The Commander (15 page)

“Predictable but disheartening,” Roth said.

“We’re not finished,” Luke replied. “We still have tomorrow. I’m glad we made this a two-day conference.” He smiled at Annie. “Sorry, love. No rest for us. I think we need to work on tomorrow’s opening speech.”

“How so?” Annie asked.”

Luke looked at the ceiling. “George, can you add sound to that video? Look at some of the movies made by a guy named Thomas Bay. He was the director for the
Transformer
movies. I want that kind of sound to go along with the visuals.”

“Of course, Commander. His name is Michael Bay, an American filmmaker. I understand what you want.”

“Great. I also want some scenes of our own warships. Make them look invincible and deadly. Can you create some special effects of us destroying some of the Bakkui? Maybe blowing up an entire fleet?”

“Of course, Commander. I’m just finishing that now. Let me show you what I’ve done and tell me if I’ve captured your intent.”

# # #

Luke waited for the film clip to end and then stepped back up to the podium. He gazed out across the exhibition hall at the five hundred thoroughly frightened faces. Many of the delegates appeared to be frozen in place. Before starting the video, he warned the audience that this was actual footage of an entire population being exterminated. After a moment to recover from the raw violence, there was a collective exhalation from the crowd.

“As I mentioned yesterday,” Luke said into the microphone, “this is the enemy we are facing and the force we are building to meet it. This threat is on the way to Earth. We don’t know when it will arrive but we do know that we are not ready. We need more warships like those you’ve just seen; lots of them. I can take care of that. We can produce a dozen warships every single day.”

His comment created a surprised buzz in the room. Inwardly Luke sighed. Yesterday he told them what the moon’s capability was; but it obviously didn’t register until just now. Politicians understood cash and weapons, not abstract theory about improving people’s lives.

He continued. “Our technology is advancing every day. I have research and development laboratories that are unequaled on Earth. We are sending colonies across the galaxy to as many solar systems as possible. I can provide the transports to move them and the tools they need to become self-sufficient and self-sustaining. I can provide everything needed to face this threat except one thing—people. Only
you
have the people we need to accomplish the impossible. Only
you
have the people who want to reach for the stars. For your people, your citizens, I hope each and every one of your countries is ready for a new alliance.”

Sadly, on many of their faces, the threat had already receded in their minds. As politicians were inclined to do, they were looking for an angle. Luke sounded desperate. How could they extract as much as possible from the man in the moon?

So much for the stick,
Luke thought. It was time for the carrot. “I’ve already explained why we can’t share our replicator technology. Some of you disagree, but it’s not gonna happen. But I’ll tell you what I can provide.”

He paused to let the words sink in. “For any nation that wishes to join our alliance, and in return for allowing us to recruit your citizens, the moon will guarantee the territorial integrity of your borders. In other words, if any other country attacks a member of our alliance, we will consider that an attack on the moon and will retaliate with devastating force. Any government that allows such an attack to take place will be eradicated. Any military that attacks our friends will be destroyed—without hesitation and without mercy. In the coming battles you stand with
us
, or you stand with those alien forces that are coming to annihilate Earth.”

From the corner of his eye, Luke saw Annie cover her face with her hands. She hated the idea he was proposing and particularly the way he expressed it. She wanted everyone to live in peace and simply help Luke face the oncoming storm because it was the right thing to do.

He didn’t argue with her; he wanted the same thing. But sometimes you couldn’t reason with people. Not when you had something they wanted. And at the moment, the wealthiest nations on the planet coveted everything the moon had.

A middle-aged black man stood in the middle of the room. His plump figure was clothed in an Armani suit. A broad smile shone from his intelligent face as held out a hand toward the podium.

“The nation of Botswana stands with you, my friend. If any of our citizens desire to move to the moon or beyond, they do so with the love and gratitude of my fellow countrymen, and we wish them Godspeed.” He turned and bowed to the rest of the crowded room, as though expecting a round of applause.

Instead, a few chuckles escaped from the crowd. The entire population of the tiny African country was just over two million. How many citizens could they really spare? What a useless bit of grandstanding.

“Done!” Luke shouted. “The moon welcomes the friendship of Botswana and your membership into the Milky Way Alliance. As the first member from Earth, you will always have a place of honor among us. You also have the protection of our entire military force. Welcome to the Alliance.”

