First Steps (Founding of the Federation) (31 page)

“You're
kidding!” Roth shook his head. “He's scary enough where
he is now!” he sighed. “So I guess we have to support the
mission at least until he gets to Mars.” He looked over to the
Senators who nodded.

“Yes,
and just remember, if his brother is staying, he may too,”
Branth explained. He also wanted to run for the presidency in the
next election. He wouldn't mind the kid as a running mate as long as
he knew his place.

Kimbley
nodded. “Right, and Mars is a dangerous planet. Who knows what
could go wrong there. Accidents happen in space all the time. All we
have to do is wait and watch,” he replied, smiling.

Roth
nodded. “I knew you were a bastard,” Roth muttered. The
trio chuckled.

 ...*...*...*...*...

Benny
scowled at Luigi. “What? What'd I do this time?” Luigi
looked around, then down at his shirt. “I'm not wearing my
lunch again am I?”

Benny
shook his head and flopped down into a chair. “No, you guys
could have told me.”

Luigi
looked at him. “Told you what?”

Benny
got up and paced. “The Roman vaults! You could have told us!
ME! Hell anyone especially me!” He threw his hands up in the
air.

Luigi's
face dropped into a polite mask as he got up and shut the open door.
He checked that the counter listening devices were on then sat back
down. “Hold all calls,” he ordered to his secretary
through the box on his desk. Benny was oblivious pacing.

“Now
that you've had your rant, why don't you have a seat and I'll fill
you in,” Luigi said. He stopped and looked over. Luigi had
rarely if ever had a bite to his voice. Now the clear tone and bite
of command was unmistakable.

“Okay,
why don't you do that?” Benny asked. He flopped into a chair.

“First,
who else knows?” Luigi asked, gathering his thoughts.

“Julia.
She found it and brought it to my attention.”

Luigi
wrote it down. “Anyone else?” he asked. Benny shook his
head. “Okay.” He pressed the button to his secretary.

“Yes
sir?” the secretary replied.

“Get
Julia in my office. Now,” he ordered. He clicked off before she
could confirm.

His
cool eyes bore into Benny's suddenly. “Benny, what did you see?
You said Roman vaults?”

Benny
nodded. “You mean you didn't know?”

Luigi
smiled. “Oh, I suspected. It was on the backup agenda. Mario's
back up agenda.”

Benny
sighed deflated. “Back up agenda?” Someone knocked at the
door.

“Come
in,” Luigi ordered. Julia opened the door and came in. He
motioned for her to close the door and take a seat.

“Yes,
you see, we don't have just a photo op in mind with the Mars program.
This isn't a purely science endeavor. We decided from the beginning
if we are getting in, we are going to get in for the long haul.”

Benny's
eyes were wide. “So it, I mean, they are
staying
?”

Luigi
chuckled. “Well you heard Mario say he will see me on Mars
right?” Julia nodded. “Bingo.” He sat back.

“Julia,
did you tell anyone else?”

She
blushed. “Andrea and Chelsie.”

Benny
groaned. “Might as well have posted it on the web, now the
entire world will know.”

Luigi
sighed. “Damn.” He hit the secretary page button again.
“Miss Roberts, get me Andrea and Chelsie please. Now.” He
sat back again.

“I'm
in trouble aren't I?” Julia asked softly.

“Well,
I
did
tell you not to say anything to anyone,” Benny
growled and tried to glare. His heart wasn't really in it though.

Luigi
exhaled noisily. Julia was looking down, subdued. Benny looked at his
boss. “It was going to come out eventually, but we were hoping
to get a little more time before hand. Frankly, I expected someone to
have taken notice earlier than this,” Luigi said and shook his
head.

“How
did they build all that?” Julia asked looking up. That was the
thing that bothered her. She'd noticed Tess and Mario doing stuff
with the bricks but not that level.

“In
shifts. Mario and Tess mostly.”

She
nodded. “But how, I mean, the bricks?” She held up her
hands helplessly.

“Nylon
shredded from the parachutes for tensile strength. Mixed with
duracrete in the mixer we sent on the first test MAV.”

Benny
nodded. “That far back,” he replied. He whistled
appreciatively. “Still could have told me,” he growled.

