April 3: The Middle of Nowhere (37 page)

"As my first official decree I'd like to rule the photos you just collected are not public access. There will be a detailed public description of them available in our public archives, but anyone claiming a need to see them for legal or scholarly purposes will have to agree not to dispense them further or publish them in any manner."

"I think that's very civilized," Johnson agreed. "God knows, I will be happy not to refresh my memory of them. If you send somebody back to salvage the radios and fuel and such you should have them bury the remains in a temporary grave with markers. If they are left to cycle through the full temperature range every lunar there won't be much left soon."

"You up to driving or you want me to awhile?" Heather asked.

"I'm fine," Johnson assured her and strapped in.

When they got near the first crater the crushed rock and dirt thrown out was softer than the usual surface to which they were accustomed. They didn't sink but they could feel the treads work and a little wallowing motion. They stopped right where the crater rim really pitched up and parked. Heather and Katia went out climbing the loose hill, dragging some gear. The inside dropped off sharply. They agreed the edge was dangerous but wanted to see the bottom. Katia went back to the rover and got the winch cable off the front keeping tension on it as Johnson played it out for her slowly. Heather tied the line off the rover and her personal safely line both on the plastic pallet handle and eased forward pushing the pallet ahead of her until it was right on the edge. She crawled on it leaving her legs hanging off the back. Katia had stayed back in sight of the rover so her radio did relay, playing out the rope. Heather grabbed the edges and rocked a little. The ground stayed solid with the pallet spreading her weight.

"I believe it's safe if you want to come see."

"Let me step back and tell them we're both going near the edge. I'll tell them to pull the winch line in from the rover if we don't come back in a few minutes."

"They didn't like it, but too bad." Katia said when she came back. She clipped on the line well back and inched in beside Heather. She had the big search and rescue light that was a standard part of the rover's kit. When she tried to illuminate the whole thing on wide beam it just soaked the light up. Heather took a couple pictures hoping the camera would gather more light than their eyes could.

With the beam narrowed down they could see the crater was almost a perfect cone. The bottom didn't have the spiky central peak that so many natural craters did, but it had a sort of mound or dome at the very bottom. The far side was just about where Heather had guessed - a bit less than three hundred meters, maybe two-fifty and it was obvious the next crater beyond had been formed first and the rim of this one overlapped the other.

The craters beyond were invisible in the dark, but if they were like these they overlapped anyway. chances they would find even pieces of wreckage searching around in the dark without metal detecting equipment were pretty slim.

They climbed down leaving the plastic pallet for a marker, but retrieving their line. Nobody else wanted to climb up. Especially after they processed the pix and they were better than eyeballing it.

* * *

"President Wiggen, automated instruments on the moon and communications from the other moon bases indicate there were nine more seismic events consistent with nuclear weapon detonations. They were all in a small area near Central and of the same magnitude as the event at Armstrong."

"And how many rovers were in the pursuing force that Col. Loesher decided to take out after his, what did he call them?... elopers?"

"I believe there were nine Ma'am."

"Yes, that would make sense. Ms. Anderson seemed like the sort that would figure anything worth doing should be done to excess. Why use just two or three nukes against a formation of rovers when you can individually vaporize the pestilent things?"

"On the other hand perhaps she has been profligate with her munitions and will be in a bind if another force moves against her," her advisor mused with a hard edge to his voice.

"You didn't talk to the girl, Freddie. I'm not willing to play that kind of poker with her. She seems like a normal eighteen-year-old one moment and then she's a fifty-year-old stone cold bitch like flipping a switch. What I'm also remembering is this - Jon Davis who used to be our man and is one of the most forthright men I've met, laughed when I asked how he could treat a teenager so seriously. He said she was a pussy-cat, but if we ever decided to screw around with her boyfriend he'd appreciate time to get to Mars where he
might
be safe. I didn't like the sound of that even then, but now I have to wonder how much he knew about the weapon the boy used on China. Everything considered, I don't like the
scale
of the risks involved."