There was a stunned silence as the reality of the sudden pact sunk in. It meant that from here on, Botswana was hands off. Just like that, the possibility of a cross-border raid was gone. As strife swirled around the landlocked country, more than one neighbor had cast covetous eyes in their direction. Not that anyone present cared about Botswana; jealous though the surrounding countries might be, they were, for all practical purposes an impotent threat.

But most of the diplomatic representatives in the room were not so fortunate. Everyone had enemies these days. Sometimes, even your allies turned out to be your enemies. Hmmm.

An attractive Asian woman stood up. “My name is Ami Yamamoto. I am Japan’s ambassador to this country. Japan is delighted to join hands with the moon. The legend of Tsukuyomi, the Japanese moon god and one of our most beloved deities, goes back to ancient times. I know that many of our people will step forward to support your divine mission, dangerous though it will be.
Koketsu ni irazunba koji wo ezu
. ‘If you do not enter the tiger’s cave, you will not catch its cub.’ Commander Blackburn, Arigatō.” The Japanese delegate bowed deeply as she concluded her thank you.

Luke smiled and bowed in return. He appreciated such eloquent remarks made off the cuff. Another alliance had been sealed, and the significance of Japan’s courage did not go unnoticed. Luke sensed the floodgates opening as three more delegates jumped to their feet.

# # #

Three days later a minor news item stated that Mrs. Cesar Morán, wife of the former Texas congressman, had decided not to join her husband on Mars. Instead she and her children were going to Las Vegas for a long holiday and celebration of their new freedom. In the article, she confessed that the congressman was not that pleasant to live with.

“Still no word from the US?” Luke asked when Annie walked into his Moonbase office.

“Nope. The president can’t say okay because he doesn’t have the votes. The opposition won’t say okay because it would be good for the president. It’s just nasty politics as usual. But no one is saying ‘
no
’ either, so we can keep operating.”

“That’s a relief. I was worried I might have pissed off the opposition because of my treatment of their congressman.”

Annie laughed out loud. “No, don’t worry about that. From what I hear,
a lot
of politicians are happy to see him gone. They can’t say that publicly of course, but I mean
nobody
liked that jerk.”

“He wasn’t the nicest person in the world,” Luke agreed. “What else? You look like you have some good news.”

“I do. Amanda said that Atlanta will let us use gates B1 and B3 for two slots a day. That’s huge. That’s a thousand people a day from that one airport. Kathy in HR told the headhunters to increase our numbers correspondingly and route them through Atlanta.”

“We’re on a roll,” Luke said giving her a thumb’s up.

“That makes Atlanta, Frankfurt, and Tokyo all welcoming our shuttles every day, and with two a day at Atlanta, that makes twenty shuttles a week. That’s about ten thousand new people a week. Can we really handle that many?”

“I think so,” Luke said with some degree of confidence. “At least for the time being. We need people here on the moon, more than ever. We need help staffing the Gateway and Samantha just confirmed that she has twenty colony leaders ready to go. The first colony ship is ready for next week’s launch and some of recruits coming up now will be on that ship. We’re going to send out another colony every couple of weeks. And that doesn’t even consider our military requirements. I asked Ambrose to ramp up drone production. It’s more important now than ever. We’re still too far behind the power curve.
D-
Day could be only a year or two away. We need more warships and everything else.”

“How’s that going, by the way?” Annie asked.

“Same old story,” Luke said. “Not enough hours in the day. Lou’s working on fleet development. Riley thinks he has the solution to the tractor beam we saw the Bakkui using. By that I mean he can duplicate it and defeat it.”

Riley Stevens was a brilliant engineer that Morrow had recruited early on. A big part of Riley success was that he connected with George differently than most of his colleagues. To most people, George was a friend. To Riley, he was an extension of his own mind.

“Thank God for Riley,” Annie said. “Again.”

“Amen to that,” Luke agreed. “Morrow will incorporate tractor beams into our new warships. But I’m also a little worried about planetside, you know?”

“I do,” Annie said. “I assume you’re thinking about China and I agree. They’re going to be a big problem. They didn’t like anything at the conference. Meanwhile, all the nations on their border signed on with us. The little countries really liked that plan you offered up.

“They did, didn’t they?” Luke smiled. “What a great deal; they get our protection in exchange for a few citizens. China’s been throwing its weight all over that part of the world for years. In their mind, might makes right. They had the States in a box; no one wants to start World War Three.”