Luigi
shrugged. “Water over the damn and down the river now bud.”

Andrea
entered. “Miss Chelsie has left for the day.” The
secretary said over the intercom.

Julia
groaned, hands over her face. “Damn.”

Andrea
looked around. “Let me guess, you spilled your guts?” she
asked in mock disgust. She looked over to Julia. Julia nodded.

“Yes
she did, to you and to Chelsie. I would like you to keep this
information strictly confidential for now please Andrea,” Luigi
ordered.

She
sat down. “Too late, I overheard Chelsie on the phone with a
reporter on her way out. That's why she is taking the rest of the day
off. Something about lunch at a cafe...”

Benny
groaned. “Damn!” Luigi shook his head. “Well, you
were saying something about water over the damn and down the river
boss? Well I think it passed the bridge and is heading out to sea,”
Benny replied in disgust. He sat back and sighed. “I need a
drink.” Julia sobbed softly.

He
leaned over and rubbed her back. “It's okay kid,” he
murmured. He tried to comfort her.

“Julia,”
Luigi said softly. He waited for her to look up. “Believe it or
not, but we expected to be found out eventually. This just puts a bit
of a bit of a bind on us.” Which was true, the next launch was
already on its way to the pad. They had less than a month to go.

Andrea
gave him a cool look. “You mean it puts your tail in a ringer,”
she said.

He
sighed and nodded, not denying it. “Something to that effect.
It is going to get a lot of people riled up at precisely the wrong
time. Not that we didn't tell them in advance that this is a
possibility.” He shook his head. “As far as Miss Chelsie,
I think we will have to find her something... more constructive to do
with her time since she is so hell bent on causing mischief,”
he said and frowned; glad they had found at least one leak. He paged
the secretary. “Get me the attorney and Miss Chelsie's number.”

She
nodded. “I have it here.” Julia pulled out her phone and
rattled the number off of her contact list.

Luigi
jotted it down on a pad. “Miss Burns, never mind the number, I
have it. Just the attorney please.”

“Miss
Chelsie Havenforth? This is Doctor Luigi Irons. We need to talk.”
He could hear diners in the background.

“Who
is it?”

“The
assistant director.”

“Crap,”
someone said and then she hung up.

He
sighed and looked at the phone, then hit redial. “Miss
Havenforth I believe we were cut off.” He waited a moment. He
could hear her hissing then making static sounds.

“I...going...tunnel,
call back...later.” She hung up again.

He
set the phone down. “Well. That would have been amusing at
another time,” Luigi sighed as he shook his head.

“What
she brushed you off?” Benny asked annoyed.

“Oh
more than that, first she hung up on me, and then she tried to act
like she was breaking up while going through a tunnel and hung up on
me.”

Benny
snorted. “You’re kidding. There isn't a tunnel around for
miles!”

Luigi
chuckled. “Yes, but I think that won’t occur to her for a
few more minutes.”

Julia
looked up alarmed. “What are you going to do?”

He
shrugged. “I was going to try to call her off, but the first
call I made I could hear her already at a dinner.” He shrugged.
“That's out.”

“Ouch.”

“I
think we need to transfer the young lady.” Perhaps our youth
outreach program would be a good place for her... energy and ability
to get the... message out.”

Benny
winced. “You're evil boss. Have her go from town to town
teaching kids? Ouch.” He shook his head in amusement.

...*...*...*...*...

“Yes
mister president, there is only minimum risk to the team and the
mission. They are doing the work in their off time, or by juggling
schedules,” Luigi grimaced. The calls had come fast and furious
when the story broke that evening. Some of the politicians weren't
happy about being caught off guard. It also played merry havoc with
their planned agendas.

Nick
shook his head. “Better you than me,” he mouthed.

Luigi
shook a fist at him. “No sir, we will let you know if the
situation changes. Yes sir, I look forward to seeing you again. Thank
you for your time sir.”

Luigi
looked at the phone as he took it away from his ear, and then gently
hung it up. He stuck his finger in his ear and rung it out a bit.
“Reading you the riot act?” Nick asked sympathetically.

