciously, his eyes darting back and forth from the business card to Linda to Luke.

“Sir,” Sheppard said quietly. He flicked a glance into the sky. Luke followed his gaze. It was one of the Moonbase shuttles.

Crap
. Luke felt he’d almost had the guardsman bamboozled but now a space ship, looking very much like the one that was at the space station, was about to land. He wasn’t sure what would happen next. The shuttle touched down a dozen feet behind Luke and the side door opened.

Amanda and five others stepped out; one of them was carrying a large video camera. Amanda was wearing what Luke thought of as one of her power suits. It was a business-like wrap-around dress, but it emphasized her curves and the material had a Gucci look to it, lots of color and pattern.

“Hi, Luke,” she called out cheerily, sounding as American as apple pie. She hurried over and grasped Luke’s arm with both hands. “Sorry I’m so late. Those CNN reporters want so many details and sometimes it’s just hard to get away. Who’s this?” She saw his nametag and rank insignia. “Major Key? Hi, I’m Amanda Carlson. I handle all of Luke’s public relations and his media requests.”

Amanda held out her hand to the major, palm down as though she expected him to just wiggle the tips of her fingers, which he did.

“Ma’am…” The major was a bit startled. “Ma’am… I… What did you say your name was?”

Luke was a bit sympathetic. When Amanda went into overdrive she could be a real force.

“Amanda. Amanda Carlson. Just call me Mandy, though. No need to be formal.”