* * *

The third shift com tech for Armstrong handed base Vice-Director James Crawford a print-out. He took it eagerly and then looked disappointed.

"That's it? Meet the Heavy Hauler
Frederick Mann
tomorrow and be packed for return to Earth? No answer to the messages I sent? I have a career here. I have a contract I haven't worked out."

"Well welcome to our reality. Everybody here lives with that everyday - not knowing if some error or even something beyond our control will put us on a ship back to the Big Sleaze Ball. Ernie told you when you ordered him to disconnect that you
don't
hang up on the President's Secretary when he's telling you to hold for her. If it had been my shift I'd have told you the same thing."

"But Col. Loesher was very specific I not discuss operational information with anybody. I didn't have the authority to reveal his mission."

"Yeah, maybe if you send another text message explaining all that again they will finally understand. You've only sent what? Seven of them?"

Crawford just blinked at him uncomprehending. He was one of those humorless bureaucrats so far gone he couldn't recognize sarcasm. Neither could he recognize he'd bet on the wrong horse and the race was over.

Chapter 23

"Johnson, when you and Katia called 'mark' I looked at the screen to see the light and then I looked at the clock which said 03:27:02. Now I know the first headlights became visible within at most a second of the estimated time. This is a friggin' Royal Decree. The terms of the bet were not met. They were neither early nor late. And if you are disposed to argue about it I may declare all forms of gambling and cards, dice and such are forever banned from my kingdom because gamblers are a pain in the ass. You wanna push me and see if I won't?"

"No your Majesty," Johnson agreed. Somehow it didn't sound as respectful as it should.

"Heather," she insisted. "If you have real authority you don't need a bunch of bowing and groveling and genuflecting. I'm not Her Highness, or Majesty and I don't rule by the Grace of God or any such foolishness. I suspect like most rulers I will hang on until the ammo runs out. I'm not going to issue any titles that require a special form of address either. My peers will stand in the harsh light of public opinion and make their own case for respect. There may be a Baroness Dakota, but nobody will be required to
address
her specially."

* * *

"She what?" April asked, incredulous.

"Heather needed to have a consensus from her customers to act on their behalf. She didn't feel she could initiate force to defend them without some general agreement they were a political unit. There wasn't time to form an Assembly and take votes like we did here, so she took an oath of fealty from two Armstrong residents buying lots. Their households together make up more than half of the new residents so she felt she had a valid mandate."

"So, she'll probably dissolve this arrangement and do a proper democratic republic when things calm down, won't she?" she asked Jon.

"I wouldn't be too quick to assume so. She said nothing about that. In fact they seem really happy with the arrangement. To the point two other heads of households gave their oaths back at Central after she returned. So the entire population has voluntarily put themselves under the arrangement. I mean, she
did
go to war and save their bacon. The way she told the story it was
their
idea not hers. This Ted fellow stepped forward and freely offered it to resolve the crisis. It would appear you are not the only one who can do rescues," he said, smiling.

"I was getting a lot in payment, but I'm not sure I even want to visit if it's a monarchy. If I take up residence I'd be a subject. I'm not sure I approve of the whole thing and even though it is Heather and I love her, I don't want to be
subject
to her."

"Come now, you had no problem visiting Tonga. They have a King and you were subject to him while in his territory. A constitutional monarchy doesn't really have any more power over people's lives than a republic when you get right down to it. Besides, that doesn't really apply to you anyway." Jon added, looking distressed.

"It doesn't?" April asked eyes narrowing. "What aren't you telling me? You look guilty as hell and that isn't like you. I've seen all sorts of things on your face but not this look."

"I'd have rather not been the one to tell you, but Heather indicated she intends to name you and Jeff and whoever else it makes sense to name, as peers."

"Peers?"

"Well, yes, although technically I believe you will be Baroness Lewis if you wish to accept," he added. "Or is it Baronetess? I'm not up on the fine details of titles."