“Not
the full version, I suspect I will get the full version in person,”
Luigi sighed.

“Well,
Zubrin is catching it too; he was on the phone for hours with the
people on the Hill,” Nick reported.

“Great.
All because that witch couldn't keep her big yap shut,” Luigi
replied in disgust. He sighed noisily.

Nick
shook his head. “We are getting a little flack from our treaty
partners, but not any from the Chinese or Russians. Surprisingly.”

Luigi
chuckled. “That is because both were briefed by their
cosmonauts. The Han's send regular reports encoded and in their
native Chinese dialect.” He held up his hand when Nick opened
his mouth.

“No,
I don't know what they are saying; I was too concerned that the busy
bodies at No Such Agency were snooping at the time,” he sighed.
“Now I wish I had paid more attention.” Nick nodded.

...*...*...*...*...

"Mario,
you’re going to have to lead a tour of the vault," Bob
ordered. Bob Zubrin himself was on the vid link. He sighed sitting
back. "It's not like we didn't know it wasn't going to come out
eventually, and the establishment is a bit embarrassed that they
overlooked it in the mission plan." He smiled tiredly. Mario
noted the bags under his eyes. The man had probably spent the past
couple days catching hell from all sides. He winced.

"Do
the recording and upload it to us for distribution," Bob finally
finished. Mario nodded.

He
clicked the pause button then the record. "All right Bob, we'll
get it done, sorry you’re catching so much flack on this. You'd
think politicians would have learned to read the fine print,"
Mario chuckled. "We'll do the recording first thing after chores
in the morning." He nodded to the camera. "Good night, get
some rest. Mars base out." He clicked stop, then send.

"Need
some help?" Wanda asked.

He
looked up to see her in her robe. "Ready for bed?"

She
nodded. "Bob catching hell over your project?" she asked.

He
sighed in disgust. "Yeah, Luigi told me it was bad, but they
were expecting it," he replied then shrugged. "I don't see
what the big deal is; we expanded the base with native materials."

Her
face worked for a moment. "They may be concerned about it
collapsing."

He
gave her a disbelieving look. "They may think it, but
I
built it. I would
never
take chances with you or the team."
He waved to the rest of the base. "The commander checked in on
us, hell, everyone except you were in on it," he smiled and
spread his hands.

She
winced. "Yeah, I've been kind of preoccupied with what we're
supposed to be doing."

He
snorted softly. "Right, let's go to bed." He got up and
stretched. "I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be a
long
day." He tucked her under his shoulder and hugged her to his
side. She smiled. He shrugged.

...*...*...*...*...

The
press room was a mad house. Nick followed Luigi, Zubrin, and the
President into the room. “All rise for the president!”
the doorman called. The press quieted as they rose in a rustle of
fabric and click of cameras. Flash bulbs made Nick's eyes water. The
president took the podium and the trio stood behind and to his left.

“Thank
you for coming ladies and gentlemen,” the President said. The
President looked around and then to the front where the teleprompter
was strategically located. “Three days ago an unauthorized
release of information was given to the press.” He seemed to
exude outrage and patience at the same time. Neat trick. Mario
thought to himself as he watched. He'd caught the alert from Mission
control at breakfast before they started the tour. Most of the crew
were here to watch it. He moved to one side to allow Wanda to climb
into his lap.

“For
the past few months the team on Mars has been building a series of
Roman vaults to test building structures with native materials on the
Martian planet. In a few hours we will receive a video tour of the
vaults and explanation on how they were constructed.” He
nodded. “We can only admire their courage and dedication.”
He paused for a moment. “I will take a few questions then we
can continue.”

He
pointed to a reporter in the back. “Miss Debra Day, CBS. Sir,
this is an unexpected development, was this put on to regain public
attention?”

The
president looked over to Luigi who sharply shook his head. “No,
this was not staged in anyway. If you will look over the Mars mission
plan, you will find this and other similar plans in the optional
mission package.” The president smiled a patented sheepish
smile. “In other words we were told about it, but it was buried
in the fine print,” he said disparagingly. Several reporters
laughed at that.

“Mister
President, Mark Woods, New public Web, Will this change the future
mission plan?”