Annie gave him a worried look. She didn’t like it when he used words like
world war
. “But now here you come saying you’ll stick up for anyone on your side,” she pointed out. “They’re pretty upset; you should expect problems.”

“I know. And I hate it because it takes my attention away from what we should focusing on. I asked Hubert and Tyler to stop by.”

Tyler Robertson was their new Chief of Naval Operations.

“I like Tyler,” Annie said. “Does he enjoy being the new CNO?”

“He calls it an overly-fluffed title. Might be true, since we only have a few warships. But a background like his means he’s the right guy.”

Tyler’s challenge was to manage their growth into the largest military force that humanity had ever known. His background as the director of the Strategic Studies Group for the American Navy was an indication he could handle the job. Lou Morrow had known him long ago. Once the news broke about Moonbase saving the International Space Station, Lou called him up and talked him into coming for a visit.

“I’m glad Lou convinced him to join us,” Annie said.

“Me too,” Luke agreed. “My question today is what do we do about our new treaties. And whose lap does this fall into? I made some big promises the other day, and either Hubert or Tyler is going to have to keep them.” Luke grinned. “Is that called passing the buck or what?”

“I think you should call it delegation,” Annie said drily. “It sounds better.”

Sheppard walked into the office on the heels of her comment. “What sounds better?” he asked.

Annie grinned a welcome. “Hi, Hubert. You’re going to be sorry you asked
that
question, believe me.” She patted Sheppard on the shoulder as she left the office, holding the door open for Tyler as he arrived.

Luke discussed the situation of planetside enforcement of their new treaties. Sheppard wanted nothing to do with it. “I can handle community security, boss. But I have no idea what you’re talking about when it gets bigger than one country.”

“I can take this on,” Tyler said. “I’ll hand the enforcement aspect to one of my officers. In fact, I think Jared McGee is perfect. You’ve met him; he’s heading up our Training Command.”

“I remember him,” Luke said. “Smart guy.”

“He can keep on with training; I don’t want to drop the ball there. But we’ll put him in charge of planetside activity too. Good chance for some experience.”

“Works for me. Tell him to start thinking about China.”

# # #

Two days later Roth burst into the engineering office. To say he was angry was an understatement. He found Luke sitting with Riley Stevens in a corner on the far side of the room. They were in deep discussion and referred repeatedly to the more than a dozen diagrams displayed on the walls, including star charts, solar system diagrams, warship schematics, and many others.

“Jesus Christ, Luke!” Roth shouted. All the other engineers in the room instantly stopped what they were doing and looked worriedly at each other. It wasn’t often that Doctor Higgins got this upset.

Luke and Riley didn’t even notice. They were arguing about some minor detail of one of the commander’s endless requirements.

Roth stalked angrily across the room and stepped between them. “Luke!” he shouted again.

Luke jerked back, startled at the interruption. “Roth? What? What’s wrong?”

“What’s
wrong
? Luke, what’s
wrong
is that your girlfriend needs to get laid and I’m the one getting in trouble. For Christ’s sake, Luke! You’re done for the day. Riley, get outta here.” Roth stepped back and looked pointedly at the entrance.

Luke followed his gaze and spotted Annie in the doorway, arms crossed with an angry expression on her face. He wasn’t sure what to say. “Uh oh.”

With an expression like a dog about to get a bath, Luke approached Annie. “Babe?”

She grabbed him by the elbow and dragged him down the corridor. Behind them, Roth’s raucous laughter erupted out of the engineering division.

Annie squeezed Luke’s arm. “That was uncalled for,” she groused. “I just told him to remind you about dinner. I said that if I did, you’d put me off.”

Relief washed over Luke. “Right. Dinner. I forgot about that. You wanted to go to that new place in the west expansion.”

“That’s the last time I ask Roth for help.”

“It’s my fault. Sorry, babe. I won’t put you off from now on; just kick me if you have to.”

“Don’t think I won’t.”

They reached the gravity well and held hands as they stepped off the side.

The gravity well was an eighty-foot wide shaft that went down into the moon’s crust. It had become the preferred method to move from one level to another within the greater Moonbase complex. Most of the habitat levels branched off the main shaft.

At the bottom of the well, both kinds of gravity plates were installed. Half of the shaft was moon gravity; the other side was negative gravity. When a person stepped off the edge into the well, they would gently rise or sink.