He was really glad he was recording. The look on April's face was priceless.

"Don't worry though, she isn't going to allow titles of address to be mandatory, so you wouldn't commonly be addressed as Dame Lewis unless someone just wanted to do so as a point of respect to you," he assured her.

"Arrrrh…" April managed to squeeze out.

"Although I admit I have such high regard for you I might take up that habit if I should have opportunity to visit you on your lunar estates." He actually managed, with great effort, to keep a straight face saying that.

"I'm going to kill her," April vowed.

"Oh, regicide threatened already," he marveled. "How quickly these things turn ugly."

* * *

"I can do a quick and nasty repair in two days," Dave promised. "We can let out everything to fabbers and if you don't mind visible seams where the repairs are done we can have you fixed and loaded and back on the moon in five days. Or you can have us do everything fifteen or twenty percent cheaper and add a day or a day and a half."

"Do it the fast way," Jeff instructed him. "If Eddie minds the expense," he stopped and reconsidered. "I'm liable for the whole thing. I busted his ship while leasing it. Even if he has insurance he shouldn't have to pay," he realized.

"Fix it fast, I'll cover the cost and if he wants the seams covered up or any other cosmetic stuff  later I'll pay for that too, but we need the
Happy
back on the moon. None of my people are safe if the USNA gets spacecraft in lunar orbit and we have no ship of our own."

"Don't you think it's time you have a purpose-built lander instead of using a orbit to orbit scooter that you have to tilt on its belly after you land?" Dave asked.

"Soon," Jeff agreed. "Soon, but I want it to be capable of being carried along grappled on a deep space vehicle and able to land on Mars, Titan and maybe even Earth."

"You triple the cost doing that. Why not have a dedicated moon shuttle? You are going to have enough freight just to Central to keep it busy soon enough. I don't know your circumstances, but that's wasting one hell of a lot of money to make a general purpose shuttle for landing on any planetary surface."

"You're right," Jeff decided. "I'll talk to my people and see if we can release a contract to you for a specialized LEO/moon freight shuttle. I'll still proceed with designing an all-planet shuttle with Happy, but it can wait until we have a large deep space design for the outer system or starship to carry it," he concluded.

He signed off, on a mission to get such a design moving. He missed the look on Dave's face and seeing his lips form, "Starship?"

* * *

"Yes dear," Huian agreed submissively, she even managed to look down modestly. "I shall pack up and be ready to go in the morning." She looked around at the hotel room. It's not like they had accumulated any pile of possessions to cart along. "May one speak candidly, husband?"

"Certainly, is there any reason to not travel at this time?" Chen asked mildly worried.

"Not at all. I thank you that you'd consider my input if I had some reservations. I'd like to point out I displayed considerable initiative transporting myself and the children to Vietnam. I found allies, avoided arrest, bribed transport very economically and even took the lead in helping others in a similar situation flee."

"Yes, you displayed good sense and did very well. The children did marvelously also, I have no criticism of your actions at all if you got that mis-impression."

"The children it would be well to offer them a quiet word of praise. No need to spoil them with an extravagant rush of words, but your daughter acted beyond her years and your son killed a man for you. A word about the necessity of that might be good to help him deal with any undisplayed stress."

"You are right," he decided nodding. "It is no small thing and if he is troubled it could affect his sleep and effectiveness. I'll speak with him about it."

"And since our circumstances are changed, you are not bound now by the rules of your agency about need to know and avoiding disclosures. I've always respected that and not pried into details that might put agents at risk. But could you not tap into the ability I showed getting us out and consult with me to some degree? Not as an equal, but as a very junior partner?" she asked. He looked surprised, but didn't speak immediately.

"For example I am very willing to pack and go on your word. But is there any reason now you can't tell me where we are headed? We're probably leaving this country I imagine. If it wouldn't put us at risk I'd like to know where. In fact if something happened to you, might I not try to complete the journey for myself and the children? If I had to start from scratch and decide where to take us I doubt I would choose as well as you."