Lunar teenagers had invented a game of trying to position themselves exactly in the middle between the two forces to hover while performing gymnastic feats. Luke had even tried it but quickly decided it was a sport for youngsters.

Each level had a wide promenade around the edge. Those circular plazas became the community center for that level, often filled with an array of restaurants and cozy gathering areas.

The first time Luke approached the edge, it took an enormous leap of faith, both literally and figuratively, to step off into a four-hundred-foot drop. It didn’t take long, however, for him, like all the other residents, to become adept at judging direction and floating to desired level of destination.

“We’re going to level twelve,” Annie said, adjusting their side movement. Once they landed on the twelfth level’s promenade, Annie pulled Luke toward a wide passage away from the central area. The corridor’s high arch gave it a feeling of spaciousness. Art galleries and eateries along the way made their evening excursion a companionable exercise. The corridor ended with a broad plaza under one side of an enormous dome the size of a football stadium.

“Whoa!” Luke exclaimed. “When did this happen?”

“I guess it’s been here for a couple of months now. Kathy Lyons told me about it.” Annie punched his shoulder. “Not everyone eats in the hangar food court, you know.”

Luke was amazed at the breathtaking view. The dome’s ceiling was a smoky blue-gray, like an evening sunset. Along the far wall, the chamber was a sculpted into a mountainous cliff. The dome arched behind the top of the cliff, making the landscape appear almost infinite. A waterfall poured from the clifftop and cascaded into a large decorative lake. It was a nature-filled wonderland hidden beneath the moon’s surface.

Annie pulled Luke along the plaza. Different restaurants, tucked away from the open dome, shared the wide arcade filled with small round tables and bistro chairs. Annie selected one of the tables under a large umbrella that sported a Starbucks logo.

“Starbucks?” Luke blurted, amazed yet again.

“I know,” Annie said nonchalantly. “You can find a Starbucks anywhere these days. Go get me a skinny mocha. With caramel. And a sandwich. And get me a pastry too. One of those cake pops. Or just surprise me.”

Luke grinned at her shopping list and made his way around several barrels of overflowing greenery, illuminated by lamps buried in the foliage. At the back, under a vine-covered awning, was another surprise. There were no replicators. Instead, real baristas provided the full range of a Starbucks normal menu.

With his hands full, Luke returned to Annie. “This is an amazing place. They even have baristas; did you notice that? I can’t believe what Ambrose had done.”

“This is what
you’ve
done,” she said, her eyes filled with pride. “You’ve created a world where creativity is set free. Imagine what Moonbase will look like a year from now. Ambrose and his architects are little miracle workers if you ask me.”

“I have to agree,” Luke said wholeheartedly.

Together they shared the evening meal. Luke treasured the stolen moments; they came far too seldom these days. The constant threat of what they had discovered from the drones, and worries about the unending problems that remained planetside, consumed his day-to-day thoughts. He made a mental promise to spend more time with Annie. It was wrong that she had to seek help just to have dinner with her lover.

Commander Blackburn, we have a situation.
George intruded into his thoughts.

Luke saw that Annie had caught the same notification. A brief look of disappointment crossed her face but she shook it off quickly.

“Go on,” she said. “Sometimes you and I have to take a backseat to the universe.”

“What is it, George?”

The Chinese Navy attacked Alliance vessels near Fiery Cross Reef. Captain McGee is requesting your presence on his warship.

“Tell him I’m on the way.” Luke pulled Annie to her feet and into his embrace. “Sorry,” he whispered.

“It’s okay,” she said, taking his face in both of her hands and planting a kiss on his lips. “Do what you need to. I’ll be at home when you get back.”

Luke left in a rush. He didn’t notice that several nearby diners offered Annie looks of sympathy. He had no idea that everyone on the moon knew Annie was the
commander’s woman
, and that meant loneliness.

# # #

Sadie
was ready for Luke in the Moonbase hangar. “Captain McGee is waiting in lunar orbit aboard the
Abe Masakatsu
,” she announced.

“Thanks,
Sadie
. Let’s go.”

In seconds, McGee’s warship came into view. A lighted rectangle opened along the side of the vessel.
Adding
a hangar bay for shuttles was one of the many recent design changes.
Sadie
entered smoothly and touched down.